Earlier in the year at the end of April, with 57k my GTI was almost $15k via Carvana. Now with close to 61K miles, it is at $17.5k for a 2016 GTI S 3-door.
One can definitely take advantage of this car market if they have a newer car like we have. You can then hunt for a low mileage older car from a private seller and pocket some serious $$$. For example, I see some cars like Mercedes or BMW with the fairly reliable vanilla 6cyl engines that haven't touched salt (very important factor), have less than 60k on the odo and sell for under 12-13k. Sure you lose out on apple carplay, fun factor and gas mileage of the GTI, but if your goal is to pocket thousands of dollars then you can make out like a bandit. Or you can buy a POS Toyota for 5 grand and ride out the market, and buy a GTI again just to save some dough. Lots of options here, especially for folks who don't want to have a high car payment anymore!
I myself have considered selling my paid off GTI for what looks like $17k, and picking up an MB C300 with a 6MT or BMW 328i with 6MT for around $9k with only 10-30k more miles. But the GTI is too much of a riot to let go of.
