Hi, I have a vehicle that needs repairs to be done soon or else the car will fail. If the repairs are made, the car still has some life left in it and it was taken care of well enough during it’s life that it looks pretty good for a car made in '96 i.e. minor scratches and three or four smaller than dime-sized dots of rust on the body. Mechanics have confirmed that the car would be worth keeping if repaired.
However, I am moving off the main continental U.S. so will not be able to take my car with me so I must sell it. The repairs that it needs are a very recent development coming at a bad time. The quote for how much it will cost to fix, while not the worst amount of money I’ve ever seen someone quoted for repairs, is still not within an affordable range for me, otherwise I might consider fixing it up first and then reselling.
My questions are these: What are other options for selling a car like mine, besides just to a private seller? Would it be reasonable to expect to get at least half of what I paid for - even in spite of the repairs that it needs - it when I bought it used from another private seller around a year ago? For example, could I find someone who would buy it in order to fix it up? A dealer? A salvage yard for parts? Some other source?
You’re missing a bunch of critical details that would be required for anyone to give you any reasonable advice-
Make and model of car (you have the year listed but that’s it)
How much did you pay for it? We have no idea what half of that is at this point…
What are the repairs needed?
How much were you estimated to do the repairs?
One option that would allow you to leave with a clear conscience without the aggravation of the repairs is to sell it “as-is” with a full accounting of the known repair needs.
I agree w/ TSM , don’t overthink this problem. Just post it for sale it the way it is, and disclose the repairs needed to the potential buyers. If you don’t get any takers, next stop is the salvage yard, where you might still get a little money for it there. The most important thing at this point is to get this burden off your back before you leave. You don’t want to be negotiating car deals from abroad.
Great! That’s exactly the buyer you needed to find. In the future, remember that what a car is worth has nothing to do with what you paid for it and everything to do with what the next owner is prepared to pay for it. He won’t care if you overpaid or got a sweetheart deal. Cars aren’t investments with an expected return. They’re just expenses.
Glad it worked out,these things are usually a hard sell,a lot of people want a guarentee,that you could drive it cross country reliably.I have bought enough junk myself,to be rather skeptical about buying vehicles such as this,oftimes you are fooling yourself if you offer the owner close to KBB.
