[HanLueX]

Hey everyone,

I was hoping I could get some thoughts / feedback on this project I've been working on.

A bit of background - I spent several months helping a few clients sell their vehicles (mostly luxury and above) and while doing so I found that I was constantly going to an assortment of different dealer websites to try and figure out whether it was worth it or not to sell privately. Essentially my first stop anytime someone wanted my help to sell a car I would go to carvana / autonation / vroom / etc to see which one might be best and what the spread might be from private sale to the best trade in offer. Generally if you can get close enough, it stops being worth it to waste the effort to sell privately.

I found that for most high end vehicles, even those that aren't too expensive anymore, the automated offers weren't great. However for mid-market vehicles they tended to be pretty good.

Anyways after doing this a bunch I decided to just build something that did that for me instead and eventually realized that others might be interested in it as well.

I was wondering 1) if that process of checking all the options was something y'all did frequently as well and 2) what you thought of a Kayak.com-like platform that allowed you to compare not only the online dealers but also get offers from your local ones as well who might be able to give better custom offers. This is especially big when I consider brands like bmw / audi as in my experience it's tough to get good offers from the online dealers vs. your local brand-specific dealer.

Is that something you might find valuable? Why / why not? All positive and negative (constructive please ) thoughts welcome!

It's still a bit finicky but if you're interested in checking it out, I'd love feedback on the process as well.
https://www.topmarq.com/my-cars-value-by-vin

Cheers!

[shoei]

@Sedan_Clan - be honest. When you read the title, did you think "selling car" or did you think of selling something else?

[Sedan_Clan]

Originally Posted by shoei

@Sedan_Clan - be honest. When you read the title, did you think "selling car" or did you think of selling something else?

Cars. Lol! ….because of the site.

[shoei]

Originally Posted by Sedan_Clan

Cars. Lol! ….because of the site.

Got it. So it was just me then. Here I am thinking you just got an easy stat.

[HanLueX]

Originally Posted by shoei

@Sedan_Clan - be honest. When you read the title, did you think "selling car" or did you think of selling something else?

lol it took me looking at Sedan_Clan 's picture to figure out what you were talking about.

Probably not the best word choice

[vreihen16]

Originally Posted by shoei

@Sedan_Clan - be honest. When you read the title, did you think "selling car" or did you think of selling something else?

Ask me what I thought? Spambot!

Still not quite 100% certain that it is a person and not a bot, but it's my day job to be suspicious.....

[HanLueX]

Originally Posted by vreihen16

Ask me what I thought? Spambot!

Still not quite 100% certain that it is a person and not a bot, but it's my day job to be suspicious.....

Lol I'm a man... a human man! and actually based in Austin. Seriously though where else can you ask people how they sell their cars if not here?

Butttt convo is entertaining yet not overly helpful thus far tbh.

Also, what do you do? Work in cyber security or something?

[vreihen16]

Originally Posted by HanLueX

Also, what do you do? Work in cyber security or something?

I built the Internet from a 1980's dirt road to what it is today.

As a hobby, I hunt Nigerian princes and other scammers.....

[Lurch1989]

I tend to find I put mine private for about 1k under the dealer price and see what interest I get.

I've got to say though that it's really hit and miss and some cars go almost instantly, others sit for a few weeks with few takers, that's usually when I decide to drop it into a dealer.

[HanLueX]

Originally Posted by vreihen16

I built the Internet from a 1980's dirt road to what it is today.

As a hobby, I hunt Nigerian princes and other scammers.....

That's a pretty big statement considering what the internet is today vs. then. But I can't complain about anyone trying to cut down the Nigerian scammers - they hit my grandma while she was in the hospital last month.

Originally Posted by Lurch1989

I tend to find I put mine private for about 1k under the dealer price and see what interest I get.

I've got to say though that it's really hit and miss and some cars go almost instantly, others sit for a few weeks with few takers, that's usually when I decide to drop it into a dealer.

That's fair. I think as long as you have some time and don't mind taking a few photos, starting on the private market is always a good move. Especially for enthusiast cars.

Once you decide to go dealer, what do you do? Physically go to the bimmer dealer? Do online research?

[Lurch1989]

I tend to go for the one that's offering the best price. Over in the UK at the moment some of the car buying sites offer a better price than dealers.

If they try and knock to much off then I just walk away

[TiMSport]

Originally Posted by vreihen16

I built the Internet from a 1980's dirt road to what it is today.

As a hobby, I hunt Nigerian princes and other scammers.....

Can you please hunt down the idiots that try to sell you the extended warranties while you're at it? K thanks.

[fiveohwblow]

Originally Posted by TiMSport

Can you please hunt down the idiots that try to sell you the extended warranties while you're at it? K thanks.

Alfisti

[TiMSport]

Originally Posted by fiveohwblow

Alfisti

Is he the resident merc?

[Lurch1989]

Originally Posted by TiMSport

Can you please hunt down the idiots that try to sell you the extended warranties while you're at it? K thanks.

UK or US, I've had one over here that was pretty good value, in breakdown

[fiveohwblow]

Originally Posted by TiMSport

Is he the resident merc?

I've seen him skewered a time or two about this topic. He runs a call center. I'll leave it at that, don't need to speak for the man

[TiMSport]

Originally Posted by Lurch1989

UK or US, I've had one over here that was pretty good value, in breakdown

US. It's sort of a joke because they are known to somehow or other track you down no matter what. I get unsolicited offers from all over the place whether it's e-mail or phone calls. It's annoying as hell to say the least. I have never purchased an extended warranty and don't plan to anytime soon.

[TiMSport]

Originally Posted by fiveohwblow

I've seen him skewered a time or two about this topic. He runs a call center. I'll leave it at that, don't need to speak for the man

Makes sense now, lol.

[HanLueX]

Originally Posted by TiMSport

US. It's sort of a joke because they are known to somehow or other track you down no matter what. I get unsolicited offers from all over the place whether it's e-mail or phone calls. It's annoying as hell to say the least. I have never purchased an extended warranty and don't plan to anytime soon.

I've seen commercials and stuff but never had anyone actually call me about them or reach out directly. You must be on some sort of very unfortunate sales list.

[HanLueX]

Originally Posted by Lurch1989

I tend to go for the one that's offering the best price. Over in the UK at the moment some of the car buying sites offer a better price than dealers.

If they try and knock to much off then I just walk away

Gotcha. Interesting. I don't know too much about the options over there other than carwow and their youtube channel.

[vreihen16]

Originally Posted by HanLueX

That's a pretty big statement considering what the internet is today vs. then. But I can't complain about anyone trying to cut down the Nigerian scammers - they hit my grandma while she was in the hospital last month.

My work email address is older than Yahoo, Google, Farcebook, and most other current web sites. There wasn't a WWW, and no web browsers back then. The main way to find useful stuff on the Internet fit in a paperback book. About 15 years ago, I served on a panel about email spam in Washington, DC for the Federal Trade Commission.

These days, I'm bored so I am training an AI network to identify scammers for fun. It can flag non-native English speakers, Google Translate use, social engineering attempts, bots, extortion/sextortion scams, and most of the other ills of 2021.

I feel like I have to apologize to the world some days because of the evil that has corrupted my life's work.....

[TiMSport]

Originally Posted by HanLueX

I've seen commercials and stuff but never had anyone actually call me about them or reach out directly. You must be on some sort of very unfortunate sales list.

Yeah I know, right? I had better request Alfisti to take me off his list.