Hi everyone.

So I bought a Jeep commander 2007 from carmax about a year ago. Now that I have to move out of the U.S, I have to sell this car. The thing is, I am financing it, and carmax would not mind to buy it back, but they will make me pay the difference of it's orginal value and its current value.

Say I bought it for $20,000 and now it's only worth $15,000; carmax would buy it for $15,000 (which means they will just give a car a value, and not pay me $15,000) and I have to come up with $5,000 to pay carmax what I owe them when I bought the car from them in the first place.

Now I am wondering, how can I sell this car? What options do I have to sell it? How can I sell it with the financing it has? I really hate to be stuck with selling it to carmax because they will just kill the real value of the car.

Thank you guys.

The thing that you have to understand is that Carmax sells cars at retail but buys cars at wholesale prices. That's the difference your seeing. Unfortunately, you bought the car at it's highest possible value and it has depreciated since then so you will lose some money no matter what you do. You can minimize the loss by finding another retail customer but you will likely never see all your money back. You lost that the moment you drove it off their lot. Try advertising in your local newspaper or maybe even Craig's list.




78 Corvette Pace Car For Sale-18k mi orig-Florida

To add an opinion on cars and borrowing on them:

Dealers (MA especially) will get highest prices and are responsible to give a real warranty how long based on year and miles. After you take it any resale is now private or closer to a wholesale value.

Side suggestion: Don't owe $$ on cars! There are times it makes sense in emergencies + other reason but they are NOT an investment - in fact a well known worst! With the math I see YOU have only lost 5k in that time on a 20k vehicle - that's nothing! Think of it as positive and negative $. Had you paid for it in full a year ago (20k) and can now get (15K) you would be doing better than the vast majority of market investors about not 5-18-2008! Keep in mind there's value to have had the car for that time also!

Try to advertise it to take over payments might be the way out but have you paperwork in order.

PUT A SIGN IN THE WINDOW WITH YOUR CURRENT ASKING PRICE AND INFO. INCLUDE MILES, engine size, etc., AND ANY SPECAIL EQUIPMENT IT HAS. INCLUDE THE VIN WHICH SHOULD BE VISABLE THRU WINDSHIELD ANYWAY.

Side note: The markup from the dealer's cost on a used car is higher than that of a new car. The used car dealer is taking a big risk it something expensive goes wrong under it's warranty and has to cover that. Ever notice how few used car dealers last decades? It's a tough biz,

T
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Tom Greenleaf - MetroWest, Boston












(This post was edited by Tom Greenleaf on May 18, 2009, 5:00 AM)