Selling my GTI

MadCow809

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Feb 23, 2006
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What's the fastest / easiest way to sell my car in LA?

I'm moving back to South Africa in mid June (yay!), now while this is all great, I'm left with the problem of selling my car. This will be something new for me, since I normally just opt the trade-in method that the dealer offers. However, this time I won't be trading in for a new vehicle. So the dealer might turn me down, or take advantage of the situation and shaft me.

I've tried craigslist, thinking about advertising on the local newspaper but not sure if it will be effective.

Any other methods you guys want to recommend?
 
Don't let on that you're desperate or on a tight timeline. If I knew someone was short on time, I'd low-ball 'em to see how desperate they were.
 
Golden rule: Private buyers are in average dumber than dealers and will give you more. They are also more likely to betray you.
 
Craigslist is decent.

Like said before, just don't tell that you're leaving the country/need to sell it now/etc.

Also, a dealer will rape you.
 
Autotrader.com is where I usually go to search for mainstream used cars.
 
^That's where I found mine.

I would seriously consider taking it to CarMax.

My parents took their cars there when we had to move within a month and we got more than we thought for my dad's Camry. My mom's Odyssey had had frame damage (from going 3 MPH and crushing the power door on a concrete corner), so we took a bit of a hit there.

If you post a coherent, descriptive ad on CL/AutoTrader, then I will guarantee that you will have emails or calls within the day.
 
Autotrader.com is where I usually go to search for mainstream used cars.

Autotrade costs like $25 :(

I wasn't sure if it will be worth the money
 
Ebay? Also I would recommend throwing it on golfmkv/the vortex and see if anyone will pick it up. Yeah other than that autotrader would be my best bet.
 
Ah, that's a good idea.

I completely forgot about the GTI forums, but I might sound like a troll with 1 post under my belt.
 
Golden rule: Private buyers are in average dumber than dealers and will give you more. They are also more likely to betray you.

Et tu brute?

Oh and I've tried both autotrader and Criag's List. The latter works best.
 
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If you have a carmax nearby using them to get a baseline price for your car. If you know Carmax will give you say 18,000 then you might figure you need to get 20,000 from a private buyer in order to put up with the pain in the ass private buyers can be.

Another thing to think of is that your car is well out of the typical cash car price range. Most people don't have the cash to buy a used 2009 vehicle so you have to put up with people getting a loan for the car. It is much more difficult to sell a 20,000 used car yourself then say a 10,000 dollar one or a 5,000 dollar one.
 
Craig's List is free and sold my car within two days for 90% of my asking price (which I purposely set a little high).
 
Craig's List is free and sold my car within two days for 90% of my asking price (which I purposely set a little high).

I've gotten 5 spam e-mails / weird scam e-mails from craigslist already. No progress at all :mad:
 
It's bound to happen, just be patient, your GTI should be pretty easy to sell to the car enthusiast crowd. (lots of looks)

As long as you are not unreasonable on the price. I, like most everyone here, troll my car specific forums all the time and have noticed people seem to think their car is always worth more than KBB, and never sell their cars. If the price is right you should be good, if yours is the one for $17.5/23k miles, thats a good deal!

oh also check to see if you ad is in the OC and SD craigslist as well.
 
Craigslist kinda sucks a bit because of that. You should be able to find someone to take it off your hands Give it some time
 
Craigslist kinda sucks a bit because of that. You should be able to find someone to take it off your hands Give it some time

Yeah I know, I'm just waiting for a genuine buyer to e-mail me. So far I've only got spam / scam mails.


If the price is right you should be good, if yours is the one for $17.5/23k miles, thats a good deal!

I priced it at $19800, seeing as most '08 GTIs on autotrader are going for $20K+, with a lot more mileage. Also with the price of $19k, I've left myself some room for negotiation.
 
Yeah I know, I'm just waiting for a genuine buyer to e-mail me. So far I've only got spam / scam mails.




I priced it at $19800, seeing as most '08 GTIs on autotrader are going for $20K+, with a lot more mileage. Also with the price of $19k, I've left myself some room for negotiation.

Good pricing strategy. Always try to price close to the market, either a little below or a little above is ok either one will generate calls, but leave yourself room to move.


The problem when you stick a real low asking price is there are some people who don't know a good price when they see it. The only way the think they got a good deal is to see how much discount they got off the asking price. It doesn't matter that you are the cheapest sludgemobile for 500 miles they will only buy if you give wow them with your best, best price which in their mind is usually 2,000 to 3,000 below whatever you are asking.
 
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