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Anyone else get an unsolicited offer to buy your C-5? I checked my e-mail this morning and a company by the name of TrueCar is offering to buy mine for $19,000. It's seems to be legit, and all they asked were a few questions about condition & mileage. I know there's a shortage of used cars on the market, but I didn't realize Vette's were also a part of it. $19 grand is a pretty tempting offer, but for now I think I'll pass.
I think that 'Truecar' is a legitimate outfit, but I would be annoyed that they were "phishing" the DMV, and obtaining my car and contact information. Secondly, if you were thinking of selling, consider that while your current car may be worth more, the car you might want to purchase, to replace it, might also cost more. So, in reality, it's a "wash".............
Truecar is legit. I see ads for them all the time in my area. That doesn't mean that the offer you got was legit though. It could be a scammer pretending to be from Truecar. If Truecar is actually offering to buy your car, it would be to resell it for a profit. You would be better of selling it yourself. Personally, I have no interest in selling mine. Of course, everything has a price, but $19K wouldn't even come close for me.
You won't sell used cars for any higher than you can now. While I bet they are asking to buy to turn a profit (same as a dealer offer on a trade in) if your car is a base car with OK miles and no crazy mods...$19K is a hell of a deal.
In a couple of years you'd be lucky to get $15k for the same car.
I know what I paid for mine, if someone came to me with $22-25 for mine I would REALLY consider selling and pay off some debt. Wait a couple years for market to tank and get another one.
Truecar is legit. I see ads for them all the time in my area. That doesn't mean that the offer you got was legit though. It could be a scammer pretending to be from Truecar. If Truecar is actually offering to buy your car, it would be to resell it for a profit. You would be better of selling it yourself. Personally, I have no interest in selling mine. Of course, everything has a price, but $19K wouldn't even come close for me.
I'm reasonably sure it's really from TrueCar. But I agree, if they're offering $19K, that's their wholesale offer. And if that's true, then our C5's are doing really well seeing that 3yrs. ago I bought mine for $20K.
EVERYTHING is doing really well...not just C5's. Don't think you are sitting on a "money maker" because sedans/trucks etc are all selling higher than they have been worth last year.
Boggles my mind why people are willing to OVERPAY for used vehicles. Those idiots are what is keeping these prices inflated for as long as it has.
Last edited by smitty2919; Jun 17, 2021 at 11:57 AM.
There's a shortage of new cars due to chip delivery problems and a big bump in demand as we come out of lockdowns. Now I can understand why this might kick up the price of late model cars, why on earth it would kick up the price on C5's is beyond me.
IIRC, the person who sold to Carvana was either a C6 or C7 owner. C7's I could understand being up; anything older seems illogical to me.
I have a boat that I paid 18k for 8 years ago. Same boats now selling for 25k-38k. Been offered 32k for mine. Used boat prices crazy right now for flats or bay boats. 95-97 18’ flats are going for upper teens to mid twenties. 🤦♂️.
There's a shortage of new cars due to chip delivery problems and a big bump in demand as we come out of lockdowns. Now I can understand why this might kick up the price of late model cars, why on earth it would kick up the price on C5's is beyond me.
IIRC, the person who sold to Carvana was either a C6 or C7 owner. C7's I could understand being up; anything older seems illogical to me.
Same illogical reason why I had 5 people in line wanting to buy my old 03 Silverado 2500 2WD with rusting cab corners and 205K mi on it...supply and demand rolls downhill to older cars especially trucks it seems. I was happy to buy a new 2021 Sierra 2500HD with seemingly no markup due to supply shortage AND 0% interest on GM Financing. I think we JUST squeaked in getting a truck before dealers jacked up prices.
If the C5 is your "toy" or third vehicle and it doesn't hold sentimental value, I would give it serious thought if you are getting solid offers from placed like Carvana or TrueCar that aren't tire kickers or waste your time. Kind of a "no questions asked" purchase lol.
Prices are super inflated right now. The question though is if that inflation comes from shortages or the rate at which we are printing money. If it's the former you want to sell while the market is high. If it's the later the prices are going to around to stay.
These dealers are definitely short on supply though, hence the cold calls. Just keep in mind that Carvana or w/e is going to mark the car up like crazy, when I was looking they were easily 5K above private sellers and 2-3k above other dealers. You would be better off using FB marketplace and doing your own sale or doing a reserve auction on carsandbids.com or something, where with a little bit more effort (a detail and lots of photos) you stand to make closer to market value.
Last edited by LSgoBRRR; Jun 17, 2021 at 03:23 PM.
Same illogical reason why I had 5 people in line wanting to buy my old 03 Silverado 2500 2WD with rusting cab corners and 205K mi on it...supply and demand rolls downhill to older cars especially trucks it seems. I was happy to buy a new 2021 Sierra 2500HD with seemingly no markup due to supply shortage AND 0% interest on GM Financing. I think we JUST squeaked in getting a truck before dealers jacked up prices..
You are SO right!!! My brother had his truck totaled by a semi recently. He's currently shopping for a replacement truck. He has the GM employee discount but no dealers will honor it at this time (at least for trucks). When he inquired, they laughed at him and said they were getting between $5-$10k markup over MSRP. Now he's looking at 3-5 year old used trucks and they're asking north of $60k with 50k miles on the clock. It's crazy out there.
Last edited by Njmurvin; Jun 17, 2021 at 04:57 PM.
You are SO right!!! My brother had his truck totaled by a semi recently. He's currently shopping for a replacement truck. He has the GM employee discount but no dealers will honor it at this time (at least for trucks). When he inquired, they laughed at him and said they were getting between $5-$10k markup over MSRP. Now he's looking at 3-5 year old used trucks and they're asking north of $60k with 50k miles on the clock. It's crazy out there.
GM Supplier discount isn't what it's cracked up to be. It somewhat takes care of the sales tax on something in the $60k range and is good for a couple thousand dollars.
We got into a truck built March 2021 2500 HD Sierra SLT Premium package for $62. If he can swing GM Financing monthly payments...THAT saves you a huge chunk of change over the life of the loan. We never plan on selling so no interest will save us almost $9k.
But the 3-5year old trucks at that mileage and price is EXACTLY what drove us to go new. We would have gone used if there was a savings to be had in the $30-$50k range but everything is inflated upwards of NEW truck prices. So new truck it was with full warranty.
OP, what is your car? how many miles? Mods? I'm curious of places offering $19k if it's a base car (non Z06).
Last edited by smitty2919; Jun 17, 2021 at 07:21 PM.
I hate to go on a tangent here but a friend bought a new ‘17 F-250 standard cab, 8ft bed, 6.7L diesel for 48k (+ taxes, title etc..) in late ‘18. Put it on Ebay for ‘chits and giggles’ sold it on a ‘second chance offer’ for $46.5k and he put 13k miles on it since buying it. He’s taking the $$$ and buying a 2022 F-250 for $5k on top of his selling price of the ‘17 F-250.
the used market is hot especially for sure!
Last edited by I’m Z one; Jun 17, 2021 at 07:33 PM.
It makes sense. A friend and I went to look at cars for fun in the afternoon. Going to look at the new car lots, Porsche only had 8 cars, Mercedes had 2, Volkswagon had 2, and even the used car lots had no more than a handful of cars.
Just as another data point of paying prices high water mark, my daughter was rear ended in her 1999 Honda Civic. it's a car I paid about $1500 about 3 years ago. I knew they would total it since it would be valued so low. Sure enough it was, but they offered me $4500 for the car. That's insane for a wrecked car and that's an insurance company, you can't get lowballed much more usually. I took it and ran. Told my daughter to just drive one of the other cars, like her sisters until prices cool down.
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TrueCar
