Sold One to Trade In Solutions (CA)

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After several months of reading/posting here regarding what to do with my 2019 Volvo XC60 at end of lease, I finally got rid of it today. Posting here in case my experience might help someone else.

About 3 months ago, I started to test out the usual car buying sites (Shift, Vroom, Carvana, Carmax, etc.) to see if I had any equity in my Volvo. The RV was $31,560, and lease was coming up the end of May. I was shocked at the numbers – $43,300 from Shift, for example. I was not prepared to sell at the time, as I had no new vehicle lined up.

I had a reservation for a new vehicle, but it took a really long time for it to come in. I finally got it last weekend, so I immediately bought out my lease from Volvo. There are only a few places that will buy Volvos with a released title, so my options were limited if I didn’t want to go through the hassle of getting a clean title at DMV. I accepted an offer from Driveway for $41,034, and sent them the paperwork. Driveway had the best offer of any site that I checked. They had assured me the released title was fine, and that I was in the queue. I waited to hear back for days, and nothing. I called them to see if we could speed up the process, and they were able to set an appointment for me. However, the day of the appointment, they cancelled on me because Volvo’s name was still on the title.

Driveway said that they would still honor their offer once I got the clean title from DMV. I did not want the hassle of going to DMV, paying $3k in tax, waiting for the title, and then trying to get the tax back. With Carvana laying people off…I got nervous and just wanted to get my money and be done with the whole process.

So I opted to work with Trade in Solutions in West Los Angeles. They had no issue with the title. They do appraisals in person, and claim they will beat any written offer (e.g. Carmax) as long as an in person appraisal was done. The amount they offered me was $39,500. While significantly less than Driveway, it was fast (Driveway is not) and easy. The whole thing took about a half hour.

While I know I could have made more money if I had gotten a clean title, I am happy with the $7500 and no hassle. Trade in Solutions was really nice to work with – really nice offices, and they got things done quickly.

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Sounds like a good choice to me! Only half an hour?! Driveway and autonation are pretty easy, but I spent hours at autonation when I’ve sold to them and driveway is a lot of back and forth.

Driveway took a couple days under two months to actually process everything for me and pick up the car. While you took an offer for $1,500 less don’t forget to subtract any items that would have eaten into that profit. For example, my insurance was about $100/month on the car I sold. So it cost me an extra $200 to go with driveway versus a local dealer I could have dropped the car off with. Still a very solid profit! Great job!

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Thanks for your support! I choose to believe I made $7500 rather than that I lost $1500 :slight_smile: Driveway had already taken too long, and I also didn’t want to wait to get a clean title from DMV…so I took the sure thing.

Seriously, it was a half hour. However, note that they FedEx a check to you the next day (which I’m fine with)…but that might matter to some people.

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Thanks for the heads up! Not too far from me.
Once they buy your car, whom do they sell it to? It’s not clear from their website.

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Thanks for this.
I will have a volvo to sell soon so this is very helpful.

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I asked that as well. He rattled off the names of about a dozen local dealers that he says he works with…all different brands.

The offer is good for 7 days, but they subtract $200 if you do not sell to them at the initial appraisal. Also…I think you can get extra money ($200? I’m not positive) if I refer you. I do not get anything. So if you are interested, send me a PM.

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So in order to stay in business they would need to find one of those dealers willing to buy the car from them at a higher price. Of course I’d rather sell to them instead of a lowball offer I’d probably get from those same dealers.

The process seems to be: get an apprasial from Tradein Solutions as well as the others. If Tradein comes out lower, show them the highest offer and they will beat it.

I’ll PM you if and when I decide to proceed!

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Ditto! I’ve added to the Wiki and tagged the buyers known to accept lessor-released titles.

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You mentioned you bought out your Volvo. Does this mean Volvo drivers can’t turn in their lease without first paying it off, generally? I’ve heard about restrictions from Volvo Financial, so just wanted to clarify this. Say if I want to sell my lease for some equity, could it be done so that the purchasing company pays Volvo directly?

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Volvo is really strict, and does not accept payoffs from 3rd parties. I believe the only company that said they could get around it was MyCarAuction, but I’m not sure about that.