I am selling a van it is in excellent cond.Blue book goes for 10,000 carmax only wanted to give me 4,000. The problem everytime someone calls they ask for the vin#so they can do a carfax report. Well it has 16 records on it I don’t know why. I bought it used with only 12,000 miles on it. The dealer said it had a clean carfax record. It was only hit once and had title change 3 times, 2 recalls. My question how can carmax buy this vehicle and guarantee a clean carfax title? They advertise that all of their cars have no records with carfax. Is there a way to get rid of those records?
There is no way of whitewashing the truth and I’m not trying to be too critical here, but you’re delusional if you think a van with 3 title changes, 16 records, and “only hit once” meets the defintiion of “excellent”. No way. try good at best.
You’ve also given no info at all on this van as to make, year, mileage, etc.
Excellent is a criteria that hardly any vehicles meets except an extreme low miles, hardly driven, always garaged, showroom new model.
I can’t speak for Carmax’s policy about clean titles, etc. but even if you have a van worth that is really worth 10 grand why do you think Carmax would even think of giving you book on it?
Just guessing here, but my feeling is that the true worth of this van, whatever it is, may closer to 4 than 10.
I got more than I expected from CarMax for a 1996 Ford Windstar, and a few of our friends got more for their cars than they expected. Give us a few more details on your van. I need more information, just as OK4450 does. BTW, you can get an offer from any car dealer for your van. You don’t have to trade it to get an offer to buy. But CarMax typically offers more than other dealers do.
this may be impolite, but… we all feel our stuff is worth more than it is. whether it is a car, or furniture, or whatever.
these auto appraisal guides are pretty accurate. if you are honest, and can be truthful about your vehicles condition, it will give you a fairly accurate price. HOWEVER, the price they will give you is the lowest of the trade in, dealer, and condition prices, since they are in the business of making money. they will not give you private party sale price, or retail price. they WILL give you the trade in price.
(if they give more than the trade in value you are being manipulated on the other end of the new car price)
Ok this is why I say it is in excellent condition. I bought the 2002 Dodge Grand Caravan Sport when it had 12,000 miles on it I bought it in 2003. I made sure I had it tuned up and changed my oil and filter every 3000 miles.I hate even getting rid of it it has a new battery, new tires 80,000 mile tires. (they were bought in 9/2005 the van had 42,200 miles on it, it has 59,700 on it now. No exterior scatches and the interior is just as nice as when I bought it. I paid 19,000 for it when I bought it. So what would you sell it for? This is the first time I have ever sold a car and everybody else seems to be more knowledgeable than me. Please reply. Thanks Oh the reason for the title changes- the original owner sold it to Schaffer and Stroninger 1) I bought it my husband paid for it, it went in his name 2) I just had it put in my name 3)
As mentioned, everyone thinks their vehicle is in excellent condition but that’s not the way it works. About the only vehicles that are on the road on a daily basis that meet the excellent criteria are new ones that were recently purchased. Things like a new battery and tires have little to do with what a vehicle is worth although those can be used as a sales tool.
Without knowing how the van is optioned, a look at the NADA guide shows a clean trade-in value of a little over 8k dollars and that’s only IF the vehicle is AWD, leather seats, alloy wheels, and has everything but the kitchen sink. If it does not have all of those options and is more of a base van then the price drops a grand or so to about 7k or less.
Those figures are only a guideline. That does not mean that anyone in the world will even give that much. It all depends on what you’re willing to let it go for, how badly someone wants it, and how much they’re willing to pay for it.
So how much do you think you should get out of it?
Well I had it listed for 7000. but I have not had anyone come and look at it. I had 2 calls but they wanted a smaller van something that only holds 5 passengers. And I did have one guy that said based on my info and the pics that he would be willing to come and look at it if I lowered the price. I have only advertised on craigslist and I had it listed for 7000 since this guy emailed me I changed it to 6800 firm. so we’ll see. I have to sell it I have full coverage on it and I haven’t driven it in 5 months, insurance is killen me. I think this weekend I will put it in the Sun Paper and some local papers. Thanks so much for your help.
Well sold the van and got what I was asking for it. I no longer believe that information from carfax will keep someone from buying your vehicle. The person that bought it took it to her mechanic and he told her to write me a check on the spot. By the way if you want to sell something Craigslist is great. It sold for 7000. and Carmax only wanted to give me 4000, I am so glad I was not desperate enough to take it.
I had not posted back before you sold it but I think you got a fair price for it. It sounds like a nice van and the mileage is very reasonable for the age. My original thought was that you should get 7k for it easy.
CarFax is just not that trustworthy IMHO and should only be used as a tool (a minor one) in making a decision. In the past I’ve run a check on 3 of my family’s vehicles through CarFax and every one of them was shown to have a serious problem.
One was my daily driver Subaru that was a rebuilt wreck and on a Salvage title (6 years of it). CarFax shows clean.
My first SAAB, purchased from the original owner, was shown as a “currently stolen vehicle”. Ha!
My son’s Camaro was shown to have been involved in a theft and major collision damage from the theft. Again it was wrong.
The theft was someone breaking in and taking the stereo and had nothing to do with any body damage. The body damage was a basketball sized dent on the left rear quarter (no big deal) and I have no idea why something so trivial was even listed on CarFax.
So yes, I have a dim view of CarFax’s reporting methods.
As I’ve said many times before CarFax is far from perfect. Total wrecks will escape their view if they are not worked or bought by insurance companies or reported to the police. YES it happens. Lesser incidents are somtimes reported as major accidents.
CarMAX is in business to make a profit. Of course they aren’t going to offer you retail for your van. They offered $4000 so they could either retail it for $7000+ or wholesale it at one of their private DEALER ONLY auctions for a lesser profit.
I’m glad you got $7000 for it. Sounds like everyone should be happy.
It sounds to me like someone was confused with the whole Carfax thing. Everytime your car goes through a buisness that’s a Carfax partner, they record the mileage. It could be a simple transfer at a dealership or a minor repair at an affiliated repair shop. The idea of this aspect of it is to catch odometer rollbacks (remember those?), so when someone types your VIN number into Carfax, it’ll say “X records” on it which is merely a way of gauging how accurate the mileage information may be. If there are any catastrophic wrecks or salvage titles, it’ll say so explicitly-- it’s not like a driving record or a credit score that has some sort of point system as your potential buyers seemed to think.
Oh well, their loss! Congrats on selling your van!
Thanks to everybody. I did write to carfax just to ask why there were so many records on it. Well 4 title changes the original owner, the dealer, my husband, and me. Then I took it to JIFFY LUBE every 3000 miles they are a source for carfax. I just got all the paperwork together for the people that bought it and there are 13 receipts from Jiffy lube. Add the title changes 4 plus the jiffy 13 = 17. I wish all the people that emailed me and ask for the vin# to do a carfax would have known this. I hope this will help someone in this future. Again thanks and I LOVE THIS SITE!!!