tightiewhitie

I remember looking for a 5th generation maxima two years ago. I looked on craigslist, cars.com, autotrader and wherever else I could find one. Everytime I called up on one it was sold and quick within days of being advertised. Always being a fan of maxima's and being into the position of buying one made me want one more. I finally found one at a used dealer and jumped on it before anyone else could. Ive had two good years with it. Ive invested time and money into its looks, and drivability. After two years Im moving on, partly because I miss driving stick. When i advertised my car to sell i assumed it would be the same situation as two years ago, a lot of interested buyers and calls, but no I have received 3 calls. Im quite shocked and I wonder what happened. I think the price is fair and negotiable. ???? Cant figure it out.

Amerikaner83

iTrader: (17)

your car is 2 years older

your car is automatic

you modded it (I assume, since you mention you invested in its looks and drivability), which is a turn-OFF for some folks

What price did you buy it for? what price are you asking? What's the mileage? SOOOO many factors. But the first reason.....it's 2 years older. The market is different from 2 years ago.

Chances are it's priced too high. When I listed my old Grand Am, I had it about 500 higher than I knew it would go for...and I got a couple calls. Dropped it down by 250 and I got about 10 calls and emails in about 3 days and got it sold. Chances are your price is too high.

Galactica

iTrader: (5)

I think this is a pretty fair assessment. In my experience, a car with Zero mods Always sells much quicker than a modded car, even a lightly modded car. I had to sit on my Hemi Magnum for 2 months before it sold and I literally had 2 calls on it. My GSR though had 130K on it and was bone stock and it sold in 2 days and I had a dozen calls on it and it sold for over retail book (That might not be a good example though considering how unbelievably difficult it is to find a Stock GSR)...

TunerMaxima3000

iTrader: (4)

cabernet

I think the problem is kbb and Edmunds. There is no way anyone is going to get the trade-in or re-sale values that they publish. KBB says that trade-in value for my 2K Max with 170,000 miles is about $2500. If I'm lucky they will offer $100. That's what they always offer when a car has over 100K on it. Only way to get someone to pay the re-sale price is if they are deperate for that specific car. People always tend to overestimate the value of their car because it is worth more to them than it is to someone else.

Galactica

iTrader: (5)

It can totally be a mind game though. If you sell a clean car really cheap, it will sell because it's really cheap. If you take that same car and try to sell it for a fair price, you'll get calls but everyone will lowball you. If however, you price it astronomically high, you will sit on it for a while, BUT the calls you do get will be serious people who think you've must have a fantastic car if it's priced so high and most of the time you will get a much better price for it. I paid 18,200 for my Magnum in 2008 with 20K, the Hemi, and every option you could get. I sold it in 2011 with 60K and a few tasteful mods for 16K. I priced it way out in left field, sat on it for a while, and sold it to an enthusiast when gas was over 3 bucks a gallon. I put 40K on a car and lost 2 grand (3 if you count the Predator, intake and exhaust). Every other Hemi Magnum on CL at that time was 5 grand less or more. I'm telling you, it's all a mind game

Amerikaner83

iTrader: (17)

My grand am with 195K and slight damage to front right 1/4 panel was worth 1200 according to KBB.

I priced it at 2500 and got a few calls, and a few looks, but nothing really. Dropped it to 2 grand, and BAM 10 calls (as i mentioned earlier). Sold it for 1600. Going in, I knew I'd accept 12-1500 for it, so when they offered me 1600, i was like "done".

got the thing detailed too (3 bucks, was a voucher i got for free, one of my coworkers bought it and wasnt goiong to use it so she just gave it to me), I just had to pay the 3 bucks tax on the thing :-) ---Cleanliness HELPS! If it's your DD, keep the thing CLEAN!. get it washed/waxed/deatialed/vaccuumed whatever...it makes a difference to buyers.

Rods03Max619

iTrader: (5)

More info on the ride would be nice and some Pics....

Amerikaner83

iTrader: (17)

pfft that'd be too esy, and we can't have that :-)

nsnrider

iTrader: (59)

it all depends on how you mark it. spend a few minutes and write up a good description of the car. No slang or "hip" language in your description i.e. "this ride is the ****t", or anything as such. Keep it to the point, check your grammer.

Clean the car, inside and out. If you want to get top money, spend the 100-200 on a full detail, it'll show the potential customer that you took care of the car.

Take good pictures of all corners of the car. Don't post your blurry iphone pics of the side of the car and expect full price on it. If you don't know how to take a picture of the car to make it look its best, visit some top online dealerships and browse through their inventory. Find a car that caught your attention and see what made it stand out from the rest of like cars on the market.

Browse cr and get a feel of how much cars in your area with like condition and miles are selling for.

If there is something about your car that makes it better than average or unique that you think might help drive the price up, write it in the ad.

Know your bottom price that you are willing to let your car go for. Be realistic about this. Stand your ground. Again, be realistic. If someone offers less than you're willing to expect, tell them why you think your car is better than the next car, maybe they'll be willing to bring up their offer.

Good luck and don't stress too much about it. Tax season is a great time to sell a car. A lot of people get a nice return and are willing to spend some money around this time of year.

Any pics of the car and details? Might want to put a for sale ad in classifieds.

TunerMaxima3000

iTrader: (4)

Man that should get stickied somewhere ^

Amerikaner83

iTrader: (17)

here's the ad that sold my grand Am:
That description, plus a reasonable price, and that's all she wrote. You need to do the same.

TunerMaxima3000

iTrader: (4)

No offense but that ad is WAAAAAAY too long.

Short, sweet and to the point. Elaborate as questions are asked. Giving too much info steers people away, they want to come about stuff on their own.

Took me a long time to learn that.

Amerikaner83

iTrader: (17)

none taken.

I had a longer one (if you can believe that) when I had the higher price. This one fit the page nicely with 1024x768 screen resolution with the pics...with a good balance of white space. And it worked for me :-)