We like to ask questions at The Autopian. We wanna know about your favorite cars, or the challenges you’ve had keeping your fleet on the road. Normally, we throw out friendly questions to learn about the automotive lives of our readers. But not today!
I’m here to ask you an altogether rude and more pointed question. What’s the cheapest price you’ll sell your car for, mate?
I’m intimately acquainted with how annoying this question can be. I just spent the better part of a fortnight trying to sell my old Mercedes.
I didn’t have high hopes for the sale from the outset. I threw it on Facebook for $2,500, which was quite a bit less than I paid for it three years ago. When used car prices were at their hottest, you were lucky to get a runner for under $2,000. Given my Merc was not just working, but also relatively clean, I figured scoring two stacks shouldn’t be too hard.
I sat and waited, hearing from none but the crickets. After a day, I dropped my price to two large, and the offers started to trickle in. Not inquiries to see the car, not questions about its condition. Just crude mouth breathers that saw fit to dispense with any respectful pleasantries whatsoever.
“last price” said the first drongo. They weren’t interested in inspecting the car, or even talking to me like a fellow human being. They didn’t have time for pesky things like greetings or question marks. They just wanted to see how much they could screw out of me before they got off the couch.
Shortly enough, I met an even cruder customer. They weren’t asking, they were telling. “1100” came the message. Just a number! I suppose I was expected to beg this person to come relieve me of my car for such a princely offer.
I made the mistake of interacting with one of these people. I responded to “Last price” indicating I was firm at $2000. They offered $1,400, and I figured I might as well try and deal. It had been a week and the car was still here, after all. I countered with $1,500 and they agreed. I figured I was well on my way to selling this thing. “Done dell,” they said. I figured they meant deal, but whatever.
Of course, that wasn’t the case. They failed to show up to our morning meeting despite promising they had $1,500 cash to exchange for the car. They eventually rolled up two hours late, looked over the car, and seemed disappointed. They offered “1100 my best brother” and as you might imagine, I sent them packing. They had the gall to keep pestering me the rest of the day, still refusing to meet the $1,500 we’d agreed upon. I elected that I’d sell the car to a wrecker for $500 before this philistine would ever touch my Mercedes again.
I abandoned Facebook Marketplace entirely. Two weeks had netted no serious inquiries—just a continual parade of feckless jagaloons.
Instead, I paid $19 to list on Gumtree at $1,800. The next day, somebody rang and asked to see the car. They came down within two hours, liked the car, and didn’t even haggle. They wired me $1,800, I signed the papers, and off they went with their shiny Mercedes-Benz. Everyone left happy.
Ultimately, though, this isn’t Lewin Bitches, this is Autopian Asks. So I ask you, what is the lowest price you’ll take for your car? You can answer honestly, telling us what you reckon your car is worth on the used market. Or, you can respond as if I’m a crude, disrespectful chancer from Facebook. Tell me off for asking you to haggle against yourself to satisfy my own selfish goals.
Bottom line? It’s hell out there. Be nice and deal well, and the world will be a better place. Lewin out.
Image credits: Lewinous Bergatron The First
I have a Pontiac G6 in my driveway that I will sell for slightly higher than the scrap value of the metal. It runs and drives and all that shit but I want it gone.
Good luck with sale! It’s tough at that end of the market. Lots of drongos.
For the Datsun I’ve been slaving over for more than 3 years, and for which my entire savings (and half of my sanity) were consumed, I’d accept 1 million dollars.
probably 15k for any of my vehicles because they’d need to be replaced and I don’t want to deal with buying a replacement (and that’s about how much I’d spend on a replacement)
Whatever it would cost to replace with a nicer version. Given the way Land Cruiser prices have gone…25 grand at least.
never find a cheap landy that runs haha, they’re so good at holding value!
2015 Fit in excellent condition: $10K. But it’s going nowhere.
I always respond to “whats the lowest you will take” with “whats the most you will offer?” That usually results in crickets or a number, which are both acceptable in that instance.
I probably want like $5 to replace my current DD. Is it worth $5K? nah. But the headache of replacing is worth quite a bit on top of the current value.
I reply with “What do you think is fair?” and get a reply about 5% of the time.
hahaha, great strategy
Right now? It’s not for sale. I mean, I guess you could come offer $100k and I’d let it happen, but that is not going to happen.
Someday my wife will get tired of my car and insist we buy a second middle-class adult vehicle. Then I don’t know, $1,000?
Is a jagaloon an Australian jagoff?
$15,000, nothing less. Or $50,000.
It’s a term used in Stepbrothers (a film I think is watchable, not amazing). It may have other usage; I didn’t have time to drill down into a literature search. I wanted to, though.
I’m not looking to sell my car, so if someone knocks on the door with $15K in their hands for it, it’s theirs. Apparently $15K is the lowest I’d sell my car for.
Yeah that’s my number too. Are my cars worth that much? Absolutely not, not even half that. But I don’t want to sell my cars and have to go replace them expeditiously so there’s a sizeable markup for the hassle of selling my car to someone.
This is such a hard question. I’m not attached to either of my vehicles, but I would need to replace them with something similar, so apparently there’s no reasonable price at which I’d sell.
1999 Miata – $20k. It isn’t worth it from a financial standpoint but I wouldn’t consider a penny less. That’s only because it would be irresponsible to not sell it for this amount and I would still be immensely sad.
2004 Mazdaspeed Miata – $15k. Similar to above but less attached. I just sunk 6-7k into it so that’s a large chunk of the added price.
2004 Mach 1 – $12k. This is on the higher end but not unreasonable. Paint is pretty bad otherwise I would price it higher.
2000 S10 – $6k. It is overpriced as well but, guess what, I also don’t want to sell it so would need enough to justify the sadness.
What I am getting at is…don’t try and buy any of my vehicles if you have any financial sense.
The daily driver Accord probably in the $5000-6000 range. Mechanically solid, cosmetically not as solid. The GTO would require a lot of money, much more than it’s actual market value because I have no interest in replacing it. But as a wise man once said, everybody’s got a price.
Owning an old, nearly worthless car that’s in good mechanical shape and is fairly entertaining to drive makes me understand why it’s so hard to buy one. I doubt it’s worth more than $5-6k and it costs $200/6 months to insure. Why would I EVER sell it? I don’t think I’d take $15k.
The Lancer still has things to do before I move on from it. I have a list. I keep thinking about adding “1 million miles, let’s GOOOO” to that list, so it’ll be a while. I’m at 206K and I still need to ship it to the Nürburgring. That being said…
{ opens Porsche configurator }
$197,630—er, let’s call it an even $200K—and I give up on my quest. https://configurator.porsche.com/porsche-code/PR51SHE3
love to see you rack up the miles on that!
I’m always amazed when people want to argue price on something they haven’t yet seen.
so fucking irritating
Early 1980’s Mercury Marquis circa 1994- $50.00, which we promptly exchanged for pizza and beer at the original Buddy’s.
Not that I would currently try to sell any of my current vehicles, but if I were it would be something like this:
Prius: $5000. About what I paid for it, but I’ve done a lot of work on it (including a brand new hybrid battery) that offsets the small depreciation from the miles I’ve put on it. And honestly, even a few years ago these things pretty much bottomed out at $4k if they were running, and that’s for cars with a lot more miles than mine.
Truck: $20000? I haven’t checked the market for these lately so I honestly have no idea what it’s worth. That’s probably in the ballpark though.
Corvette: One million dollars. This is my forever car so there’s no reasonable offer that would take it off my hands. You’d have to give me life-changing money for me to sign over the title.
Seeing people come up with values has me thinking.
I’d take $25k for my Niro, a bit less if I have something fully lined up to replace it. I’ll probably end up trading it in for less, but that removes a bit of the hassle and also cuts down on sales tax.
I’d take $6500 for my Silverado, but a trade of a Ranger from the same era would be better, depending on the condition. I’d also consider an S10, a van, or anything fun.
As I’ve only had it for 3 months and did a few grand of deferred maintenance in that time, I’d like at least 15k to recoup the new parts. Of course, nobody will offer me that much for a 2.5L Boxster with dents in the fenders and tears in the seats, so really, it’s not for sale. That said, if I HAD to ditch it because of some kind of life emergency, I’d probably settle for 13k, adding a grand to what I paid for the value of 2 new sets of tires (winter/summer) and the fact all the electrical gremlins are sorted.
2,200 for a Datsun 521. Bought it for 800, towed it to the garage and put 2,000 in parts to get it going. Now I’m reducing the fleet and want it gone, but the anxiety of listing it is causing some procrastination. I tend to do just word of mouth and sell for a little less, but there isn’t any Datsun fans around here.
Last car on craigslist was my Astro van and it was a real shitshow with offers less than scrap and one guy that refused to buy it unless I let him keep the license plates. Ended up dumping it for cheap to get it over with.
Now this time I’m asking for more and sticking to my low even if it means selling parts separately to make up the difference. Buying a car is super fun but selling sucks.
$15k for my FiST.
I want to say I wouldn’t get rid of my Lotus for anything, but $1 million might change my mind. My dad bought it in 74.
I had $10k in my Z3 M Roadster when I spun the nut off the oil pump. I’m $8k into replacing the motor, and it’s still only worth maybe $12k on a good day, so I’ll be keeping it around for a good while. Gotta get my money’s worth (not to mention wrench-equity!) out of it 🙂
I think once you get down below $4-5k you are likely better off trying to donate it for a tax break. I see some others posting below about trying to sell furniture and other large items, just not worth it. Donate to a local charity if they will take it or give away for free. A few hundred $ are not worth the hassle of dealing with internet people or wasting time on people not actually showing up.
If anyone is a CPA or tax expert, I could use the advice. I never understood the “donate for a tax break” system.
At least in the US, donations only count towards your itemized deductions, if you itemize on Schedule A. Depending on the situation (good health insurance, no personal money to business expenses, etc.), getting itemizatsions to add up to more than the Standard Deduction ($29.2k in 2024, married filing jointly) is very difficult. Even then, it’s a deduction, so you basically just save paying income taxes on the amount of the deduction.
So, for a $2000 dollar car. I could:
1) Sell it and make $2000 (maybe I just want it gone, and sell it for $1000!)
2) Donate it, itemize taxes, and reduce my income tax by somewhere between $240(12% bracket) and $640(32% bracket) depending on reasonable income levels.
How does donating help?
I agree, “not worth the hassle” of selling can go a long way, but itemizing deductions is a larger hassle, especially if it turns out to not meet the threshold.
You gotta form a DAF.
I’ve got a ’75 and a ’76 Volvo 66 GL, each in the form of a DAF 66, but apparently that’s not close enough for tax purposes.
i can’t imagine how complicated that would be
I would only sell my Scorpion for whatever the market rate for a decent Lancia Delta is that day since that is the only car I would replace it with. As the two have wildly different values, my usual answer when asked for a price is the car isn’t for sale. Realistically, if I had Delta money, I’d probably keep my Scorp anyway, just cause I adore that car.
My 1995 rhd cherokee with 405k on the clock and no straight panels is worth probably 2k real world because it’s route ready. But you would have to walk up and hand me probably 14k for me to let it go. Only because that’s about what a Toyota hiace runs, and that’s what I would rather have.