Hopefully you guys can help...

Car is a Mazda 3 (base version, alloy, cloth, auto, with CD MP3, power windows, steering controls, FWD, no antilock brakes).

2005, Gold, 81k miles, 2nd owner.

Never in an accident. Blemishes include: Softball size ding in rear three-quarter panel (was attempted to be banged out, and is now a mutilated 4" x 4" dent). And each rear wheel well has paint damage along the rear door from scraping up against a concrete parking column. No rust, interior is clean. Just cosmetic exterior damage.

Car is in great mechanical condition. KBB is 5.8k for fair. Car loan is 5.5k.

The car has been sitting at her father's house for the past 3 months in north NJ. (We live in Manhattan, and want to sell this thing already).

About 15 people have seen the car (ebay and craigslist). All flaked, mostly because she doesnt hold title. She doesnt want to put down 5.5k cash in attempt to sell car. Every weekend we repost the ad, and then need to bus into NJ and sit around waiting for people to tell us NO. It is getting out of control.

Dealers will not touch it, because we do not want a trade-in. And there are no carmaxs nearby.

What do you think??

 

Tell her to quit being cheap if she wants it gone and to drop the 5.5k to get the title in hand.

Its kinda like all signs point to DUH.

 

well, the car is advertised with the lack of title. everyone is privy of this information. i actually have a feeling that they mention title as a dealbreaker as a way of politely saying "no" because of the exterior condition....just based on the reactions i have seen from people viewing the car.

Anyway, we have exhausted the craigslisters, and can no longer spend the time to do this. 50% of them are retarded and 90% are unreliable. not to mention, we are going through the motions of paying down large sums of money on student loans and a wedding over the next few months, and dont want to get sidetracked by coming out of pocket 5.5k just in the hopes that someone random will stick to their word and buy.

Are there dealerships like Carmax that will buy?

 

You'll get lowballed like hell.

Dealing with the title is a HUGE pain in the ass for a buyer...and if she doesnt hold the title, you are asking the buyer to fork over cash and trust you for about a month while you get the loan paid and wait for the title to be sent...to THEN be transferred to them. Meanwhile they are driving a car with no title thats still in someone else's name. That = liability.

 

we worked out something with the bank where we can turnover title with 48 hours of paying it down. but i can understand the liability. is this uncommon for someone to sell/buy without title?

 

I wouldnt buy without the title in hand.

 

uncommon, no.

something people dont want to deal with...usually. It would be different if you were selling a car with 30k left on the note....this is 5.5k. Just easier to get the title now and do whatever you want with it.

 

^ Agree. Strangely enough if it was a more expensive car people might be more inclined to purchase without the title in hand, but with it being a sub-$10,000 car most likely someone is going to just pay cash and want the title right away and not the hassle of waiting for a title.

 

Other than INS fraud, your only bet is to trade it off and take the hit...let the dealer tackle the issue of Title.

It's a base gold Mazda 3 (with a fucking dent in it too)...what do you expect?

 

^

Take the hit and get rid of it , or pay it off and drop the price . It's a loss no matter what unfortunately. Like most cars .

 

Get the title.

 

Drop the price to 4k and it will sell. It sounds like there is too much damage for the price. It will soon be an 8 year old car with damage. If the car sounds this bad, most would question how mechanically sounds is it really?

If it looks rough on the outside most likely i would assume the owner didn't take good care of it.

 

thanks guys.

we will not be coming out of pocket close to 6k for title. cash on hand is too tied up in other things (i.e. 20k on studen loan, and 5k on wedding back to back next week)...and ill be damned if i sell off some holdings while the market is down just to appease some dude on craigslist.

taking a hit with dealership is much easier at this point. just want to stop thinking about this beat up mazda sitting in NJ.

can anyone recommend a specific dealership in NJ that buys cars without trade-in? Or a place similar to CarMax? ...Worst case, we take a trip out to central CT, and take care of this at Carmax once and for all.

 

I recommend having a used car dealer taking it to auction for you. They'll take a few dollars and sell it quick.

 

Have you asked the nearest Mazda dealer if they'll buy the car? I did this with my old S2000 at a Honda dealer and they offered above trade in, but everyone wants one of those.

 

You can try one of those cash for cars places, they usually take cars with no title or currently financed. They do all the paperwork but many are shady so be careful. Also they will lowball you to death.

 

I'm a dealer (auctions primarily) pm me if you want maybe we can work something out

 

Wait until after your wedding.

With some of your wedding $$ get the title, then turn around and sell it.

This way you don't throw away a couple of grand.

 

Definitely get a free and clear title and it will sell as others have mentioned. I would not buy a car that I'd have to wait weeks to get a title for.

 

wedding isnt until mid-2014. and the title could be had in 48 hours once we get payment.

does anyone know a specific place in north jersey that isnt like some cash-for-junk B.S.

 

Wedding?^That's a whole different thread...

 

Webuyanycar.com seems to have great ratings in google and locations in NYC and NJ

Edit: never mind, the reviews look a bit shady IMO. Also not sure why the reviews look like they are coming from the uk?

 

You spent almost $20k on a ring but can't help her out with $5k (actually I thought she did pretty well on her own but who knows)? I wouldn't trust someone selling a beat up car either, sorry.

Get the title, sell, recoup money, easy.

Good luck

 

You could always ping Shoof about it.

That said, this idea that finance companies get to hold title is bullshit.

The owner should get a title and the finance company should get a lien document.

 

thanks. we both do well, but recently decided to advance lump sum payments on student loans coming on the horizon (200k) to cutback on interest, which will allow for any potential wedding budget creep over the next year...and coming out of pocket to get title for a craiglister that may flip flop is probably at the absolute bottom of our to-do list. just the principles within our list of priorities...rather just cut a check for the difference to a Carmax type place. easier, no surprises, and not time consuming.

will keep searching for places

 

You sir are an amazing individual. G/L

 

Amazing how being stubborn about something so trivial who will most likely complain about how deep in the ass they take it when they deal with dealer/wholesaler.

They are going to offer you 3/3.5k for the car. Spend the 5.5k, get the title, and sell the car for 4800-5k....lose a little not a lot.

 

In the grand scale of things 5k will be a minor amount. Get the title for an easy sale, trade it in for a bit of a loss, or just sit on the car until you pay it off.

When you're dealing with 200k in student loans, probably 50k+ for a wedding, this 5k will be long forgotten even next year.

 

^ +1. 200k in student loans make the 5k seem like pocket change. If you spent 200k on school, losing 1-2k on a car shouldn't be this big of a deal for you, imo, as you're probably going to be very successful in life regardless. If you're desperate to get rid of it for whatever reason, take the loss and get rid of the stress. Someone will buy it at the right price (regardless of if you have the title or not).

 

another flip flopped tonight and said he would buy without title. his issue was with damage, as i suspect with most. really think title in hand is not going to make this sale "easy". there are plenty of mazda 3s out there in good condition.

will drive out to carmax next weekend. above 3k, we sell. below 3k, we hold until december. i structured a slew of loans to arbitrage the different Sallie Mae student loan rates and pay-off dates. they will hit off over the next month, and we will bring down a shit storm on Sallie Mae....Will deal with title, if need be, when that is done.

 

Interesting assumption. I know someone with 6 figures worth of student debt, and they teach 6th grade at a public school. I think getting a job in college correlates better to "very successful".

 

So because someone chooses to be a teacher they aren't "successful"

Way to knock the foundation of our society because of nothing more than an income.

 

we are actually right in the average range. without assistance, average student debt from law school is 150-200k+ (depending on cost of living at location).

thought we were talking about a used mazda here??

 

I wrote a longish post last night and then decided to not post it because I figured someone else would chime in with how ridiculous of a decision you're making on this car is, which they did, but after reading about you still trying to sell it without the title and I'm guessing not accurately describing the damage in the ad since everyones flopping on you, I just had to ask like Hapa did how you can be focusing on taking a huge loss on the car by going to Carmax instead of paying $5k for the title and taking a smaller loss by selling it privately? I'm assuming the car loan is a higher interest rate than the student loans too, so what in your mind makes you think paying off "chunks" of a student loan, even at $200k, is a smarter thing to do than pay off a much smaller, higher interest loan first and get that off your plate? Just boggles my freaking mind.

 

nope, car loan is low. i dont know where these assumptions are coming from.

what boggles the mind is that some portions of the student loan are up to 13+%. we start payments in one month. that comes first. we sliced away portions of our portfolio and will be opening and closing variable lines of credit without prepayment penalty, since prime rates are low. we will be juggling about 200k coming in and out the door from credit lines to Sallie Mae, and paying down credit lines quickly. Then we moved some allocations to fed funds to hedge the prime rate, in case the variable lines of credit blow out in a short window. All in all, we cut our accrued interest from ~400k to ~40k. this will all happen very rapidly, and the value of every dollar of "cash" we have in the next few months is critical.

having another 6k tied up for a month, or two, or three, to hold title (while the above is happening) is not worth it. especially if some bozo craiglister continues to waste our time...i would probably go nuts.

what is astonishing is that im asking for advice on where to sell non-private, but yet im getting nothing but financial lessons. Do I need to upload our excel hedging model to prove a point? Cmon guys. I made it clear that im not coming out on title, just leave it at that. I am simply asking on WHERE to sell. i do appreciate the help thus far.

 

why ask for advice and then tell everyone their idea wont work?

 

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=dealers+who+buy+cars+in+new+jersey

 

Honestly I dont understand the point of asking us for any help. Just pay off the thing and u will get the money back when u sell it. Even if u lose a couple hundred, u r atleast getting rid of a headache. And the fear of losing all 5500 is just funny.

 

Have you tried all the car selling websites (like autotrader, cars.com, carmax, etc)? I know you have to pay something, but since you have exhausted the primary free database (CL), I am not sure if there is anything better you can do.

Or maybe park it in Newark and hope for the best, if you catch my drift.

 

This is really a no brainer.