Is anybody else having trouble selling a Prius?

[Salsawonder]

There are a lot of folks buying used Prius' here in San Diego but they are buying them from dealers for the most part. Carpool tags on those private seller cars are easily selling at or slightly above KBB. I chose to do the dealer thing because it was easier, I did not want to deal with people calling me and all that.
Buyers simply do not always see the same value as sellers do, plus they see all the flaws that the buyer does not.

[Guerrilla Garage]

bedrock8x's comments have a tone I recognize. I happen to know a thing or two about training sales staffs. I also know that when selling cars the way the game is played is the salesman is taught to take control of the situation, to speak and act with authority. "you don't understand" "you want this!!!" "you should do that!!!!" "your car is worth X" -nice try The price is still $14,500 -Steve

[Sandy]

so whats wrong with mine????

[djasonw]

You're not getting enough exposure. Put it on eBay and also autotrader. With those two resources you should be able to sell it within two weeks. Your audience is limited as I am guessing you are in Central NY so the population centers aren't as large.

[paprius4030]

bedrocks8 comments seemed pretty reasonable to me, don't know why they made the hair on your back stand up?

[Zythryn]

Your car is worth exactly what someone will buy it for.
That amount can change from day to day and with each new group you market to (local paper, metro paper, auto-trader, etc).
We had three buyers from just our pool of friends and friends of friends last spring for a 2007 with about 26,000 miles on it. But that was before cash for clunkers.
While CfC was going on, used car sales (I am guessing) took quite a hit. Depending upon how many of the sales were 'borrowed' from future sales, any car sales, new or used may be depressed for a bit.
In a low selling market, the only way to sell is to lower your prices. If you don't want to sell, you can try expanding your market, or just tough it out and wait for the market to recover.

[hampdenwireless]

Originally Posted by johnjamis

Its the price. Wait til next year when gas prices go up again and you will get more for it. Cash for clunkers has devalued all used cars for now.

Waiting to SELL an unused car that is declining in value every month is almost never a good idea. Unless you think gas is going over $4 a gallon before next summer holding the car for higher value is not going to work. Gas prices will not go up much until next summer, almost a year from now.

Cash for clunkers may have devalued some cars but it also INCREASED the value of the under $5000 cars as it took hundreds of thousands of them off the road.

[kkayser]

In my experience, book values are way too high. I generally expect $1000 - $2000 under book trade-in value. I recently considered trading my 2004 with 50K on a new 2010. They offered $8K; book was around $11.5K. Sometimes you can get lucky and get over trade-in book, but not often. Depending on mileage, $11K may not have been far off. To get a better value, take the car to some dealers and see what they will pay, cash. Then, set your sights about $1000-1500 over that.

[sorka]

Originally Posted by Guerrilla Garage

We took delivery of our 2010 Prius on June 30 and I spent a few days vacuuming, washing and waxing our 2006 and listed it for sale. We put it on Craig’s List and in the local paper and even parked it out at the end of the street on a busy secondary road with a “For Sale” sign. It’s also listed on here in the classifieds. In those last 2 months 4 people have looked at it seriously. One guy ended up buying a 2010 because he could get “Cash for Clunkers” money. Another guy liked it but his wife wanted a bigger car. There was a woman who said she wanted it but never came back and finally a college kid who offered me $11k for it. So what am I doing wrong? I’ve got it priced half way between wholesale and retail and i don't know if that might be too high or too low. The car needs nothing, it’s got a clean Carfax and there is no damage aside from a couple of door dings and a small scratch on the front bumper cover. Any advice would be appreciated. thanks, Steve

I've never paid more than dealer trade in for a used car in my entire life...even in times when it was a seller's market.

KBB has never matched reality.

I'd say until you start below dealer tradein, you're not going to sell it ...... unless of course gas goes back up to $4 / gallon.

[qbee42]

Condensing all of what has been said in this thread, we have these facts:

1) An item is only worth what someone will pay to buy it. Any other figure is only a paper value.

2) What someone will pay for an item will vary by person and circumstances.

3) An automobile does not gain value while waiting to be sold.

Applying these facts, we can draw several conclusions:

1) You can't force someone to pay more than they are willing. In an open market, the decision to purchase is one of free will, meaning buyers can walk if they want to.

2) What buyers are willing to pay is a bottom loaded distribution. If the price is low enough, almost every potential buyer will bite. At the high end, only one in a million will be willing to pay the premium (as an example).

3) Increasing the number of potential buyers increases the chances of a sale. If you double the number of potential buyers, the odds at the high end become two in a million. Increase the pool of buyers by 100,000 and high end odds become one in ten, which isn't so bad.

4) Time, while bad for the car, may allow for market conditions to change. It may also allow for a new pool of buyers, although this depends on the market.

So what can you do to sell your car:

1) If you want to sell it right now, sell it cheap.

2) Appeal to the largest possible market. EBay, AutoTrader, and local papers work well. Sometimes placing a car in a good physical location will do the trick. We have a spot just outside of our village where you can sell anything - just stick it out there with a sign on it and someone will bite. It's uncanny how much traffic goes by that spot.

3) Stay the course and hope for better market conditions or a lucky hit.

4) Consider a gimmick. Sometimes a funny or odd promotion can catch peoples' attention.

Tom