selling my car, any tips? how much should I sell it for? (1 Viewer)

[Keith_R]

Hey all, I recently bought a new car for myself and am now looking at selling my old one.

The problem is, I don't know how much to sell it for. The dealer who sold me my new one thought I could maybe get as high as $3,000 but I think that may be pushing it. Blue Book value puts it at 1,785, yet that is a little lower than I'd like to get.

The car is a 5 speed manual 1991 Honda Civic hatchback wagon. It has 165,000 miles on it but has been well maintained and looks very good except for a dent and some minor exterior blemishes. The car runs great with cold AC but it has a minor oil leak and has had a little bit of trouble starting up as of late ( I'm contributing that to the moisture and rain from Hurricane Frances). Aside from the minor things which you'd expect with an older car I think it is a great sell.

The only problem I'm having is that I can't seem to figure out how much I should sell it for, what do you guys think I could sell it for given what I described? also any tips on how to go about selling this thing?

Thanks!

 

[Joe Szott]

If blue book puts it at $1800 and it has an oil leak and 165K miles, you could try for $2000 but beyond that I doubt you'd have many takers. Oil leak can be a big deterrent.

Why didn't you trade it into the dealer for the $3K he offered you?

Cars are like money pits, don't ever expect to get your money back out of them unless you are restoring something rare.

 

[Shane Martin]

From his wording it appears that the dealer didn't offer him 3k. The used car market is rough right now due to low interest rates and such going on. If BB is $1800, then that is probably what you should expect to get. I would ask for $2100 and come down to $2k unless you can't get an offer and someone tells you they will offer you $1,800.

 

[Keith_R]

I think I'm going to try to go above $2000 possibly $2100 or $2300. The lowest that I really want to go is $2000.

I already have quite a few people interested in it so I don't think selling it will be a problem, the problem will be the price.

 

[Scott Merryfield]

The site www.edmunds.com has a feature that will help you price your used car. It takes into account the age, mileage, condition, options, and your location. You can also print out a window sticker with the options and a place to write your asking price. The feature is free. I used it when I sold my '93 Camry a couple of years ago.

 

[LewB]

Look in the local paper for similar cars and see what the going rate seem to be. Hondas sell well any time. I just got rid of a '94 Accord. I put the asking price at the high end of what the local market seemed to be. I was happy to take a few bucks less as the car needed cv joints and brakes. Made the buyer happy when I came down from a price that I really didn't plan on getting (sort of like a real car dealer).

 

[Prentice Cotham]

I would donate it to charity and take the BB as a nice little deduction.