Sell! ?

[ua_guy]

The post about the pickup shortage got me thinking. I've only put 25k on my pickup in 3.5 years since I work remotely. I have another vehicle I can drive, and while I do use the bed, the other vehicle can pull a small trailer should I need to. Used vehicle values are way up! There was a Carvana ad on TV, so I hopped online and plugged in the details. It spit out an offer for about $33k. I paid $42k for it in 2017. I was pleasantly surprised.

I don't think I'd actually sell to Carvana - their prices are closer to wholesale, plus they have to cover their shipping costs. But the idea has crossed my mind to list mine for sale private party, or see what a dealer might give me for it, if they can do any better.

I like this truck and I'm a car nut, so can never have too many vehicles around. It's paid for. But pocketing $33k (or more) sounds pretty enticing. This pickup is midsize and I want a fullsize, so I'd probably save a little more and then try to snag a deal when incentives are good again maybe next year. The only downside of only selling and not also buying right now is I'd lose the tax credit (about 10%) on the purchase. Thoughts?

[corn18]

Now is the time to sell a used truck. It will sell quickly. I would sell it if you don't need it and can wait a few years before buying another one. It's kindof of like moving in a hot RE market. You get a lot of money but then you have to spend a lot of money to get another house. You don't need another truck and can wait out the crazy market.

You can try a dealer, but your best bet is listing it on autotrader or something like that. If Carvana says $33k, I would list it for $37k and don't budge.

[disneysteve]

I wouldn't keep a vehicle around that I didn't really need on a regular basis. Between registration, fuel, maintenance, and insurance, it just wouldn't be worth it to me. I'd rather rent one on the rare occasion that I needed it. If you actually don't need it, why keep it?

[ua_guy]

I wouldn't keep a vehicle around that I didn't really need on a regular basis. Between registration, fuel, maintenance, and insurance, it just wouldn't be worth it to me. I'd rather rent one on the rare occasion that I needed it. If you actually don't need it, why keep it?

Yep. The prudent financial thing to do would be to send it down the road. The devil on my other shoulder is nodding thoughtfully, scheming, and looking forward to the next purchase-- this is the plight of someone who is a car enthusiast. It just happens to be an opportune time to sell, and if I can bridge the gap without a modern vehicle as a daily driver, it will put some more money in my pocket.

I guess the easy option is to take a bunch of photos and put it up private-party and see if I get any legitimate bites. If it doesn't sell, oh well.

[LivingAlmostLarge]

Sell. You want a full size anyway. So buy a full size when you come across a deal AND you won't have to worry about having cash and it'll easily make it justifiable to buy on a quick deal.

[ua_guy]

Since listing it, I got a few lowball offers over the weekend. To be expected. People asking what's the lowest price I'll go. Well, since the person asking is some rando on the internet who hasn't even seen the truck in person, I just give them my list price and they buzz off. It's priced thousands below comparable vehicles listed on dealer lots, but more than trade value.

[ua_guy]

I was mistaken on how much I paid for this truck. I pulled the buyer's order on it to do the math again.

My sales price is $7832 less than I bought it for, 42 months ago. That works out to be about $186/month in depreciation, or $0.31/mile. The per-mile depreciation cost is high, but that's because it has low miles for its age. No joke, the current lease offer on these now, similarly configured up to the original MSRP, is $544/month.

If I'm selling for 83% of what I bought it for, that means I've only realized about 17% depreciation over 3.5 years.... on a pickup truck!

I know I'm replying to my own thread, but this is the kind of deal that works against advice like, "never buy new" and "pickups have the worst depreciation". I think this deal has done fairly well over time.

[bjl584]

I was mistaken on how much I paid for this truck. I pulled the buyer's order on it to do the math again.

My sales price is $7832 less than I bought it for, 42 months ago. That works out to be about $186/month in depreciation, or $0.31/mile. The per-mile depreciation cost is high, but that's because it has low miles for its age. No joke, the current lease offer on these now, similarly configured up to the original MSRP, is $544/month.

If I'm selling for 83% of what I bought it for, that means I've only realized about 17% depreciation over 3.5 years.... on a pickup truck!

I know I'm replying to my own thread, but this is the kind of deal that works against advice like, "never buy new" and "pickups have the worst depreciation". I think this deal has done fairly well over time.

Pickups, especially 4 wheel drive ones do very well.
Diesels do even better.
The value of my truck has barely budged since I bought it 4 years ago.
It was 1 year old when I picked it up, so the initial depreciation was already sucked out of it.

[disneysteve]

I know I'm replying to my own thread, but this is the kind of deal that works against advice like, "never buy new" and "pickups have the worst depreciation". I think this deal has done fairly well over time.

I think the current situation is highly unusual and doesn't really change the standard advice. Clearly right now due to the pandemic and production shortages from factories being shut down and supply chain disruption and chip shortages, the market has been turned upside down. I've even seen reports of used vehicles selling for more than they cost new which is nuts.

You've definitely made out well here.

[RyanBuckly]

Well if ever the thought of trading the truck to a dealership crosses your mind, then I would advise against that. Sell it on your own. No matter what shape it's in, you'll nearly always get more cash selling private parties rather than trading into a dealer. Remember, dealers are in it to pull profit and you'd be bringing your vehicle to them, asking them to purchase your truck. They have the upper hand in negotiations because they know just how to sell a business and there's always a cheaper car for them to take in for resale. You're stuck with what they offer, hoping it's a fair deal. If you sell a private party, or person to person, you set the price and decide how much to negotiate up or down.

[Fishindude77]

If you're not using it, you may as well sell, as prices are about as good as they've ever been for used vehicles. Then, just hang on to the cash and get yourself a full size truck like you wish you had, when you find a decent deal down the road.

No point in worrying too much about how much the deal cost, or will cost you. Vehicles are typically losing deals and you've got to pay whatever you've got to pay if you want to drive nice ones. Just don't get stupid in debt over them.

[ua_guy]

I had a hunch about used/trade pricing as well. I think things will normalize in the coming months as chip suppliers start to catch up. The estimation is that used prices have gone up 10% overall which is a record.

I ended up trading for a new pickup. I came across an unsold 2020 that hit my checklist of options and the dealer had a good incentive posted on it. Trade value was dead-on per my projections, and the tax credit bridged the gap to what I was asking private-party. Now I've got a new truck, which wasn't the original goal, at least not yet. But I found one I liked, the deal was fair enough, so what the heck!