Fair price advice ?
 

What would be a fair price for a 2005 RL 123,600 miles Desert Mist, I was insulted by Carmax offer of $ 2500.00. I have spent more over the years to keep the car up to my standards. Have done all the recommended maintenance, timing belt, trans 3x drain and fill, fluid changes, repaired arm rests, driver seat cracks, just had rear wheel wells repainted due to some rust around wheel wells. Don't want to get rich but just don't want to throw car away.
I'v been reading the posts here two or three times a day for years and have learned many invaluable tips and information.
Thanks
Gordon

Hey Gordon, the reality is; it's a 14 year old car with 100,000+.


I know you poured your sweat and blood into the car, but no one wants a 14, almost 15 year old car with 100k+ miles on it.

perhaps you could try to list it locally and independently....ie; facebook, offerup, Nextdoor, or any other platform to sell things

Unless car is certain age or mileage Carmax will not retail car nor do they care about all the $ and sweat equity you have in it. Its all about auction values of the car. My guess is net $5-6k on the car as a private sale.

Thanks for your response,
This has been a great car, never been able to put this amount of miles on any car.
I may just keep it, cant just throw it away.
thank you Acurazine for may great years.
Gordon

it's cheaper to keep her!

This is why I don't sell my cars. I just keep them well maintained until they are totally worn out. I'm middle aged and I've only owned 5 cars in my life (3 of them I still own). Whether your car is maintained well or not makes little difference in the value when the car is this old.

I was a buyer (car appraiser) at Carmax up until August of last year, I worked that job for about 2 years after I got out of college. I would not recommend trying to sell an older vehicle there that is in any kind of decent shape unless you just need it gone ASAP for some reason. Regardless of condition, if your car is over 10 years old with over 100k miles, Carmax sends it to their wholesale auction. They usually don't put much value on these cars, especially when it comes to less common cars like the RL that are typically not popular picks at the wholesale auctions. Hope this helps you understand the offer you got better. If its clean, I am sure you could get at least $5k for the car if you sell it privately.

Prices in Canada are climbing.. 6000-8000 here it seems for a very clean one . I've seen beaters for 1500 .

I was about to say the same thing lol ...

No one can pay you / give you value of what the real value of that car is to you ... unless you have major issue on RL, keep the car... buy another one and drive RL at the same time - it will not cost you anything to keep RL but will definitely save some miles on whatever car you want to get ...

Honestly, the carmax price is pretty fair. Makes no difference what you’ve done to it with respect to maintenance. I had a very tough time selling my 05 and it also had been babied, all receipts from day 1. 135k miles and I had two nibbles over a 3 month period, asking $4K. Sold the car for $3250 a few months ago. I got a great 10 years out of it so was very happy to get what I got it, which was more than I could do on a trade. If you think carmax price isnt bad, list the car yourself and see what you get, my guess is you’ll be disappointed. People are not looking for these cars, 99.9% of the population knows nothing about them and they sure aren’t going to take a risk on them not knowing about them...they aren’t cheap to repair and there are gremlins. Good luck.

you don’t mention suspension work? Your car is likely due for its second timing belt if it’s only been changed once. Have you done the spark plugs? PCV valve? Are your headlights fogged up? Bulbs not flickering? Lights out in the dash? The list goes on.

Once again Thank You all for your responses, I'm hearing what I thought I would hear.
I want to keep the car but my wife is complaining about paying the extra insurance on an additional car,
and its always a hassle trying to sell to an individual. Last time I sold a car people wanted to make payments
and not pay in full I don't want any of that.So I guess i'm making a trip to Carmax,. I should remove the aftermarket Bluetooth audio unit and Wooden shit knob and
list them on market place.
Always nice to get constructive responses.

I hear you. It's definitely a hassle selling a car privately. And I wouldn't want all these people knowing where I live. Lastly, there's no way I would accept payments! Tell the guy to get financing on his own, but you need a cashier's check for the total amount.

List the car on CL for $4k and see what you get. I think you can do better than the carmax offer.

Dibbs on the aftermarket bluetooth device if its the one that plugs into the amp in trunk!! Dead serious!

Honestly? Keep it. Not worth selling. Keep it as a spare car, and if you're concerned about keeping cost down just carry the minimum insurance required by the state.

I've accepted that I'll get rid of mine when 1 of 2 things happen: it gets totaled or a catastrophic failure happens.

[QUOTE=projektvertx;16438090]Honestly? Keep it. Not worth selling. Keep it as a spare car, and if you're concerned about keeping cost down just carry the minimum insurance required by the state.

Yup and since you be driving it that much, sell me the bluetooth unit! :pbnj:

This is standard procedure for me with all my cars. I buy cars that are reliable (hopefully) and I maintain them well and keep them forever. I don't want to waste money buying a new car every 5 years. People comment that all my cars look brand new. Two of them are 13 and 11 years old and they look brand new to the untrained eye.

Mine has 158k and still going strong. I do all the maintenance myself. Car is paid off and is still very enjoyable to drive especially ever since I replaced the shocks 60k miles ago. I get the itch to buy a new car some times, but too busy looking at all the money I am saving by not having a car payment. The RL will stay with me until it dies on me. I plan on driving at least to 300k, so that's another 10 or so years if I average 15k a year. ATF change every 20k, oil change with Mobil 1 High Mileage every 6k or 15%, rear diff and transfer case every 30k. Still an amazing car!