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Show HN: InstaMotor – Taking the pain out of selling your car

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Re: Show HN: InstaMotor – Taking the pain out of selling your car

#131

Post by bruceb »

ValG wrote: post #36
chadwickthebold wrote: post #28

One point - take a look at the copy on your pricing slider. 'You Earn' makes it sound like that's all I'm going to get out of this deal. It took me a second to realize it was the difference between the dealership and instamotor.

Hey Chad, Thanks for the note. Yeah you're right. We'll make the update to clarify that. We had it as "saved" before, but that didn't seem to make sense. Still trying to find the right wording, but we'll update it today or over the weekend most likely. Thank you!

also: We charge While I know what you are saying reading it quickly seems like you give 80% less than a dealer. That you are a worse deal. Might want to rephrases it just a bit.

Re: Show HN: InstaMotor – Taking the pain out of selling your car

#132

Post by nlh »

Great idea - good luck guys! Related note for the HN community, while we're on the subject:

Unless you have time & money to burn, you really should never never never trade your car into the dealership. It's the worst price you're going to get along the used car supply chain. And even if you think you're getting a good price, it's because you're probably pairing it with buying a car (and paying too much for the car you're buying).

The worst-case used car dealer supply chain works like this (going backwards):

* You buy a used car for $20,000.

* The used car dealer bought it from a wholesaler for $19,000

* The wholesaler bought it from a wholesale auction for $18,000

* The dealership who sold it at auction paid $16,000 as a trade-in.

(*I saw worst case because not all of these steps happen each time)

Note the chain begins with trade-in -- because dealerships know that people who are trading in are pressed for time and want a no-hassle deal. But in doing that, they're giving up $thousands to each step along the chain.

So when selling a car - going direct (or using a service like InstaMotor) is always going to net you more $$ than trade-in.

And now ya know :)

Re: Show HN: InstaMotor – Taking the pain out of selling your car

#133

Post by greggman »

I thought this was an awesome idea and tried to post it in my facebook feed to show my friends. Unfortunately http://www.instamotor.com/ ends up with the excerpt "Landing Page Template for Bootstrap" and http://www.instamotor.com/#/ has no picture. I've found, or it least it seems to me, when there's no picture none of my friends click the link.

Apparently you need to add these tags? https://developers.facebook.com/docs/web/tutorials/scrumptio...

Re: Show HN: InstaMotor – Taking the pain out of selling your car

#134

Post by sharkweek »

nlh wrote: post #132

Great idea - good luck guys! Related note for the HN community, while we're on the subject: Unless you have time & money to burn, you really should never never never trade your car into the dealership. It's the worst price you're going to get along the used car supply chain. And even if you think you're getting a good price, it's because you're probably pairing it with buying a car (and paying too much for the car yo…

I just listened to the This American Life episode "129 cars" about a month in a car dealership - SUPER fascinating look at the industry, with a lot of insider information:

http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/513/1...

Re: Show HN: InstaMotor – Taking the pain out of selling your car

#135

Post by darkmighty »

ValG wrote: post #36
chadwickthebold wrote: post #28

One point - take a look at the copy on your pricing slider. 'You Earn' makes it sound like that's all I'm going to get out of this deal. It took me a second to realize it was the difference between the dealership and instamotor.

Hey Chad, Thanks for the note. Yeah you're right. We'll make the update to clarify that. We had it as "saved" before, but that didn't seem to make sense. Still trying to find the right wording, but we'll update it today or over the weekend most likely. Thank you!

Some suggestions: replace "Earn" by "Save" or "Earn __ additional"; replace "~ 80% less" (sounds sloppy) with "up to" or even "about"/"usually"

Re: Show HN: InstaMotor – Taking the pain out of selling your car

#136

Post by theflubba »

1. Take pic of your white van. 2. Post pic with description and mileage on craigslist. 3. Don't mention what happened in the back of the van in '99. 3. Get a couple emails. 4. Sell it to the highest bidder.

Who's too stupid to not figure this out and needs a service?

Okay, so they pay you more than the dealership. That's a selling point. But I could find someone on Craigslist and sell it to them for more.

Re: Show HN: InstaMotor – Taking the pain out of selling your car

#137

Post by jim-greer »

theflubba wrote: post #136

1. Take pic of your white van. 2. Post pic with description and mileage on craigslist. 3. Don't mention what happened in the back of the van in '99. 3. Get a couple emails. 4. Sell it to the highest bidder. Who's too stupid to not figure this out and needs a service? Okay, so they pay you more than the dealership. That's a selling point. But I could find someone on Craigslist and sell it to them for more.

Then you're not the target audience for this. The last time I sold a car via Craigslist it probably consumed 8 hours at least. Multiple test drives, etc. Nowadays I'd let the dealer screw me rather than take that time. This seems like a great intermediate path if it's well run.

Re: Show HN: InstaMotor – Taking the pain out of selling your car

#138

Post by _sy_ »

sharkweek wrote: post #134
nlh wrote: post #132

Great idea - good luck guys! Related note for the HN community, while we're on the subject: Unless you have time & money to burn, you really should never never never trade your car into the dealership. It's the worst price you're going to get along the used car supply chain. And even if you think you're getting a good price, it's because you're probably pairing it with buying a car (and paying too much for the car yo…

I just listened to the This American Life episode "129 cars" about a month in a car dealership - SUPER fascinating look at the industry, with a lot of insider information: http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/513/1...

Actuall, that was one of the best episode of This American Life.

Re: Show HN: InstaMotor – Taking the pain out of selling your car

#139

Post by bri3d »

ryanSrich wrote: post #104
afhsfsfdsss88 wrote: post #94

Most dealer trade offers are so low because they don't even keep your car on the lot, they sell it at auction...at wholesale prices. That is a lot different than individual sales...which is how this service sells your car. So yeah, you get a better price for your car, but the service still eats a good chunk of the sale price difference between dealer-trade and individual sale. And "all the paperwork" amounts to downl…

Agreed. Having sold several cars in NYS this is the typical situation with selling a car. - Post on craigslist for a few hundred under KBB and few thousand more than what you're willing to sell for - Get several calls and appointments in the evenings for a solid week - Within two weeks someone offers you $1k less than what you posted on CL for but still $1k more than your lowest point - Collect payment from buyer, gi…

A few notes:

1) Appointments for a week is a lot of time sunk. Easily worth a few hundred bucks to Valley people who think of their lives by the hourly rate. Especially when buyers drag out the process by not showing, having trouble finding a location, or trying to "negotiate" past an agreed-upon price when picking the car up.

2) Very cheap, economical cars (like old Civics/Accords) and very specific enthusiast's cars are extremely frustrating to sell. With economy cars buyer expectations seem to be higher than is realistic (did you really expect your $2500 car to have flawless paint?) and with enthusiast cars many buyers aren't serious. Tire-kickers, thrill-seekers, and picky people who "just want to try this one out, but really were looking for another color and options package or extra rare year xxxx" abound.

3) Loans and paperwork differ by state, but at least here in Colorado the paperwork is trivial and loans are painful. I've never gone to a bank, paid off the car, and had the title available in a timely manner, which leaves both parties with frustrating hanging obligations even after the sale is made.

I lived with someone for a few years who bought and sold several cars a month and I still pay him a few hundred bucks to broker the deal each time I want a car gone - I actually find the sales process quite enjoyable as it involves meeting a lot of people from a lot of backgrounds, but the time sink and general flakiness gets old fast.

Re: Show HN: InstaMotor – Taking the pain out of selling your car

#140

Post by mbillie1 »

fishtoaster wrote: post #12
ValG wrote: post #2

Hi Guys, Val here from InstaMotor. We’re trying to be to car dealerships what airbnb is to the hotel industry. We’d love to get some additional feedback on the service. Any feedback provided is super beneficial. We’re specifically looking for some feedback on: 1. When you get to the site, within the first 30 seconds, do you understand what we do. Why or why not? 2. If you do understand what we do, would you ever use…

1. Yep- you guys handle getting my car sold. Seems pretty straightforward. 2. Yes, definitely. When I moved to SF, I drove here from the east coast. After realizing that I didn't need my car and it was expensive to keep, I looked into getting rid of it. It was a 93 ford taurus, and from what I could tell, not worth too much more than the cost of getting it registered in CA and in shape to sell. I ended up donating it…

> I ended up donating it because I just wanted to get rid of it. Having someone sell it for me would definitely have been worth it.

I just did the same thing for similar reasons. If there was no hassle for me, I would've sold it. 2 months too late!

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