Best Places to List Your Vehicle for Sale
Obviously you don't want to spend hours sifting through all that data and figuring out which sites are worthwhile to list on. Luckily, there's only a few that are really important.
The two largest are Cars.com and AutoTrader.com.
Cars.com syndicates their listings to over 175 newspapers and partners such as Yahoo Autos. They have about 3 million used cars for sale at any given time.
They have a free 30-day listing option and premium options ($40) which include a carfax report and up to 150-day listing.
AutoTrader.com offers a similar package. A $60 listing gets you a money-back guarantee while their less-expensive $20 listing stays active for 3 weeks - but with no money-back guarantee.
Cars.com and AutoTrader offer a huge database of used car listings, but most are actually dealer listings.
The largest for-sale-by-owner site is Craigslist. The listings here can be very un-organized, but it's definitely worth including your vehicle - (Note: as of April 2019, Craigslist began charging $5 to list a sale-by-owner listing)
You'll also want to include your vehicle in eBay Motors Local Classifieds section. They will display your listing to anyone that searches for your car within a 200 mile radius of your location. The service is free and even comes with a limited CARFAX report worth $19.95.
By listing your used vehicle on these four sites, you should have all your bases covered.
3 Steps Every Car Buyer Needs to Take to Save Maximum Money
The key to getting the best deal is to gather price or lease bids from as many local dealers as possible. Then shop that best price around until no one can beat it. Here are the steps:Step 1 Get Prices From My Trusted Network
Select the vehicle you're interested in to see if there are local dealers in my network who will provide you with their best upfront price. You will get direct access to an internet sales manager who you can further negotiate with online (no need to visit dealership).Step 2 Get Prices From TrueCar / CarsDirect
TrueCar, and CarsDirect are my top 2 online price quote recommendations. These services show you pre-negotiated prices from dealers closest to you - and the deals are usually pretty decent. But remember, you can still negotiate further.Step 3 Complete my Checklist
Follow this up with my checklist to make sure you squeeze out every last bit of savings.- Gregg Fidan
Each week, I'll keep you up-to-date on the latest car deals and news that might affect your purchase. This includes...
- Best Rebates, Incentives, and Lease Deals
- Latest Car Buying Scams and Tricks
- The Best & Worst Time to Buy a Car
- Which Cars You Should Avoid
About The Author
Gregg Fidan is the founder of RealCarTips. After being ripped off on his first car purchase, he devoted several years to figuring out the best ways to avoid scams and negotiate
the best car deals. He has written hundreds of articles on the subject of car buying and taught thousands of car shoppers how to get the best deals.
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