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Advice/Opinions/Experience, Please - selling car after damage repair

Dnkltd

New member
Location
Las Vegas
I don't disagree on new vs. used and what you are willing to accept but I stand by my statement - if I go from owning my car to having to buy a new one again, I'll take what I have as long as the repairs etc. are up to standard. To your point, my car was bought new and I keep my cars a long time so I accept the small defects etc. of that decision as time marches on with my ownership. As someone said above, my car is also modified so that factors in too. Payments or not absolutely weighs in here though IMHO.
Every situation is different. In my case my car was paid off, but it was also 6 years old with 76,000 miles and an accident on carfax. I didn’t want to get into payments again, but I also didn’t want to get stuck with a 100,000 mile vehicle that I wouldn’t be able to sell. The fact that Carmax was willing to pay as much as they did was a no brainer. The used car market may not stay this way for long and I doubt I would get anywhere near what I got for it.
 

kglpdx

Ready to race!
Location
Portland
Car(s)
MK7 GTI
The reason I don’t want to keep the car is that I’ve only had it two months and I now have a negative association with it. I rarely drive (51k miles on my last car I had 11 years) so I don’t know if I want to keep
something I don’t feel happy about. I was planning to pay off my loan today and finance a new (to me) one, but cooler heads have prevailed and I’ve been convinced to wait until I get it back from the shop and see how I feel. I’m self employed so I’d rather keep the cash reserve and have a small monthly payment than spend the cash upfront. If I have a downturn in income for any reason, a small car payment is much less than my monthly business expenses.

Based on the Carmax quote (with accident disclosed) I feel
It might be smart to sell now rather than risk a much lower sales value down the line due to the accident.

I appreciate everyone’s input. Most of my friends view cars as a utilitarian need so hearing from people who view them as something to enjoy is a nice alternate perspective.
 

tigeo

Autocross Champion
Every situation is different. In my case my car was paid off, but it was also 6 years old with 76,000 miles and an accident on carfax. I didn’t want to get into payments again, but I also didn’t want to get stuck with a 100,000 mile vehicle that I wouldn’t be able to sell. The fact that Carmax was willing to pay as much as they did was a no brainer. The used car market may not stay this way for long and I doubt I would get anywhere near what I got for it.
Understood and yes, if I had an older car that could factor in for sure. Again, for me, I drive my cars "forever" so resale value and Carfax mean little to me. If I have a 10 yo car with 150K on it, nobody at that point is goign to care about any of this when I sell it for a few grand fully depreciated. And yes, the used car market is insane right now for selling off your car!
 

StorableComa

Autocross Champion
Location
SoCal, USA
Car(s)
17 GSW S FWD
OP are you picking up a new car or a used car to replace it? As selling it for more is a bonus, but with prices the way they are you'll probably be overpaying for your next car too if it's used. A lot of people salivating at what some of the car buyers are offering only to over pay on their next car. 🤷‍♂️

New seems to be a mixed bag, but most new car prices are up there too with chip shortages. Hopefully you find a good deal if you do decide to trade it in, seen a lot of people jump the gun over resale only to find out their options for their next car are not what they expected due to price. YMMV but the market is funky out here currently from beaters to lease returns everyone wants $1,500+ over what they would have asked a year ago. Beater 90s cars with 100k+ miles going for 4k when you could pick them up for 1700 prior. :confused:
 

kglpdx

Ready to race!
Location
Portland
Car(s)
MK7 GTI
OP are you picking up a new car or a used car to replace it? As selling it for more is a bonus, but with prices the way they are you'll probably be overpaying for your next car too if it's used. A lot of people salivating at what some of the car buyers are offering only to over pay on their next car. 🤷‍♂️
Most likely something a few years old with low milage, which is almost impossible to find. I did nationwide searches on most of the car sites, for under 30k miles, '17 or newer with leather and dsg. The results ranged from 1-7 cars per site.
I was looking at a '17 Autobahn with 24k miles, for 25k which seems a bit high, but it had everything on it. A local dealership has a new red Autobahn (at just under 40k) in stock that I was drooling over, but I've decided to wait to get my car back from the shop before making any decisions.
 
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