As you can see from my sig, I've got 04 (not 04.5) Daytona Blue 350Z Enthusiast automatic (yeah yeah, don't shoot me) w/528xx miles and I'm trying to do some feelers if I were to sell it.

What's the market like these days? Are they easy to sell? Anyone sell an Z of my vintage these days, esp. an auto? How much did you get for it? I'd imagine that most Z buyers would want stick and perhaps it'd be easier to sell if gas prices were a lot lower.

I got an estimate on KBB and for private party good condition, it claims $14,710 and $13,435 for fair. Edmunds is WAY lower at $11,336 for private party clean condition.

I'm the original owner. The car has no mods other than an aftermarket alarm, has never been in an accident and is in good condition. I do have a big scrape on the bottom of the passenger side bumper cover and a door ding.

I'm weighing whether I want sell it (boohoo) vs. paying to ship it back to CA when I move in a month as well as saving $ on insurance by having only 1 car. I'm actually contemplating a Leaf (!) to replace the Z which is another story...

If I sell it later, I would've paid to ship it (likely $800+, at this point) and it would've depreciated even further... I know if I cut the Z out of my insurance, I should save ~$666/year on insurance (from getting an estimate from my insurance company).

 

Smart that you checked book numbers, but $11,336 - $14,710 is one hell of a range. You can list the car for whatever, $14,000, but buyers will still make low ball offers. You decide to accept or reject offers. Actual sale price is your decision not some book.

BTW your biggest headache is showing the car to kids with no money. Good luck.

 

Yeah, it is a huge range. And yes, I've sold two cars in the past and have sometimes gotten ridiculous lowball offers, some even well below Edmunds.

I've glanced thru ads and have sometimes seen some hilarious asking prices, like http://seattle.craigslist.org/tac/cto/2443382896.html. Good luck to that guy...

Ha, good point about kids w/no money. I didn't have that problem w/my previous cars.

 

That dude owes 18k on an 04 car... Thats hilarious.

 

Anyone have thoughts on this? I've had mine up on craigslist since 6/27. I've been slowly dropping the price from $13000 to now $12499. (There was a CL snafu were my ad was appearing in searches for a few hours... that's another long story but I've gotten that resolved.)

I've only gotten 2 responses, one from a guy who wanted to trade me a 2001 Passport + cash... uh, no thanks. I have no need for a SUV and have never been in the market for one. I even stated in my ad "Considering selling because I'm moving back to California and have another car which I'll be driving back". Part of the point of me selling is to not have to ship it back.

Definitely no point in me replacing w/the Z w/something unwanted.

Once it got down to $12499, I got pinged but the guy gave me his address and it turns out to be used car dealership. I'm bringing it by there today and by at least some Nissan dealers...

Judging by how long I've seen some ads up here, it seems like they Zs don't sell that quickly.

On Ebay Motors, I looked at all the 04 Z (some are Zr) completed auctions and regardless of transmission, I found 46 in tottal. It seems like only 4 or 5 actually sold, including a wrecked one. There rest didn't get sold for whatever reason.

 

With Craigs List you shouldn't post an ad and just leave it there. You should periodically (once a week) go in and bump back to the top of the list. Otherwise it gets buried pretty quick.

Good luck.

 

The numbers on eBay are worse than it looks. A completed auction does not mean that the buyer paid for the car. Once the auction is over, the winning bidder may just drop out. What action can the seller take against a deadbeat buyer? None.

 

Used car dealer is offering me $12k but only wants the offer to be good for today.

I'm torn about selling it. Besides the cost to ship it and insure it, if I keep it, the Z will eventually need new front tires and brakes.

Update: Used car dealer is willing to extend me their offer until tomorrow, at my request. I guess they were trying to create a sense of urgency. One Nissan dealer was willing to give me only $10k but another is willing to give me $14k (!), which is WAY more than I was expecting from a dealer.

So, for me, the price is right, unless that Nissan dealer backs out. It's just to sell or not...

 

Surprised that a Nissan dealer would make a offer. 2004 is too old to keep on the lot. And the dealer is going to buy from you then auction the Z? Makes little sense.

 

Long story short, that Nissan dealer eventually only offered me $13,375. I got them to raise it a bit, back up to $13,400, so I sold it since I was flat out of time. :/ (Had to sell or tell the shipper to pickup my car.)

I knew it'd be very tough to sell it in the Bay Area for say, $14.4K (since I'd have to pay $1K to ship it enclosed). I wasn't exactly getting many responses on CL at either $13K or $12.5K.

I was looking at another >$1600 - $2200 in future expenses in the next year for insurance, new front tires and front brakes (both getting worn), CA registration, smog test, etc. That doesn't include future depreciation nor the much higher gas costs than my Prius...

The guy at the dealer who made the the offer of $14K had given me his card and the title on it was executive manager. Unfortunately, he went on vacation the day I finally relented and wanted to pull the trigger.

Kinda hard to get a different guy who hadn't seen my car to give me the same amount. They were able to get ahold of the exec. manager and gave me an offer. 2nd guy was claiming that KBB wholesale values changed since I went into the next month and I'd arrived at the end of June and now it was July.

The 1st guy said the reason for his offer is that my car is cheap and easy to sell. He said $20K+ (used?) cars are harder to sell he said because not everyone has that kind of $ lying around and used car loans have higher rates than new. Also, he said he could have my car now instead of paying auction fees. It seemed they wanted to buy it to sell themselves, not auction it.

Oh well... I'm a former Z owner now. :/ If the Leaf has enough range for my (currently unknown) future job in CA, I'll be reserving it, when reservations are open for me.