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  1. #1
    Dave T.
    Super Moderator Dave T's Avatar
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    03 Aug 2010
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    near Seattle, Washington
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    1,513
    Saab(s)
    1999 9-3SE (2013-2015), 2005 9-3 (2005-2013), 1990 900 (1990-2003)

    How have you gotten rid of your car?

    How have you gotten rid of your previous cars? "Gotten rid" is a slanted term because it implies that the car was junk, which is not always the case.

    I sold three cars by myself, one to a colleague at work and one to a neighbor. The third car that I sold was by placing an ad in a free newspaper. It sold so fast that I didn't have a chance to list it on e-bay. That car was a temporary car that I bought for $900, kept for 6 months, and sold it for about the same price, making the cost of ownership mainly to register the car and a few smaller repairs.

    One car, I handed down to a relative. One car, I traded in, the only car that I did that. It's the easiest way but probably the most expensive way. It was a Saab 900, traded in for another Saab 900, same color, same body style.

    What do you think is the best way to sell a car? Common ways that I can think of is...

    1. Trading a car in to the dealer
    2. Selling it on your own, for example, e-bay, local newspaper, neighborhood free newspaper, Craigslist, posting a notice on a bulletin board, asking people that you know, cars.com, etc.
    3. Giving it to a friend or relative

    I once bought a car from an ad in the local paper. I needed a car that day or the next and found an elderly man who lived nearby who was selling his clunker.

    I don't plan on selling my car any time soon. Even if my car suddenly needs some repairs, I'll fix it and keep it a few more years.

  2. #2
    Saab Enthusiast brownieone's Avatar
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    19 Jul 2012
    Location
    Potomac Falls, VA
    Posts
    166
    Saab(s)
    2011 9-4X Premium, 2010 9-5 Aero, 2008 TurboX SC
    Quote Originally Posted by Dave T View Post
    How have you gotten rid of your previous cars? "Gotten rid" is a slanted term because it implies that the car was junk, which is not always the case.

    I sold three cars by myself, one to a colleague at work and one to a neighbor. The third car that I sold was by placing an ad in a free newspaper. It sold so fast that I didn't have a chance to list it on e-bay. That car was a temporary car that I bought for $900, kept for 6 months, and sold it for about the same price, making the cost of ownership mainly to register the car and a few smaller repairs.

    One car, I handed down to a relative. One car, I traded in, the only car that I did that. It's the easiest way but probably the most expensive way. It was a Saab 900, traded in for another Saab 900, same color, same body style.

    What do you think is the best way to sell a car? Common ways that I can think of is...

    1. Trading a car in to the dealer
    2. Selling it on your own, for example, e-bay, local newspaper, neighborhood free newspaper, Craigslist, posting a notice on a bulletin board, asking people that you know, cars.com, etc.
    3. Giving it to a friend or relative

    I once bought a car from an ad in the local paper. I needed a car that day or the next and found an elderly man who lived nearby who was selling his clunker.

    I don't plan on selling my car any time soon. Even if my car suddenly needs some repairs, I'll fix it and keep it a few more years.
    I traded my first Saab into the dealer when they offered me above KBB for a trade-in. It helped offset taxes on the new Saab.
    Two other Saabs I sold to CarMax when their offer was significantly higher than the dealer's offer. CarMax no longer sells Saabs, or buys them as I understand it unless as part of a trade-in for a car on their lot, in which case they will offer you wholesale price (as Saabs get sent to auction).

    I just bought a sweet manual TurboX SportCombi from a guy I met on a Saab Facebook site. What a great transaction that was, but it really comes down to the honesty of the individuals involved. In my case, the seller sent me ~30 pictures, service records, everything I asked for. Very accomodating.

  3. #3
    Renato Piereck
    Spreading the Saab virus rpiereck's Avatar
    Join Date
    24 Jul 2011
    Location
    Ansbach, Germany
    Posts
    1,520
    Saab(s)
    '00 9-5 Aero SC, 87 900i 8v
    I have gone a few different ways. I have sold a few cheap cars by word of mouth, usually beaters, and were sold to someone just looking for a cheap set of wheels to get around. That's how I sold my 1971 Ford Courier when I was a private in the Army. I sold it for $500 to some other guy in my unit when I bought my first new car, a 2000 Hyundai Accent. Same with the Hyundai Elantra and the Daewoo Tico (great car!) I had in Korea. I also sold my Jeep Wrangler in Alaska like this, but that was because I was moving out of Alaska and a Jeep guy just had moved in, so it was an easy sale, no advertising needed.

    I have traded one car in at the dealer, and actually got an excellent deal out of it, but it was more circumstantial than anything. I had a 2008 Prius that I thought was a very good car but so boring. I was moving to Alaska and wanted to trade it for a Subaru (all wheel drive for the six month long winter). When I sold the 4-month old Prius there was a a six month wait for a brand new Prius, so the Subaru dealer actually paid me more for the used Toyota than what I paid for it new. Only time I ever really made a profit on a car.

    I have been very successful selling cars through Craigslist. Sold my Jeep Patriot like this to a girl in the Air Force, sold my Subaru Forester and Subaru Loyale like that too. Craigslist ads are free, so the price is right.

    My old Hyundai Accent and recently my Saab 900 SE Turbo were sold on the military base where I work. I just parked the car on what we call the Lemon Lot, a parking lot on every base where you can park your car with an ad for sale. On both instances the car was sold within two weeks of being parked.

    I have sold a few cars to junkyards after they gave their all. Usually you don't get much for the car, just the satisfaction of knowing the headache is gone. That's how I got rid of my Dodge LeBaron Turbo (worst car I ever had), my Kia Pride who blew a head gasket on the highway in Korea, and my Ford Ranger who was a hurricane Andrews survivor and long on its legs. With the LeBaron it felt like the junkyard was doing me a favor by removing that piece of shit (excuse my English) from my driveway.

    The worst way to "get rid" of a car, as you put it, in my opinion, is to give it to a family member. That's pretty much what I did to my old beloved Mercedes Benz 300D, I gave it to my brother when I joined the Army and he promptly crashed it (totaled the car) within a few months. The bad thing about giving it to family is that if you're attached to the car you get to see it everyday, being abused, not maintained, etc. Enough said.
    Now: '00 Saab 9-5 Aero Combi - '89 Peugeot 205 CTI - '91 Peugeot 309 GTI
    Gone: '87 Saab 900i - '95 Saab 900 SE Turbo

  4. #4
    Dave T.
    Super Moderator Dave T's Avatar
    Join Date
    03 Aug 2010
    Location
    near Seattle, Washington
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    Saab(s)
    1999 9-3SE (2013-2015), 2005 9-3 (2005-2013), 1990 900 (1990-2003)
    Quote Originally Posted by rpiereck View Post
    I have gone a few different ways. I have sold a few cheap cars by word of mouth, usually beaters,

    I have traded one car in at the dealer, and actually got an excellent deal out of it,

    I have been very successful selling cars through Craigslist.

    ... were sold on the military base where I work. I just parked the car on what we call the Lemon Lot, a parking lot on every base where you can park your car with an ad for sale. On both instances the car was sold within two weeks of being parked.

    I have sold a few cars to junkyards after they gave their all. Usually you don't get much for the car,

    The worst way to "get rid" of a car, as you put it, in my opinion, is to give it to a family member. That's pretty much what I did to my old beloved Mercedes Benz 300D, I gave it to my brother when I joined the Army and he promptly crashed it (totaled the car) within a few months. The bad thing about giving it to family is that if you're attached to the car you get to see it everyday, being abused, not maintained, etc. Enough said.
    I thought the best way was to give it to a family member. When selling a car, either you're not getting enough or you're getting more than enough and the buyer is paying too much. By giving it to a family member, there is not this problem or if it is sold, the both the buyer and seller is the family. In addition, you just have to clean the car to reasonable standards, not to showroom standards. It's just that some families have friction or someone doesn't take care of cars.

    That's quite a list!
    Mercedes Benz 300D
    1971 Ford Courier
    Ford Ranger
    2000 Hyundai Accent
    Hyundai Elantra
    Daewoo Tico
    Kia Pride
    Dodge LeBaron Turbo
    2008 Toyota Prius
    Subaru Forester
    Subaru Loyale
    Jeep Wrangler
    Jeep Patriot
    Saab 900 SE Turbo
    Saab 900
    Saab 9-5

    I've only had 7 cars, 2 of them temporary cars (3-6 months), 1 semi-temporary car (1.5 years), and 4 Saabs.

  5. #5
    Renato Piereck
    Spreading the Saab virus rpiereck's Avatar
    Join Date
    24 Jul 2011
    Location
    Ansbach, Germany
    Posts
    1,520
    Saab(s)
    '00 9-5 Aero SC, 87 900i 8v
    I've had a couple more than those, just didn't put them all there: VW Scirocco 16v, Fiat Uno 1.5R, Plymouth Acclaim (another POS)... You can't really say I am biased to one brand or another, but I do really like Saab, Subaru, Jeep and Mercedes-Benz.

    I can't say I really like Daewoo, but the one Daewoo I had was a great little car, but in truth it was a Korean-made Suzuki Alto, a Japanese Kei car with a 0.6 liter 3-cyclinder engine. Mine looked exactly like this one here:
    Now: '00 Saab 9-5 Aero Combi - '89 Peugeot 205 CTI - '91 Peugeot 309 GTI
    Gone: '87 Saab 900i - '95 Saab 900 SE Turbo

  6. #6
    Frank
    Administrator nordwulf's Avatar
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    30 Jul 2010
    Location
    USA - Netherlands
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    7,901
    Saab(s)
    previous: 2006 9-3, 2001-06 9-5, 2011 9-4X
    I sold a few through newspaper ads before this internet thingy started. I used to browse through newspaper ads but I haven't read a real newspaper for a long time.

    I sold my first 2 Saabs to CarMax. I needed to sell them quickly and didn't want to deal with tire kickers for a month. Their offer was actually quite competitive and process very easy. I bought a 2006 Saab 9-3 Aero SportCombi for around $27K new (before taxes, $12K off MSRP) and sold it with 10K miles to CarMax 8 months later for $25K. If I had MSRP when I bought it, not such a good deal.

    Craigslist is a hit-and-miss. Someone local is coming to look at my 9-5 this Saturday so perhaps that will work out. I bought my Mercedes 300TE through a Craigslist ad. You sometimes can find good cars and other stuff on there but searching is very difficult and often people only list cars with crappy pictures and description.

    eBay is my preferred way of selling Saabs. You can reach a large nation-wide audience and sometimes bidding can drive up the price. Listing is very cheap but you do pay $125 when it sells. But that's worth it to me. With some software, you can make the listing look very nice which I think makes it possible to get a higher price. It may take a 2-3 times of listing the car but it usually sells after a while. You only need 1 buyer.

    I had an old Chevy truck once which was still in excellent shape. At the time, I lived on a major state road with a lot of traffic coming by. A few days after I put it near the road with a For Sale sign, somebody stopped, loved it and bought it. That went very quick.

    It all depends on the car you're selling. If you have something unique or isn't in high demand locally (like a Saab or vintage Mercedes), I usually turn to eBay. For common cars/trucks like an American truck, Craigslist or an ad at the local supermarket is more effective.

 

 

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