I have not received any action on selling my 2007 Ford Escape (133,000 km) in great condition privately.
Would anyone be able to provide advice of selling at at a Car Auction House e.g. ADESA? I have tried Craigslist and Auto-trader.
Thanks
Do you mean auction house?
What price did you ask when selling privately? Did you use Craig List?
I guess I’m not sure how a non dealer would partake in an auction house without taking a huge hit. I would instead recommend just visiting a Carmax location and see what they will offer. I hear they are pretty fair but don’t expect much since offers are based on marketability.
Yeah, auctions for regular cars are more for wholesale, not good retail. I’d go to CarMax and several other dealers, take the best offer you get.
An auction house will not likely get you more money for an ordinary car like your Escape. It will get you less as the bidders are likely to be dealers offering less than trade-in price plus you’ll pay a fee to Adesa.
Wherever you have the car listed now…Craigslist, Auto Trader, ect, You didn’t get any calls because 1) too high a price, and/or 2) Your add scares people away and/or 3) your add doesn’t tell the buyer enough for them to bother calling you about the car.
Once you fix the problems with the add, just keep dropping the price until someone calls. Everything sells if the price is right (for the buyer, not you).
I attend several auto auctions per month and I highly doubt that a 2007 Escape would pull more than $1000. Find a private buyer.
I wonder if the OP has used something like Kelly Blue Book as a price guide. Adesa is a large vehicle auction firm and a private individual is not going to really get a great of money for their vehicle after fees.
I notice you refer to the mileage in klicks rather than miles. Where are you trying to sell it?
Nomatter. Either the price is too high or you haven’t tried hard enough. Have you spread the word among your coworkers, relatives, and friends? Get the price realistic, spread the word, and it’ll probably sell fine.
So what are you asking for it?
Craigslist is probably the most often cited venue posters here talk about for selling and buying used cars. I’m doubtful you’ll be able to get your car sold at one of the car auctions unless its done via a dealer. The car auction places consider the dealers to be their customers and they may be reluctant to allow you to compete against their customers.
One idea, there are car brokers who help people buy used cars. One of my relatives does that as a side-line, specializing in Porsches. He’s always looking for used Porsches available, which he can then suggest to his clients. He knows Porsches inside and out, so he can get to the bottom of things quickly and so won’t bother his client by suggesting a Porsche version the client just isn’t interested in. Anyway, so these car brokers are trying to be aware of what used cars are available. Try phoning one of them, maybe they’d have an idea of somebody who might want to buy it. Worth a shot anyway.
In all likelihood though, your best bet is to put in back on Craigslist and wait a little longer, maybe drop the price a bit. As mentioned above a 2007 Escape isn’t going to command very much on the used car market, and won’t be considered to be something special and worth an extra $$ amount unless it is totally renewed and in like-new-showroom condition.
There’s a public auction place near me that advertises “public and dealers welcome to buy or sell”. I’ve looked into it less than a week ago (trying to sell my Jeep). They charge a $100 upfront fee to the “public” ($50 for “dealers”) PLUS 10% of whatever it sells for. You can set a minimum price below which you won’t sell if you want, BUT, then, if 2 auctions pass and your vehicle doesn’t sell, you must either come pick it up OR pay another $100. (and your $100 fee is non-refundable). The name of the company is not Adesa though, its called “Premier”. Hope this info is useful.
If you want to “bid” on a car, you have to put up a $400 deposit, which gets applied to your purchase. If you end up not making a purchase, you do get your $400 back after the auction.
Much like the “OP”, this topic is quite relevant to my current situation. Hope to read more good responses. Me, I’m not too crazy about the idea of advertising on Craigslist. I’ve read too many stories about people ending up buried in a shallow grave in somebody’s cornfield. 
But seriously, the idea of spending several weekends getting lowball offers from assorted lunatics and sociopaths is not my idea of a fun time.
Edit to add: I guess I got mixed up, I think the part where you get buried in the shallow grave in the cornfield is what happens on the Craigslist dating site. 
the idea of spending several weekends getting lowball offers from assorted lunatics and sociopaths is not my idea of a fun time.
I think that’s why most folks prefer to just trade their old car in as part of the deal when they buy a new one, and let the dealership deal with selling it.
I had an uncle that bought and sold used cars almost monthly. He sell them as fast as he bought them. I think he just did it for fun, he enjoyed meeting people, didn’t find it a waste of time at all. Probably made small profit in the process. But its true, for most of us selling used cars privately can be a challenge; but buying them from a private seller can also be weird. Private sellers sometimes are selling because they are forced to, due to some financial problem, and if they had their druthers they’d like to keep their car. They may in fact love their car. If you ever find yourself a buyer in that situation … run away, it probably won’t end well.
It depends where you live. There are safety inspections in MD, but only when the car changes owner. The inspection certificate is required before the car can be registered. There is a lot of room for abuse by the inspecting garage. Back when I sold cars, every one of them involved some sort of flimflam. You know I like to exaggerate for fun, but this is no exaggeration.
As said before though, there are financial factors. In Minnesota trading a car in reduces the sales tax paid on the new car. You only pay tax on the difference. If you sell it outright, you pay tax on the whole cost. That can be several thousand dollars.
Sadly, it seems you never get out of your old car anywhere near what you think it ought to be worth. Usually its something like 25 - 35 cents on the dollar. I’ve forgotten who said it first, but a car isn’t an asset, its a liability. You are paying for transportation. The cheapest way is to hitchhike everywhere, but then we get back to that shallow grave in the cornfield thing again, which makes vehicle ownership seem like a bargain by comparison. 
“I think that’s why most folks prefer to just trade their old car in as part of the deal when they buy a new one, and let the dealership deal with selling it.”
After I traded-in my '02 Outback in conjunction with the purchase of an '11 Outback, the car saleswoman shared some of her experiences with a customer who expressed interest in buying my old Outback. She reported that the woman was really “spacey”, and seemed almost disoriented. Then, the customer said that she needed to do an extended test-drive in order to confirm that my old Outback could “climb the Kingston hill”.
The saleswoman readily acceded to this request, but also pointed out to the customer that the car had the optional six-cylinder engine, and that it had abundant power. (And, it should be noted that “the Kingston hill” is…just a hill…and is not exactly a steep grade, thus giving you some ideas about the customer’s mindset.)
After the customer returned from the extended test drive, she conceded that the car had enough power to clear the Kingston hill with ease, but she then made another demand–which was refused. What did she request? She pointed to a Volvo that was sitting on the lot, and said that she would purchase my old Outback if they swapped-in the seats from that Volvo.
Instead of explaining the reasons why that swap would not work, the saleswoman wrote out the directions to the closest Volvo dealership, handed it to the woman, and told her, “I think that this other place is where you should be shopping for a car”.
As Dagmar, the saleswoman, said to me, “I don’t need the hassle of dealing with crazy customers, and I’d rather lose a sale than have to deal with a person like that”.
Good story.