Live data from Hacker News

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

instamotor.com

151–160 of 215 posts

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

#151
I'm your target user right now. I'm desperately trying to sell my car without using Craigslist - I have a loan still, and I'm afraid of risk and scams. Feel free to ping me for a user study if you need.

I've tried another service but due to a small dent in the car I couldn't sell it - the car's actually in the shop right now getting that fixed, because using a service to sell is so much better than the alternatives. My current plan is to go back to them when it's repaired.

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

#152

Just curious, I actually have a car valued at around $20,000 that I want to sell. I posted it on craigslist, and realized that I don't have time to deal with all the crap. Some dealer called me and left a message saying that they would sell my car for me for $200. Are they lying? Are there other hidden fees? Why should I pay InstaMotor $1000 instead of $200 to this other guy? One advantage, I see is that I get to kee…

Thanks for the note everett; I'm not sure about this dealer and their process. But we've looked at a couple local consignment lots and didn't find a deal that made sense. For example, a local lot here in Berkeley charges you ~450 per month to hold on to your vehicle. They do very few of the value adds that we do. We do: CarFax, PreSale Mechanic's Inspection (via YourMechanic), Listing the vehicle so it gets serious exposure (our estimates is that we hit roughly 90%+ of all car buyers), we don't need to take your key, even if you only have 1 we can do test drives without you being there, you always have complete access to the car, etc... Think about it this way, even at $200 per month, the dealer has an incentive to keep you car on his lot as long as possible. With our commission only model, we have an incentive to get your car sold. True store - one of our recent customers had her car listed at said consignment lot for 2 months with no action. She payed ~$900 for nothing, on top of paying her car payment and insurance. 2 months at well over $1k. She came to us and we had it sold in 3 days (3 days is not typical, but we have incentive to get the cars sold quickly). It's a matter of having the incentives lined up correctly.

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

#153
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) Just looking at the site, without actually signing up, I can't really figure out what you do. I had to read through the comments here to understand what the service is. 2) I would be willing to pay several hundred to a thousand dollars, depending on what the car is and how difficult it is to sell. 3) Saving time and hassle is the biggest benefit for me. 4) Put more info on the site regarding what the service is, what benefits you provide, without having to sign up.

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

#154
post #151

I'm your target user right now. I'm desperately trying to sell my car without using Craigslist - I have a loan still, and I'm afraid of risk and scams. Feel free to ping me for a user study if you need. I've tried another service but due to a small dent in the car I couldn't sell it - the car's actually in the shop right now getting that fixed, because using a service to sell is so much better than the alternatives.…

Emailed you. If you didn't get it, I'm at val@instamotor.com

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

#155
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...

Just finished it, thanks for sharing, really great insight into the industry.

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

#156
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…

If you sell to a dealership that will sell the car themselves, you have some wiggle room on the trade-in price because you're cutting out 2 middlemen (wholesaler and auction).

Also, don't forget the tax benefit you get by the lower price of the care you're buying. Not sure if this is new cars only but that offset can be thousands, depending on the trade-in value and new car cost.

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

#157
post #151

I'm your target user right now. I'm desperately trying to sell my car without using Craigslist - I have a loan still, and I'm afraid of risk and scams. Feel free to ping me for a user study if you need. I've tried another service but due to a small dent in the car I couldn't sell it - the car's actually in the shop right now getting that fixed, because using a service to sell is so much better than the alternatives.…

Why did a small dent make the car unsaleable? It seems odd because usually doing work on something before selling it will net you a loss.

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

#159
post #123
post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People making 100-200k/year would love this service. People below that income range would want to sell privately themselves to make the most money. People above would just dump it at the dealer's and not care.

Thanks for the notes guys. A few things that might not be as obvious: 1. Cars with Loans on them. This actually is a hassle, especially in states where the loan holder owns the title. You literally can't just sign the title over to them. In most cases, the buyer has to pay for the car, the seller uses that payment to pay off the loan and then they get the title to transfer over. There has to be a ton of trust there.…

Do you guys also handle the sale when their is an existing lien? How do you do it?

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

#160

5% is a lot. I would expect this to be more around 2%.

It doesn't make sense for this to be a percentage since the work involved in selling a 30k car is the same as selling a 5k car.

Hey Josh, it's actually not quite as easy to sell more expensive cars. As you move up the price chain, the market of people that can afford the car gets lower and lower. Think of it this way, 90% of the population can afford a $5k, but only 10% of the population can afford a $30k car. (numbers not accurate or scientific, just as an example).
Post reply on HN