Ideas on selling my SUV?

Sounds like you pretty much have all the bases covered on were you could get a sale. Have you checked on say automax or some other used car lot and letting them take it off your hands? You may get screwed over though.

Have you tried any hypermiling technique's with the nissan? You could probably gain 5MPG. I think the Xterra's are really snazzy myself, on par with the FJ cruiser. Shame you wanna let it go.

 

There's only a couple of other things that I can think of:

• You could take it over to Berkeley and try and sell it at the Buggy Bank (Welcome to the Buggy Bank). Though that's really like a consignment shop and I think they want you to leave the car. My family has sold a couple of cars through them, the problem is that you're without a car while they're selling it...
• Take the thing down to CarMax. I think the closest one to the Bay Area is down in Fresno. They will buy your car even if you don't buy one of theirs. They'll appraise the vehicle and make you an offer that's good for 5 days or x miles (sorry, can't remember what x is.) If you do this, you might want to have a contingency plan in case you decide to accept their offer.

So there're two more alternatives. Neither may work for you, but at least you know.

Just FYI, CarMax isn't going offer a "private sale" price (they're going to be less as they're going to turn around and sell your car to someone either at auction or on their lot), but you can't beat it for a quick sale. I sold them my pick-up right before I got my Prius. It really was quick, easy, and painless.

They offered several thousand more than the Toyota dealer was willing to give me in trade for the truck. However, honestly their offer was also less than the private sale values I got from KBB and Edmunds. I decided to take their offer because I could see too many trucks like mine sitting on the market and not selling (I'd been watching for several weeks prior to making this decision.) Being sort of in your boat (needing to sell the truck before buying my Prius) CarMax's offer seemed pretty good.

Hope that all helps. Good luck!

 

You could add some perks for the sale, like a weekend at the beach, or a nice dinner for two, or plane tickets to disney world. Or maybe find someone trying to sell a dpressed condo and put the car in the garage with sale of the condo?

Its gonna be tough with high gas prices these days. Lots of folks are finding out.

 

You could also try Ebay Motors (I know someone who bought a used 1st gen Prius that way). I've sold a car via Craig's List and another before via my employer's internal classified ads.

FWIW, if it's priced right, you'll find a buyer. On Tivocommunity, there's at least one poster who's still considering gas hogs like the Escalade despite him posting he paid $4.25/gal recently. The brother of someone I'm dating recently bought a new Xterra <2 months ago.

I was also going to suggest carmax.com, but their locations are bit too far from you (and me).

 

A complication is that Prius are hard to get now. You could face a significant period between selling the SUV and getting the Prius unless you trade the SUV at the Prius dealer.

 

Yes, to make things work, I wound up renting a car for three days before my Prius was delivered.

Honestly, the worst three days of my automotive life, I didn't really have alot of choice in the car that I rented and wound up with a PT Cruiser. I still looks cool, but I don't understand how this thing ever sold (respects to those who may have owned one, I wouldn't have gotten through the test drive.)

However, in the end all worked out. The POS, ere I mean PT, Cruiser went back to the rental company and I picked up my Prius. I'd have preferred to have not had to rent a car, but even if I subtract the rental price from the sale price of the truck, I still came out ahead. It's all just a matter of what you'll put up with.

 

Three days? A mere bagatelle :_> I was thinking more of three weeks, or three months.

 

Yes, you're right, but that's largely the point of trying to control when one sells the car. Had I been forced to sell my truck when I placed the order for the Prius (say in a private sale) I'd have been in a rental alot longer. The option of having a "guaranteed" buyer at a fixed price for the truck really took alot of complication out of this process. This was especially true because the Toyota deal was just so not interested in taking my truck as a trade-in. They'd have done it if I'd insisted, but the offer was insultingly low.

 

Carmax. My Friend Has Sold Like 3 Cars To Them. How Bad Do You Want To Sell It? You Might Have To Take A Hit On What You Owe. I Would Let Someone Sell My Car For 265, Assuming They Sell It. I Mean Basically, You Are Doing Everything Yourself Anyway, So Why Give Up The 265? See What Toyota Will Give You For A Trade In. You Have Some Options.