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Pre-owned Tesla values are skyrocketing and have reached record levels as fuel prices surge and commuters look for long term relief. Much like COVID19, many Americans believe that a new normal is here with gasoline prices and that we may never see gasoline under $3.00 a gallon in the USA.

Based on vehicle purchases, Pre-owned Tesla prices have surged 10% in Q2 and that trend is expected to increase modestly, flattening with new model releases. Never before have we seen consumers so willing to spend $60K or better to avoid the burden of unreasonable fuel prices. Tesla’s began as a boutique vehicle purchase by consumers chasing unique and environmentally conscious transportation when introduced to the market a decade ago. But now the Tesla Automobile has been proven nearly bulletproof in quality and older models are fetching nearly $50,000 with over 100,000 miles on them.

The bottom line on Tesla – it’s here to stay and everybody wants one now that gas is getting to be unaffordable for Middle Americans. The demand for a Tesla whether new or used is sky high and supply isn’t so finding a deal on one is not a reality.

We will buy all we can for sure – they always sell right where they sit!

For more information or a fast value on your pre-owned Tesla Vehicle please visit CarBuyerUSA.com or email us.

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The party is almost over folks. If you are leasing a vehicle right now the media is still telling you that your vehicle is worth thousands of dollars more than the residual value. Yes, it may be worth more but not as much as it was earlier this year. Hundreds of dollars perhaps, not thousands anymore but the point is moot because all but 3 of the Leasing sources in the USA have made it next to impossible to sell your leased vehicle to a 3rd party. How? Because they have the right to “steer” you back to the original leasing dealer or the location of their choice for processing. There will also be fees most likely and the dealer will want to sell you a replacement vehicle. It is in the Vehicle Lease Agreement that you executed in order to take possession of the vehicle. New Lease agreements will most likely to make it more difficult to capture any upside speculatively.

As of January 15, 2022, unless your vehicle lessor is listed below, you can’t sell your vehicle to a 3rd party you have to work through the leasing dealer and title the vehicle in your name.

Here’s the list:

CHASE

TOYOTA/LEXUS

CCAP (CHRYSLER CAPITAL)

You may be able to purchase the vehicle directly and subsequently resell it to the third party but you will be responsible for taxes & fees. For additional information regarding lease buyouts please email us at:

info@carbuyerusa.com

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This topic is a fun one to write about because it’s so easy to explain. If you are like me, you grew up around parents and grand-parents that smoked cigarettes. Not only did they do this, but literally in the car with kids next to them wearing no seat belts. Car Seat? What was a car seat? Enough “Boomer Talk” already… yeah, smoke odor bothers me. I got enough 2nd hand smoke in my life to know I don’t want to be around it ever again. If I rented a car on vacation and it was smoked in, I would immediately return it for something else – of lesser class if necessary. I am “like” 86% of the US Population – we all agree that smoke odor sucks. That said, 14% of the US Population smokes avidly. We have learned that not all smokers will smoke in their vehicle and would like to point out the obvious….this is testimony that smoking inside a car is no bueno!!! I mean smokers won’t even do it. Why? Because you can’t get it (that smell) out and the burn holes keep happening and adding up which ruins the vehicle.

How much does it hurt? Typically most cars will take a $1500 hit for smoke odor as long as there are no burns. Burned headliners, door panels and carpets have to be replaced and interior parts cost big money because they all have to be ordered from the vehicle manufacturer. On an exotic car it could be as much as 10-12% of the value. Let’s face it, the number of butts for the seat of a $100K Vehicle are few to begin with and these buyers have the ability to discriminate -and they will! Against your car with smoke odor! They just won’t buy your car and will look elsewhere for one like it.

While smoking is bad for your health and we would suggest quitting as soon as possible, we can guarantee that the audience for your used vehicle will shrink by 86% if you smoke in it.

For more about this topic or a value on a vehicle with smoke odor, please email us at: info@carbuyerusa.com

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If you pay attention to the “Media” now is prime time to sell your car or truck for cash and take advantage of the best used vehicle market of this century!

Let’s talk about how to go about getting a value for your vehicle. There are a few online sources that will give you a free vehicle valuation. Some will offer a range of what the vehicle is worth from low to high and others may offer you a guaranteed value but you have to go to their network of buyers/dealers to obtain it. Websites like Kelley Blue Book do a great job marketing and getting you to their site so they can monetize that visit (site traffic). They don’t have any “skin in the game” if you will, meaning the value they provide will be favorable and they are not accountable if it is wildly inaccurate. They just need to be the highest value out there and get your information which is filtered to dealers in the form of a lead or a subscription. Sometimes this is an exclusive arrangement for a particular geographic area or sometimes multiple dealers will be competing for that lead (your info) and the dealer will tell you almost anything to get you to visit his dealership over dealership B or C. This is just the headache you are searching for isn’t it? Less transparency and more shell game resulting in wasted nights, Saturdays and maybe a missed Soccer or Lacrosse game!

If you want an accurate value on your car or truck go to NADA.com

NADA is the guidebook source used by most lending institutions and insurance carriers for retail, trade-in and wholesale valuations. The site is free to the public and backed by transactional data from the National Automobile Dealers Association and auto auctions located in the United States. Imagine this, a free vehicle valuation without having to sacrifice personal data? If you ever heard the saying “In God We Trust, all others bring data” it applies to this website. So how do you use it?

If you are selling a car privately you can expect in most cases it will fetch somewhere between NADA Trade-in and NADA Retail. There are a lot of factors that will limit the sale price but the most critical are:

• iMiles
• Equipment
• Condition

Mileage is the metric for wear and life expectancy. Much higher than average mileage will hurt the value and very low mileage will inflate the value. Equipment is a huge factor because people like loaded used cars over a stripped new car. A stripped used car will be worth less than the average for sure. Condition will improve vehicle value significantly on an older vehicle but becomes less of a factor on newer model vehicles that don’t have much mileage or road wear.

A guidebook value is just the beginning of a used car sale however and ultimately a used car is only worth what someone else will pay for it. NADA is a great way to figure out how much your car is worth but if it’s a rare model in excellent condition with very few miles it will be worth significantly more.

For a free vehicle valuation and cash offer on your vehicle please enter your vehicle information above and get an onscreen offer. We do not require personal information to get an offer.

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Everybody in the media is telling you how much your car is worth right now. Forget about Bitcoin and Crypto Currency stocks, your car will make you thousands of dollars…sigh!

In the history of the automobile, the used vehicle market has never been hotter! All vehicles are worth way above the average book value right now. So if you have 3 or 4 spare cars you can sell, now would be a phenomenal time to sell them all and take a couple of years off from work!

Now that the fantasy is over, let’s talk reality. Yes your car is worth top dollar right now but it won’t be forever…selling it makes sense as long as you don’t need a replacement. New cars are nowhere to be found and production has been cut back to the tune of almost 50% through 2022 so finding a replacement will be difficult and there are 4-6 month lead times – if you are lucky.

If you have a vehicle that you DON’T need or want any longer you can sell the car very quickly for a great price. Not all vehicles will fetch above market, but everything will sell fast. Guidebooks don’t move at the same speed as the market however and they lag on both sides. They take a few weeks to catch up when things are moving upward and about the same duration when things start to slow down. The used vehicle trading arena is much like the stock market. There are fluctuations – even sometimes daily ones, but far less volatility.

What can you do to take advantage? Be smart. Online Car Buying Companies like CarBuyerUSA come to you and the experience is 100% digital with no obligation and zero hassle. If you want hassle because it makes you feel like you got the most you could get for the car, we probably aren’t for you.

Friction is something people seek to minimize these days, almost to a fault. That’s why we give people a price quote without any personal information. We do this because we know the market and we know what a car is worth usually within a few hundred bucks. The wild card is the condition & the vehicle history. Our pricing algorithm doesn’t factor in accidents, mileage issues, branded titles, etc. We don’t know of any guidebook source or car buying site that does. Once you jump into the funnel and get to your vehicle inspected we can provide an exact price. Why use a car buying company?

1. We come to you
2. The inspection is fast & free
3. Price adjustments happen when there is wear and tear but 35% go through with ZERO adjustment
4. Payment is electronic – no paper and no checks to clear
5. Avoid the headaches, scammers and a lost Saturday at the dealership

So now is without question, the best time to sell your car. Get an offer fast and without giving up your email address or phone number. Shop it around and see how we stack up. We usually beat CarMax 75% of the time and our offers are better than Kelley Blue Book Avg Trade-in 84% of the time.

For more information please email us at: sold@carbuyerusa.com

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It is sometimes more productive to tell the punchline before the joke. Anticlimactic? Sure it is… but people today want information fast. That’s why they use the internet!

So the answer to the above question is a resounding “NO”…in fact you can make that a “Hell No!”

Here are the TOP 3 Reasons not to wrap your vehicle:

1. Wrapping a vehicle requires a personal selection. It is highly custom and designed for your taste exclusively. All you are doing is limiting the audience of potential buyers to those with your exact preferences. When you limit the audience for an item, you lessen the demand which equates to price erosion.
2. It is not, I REPEAT…it is not easily removed. You will spend $2000-4000 wrapping your vehicle in a very unique color and most likely this will not include the door jambs and trunk and under the hood which will remain the factory color. The wrap is applied and heat shrunk or worse yet sprayed onto your car (dipped) and there will be razor cuts, tape marks, overspray and other undesirable effects that will cause damage. That is during the application! When you try to remove it there will be paint hazing and potentially removed paint when yanking it off. That doesn’t even consider fastidious hands of an untrained detail assistant with a razor scraper. Yeah even the plastic blades will tear the paint up on a car. Show me a vehicle with the wrap removed and I will show you the damage.
3. It does not protect the paint, it fades, tears and scratches more easily than any factory finish. Paint is much harder and far more durable than vinyl. We have seen them damaged in car washes, in fact some car washes won’t take a wrap vehicle in – they require hand washing.

This information is going to make a lot of people salty and will draw all kinds of fire from MFR’s, custom shops, applicator techs, tuners and the performance crowd. We will add that a Clear Bra or Paint Protective Film (PPF) is a huge value killer. Dealers (MFR’s also) sell this garbage for thousands of dollars along with a so-called “magic” paint sealant (wax) and an optional warranty for stone chips / paintless dent removal (PDR) packages. This film is very thick and yellows in the sun very quickly and is quite noticeable after a season of carwashes and normal road wear. PPF has a lifespan of 5 years tops and most shops won’t even give an estimate on removal. It is very tedious work and the paint will be left damaged and the shop won’t want the liability.

In closing, in our experience we have never seen a wrapped vehicle fetch more than fair market value for a vehicle with the original factory finish. Even if its BROWN, don’t wrap it because the brown door jambs won’t show well with the pearlescent pink wrap your daughter wanted.

For more info on Wraps and vehicle valuations please email us: info@carbuyerusa.com

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There’s no doubt that Elon musk created an absolutely amazing product with the Tesla automobile. The Tesla is an absolute engineering wonder. They perform extremely well in every possible category: acceleration & top-end, operating cost, durability and they are Hella-Fun-to-drive! Factor in the “zero emissions” thing and it’s just the perfect vehicle for today. We absolutely love it, but what happens to old Tesla’s? Better yet, who buys high mileage Tesla’s?

I mean think about it… what if the batteries go bad? Nobody really knows how long a Tesla will truly last? If the batteries crap out, it’s a total loss. Check this out…replacement batteries for an “S” Model Tesla cost in excess of $20,000. That’s like the engine and the transmission going bad at the same time on a gas-burning vehicle. When Tesla’s cross the 100K mile mark, the cost to repair could easily exceed the respective fair market value. This is a text book definition of a total loss. The legal definition of a total loss in most states hovers around 60-75% of the value of the vehicle. Most states have created similar “thresholds” that are established to prevent citizens of their respective states from being duped or sold vehicles unknowingly that may not be roadworthy or perform poorly in a crash. With batteries alone costing $20K, a higher mileage Tesla worth $30,000 would not be worth repairing - and there is no claim to file for a total loss!

You have options

Firstly, we would recommend that you not drive your Tesla into the ground or hand it down for 2 generations to watch the charging system malfunction. Why risk running into those high dollar repairs? Tesla’s with less than 50,000 miles on them still fetch a handsome resale price. While finding a private buyer for your used Tesla may be challenging there are online sources like CarBuyerUSA that pay top dollar for any used Tesla. We even have audience sources for the ones that do not run & drive as they should. Secondly, think ahead…if you average 15,000 miles per year, order your replacement vehicle in year 2 and give yourself enough lead time for the new one to be built. Finally, stay close to the value of your Tesla by checking in with dealers and car buying sites that will purchase your vehicle without requiring a trade like we do. Getting an offer is fast (under half a minute) and we require no personal information. We suggest using car buying sites rather than guidebooks for a more realistic valuation. Guidebooks don’t buy Tesla’s and finding a private byer for a vehicle over $10,000 is very difficult.

For additional information about selling your Tesla please email us at info@carbuyerusa.com.

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When buying or selling a car privately, verification of ownership is critical. I mean…”why would you pay for something that wouldn’t be yours legally, right?” Sometimes a used car for sale looks “too good to be true” and chances are that “it is” and there is a problem! Don’t let it be with rightful ownership. There are very simple precautions that can be taken to prevent financial loss by fraud, incompetency or criminal act. We buy millions of dollars of vehicles each week all over the USA and we encounter a multitude of title issues.

Here’s a quick look at the kind of title problems we see:

• Liens – sometimes they are not filed with proper governmental sources (hidden)
• Tax Liens – also will be hidden and will encumber an ownership change
• Domestic Liens / Judgements – the person who owns the vehicle has an unmet financial obligation against the vehicle, hindering ownership transfer
• Brands: salvage, flood, total loss, lemon law (buyback)
• Bonded Titles - the person in possession of the vehicle cannot prove ownership, so a surety bond was purchased to obtain a negotiable title (risky)
• Mileage Discrepancy – mileage not actual or mileage on vehicle different from what appears on title or Vehicle History Reports (CarFax/AutoCheck)
• Re-assignments – Jumped Ownership Titles – sellers transferring ownership to avoid sales tax that are not licensed dealers (very risky)
• Electronic Titles – no paper copy available
• Damaged/physically altered – disfigured, altered, illegible info entered, etc.
• Endorsed improperly – signed improperly, signed in wrong spot, red pen used (blue or black only)
• Correct information – printed name and signature must match what’s on the front of the title “exactly”
• Year/Make/Model/VIN should all match the vehicle
• Odometer – miles must be entered on the title exactly as on the vehicle

It is the sellers and the buyers responsibility to ensure ALL the info on the title is correct. If you are selling a vehicle and the title is not properly conveyed you are financially liable for anything that happens going forward as the vehicle is still yours. Buyers…you do not own the vehicle until the title is executed properly and conveyed to you.

States currently offering Electronic Titles:

Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Kansas, Louisiana, Massachusetts, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington, and Wisconsin

For more information on titles please contact us at: info@carbuyerusa.com and we will try to assist you.

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Can I sell my vehicle if it has rust? The answer is always “you can sell anything for the right price”! This is an absolute truth in life, but the question is… how much less?

Rust is like cancer…it spreads with ferocity and it can rarely be stopped. In fact, it has to cut out and new metal has to be welded into place for a proper repair. Only the highest quality repair shops are able to successfully strip out rust and restore a vehicle with repairs that will last. These repairs are exhaustive, very costly and quickly outrun the book value of the vehicle. Rusted out vehicles quite simply are not worth very much as they only provide transportation value for a finite amount of time. A vehicle without rust can last for hundreds of thousands of miles if properly maintained but a rusty one will ultimately just fall apart, collapse and return to the earth from whence it came.

Trucks and SUV’s with frames may last longer than a unitized construction vehicle because the frame rails may be less compromised than the body panels which are made of thinner gauge sheet metal. That said, a truck’s payload capacity will immediately be compromised by rust and off road capability will be reduced because the rusty frame cannot take any stress or punishment. The image below is the frame of a full size pickup truck that had nominal rust that was visible cosmetically. This truck was either in salt water quite a bit or used to plow roads in the Snow Belt where heavy salt use is prevalent. As you can see the frame is fully perforated and will buckle soon and the truck will essentially bend in half and stop moving. Even a 500# payload is unsafe in this vehicle, hence it is worth little more than scrap in its condition. A truck like this is not worth repairing and it is an economic total loss due to rust.

What can you do if you have a rusty vehicle? Shop around with parts buyers that may need components of the vehicle that are intact. Or…keep driving the vehicle as long as it’s safe to do so - otherwise understand that rust will truly destroy the resale value of your vehicle.

For questions or additional information about this topic or a free vehicle valuation please email us at: info@carbuyerusa.com

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When buying a car from a private buyer, there are 6 important factors to consider before purchasing a pre-owned vehicle. They are listed by order of importance below.

1. Personal safety
2. Title / ownership
3. Financial safety
4. Personal Liability
5. Condition
6. Price

The single most IMPORTANT factor in any vehicle purchase is your personal safety. We hear dozens of stories involving foul play where both would-be buyers and sellers of used vehicles have been victims of violent crimes. There is simply no way to eliminate risk completely from a used vehicle transaction but there are basic precautions that we recommend you take before a meeting is arranged.

• Get a Drivers License – before you agree to show or go see a used vehicle, get a photo of their drivers license. If you will be transacting with that individual it’s okay for you ask for this information – you should demand it! If the person refuses, block their number and consider yourself lucky. If the DL is expired or looks doctored or there is ANYTHING suspicious do not meet with that person. If they don’t have a DL why would you trust that person?
• If you are buying the vehicle get pix of the title front and back before you go see it. Your time is valuable, if the vehicle has a lien, a title brand or is in someone else’s name than the seller -you are wasting your time and it may be a dangerous situation.
• Cash puts you at risk. If you are bringing it – you may be getting set up for a robbery attempt. If you are receiving it after hours, you may get robbed after you convey the title and release the vehicle at your home.
• Test-drives – never let anyone test drive your vehicle alone. Go with them -always. If you have a bad feeling about the person, don’t allow a test drive. If you are buying a vehicle and the seller insists on riding along with you make sure you feel comfortable with that person and make sure you have their drivers license imaged in your phone.

If you need advice on hidden liens or title ownership please email us with the VIN at info@carbuyerusa.com

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