Selling our minivan - are car brokers legit?

[NewJeffCT]

We're putting our Honda Odyssey up for sale now that we have a Prius. We had the van on Craigslist for a couple of weeks and got no response, so my wife finally broke down and spent the $45 for two weeks in the Hartford Courant, which also gets you 2 weeks on cars.com.

A car broker (I think that is what it is) called my wife and said they would guarantee the full price for the car, less $195 commission, within 60 days. That sounds like a pretty good deal to me, because I'm sure we'd get negotiated down from our $7,500 asking price as it is.

However, it sounds almost too good to be true.

[DS1]

1. A car show in England called Fifth Gear

consider it a more serious version of Top Gear did a bit on car brokers, and most them just put your car up for sale on a few sites and left it. No guarantees were paid back. fine print and all that.

avoid

[Lincolngirl]

2. Do you have a Carmax

where you live?

I used to sell cars, and they are usually fair.

As far as brokers, I don't know. Too good to be true comes to mind to me too.
If you send info on the car, I'll be happy to let you know a good value.

No VIN. Just model, miles, color, options condition.

I'll be happy to help if I can.

[NewJeffCT]

3. yes, there is a carmax not too far away from us

in east hartford, ct.

Also, we checked kbb.com, edmunds.com and aaa.com to get a reasonable price for our minivan.

[Lincolngirl]

4. If the Carmax

is not too far, they will usually buy on the spot!

Get's it done quick and easy. If they give you what you want!

sound like you've done the research...

[NewJeffCT]

5. That's the problem, though

does Carmax typiclaly give you closer to the trade-in value, or the private party sale value?

When coming up with our price, we used the private party sale value, which is quite a bit higher than the trade-in value.

[Lincolngirl]

6. Yeah, they give closer to trade...

Wasn't thinkin that.