Selling used car problems

Ask the Hackrs Used Cars
1

So I recently convinced my mom to get out of her old Honda odyssey since it was worth a few bucks on the used car market (or so I thought) and got her into a lease with the calculation being that the profit of the mini van would pay for a couple of months on the lease.

The car in question is a Honda odyssey 2008 with 215k miles, I had put it up for $3900 on craigslist expecting to be haggled and ending somewhere above 3k. A week goes by and got one inquiry asking if it’s still avail but the never responded to my email otherwise… crickets. I put it in a local paper for a couple of days and still… crickets. The asking price is for sure not SO ridiculous as to not get even a single inquiry as dealers are selling this for way higher. Where have I gone wrong? help

I had tried carvana carmax etc but they literally offered like $500

2

What do Edmunds, KBB, black book, NADA say it’s worth? Is it priced in the ballpark of comparable vehicles?

Maybe it’s priced too high for the market. Did you take good pictures of it for the ad?

Anyway good luck.

3

Yes and it’s priced in the range of KBB. Pictures are definitely not studio quality but they’re ok.

4

This idea makes no sense at all.

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5

Care to elaborate? How’s it different than a trade in, just private party?

6

Maybe despite that, it’s still priced too high for the miles, even if on par with KBB value. Sometimes these valuation models don’t accurately capture the price delta the market associates with high miles.

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7

:point_up_2: what he said. Plus the high mileage vehicles can’t really be sold on their lots, and have to be auctioned off. How often do you see cars for sale with 100+k miles at large dealerships or the online companies?
You may have to find a small local used car dealer/lot and see if it’s something they’d buy. GLWT

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8

Leaving the dealerships aside for now since even if they would buy it they wouldn’t offer anywhere near private party. Why not even one normal inquiry with even a counter offer, is craigslist just not the place for it? If so where is the place to list for sale by owner vehicles? I’ll lower the price and see if I get any hits.

9

Craigslist as you mentioned, Cars.com gives a free listing w/ 4 photos. I’d personally concentrate on FB Marketplace and maybe the Nextdoor app.

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10

AFAIK they only do dealer listings now

Just checked and it says “coming soon”

11

Those were going to be my next suggestions too.

12

Good catch. I’ve used it a few times, admittedly it was several years ago though.

13

I am in the market for an used van now, mainly looking for a last generation of Toyota Sienna. I personally would not touch a van with more than 120k miles and that’s for a Toyota, just for the reason anything with high miles almost comes with worn interior and maintenance issues. Now you have a Honda Odyssey which wasn’t famous for the durability of its transmissions… just my $0.02

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14

If it doesn’t attract attention at a particular price, you will need to drop it until it does. I would drop it by $100-200 every couple days or so.

15

The mileage is definitely a killer for this. You need to highlight the best features of the car. Was the interior well cared for? Post LOTS of high quality pictures of the interior.

Was it well maintained? Post the maintenance history of the vehicle.

Honda’s automatic transmissions from the late 90’s to just before 2010 were notorious for unreliability. Even the 6-speed manual transmissions had a terrible issue of popping out of 3rd gear. I’ve owned a TL Type-S and two RSX Type-S cars. They all had this issue and everyone I know with Accord/Civic 6-speeds had similar issues.

They’re great and durable cars, sans the transmissions.

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16

Why not just trade it in. Many manufacturers have trade in accelerators or bonus cash for trading it. Might be less of a headache. Or you might find a dealer that would unknowingly give you KBB.

17

I don’t even know who’s looking for an odyssey with 215k miles on NY driving on it unless it’s like $1k asking price. At this point person that would buy would drive until first $300 repair bill puts it straight in the junkyard. Market is crazy but not that crazy.

18

This thing has minimal value now and will have the same minimal value 6 months from now. Current new prices are ridiculous, so rather than light the minimal value on fire to get into something new at a high price, wait a bit.

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19

There is something about crazy market you are missing. People have pounds of cash, that’s why there is shortage of everything OF VALUE. 215k, 2008 car has almost no value. Why would anyone buy it if they can afford better stuff? Not even suitable for teenage driver…
Sorry, your best bet is literally this 500 from online.

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20

Nobody is giving him KBB “unknowingly” on a 215k 2008 Honda Odyssey. He’s getting wholesale at best. That car is going straight to auction on a franchised dealer lot. They aren’t going to overpay for it.

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