I am trying to sell my car, a 2007 Yaris Hatchback. Kelley says 10,240, dealer in a 200 mile radius are asking 11K for similar, if not higher mileage (mine is just under 50k), but Edmunds.com, who the potential buyer looked to, says it is $8,100. That is a huge difference! All valuations are based on the same, good condition value. How do I price this . . . or negotiate it fairly?? I’ve never sold a car before and am now totally confused.
My uncle owns a new car dealership here in Indiana. He says that Kelley and other valued sites are not always reliable. If I was selling it myself I would stay slightly under the dealer. If the dealership uses lending companies that will loan for the amount they charge hopefully so will your buyer. Or they bring cash.
Whatever The Traffic Will Bear. You Can Always Come Down A Bit On Price, During Negotiating, But You Can’t Go Up. Start High, Get A Feel, And See What Interest Is Generated. You Can Include OBO (Or Best Offer) In Your Selling Price To Get Things Moving.
CSA
Along with the excellent advice so far, let me add this. In all the cars I have sold privately, I use Kelly Blue book as a start. Most sellers over value their car. W/o the backing of a dealership, you cannot expect a private buyer to pay much more than private sale prices. From there, it’s what the market will bear and how desperate you are to sell. Make sure your car is clean. You have a good car for the times to sell, and should expect a decent private sale price. Just don’t over value your car as a private seller as you seem to be doing and get dealer prices. Unless you get a naive buyer who doesn’t know the difference, expect the lower private party prices to be the norm. You can start that way if you wish, but you may loose a potential buyer ,especially if they are reading the same book, which they all (most) do.
.You are not a car dealer with a repair shop who can offer a warranty.
Try nadaguides.com as well. Remember that you are selling “private party” and will never command the same price as a dealer.
Dealers price the cars with some wiggle room on price. The $11K Yaris at the dealer isn’t going to sell for $11K. It will sell somewhere between $9 to 10K. You can advertise your car for $10K and see what kind of traffic and interest you get. If you get several “lookers” at the car you may settle on a sale price of $9 to 9.5K. If no interest at $10K, then the Edmunds value of $8.1K might not be far off.
Don’t be confused, $10K is a reasonable price to advertise the car and see what happens.
Can anyone explain why Edmunds is so low at 8.1k? (I have searched the same car in multiple cities and not seen anything under 9,500 that didn’t have a major problem, like no transmission - and most had significantly more miles) And why today when I looked at Kelley it went up to over 12k??? How do these sites value the cars?
Edmunds says they research actual sales and have enough information that they can predict regional sales values as well. You did not tell us what options you have, so estimating the price is difficult. The price you were offered would be acceptable for a stripped Yaris. If it has options, then it is worth more. A well equipped Yaris might go for up to $10,000 in a private sale. Tell us all about it and we can help you figure it out. Also, are there any warts?