OT Cars.com

[keno]

I'm selling a low mileage 2006 Audi A6 and looking for the most effective way to sell the car for a reasonable price fairly quickly. The dealer trade-in value is very low, and selling the A6 even at a bargain price will be worth it after taking into account additional sales tax on the car we buy (only the difference between the trade-in price and the new car price is taxed in NJ).

I am not interested in eBay.

Have any of you had success with cars.com, autotrader.com or any other online seller? If you have, how long did the sale take and how did the price come out against trade-in, retail sale, or dealer sale as shown on sites such as Kelly Blue Book, Edmunds and the like?

Thanks,

keno

[Sandy]

Is the A6 a quattro? Would you please PM me a price on the car and the mileage. Automatic or manual? Warranty? Extended warranty?

Do you take food stamps or .....post dated checks.....or really old post dated checks.....or my cash.....or my checks.....or Gloria's checks......or Gloria's cash.....or a personal promise to pay sometime?? :) :)

I would like a price, though. How is the car in the winter? In the snow? I don't really ride in the snow, but just in case.


Sandy

[Mshue]

I tried to trade in a VW Passat at a dealership last year. They lowballed me so badly that the salesperson advised me to sell my car on my own, something I'd never done before. I ended up using both cars.com and craigslist. I placed the ads on a Monday and had cash in hand by Thursday evening. I had a serious bidder from each source and roughly a half dozen inquiries from each source as well. I ended up getting my asking price, which was 50% higher than what the dealer offered me. My car was 7 years old and had 90k miles, so it was a different situation than you face. Nonetheless, I think it's worth a shot.

I heartily recommend trying it for a week or two. If nothing materializes, at least you'll feel (somewhat) better if you end up trading the vehicle in to a dealer.

Best of luck to you.

[dwightskin]

here in Minnesota, I used carsoup.com

Check other local sites (other than cars.com).

Also, try it on craigslist for a week or so. That's free.


Dwight

[Tonger]

I purchased a car long distance from a guy in Houston from an online ad I saw on Autotrader.com. He took it to a independent specialty shop for a pre purchase inspection (on my dime) and I sent him a cashier's check after he faxed me a copy of the title. I talked to him quite a bit and felt comfortable with him as well as the price. It probably would have been safer with an escrow service but that can get expensive. Transaction went through without a problem and I saw the vehicle for the first time when it arrived on the trailer - I paid shipping as well. The one piece of feedback about Autotrader was that he had gotten a lot of calls from brokers that were wanting to sell the car for him - what a bunch of nice guys!

Other places I would consider advertising would be Craigslist and the local online paper advertisements as well. It seems like a local sale would be the easiest. I've sold a Volvo via the local paper and my wife's Miata to a local buyer on a Miata message board listing. You might try looking for a good Audi specific site. Both times I received a fair retail price and both cars sold within a week. Just make sure that you have the car detailed and then take a bunch of high quality pics for your ad. Good maintenance records will help you to get a better price and I would emphasize condition as well as extra things such as frequent synthetic oil changes etc. As in real estate, I think that pricing the car fairly from the beginning gets you significantly more interest and ultimately more money. I actually had multiple buyers for both of my vehicles and sold them both for essentially what I was asking.

I've never really understood the relatively rapid rate of depreciation in Audi's as I've ridden in a number of very nice high mileage examples. Is it related to maintenance costs?

Good luck!

Tonger

[rwsaunders]

Sandy, I think that all of the recent (5 years back) A6's are Quattro's if I'm not mistaken.

[keno]

Sandy, I think that all of the recent (5 years back) A6's are Quattro's if I'm not mistaken.

Not so. Check Edmunds, Kelly or any of the others, or the Audi of America website. The basic model is rear wheel drive. The quattro is some thousands more $.
http://www.audiusa.com/audi/us/en2/new_cars/Audi_A6/A6/Model_Features/compare_models.html?allCategories=1&cat=Motorization&cat=DrvPerformance&cat=FuelConsumption&cat=PowerTransmission&cat=Steering&cat=Weight&cat=Volumes&cat=Insurance&cat=StdEquipments&carlineLeft=%2Fetc%2Fvehiclestore%2F50710_en%2Fa6% 2Fa6limo&modelLeft=4f25nh_1&carlineRight=%2Fetc%2Fvehiclestore%2F50710_en%2Fa6 %2Fa6limo&modelRight=4f25nl_1

keno

[malcolm]

Keno, I've sold several cars on auto trader in the past 2-3 years. The longest took about 4-5 weeks, most within 2 weeks. Never a problem thus far. Most recently a toyota prius about 3-4 months ago. I just followed the online instructions, very easy. For the prius I got about 3500 more than anyone was willing to give me as a trade.

[Ken Robb]

Not so. Check Edmunds, Kelly or any of the others, or the Audi of America website. The basic model is rear wheel drive. The quattro is some thousands more $.
http://www.audiusa.com/audi/us/en2/new_cars/Audi_A6/A6/Model_Features/compare_models.html?allCategories=1&cat=Motorization&cat=DrvPerformance&cat=FuelConsumption&cat=PowerTransmission&cat=Steering&cat=Weight&cat=Volumes&cat=Insurance&cat=StdEquipments&carlineLeft=%2Fetc%2Fvehiclestore%2F50710_en%2Fa6% 2Fa6limo&modelLeft=4f25nh_1&carlineRight=%2Fetc%2Fvehiclestore%2F50710_en%2Fa6 %2Fa6limo&modelRight=4f25nl_1

keno
Nope--Audis are either Front wheel drive or quatro(all-wheel drive)

[keno]

Nope--Audis are either Front wheel drive or quatro(all-wheel drive)

True.

Riddle me this, Ken or others. If you can't provide records of oil changes and other services in the owner's manual, is the Audi warranty voided?

keno

[Ozz]

I sold a car using Autotrader...it was really easy and sold in about a week. They even sent someone over to take pictures of it.

[Tonger]

Keno,

The warranty should still be in effect (and transferable) although I imagine if you got into a problem with something like engine sludging or bearing failure Audi might try to get out of honoring the warranty by saying that you did not provide adequate maintenance. However, they would be hard pressed to allege that a hypothetical transmission failure or premature brake wear would be caused by delinquent engine oil changes. Sometimes you can go to the shop that performed the maintenance and ask them for a copy of your records, especially if it is the dealer. Independent shops can usually get those records for you as well. Then it would be very hard for the factory to deny a legitimate claim. That's why I do my scheduled maintenance at the dealer while under factory warranty - less stuff to potentially argue over. Furthermore, even if you had your services done outside of the dealer the burden of proof is on the factory to prove that the non-factory items were responsible for the automotive failure - see Moss-Magnusson act.

Since your car is a 2006, there can't be that many "missed" services. Two of my cars recommend synthetic oil changes at around 15K although I do interval changes at every 5K just because I'm from the old school. It would be reassuring to your buyer if you could provide any sort of documentation, although I wouldn't worry too much given how new the car is...

Good luck with your sale!

Tonger

[keno]

my problem is not with the car I am selling but with an A8 I'm looking at being sold by a dealer. The carfax report on it shows only a dealer service at 23,000 miles. There may have been other services, but I have to take that up with the selling dealer (not the servicing dealer). My concern is that if engine problems should arise in the future, then because engine repairs are so expensive that Audi would first check on services and possibly claim that the problem was due to skipped services before 23,000 miles. Since this A8 was a leased car, I could see the operator being casual about services. BTW, my car is up to date on services and not of concern.

keno

[Tonger]

Keno,

Audi didn't end their free maintenance program until Feb 2006 so unless it's a very new car it's quite likely that the A8 may have been covered in the program.

http://www.autoblog.com/2006/02/27/audi-ends-maintenance/

I don't know if the selling dealer is an Audi dealer but if they are willing to list it as a "certified" preowned car then they must be willing to back the warranty.

http://www.audiusa.com/audi/us/en2/Certified_Audi/Accolades.html

There is a great degree of variability in there certification programs so be careful out there. Even if the service records are ok I'd have an independent Audi shop do a prepurchase inspection (usu $100-125). They don't have a stake in the sale and their only allegiance is to you. They can interrogate the computer so see how many and what type of overrevs the car was subjected to. What they find may net you a lower price, new brake pads/rotors, transmission service, plug changes, or even discovery of major accident damage - don't laugh, there are many forum reports of damaged cars (not reported by Carfax) getting repaired and certified. In my experience, getting the PPI is the best money I've ever spent.

I hope that someone can look in the servicing dealer computer and pull the records.It's probably a really nice vehicle.

One other thing, in GA when I buy from a private party I don't pay any sales tax on a preowned car EXCEPT AT A DEALER - so I bought from a private individual and saved myself a ton of money this way. No luxury tax and no sales tax. I find private sellers have more room to negotiate on price as well. After scanning how many weeks their ad has been active I can determine how tired they are of selling their car and get a feel for how low I can go...

Tonger

[keno]

the A8 I'm looking at came into service in June, 2006 so not in the maintenance program.

As I understand certification, all Audi dealers must honor it. If I were to move, can another dealer question whether required services were made and deny the warranty application?

Can resets of the computer for service warnings be read from the computer?
What else can be seen?

In NJ, the tax situation is you pay the 7% to get the car registered, but if you trade, you only pay the 7% on the difference between the price of the new purchase less the trade amount. So, if you add 7+% to the trade price and if you can exceed that amount in a private sale, it's not worth trading if the extra money > selling hassle.

Thanks,

keno

[torquer]

Have any of you had success with cars.com, autotrader.com or any other online seller? If you have, how long did the sale take and how did the price come out against trade-in, retail sale, or dealer sale as shown on sites such as Kelly Blue Book, Edmunds and the like?

Thanks,

keno

Actually, I bought a classified ad in the local Gannett newspaper, and they threw in an online listing for free. (I forget which one.) I would go this same route again, although I hardly look forward to replacing any of our cars.

Bottom line, I got a lot more responses from the online ad; for whatever reason, it stayed active much longer than the week I had the ad in the paper.

Final transaction price was a little below the calculated KBB price, but I wanted to be rid of the car (replacement car had arrived, no room left in driveway, etc.) I still got $2K more than the dealer's trade-in offer. Car was a 6 year old Honda Civic EX coupe, which was a popular model for kids/students/tuners, despite having a manual transmission. Fortunately the father of the purchaser had been through the process before, so he was able to provide all the paperwork necessary for transferring the title.

[huey]

Keno,

I'm a service consultant at an Audi Chandler in Chandler, AZ. Here is the info that you are looking for.

2006 was the last year that the free service were included on the vehicles. The only thing covered are the 5,15,25,35, and 45K services. Brakes, batteries, light bulbs, and wiper blades are only covered for 12 months or 12k miles.

It is at the discretion of the dealer and the regional service rep, if they are willing to cover a major component if there is a lack of service history. I can tell you that the V8 equipped cars do not suffer from the same issues that the turbo-charged cars do.

Please pm the VIN# and I will do some more research on the vehicle that you are considering.

Brad

[keno]

thanks very much. I drove the car today and it is gorgeous and exactly what we want, with one very important exception. The moment I sat in the car I knew it was owned by a smoker, which is a no go for us. I had the salesman get a record of all work done by Audi dealers, and the last entry, done by my dealer, which bought the car at an auction, was "ashtray". Dead give away. You change ashtrays often?

The search goes on. With your permission, if another candidate comes up I would like to email you.

keno

[huey]

Please contact me with any questions that you may have. I know more than most salesman and will give you information that they might not be willing to provide you with. I can read that warranty repair coding and let you know what the repairs were. As a side note I would avoid a 2004 at all costs!!

Brad

[andy mac]

+1 on craigslist.org

can't lose - it's free!

:beer:

[keno]

I hope you are right. I listed on it over the weekend, but no responses. Item may be too high end for that spot.

I'll do autotrader later in the day.

keno

[rdparadise]

To sell my Subaru Outback LL Bean several months ago. It seemed to me that cars.com is mostly dealers peddling their used inventory online. There were some individual sellers, however, we were in the minority (less then 10% for sure).

Anyway, my car sat for a while until I received one call and sold the car for $11,900. It was a 2002 Outback. This price was well below the Kelly Blue Book value for personal car sales. I was satisfied with the deal (all cash) and the time it took to sell the vehicle.

There are other websites that seem better suited for personal vehicle used car sales. I don't recall which ones at this time, although they are out there.

Bob