Advice on selling car
Posted by jeminfla@reddit | projectcar | View on Reddit | 6 comments
This isn’t a project car but this forum seems the most likely to help me with some advice. My daughter lives in LA and has just purchased her first new car. She needs to sell her 2014 Prius and wants to try selling it herself before giving in to someplace like carvana or the like. I live on the east coast in a much quieter town so I don’t feel that my guidance would be applicable to the LA scene. My question is: what would she need to do to ensure both her safety and to not get ripped off? The only things I’ve suggested are to have a friend present and for both to go on any test drives, and to only accept cash or meet at the buyers bank if a cashiers check is involved. Any big city advice is appreciated.
66NickS@reddit
Beware of scams.
Some examples are: - fake payments (only accept verified cash/cashier check when you see them get it from the bank) - tinkering with the car by disconnecting something to make it run poorly in an attempt to negotiate the price. - various scams around shipping, paying extra, etc.
You might want to have her get an inspection performed to document the car’s condition. General guidance to buyers is to have an inspection done. May be worth spending the money to pull a Carfax report and supply it.
Have the title easily available/on hand but not in the car. It should be somewhere safe in the house.
Go to the DMV website or in person and get their bill of sale document. Have both people fill that out so you have all the required details.
Having a friend with them is good. Sharing location/being on a phone call with someone with an earbud in is good too. Sharing locations can be good too.
Some of this is overkill, but having lived in LA I know there are many different types of people.
jeminfla@reddit (OP)
Thanks. It’s not overkill especially these days. I read about a person who sold a classic car and accepted a cashiers check, deposited it in his bank, and three days later it came back as fake. It’s the times we live in
NoseResponsible3874@reddit
If you accept a cashier's check from a private party for your car, you're a sucker. That's a scam as old as time itself.
Obvious-Dinner-1082@reddit
Generally, have a male friend be present, preferably one who has at least minimal car knowledge. People like to talk jargon on this is wrong that’s wrong give me X off the price. Also just so she doesn’t get pushed around over the deal. Buy a carfax report to show maintenance, I always look for that. It’s like $20-30 last I checked. (You can self report, but if you bothered to do so, you probably maintained the car well enough).
You could also hang out on FaceTime during the sale. There should be zero issue with that for the buyer.
Generally I ride shotgun on test drives but when I’ve bought cars they just handed me the keys, my cars in their driveway, so why would I steal / crash their car kinda thing.
End of the day 99% chance it’ll be just someone trying to buy a decent used car and it’s smooth sailing. If it feels off, listen to intuition and call it off.
FormulaZR@reddit
It's a Prius. Either someone wants a 12 year old golf cart or they don't.
NoseResponsible3874@reddit
"This doesn't have anything to do with and clearly violates the first rule of this sub, but the rules don't apply to me"