Joe_M

After purchasing a new SUV (2 kids under 3) and the wife having an S5, we rarely drive my car anymore. Going to sell but wondering the best method.

Does anyone have any experience with online dealers such as eBay/AutoTrader/Craigslist? I've only bought from these sites.

Outright to dealer. Obviously wouldn't get the best price, but the convenience of no questions asked, here's a check, is appealing to me. The car does need a little work (belly pan, dent in a-frame, 65K service). Also wonder how hard it would be to sell a 2008 w 65K for upwards of $30K.

TFT

Dent in a-frame?
How do you dent the a-frame?

Joe_M

There when I bought it. Only thing I could think of was something fell off a garage shelf? Pretty small...size of a half dollar.

Doc_A8

A pillar.

A frame confused me too. A frame is a type of house where I live!

Dealer will be the least amount of hassle, and the least amount of cash in your pocket. If you sell it privately you can almost guaruntee to be scammed. Have your spidey sense in overdrive....

Jack88

Ah, A-Pillar. With what you describe, private party it's hard to get 30k for one of that year and mileage. You might, if you have all the option boxes ticked. I'd ask for 30 or 31k and list it on cars.com and autotrader.com, I've done that for a number of my former rides. It's not difficult to sell a car, and if you're not in a hurry, you'll get more out of it that way than just dumping it on a dealer. The market is small enough for these that it's hard to say what you'll get, you might get lucky and have exactly what someone is looking for.

snagitseven

To get a good idea of wholesale value, if there's one in your area, you could take it to a CarMax for a quote - they usually offer more than a dealer. At least you would have some idea of how much more you could add for a private sale in your area.

Jack88

Carmax offers less than wholesale or wholesale, dealer has the next best, and private party is as good as it gets. Sorry, Carmax has left a bad taste in my mouth, after having had them offer less than half of what I ended up selling two of my previous cars for.

snagitseven

CarMax or a dealer are almost never going to offer more than wholesale - they have to make a profit like any other business. Notwithstanding your experience, reports I've seen in the forums over the years have indicated CarMax has usually offered more than a dealer in an outright sale. There will always be exceptions. In any event, selling a car to a private party will almost always garner a higher price. One has to weigh the hassle against immediacy and lesser price when weighing the two methods.

IndyAudi

I would try Cars.com or AutoTrader.com. When I was in the market, I searched those daily. The best FSBO ads had lots of information.

CarMax is VERY fast, but less cash in hand as others stated. Avoid dealers simply due to the amount of time burned waiting. Craigslist is another option, but you might not have a lot of traffic for a D3.

I haven't seen '08 models sell in the $30s for a while unless they were W12 equipped. I bought mine in August sub-20, but with 50% more miles. Good luck!

Jake Musser

With this type of car people search specific terms which will pull up FS threads in forums and Craigslist. its fairly easy to pickup on those scamming online. Broken english, money gram ect. what options do you have on your S8?