Consumers Using Internet to Sell Cars

Washington DC March 16, 2007; The AIADA newsletter reported that according to MSNBC, consumers are using the Internet to sell their cars themselves rather than accepting a trade-in offer from a dealer.

The trend gained momentum last year as consumers found car dealers especially soaring with their trade-in offers because they were struggling to resell the fuel-thirsty SUVs that consumers were abandoning as gas prices rose.

By the end of the year private-party sales represented 34 percent of the used-car market, up from 18 percent a year earlier, according to a report by CNW Marketing Research Inc.

The transactions were made simpler by the emergence of a slew of increasingly well-oiled online vehicle bazaars. Paul Taylor, chief economist for the National Automobile Dealers Association, argues that the shift is because car dealers are focusing their attention at the higher end of the market.

The average value of used cars these franchises sold last year was $15,000, more than double the value of those sold by individuals, he points out. "The dealers themselves would say, 'We're simply not able to offer a lot, and you might be better off selling it yourself,'" Taylor said. He also said much of the motivation for consumers to sell cars themselves was driven by a temporary market response to higher gas prices.