{"id":9663,"date":"2011-05-21T06:20:26","date_gmt":"2011-05-21T11:20:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/caddyinfo.com\/wordpress\/?p=9663"},"modified":"2011-05-21T06:20:26","modified_gmt":"2011-05-21T11:20:26","slug":"what-i-learned-from-selling-my-car-this-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.caddyinfo.com\/wordpress\/what-i-learned-from-selling-my-car-this-time\/","title":{"rendered":"What I learned from Selling My Car (this time)"},"content":{"rendered":"

I am terrible at selling cars.\u00a0 I have come to accept this, so I know it is something I have to work at.<\/p>\n

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Recently I purchased a 2008 Cadillac STS-V<\/a> to replace my previous 2005 Cadillac CTS<\/a>.\u00a0 After a long search, I had found the right Cadillac at a Dealer 5 hours away.\u00a0 We had all the details worked.\u00a0 It was not convenient however to take a chance of bringing the CTS on the roadtrip to see what the Dealer might offer on trade.\u00a0 That would have put me in a bad negotiation position in a situation in which one is already in a bad negotiation position, so no thanks.<\/p>\n

The car business feeds on convenience.\u00a0 It is convenient to trade your old car in on the new one, and avoid the hassle of having to sell it yourself.\u00a0\u00a0 Great for the Dealer, if he can purchase your used car at below wholesale, and sell you the new car at retail; he makes money coming and going.\u00a0 You almost always make more money on the sale by selling your car yourself, but that means posting an ad, having people call or email you, avoiding scams, avoiding in-person ripoffs, and navigating the narrows.<\/p>\n

To prepare to sell my car, I re-read Help! I Gotta Sell my Car Now!<\/a> by L. James Johnson.\u00a0 This book takes you through the steps of how to prepare your car to sell, where to advertise, how to negotiate, etc.<\/p>\n

Things I learned this time selling my Cadillac CTS:<\/p>\n