Darn! Since I started contemplating selling car, more problems have occurred. Carmax made an offer, should I accept?

[JONOV]

Take it to Carmax on a day when the stars align and its running well. You might get more for it.

[brianf408]

Carmax will buy anything you can physically get to their lot. When I worked there, they would buy anything you could push or tow in. Just don't get your hopes up to get anything more than $500 for it, especially in the condition you've described.

I tried selling them an old Miata. It was actually in decent shape, 100k miles, but had a banged up front fender. They offered me $500, I turned around and sold it private party for $2800 the same day.

[BostonMike7]

Originally Posted by Newenglander0000

Obviously it needs a ton of work to get it fixed- I need to sell it for when we move cross country. Carmax said at best they could give $500-$1000 but they'd have to see it in person (I got a quote over the phone). KBB says I can get $2500... However my hubby thinks that the airbag light is enough to deter any potential private party buyers (not to mention the other issues).

Depending on the state, the airbag light on may cause it to fail inspection. So a buyer would need to immediately put money into it.

Without running the airbag codes, or the check engine codes, it's hard to guess what it needs, but if an airbag is at fault, that could be a pricey repair as shops are supposed to use NEW airbags only, and those can vary depending on make.

So if KBB says a car is worth $2500, but requires $1000-1500 worth of work, then you can't really price it as such. Also, keep in mind if KBB says $2500 and you put $3K of work into it, the car is not worth $5.5K, it's still only worth $2500 but with the items fixed, has a better chance of selling for that much.

So basically you need to evaluate how much it would cost to fix the car, vs listing it much cheaper as is. From the sounds of things, I would guess you need at least $1500 if paying a shop as it is, so might be easier just to "dump" it at $1K sold as-is for a running, driving car and let the buyer worry about it.

Trade-in is an option as well

[HappyRider]

Originally Posted by nylonggamer

not sure where you are but in ny you can sell a car for 500 to a scrap yard easy.

Try it. I got $150 just last week. Doubt NY is much better. If you wait a little longer you have to pay THEM.

[Gerania]

Originally Posted by Newenglander0000

So since my last post in this forum....

What year, make, model car is this?