I have an old, non-leased car (2011 VW Jetta SE with 116k miles) that I am trying to help my son sell. I did a search for who people like to sell to these days but didn’t find many of the “Sold one to…” posts anymore (maybe it the leasing companies have made it too hard to get out of them or the market is just weird enough that it makes it hard to profit?).
Are any car buying services making decent offers these days? What companies should I reach out to?
Depends on how old the car is but Carmax , Carvana, your local dealership would be a place to start. Most car buying services want cars less than 3 yrs old to get the best prices
It’s a 2011 VW Jetta. It’s in ok shape for its age but certainly not lease sale quality.
You have 2 choices
He has gone away to college and left me the car to sell. I’d rather not put a ton of time and effort into selling it you may but you may be pretty accurate on your market assessment. I put it a few sites like Carvana and got from $598 (would think anything that ran would be worth more than that) to $2500 for it. I know values from car buying sites definitely vary greatly hence why I asked who people like.
Your time must be very very valuable for not trying private sale to get thousands of dollars more.
I will sell it private party for double its price if that is its current value. I was really just trying to research the market as I had no idea what it would be worth these days.
There is a thread on here (https://forum.leasehackr.com/t/want-to-know-mmr-on-a-vehicle-ask-here/459186/2230) where forum members can provide the MMR value of your vehicle. That is the price a dealership would buy your car for at a dealer auction. It should give you a pretty good picture of what your car is worth. If you’re going the private sale route, you’d increase the price over the MMR value by a bit. If you’re selling directly to a dealer, the price will be a bit less than MMR. Hope that helps. You can always post the car for sale on here as well, someone might be interested in buying it from you if it’s a cheap car - this is a forum full of cheapskates after all 
No dealer is buying cars at MMR. I am a wholesaler along with a broker, it doesn’t make sense for me to pay MMR and try to turn a profit. MMR also does not account for options, for black book or blue book value, for transactions on the sale, and the current state of the market.
That being said, I buy all cars whether you lease a car through me or not and would love to give an OP an offer.
I’ll preface my response by saying that I am neither a wholesaler nor a broker, so I may not have the full picture.
Isn’t MMR literally a listing of recent comparable vehicles that have been sold at one of the numerous Mannheim-run auctions? I.e. those are actual prices dealers are paying to purchase used inventory from one another. You as a wholesaler might not purchase vehicles at MMR because it leaves you with less of a margin (that’s a business decision on your end), but it should give the OP a good idea of the actual value of his vehicle vs. any random offers that he may be entertaining elsewhere. Am I missing something?
Mmr factors in transactions that may have more packages, more features, and even when you limit by region you’re not getting the whole picture. It’s a lot more that goes into a dealers offer. While you are right in terms of trying to get a ballpark idea, just know a lot more factors come into play when valuing a car.
if you do not want to spend time selling it private party you ought to tell son to do it and it is also a good learning opportunity. especially with gen z proclivity not to want to interact with people IRL. 
What are similar cars listed for on autotrader, cars.com, cargurus, etc.? That will give you an idea…
My plan was to have him sell it before he had to leave to college but he spent all his time packing instead.
Also, he is the type of kid that would just take the first offer anybody gave him. He just doesn’t care about money, not because he is some spoiled rich kid but because he has a job, never spends a dime and is working towards medical school.
I found him a cheap lease to replace this car.
My advice for the most hassle free experience would just go to Carmax, title in hand and sell it there and have a ride home. The offer may not be the best and it may not be the worst. You will walk out of there in less than an hour check in hand though. If you don’t care about maybe leaving $1000 on the table, or dealing with endless scams and people texting with no follow thru, this would be my suggestion.
Another huge factor MMR does not consider is accidents.
Or use a reputable broker on the platform who also deals with trades.
It does through the sold prices.
Yes & no. I ran 2 BMW x5s last week. One had minor on CarFax and similar miles. Both ran in Fontana. The one with the accident did better because it ran in a “stronger” lane that week.
Sold my wife’s 06 camry for $4500 on FB Marketplace, good condition n lower mileage than similar 06 camry, listed as $5k at noon, sold at 6pm. Carmax offered $2k.
My brother sold his 2009 Odyssey to carmax for around $2.5k. rough condition. No bites on FB marketplace. Webuyanycars.com offers $3k and knock it down for bs reason. Carmax was hassle free and give him what they offer online.