It's understandable for a car owner to undertake the sale of his car via a private sale. Doing so maximizes the profit, specially if the owner does all the cleaning and fixing of the mechanical stuff himself. However, if you want to sell your car quick, doing a private sale may not be the best option. Depending on your circumstances, the two quickest options that come to mind are going to a dealer and finding an online car buying service.
While a dealer is usually the fastest way for quick cash, you have to expect that thousands of dollars will be knocked off from your car's price, as the dealer will always factor in his profit and overhead. If the dealer senses that you need to sell your car quick, then that is an added factor that's not working in your favor. And if you don't like a particular dealer's offer, it's quite a chore to go around town looking for dealers who will give you the best price.
The other viable alternative is to offer your car to several online car buying sites at once, which increases your car's exposure significantly and cuts down on the time you will spend in offering your car to potential buyers. Although the online car buying sites are very similar to the brick and mortar dealers in practice in that they also seek to make a profit off your car, you may find a better selling experience by going through this route. A lot of these online sites are professionally run by a very small staff who have spent years in traditional dealerships. They can be less impersonal to deal with and operate with significantly less overhead. This means they can be more flexible when it comes to price, specially if they already have several prospective customers they can unload your car to. The disadvantage here is that these buying sites usually have specific guidelines when buying a car, such as a 60,000 mile limit or an age that is not more than 4 years old.
Needless to say, you need to make sure that your car is as presentable and defect-free as possible when you offer it to the dealer or car buyer. If you have a marginal-looking or performing car, the buyer will not hesitate to point these things out to you in an attempt to bring the price down. A little time and elbow grease will go a long way toward helping you to sell your car quick.
While a dealer is usually the fastest way for quick cash, you have to expect that thousands of dollars will be knocked off from your car's price, as the dealer will always factor in his profit and overhead. If the dealer senses that you need to sell your car quick, then that is an added factor that's not working in your favor. And if you don't like a particular dealer's offer, it's quite a chore to go around town looking for dealers who will give you the best price.
The other viable alternative is to offer your car to several online car buying sites at once, which increases your car's exposure significantly and cuts down on the time you will spend in offering your car to potential buyers. Although the online car buying sites are very similar to the brick and mortar dealers in practice in that they also seek to make a profit off your car, you may find a better selling experience by going through this route. A lot of these online sites are professionally run by a very small staff who have spent years in traditional dealerships. They can be less impersonal to deal with and operate with significantly less overhead. This means they can be more flexible when it comes to price, specially if they already have several prospective customers they can unload your car to. The disadvantage here is that these buying sites usually have specific guidelines when buying a car, such as a 60,000 mile limit or an age that is not more than 4 years old.
Needless to say, you need to make sure that your car is as presentable and defect-free as possible when you offer it to the dealer or car buyer. If you have a marginal-looking or performing car, the buyer will not hesitate to point these things out to you in an attempt to bring the price down. A little time and elbow grease will go a long way toward helping you to sell your car quick.
Source...