Sold a vehicle to Carshop recently. It was a relatively easy experience. Initial contact led to a salesperson texting me to come in person for an appraisal. When I declined, we did it remotely.
In and out in a reasonably efficient manner. Checks are issued from a ‘corporate office’ somewhere else and can be picked up in person (usually 1-2 business days, they said) or mailed to you. I picked mine up in 1 business day. I owned the car (it was not a lease).
They are part of Penske Automotive Group, which I believe owns franchise dealerships across most of the major brands and should therefore be able to do lease buyouts, even ones that are usually restricted against third parties.
If you have any questions LMK or post your experiences below.
Carshop is great. Sold them two cars so far. Experience has been great overall. They buy at blue book value and sometimes more.
You are right about being part of penske. They can buy out a lease using their dealer network as a proxy. Since its a brand dealership buying your lease, you also have a dealer lease payout which usually is less than a normal payout higher due to the banks not charging tax on the payoff. Highly recommend them.
I checked out selling to CarShop as I pass their Chester Springs location frequently. Their offer was mildly competitive with the mid-rage offers for my 4xe. (They said lower 50’s, so higher than the 27k lowball but not really as high as driveway at 55,3XX.) Their process seems as straightforward as autonation and much less time consuming than driveway.
Carshop initially gave me a strong offer on my TRX. They were at 88,500 on my Level 1, but Chapman botched my contract. 3 weeks later when I went back to get it appraised again, they were at 84,500. Gave me the usual song and dance about gas prices and inflation . Needless to say I didn’t sell to them.
Sold a 4XE Rubi to car shop over the weekend. Online buyers are in the 56-58k range. Broker offer from here at 60k. Carshop asked me what I wanted for it, told them 62k. They agreed and the deal was done. Only bad part was they required a visit to the dealership to inspect it before any offer would be given.
Ordered at $65,XXX w/s $67,XXX
Buyer made a comment that they are looking to get anything hybrid/plug in and were not interested in low MPG ICE vehicles.
In person- with the full dog and pony show. Test drive, paint measure, and frame inspection.
Funny part about it is I forgot the second key and had to deliver it later that day. I pulled up in my Tesla Y and the buyer immediately started to beg me to sell it to them- threw out an offer on it with no inspections. The offer is about 2k over what I think the other places would pay for it. So they really want plug in vehicles (at least in the location I was at).
Bitter experience with carshop. Got an offer from kbb between 53k - 55k. They said they will offer me 51k and they claimed kbb values are always lag by 1 month behind. So the prices are not accurate. How dumb of a reason is this ?
Have had good experiences with them in the past, but today not so much. Market must be getting to them because a couple of the fellas were not in a good mood. One was complaining how he doesn’t understand how people buy a car and sell in a few months. Huh… but without those people, you wouldn’t have any late-model cars to sell. Other guy tried claiming they have the same Jeep already for sale, yet that “same vehicle” was a softtop stripper compared to my nearly-loaded hardtop. Normally, options aren’t a big deal, but Jeeps are a totally different story. Just demonstrates a lack of market knowledge and understanding.
sure. It is easy to make a low offer. lol.
Honestly, though, they weren’t THAT far off the mark. But there was no discussion to be had because … well, here is how it went.
Dude 1: Why are you selling?
me: I have too many cars.
D1: Nice problem to have. I just don’t get … and this isn’t you… why people buy cars and sell after a few months.
me: Because the market is crazy and allows for it.
D1: Yeah, I guess. So did you have a number in mind?
Dude 2: Oh yeah, you’re all done. I have it right here. [places it on counter and then covers it with his hand] But what were you looking for? … Not that I’m going to change the offer.
D1: Yeah, we have the number but what did you want? We gotta play the game, ya know? (really??)
me: To not go anywhere else? 56 and a half.
D2: Oh. No, we’re not there. I have 53… [something something, I think a 6 or an 8].
I just said thanks and left. I mean, as soon as he made the comment about not changing the offer, what’s the point in talking further?
. Needless to say I didn’t sell to them.