FYI - Alex on Autos went through this long process and shared his experience. Will be useful for anyone planning to do this
Except his whole mention of the 10 day window was like 5 seconds around the 10:30 mark.
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I believe this has changed unless the representative who called gave me the wrong information. I submitted my details to MyCarAuction. The offer is $12,400* over my payoff (that is the profit amount with registration fees and sales tax added into the purchase price - because while it would be nice, I am not relying on getting that back via California/DMV waiver). However, the individual I spoke to told me I would have to purchase my car first, and they no longer charge the $900 acquisition fee but 10% of the final cash offer, which they hold until the complete title transfer.
*This is the price based on our best estimate of what your car will make if we auction it on your behalf. The final price will be verified at the auction. The final sale is subject to your approval.
if its a ford lease, send mycarauction offer to autonation to see if they can match it, autonation payoff for ford is $500 lower than your pay off plus you wont have to go through the dmv stuff nor tax.
Heres how to do it,
Step 1) Go on autonation, and have them appraise your car online
Step 2) Wait for autonation dealer to contact you via email
Step 3) respond to autonation dealer with a screenshot of mycarauction offer, and ask if they can do any better than mycarauction
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Thank you so much for the information (and details). I had contacted AutoNation the same day and their offer was $3,500 less than MyCarAuction. I will use your advice and let you know how it goes.
FYI on MyCarAuction: I’m sure some have had a good experience but these guys are a bit strange…
The process according to them is:
- the pay off your lease
- when the lease shows $0 due, they come pick up the car BEFORE title is received
- they hold back 10% of the purchase amount (basically the spread between the payoff and their offer)
- you get title, send to them and they send you a check
Now few things here to unpack: First off how on earth is anyone comfortable giving someone a car with no transfer of title, regardless of the lease being paid off? How is the vehicle insured? Can you even do a liability release with no transfer of title? And mostly, what’s to guarantee they ever send you the remainder? Again, sounds like this has worked for some people but these are some pretty massive considerations…
It appears those reaching out to purchase vehicles at MyCarAuction are not well versed in the process. Above I describe my experience in which someone told me of the 10%, but not that I would have to wait for my check after taking the vehicle. I would never agree to that.
I was already planning to buy the car anyway - but cue AutoNation. That experience was a game they enjoyed playing with the only leverage they currently have. They sent countless emails (to which I replied I would respond when available). However, when I asked if they could match higher offers, they went silent. Knowing email can sometimes be lost to spam, trash, etc., I sent a test email to see if there was a problem (they replied). But after asking what I wanted for the vehicle (which is odd as they had made an offer and used my name and the make and model in the ask), I again heard nothing until I requested they remove me from their flood of emails. They mysteriously received that email without issue and replied promptly.
It is entertaining to see that when the shoe is on the other foot (i.e., the consumer can take advantage of them/the current market), some do not deal with it well.
The 10% holdback is basically all the profit but I’m honestly more put off by the “give us your car with no transfer of title” part. That is WILD. Sure it works out for most but I can envision several scenarios where the person “selling” the car gets royally screwed…car gets stolen, damaged/total loss in transit, someone drives it whom is not insured, etc…fast & loose is not how you deal with selling assets worth tens of thousands of dollars. I’m buying my lease out and then shopping once I get title and will report back on the 14 day rule experience.
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This tax problem doesn’t apply to Chrysler Capital because Carmax and the other companies buy out CCAP leases in California?
I understand your hesitation and it’s certainly your choice to buy a car outright, wait for payment to clear, wait for the title, then look to sell the car. What if a meteor falls out of the sky while you are waiting for the title and crushes the car? 
There is risk, but I felt like it was worth taking in my particular case. I was selling back a Kia lease and MyCarAuction was the only option other than buying the car myself, and they also happened to be the highest offer from the 5 or 6 places I checked. They inspected the car and cut me a check for the equity minus $1000 on hold until I send them the title. For me, the check they gave me on the spot was $3700. Like you said, they left the car at my house. About a week or so later I got confirmation from Kia that the buyout for my lease was paid in full. After that happened, MyCarAuction arranged for a car carrier to come pick up my car (they didn’t drive it away, it was one of those multi-car carrier trucks). Now I am waiting for the DMV to send me the title, which I will then sign over to MyCarAuction for the remaining $1000.
I am not all that concerned they will do anything with the car while they have it before I get the title. The fact they sent a truck carrier and are going to store the car on their lot makes sense, they are not going to sell it or auction it before getting the title so not sure why they would be driving it around.
At this point I have a check in hand for $3700 over my buyout, the car has been paid in full so technically I now own the car without having to pay anything, and eventually I’ll sign over the title. Personally I do not feel like I am at a huge risk at this point; I actually feel like MyCarAuction is the one taking a lot of the risk through this process. Opinions can certainly vary.
Great to hear it worked out for you, like I said clearly does. I can’t get over “selling” a car and having someone take it from me without the title. Yes risk for them of course but more procedural. I don’t deliver lease, clear cut breach of contract 101. My car goes off to who knows where with me still being the legal owner = hard pass.
Guess I don’t understand the concern. “My car” is a lease, it was never “my car” in the first place, it was Kia’s car. I put $2000 down to lease (rent) it and got a check four months later for $3700, with another $1000 coming. MyCarAuction fronted $26,800 to Kia; once that payment cleared, it is basically their car and they are taking all of the risk by fronting that money without immediately taking possession of the car and title. Again, I have no skin in the game here, other than coming out nearly $3000 ahead on a lease I only had 4 months.
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Folks this is what I have understood:
They keep 10% of the remaining equity. So if you car has a residual of 30K the value right now is $35K. They will keep 10% of $5K = $500.
Frankly, this is a no brainer. They are not taking physical possession of the car until the title is there and already cutting you a check for the rest.
Agree, although technically they take possession of the car after the finance company shows the buy out has been received in full. The title thing is waiting for the title to arrive to me, then singing it over to MyCarAuction for the remaining $1000. They may have different policies, they told me the deposit was $1000 even though my equity was $4700. Either way it’s fine, still do not think there is a lot of risk since I am not the one paying the buyout price!
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I’m currently in the process of selling my leased BMW to Mycarauction. They withheld 10% of the car’s value ($54,100) that they offered and cut me a check for the remaining equity over the lease payoff. BMW has confirmed that they’ve received the payoff and I’m currently waiting for them to pick up the car. Once the title arrives I’ll be sending that over to them and get the remaining equity via check.
Correct me if I’m wrong but they paid the money to buy the car, so if anything happens to it during transport what risk am I assuming, since none of my money is involved? Perhaps Mycarauction will come after me for the value of the car? But isn’t that something any dealership can do? I don’t get that impression from them so far.
Btw, thanks a lot for referring them here, to be honest I did not want to liquidate my investments or apply for financing to payoff the car first, so this worked out perfectly for me.
This seems pretty legit to me so far. Will keep you guys updated on my experience.
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Paid off my 2019 Kia SXL last week and just sold to MyCarAuction - fast easy process got my check in hand.
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They didn’t take it direct? I saw some posts here that said they would.
Registered to share my experience.
Just came back from DMV.
I showed them (1) the title from Toyota and (2) the bill of sale completed partially by Toyota. DMV was Ok to transfer the ownership to my friend in a single step with I filling out another bill of sale.
We were told that my friend’s title will be in the mail and she had got the registration. I paid the registration before and she was not charged for her registration.
They did not ask for the ad or anything else. I did not think they even checked the 10 day thing. Initially they also wanted to charge me sales tax. I said that I was reselling it and they only asked for one sales tax.
I am not sure if they did anything correctly. Should I file the whatever tax form to be exempted anyway?
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How many sales taxes are there?
two, one when you get the title and one when you transfer it to a non relative.