No local private sellers in my area

M

Mike_R

:
2019 CX-5 Touring
New user here. I'm in love with CX-5 and want to purchase one from an individual since it's significantly cheaper than a dealer, on the books at least, but there's no private sellers here (SLC, UT). I've religiously checked Craig's List and the local new stations online classifieds where virtually every used car gets listed and there hasn't been a single private seller in the past week.
Is is it like this in most markets or is Utah just a bad market for me? Also does anyone have any out-of-the-box ideas to get private seller pricing?
 
Private seller USED CARS? I would recommend trying any of the many other sites besides craigslist.
 
Mike_R said:
New user here. I'm in love with CX-5 and want to purchase one from an individual since it's significantly cheaper than a dealer, on the books at least, but there's no private sellers here (SLC, UT). I've religiously checked Craig's List and the local new stations online classifieds where virtually every used car gets listed and there hasn't been a single private seller in the past week.
Is is it like this in most markets or is Utah just a bad market for me? Also does anyone have any out-of-the-box ideas to get private seller pricing?
Click to expand...

My car before the CX-5 was a bit specialized so it was hard to find. (A first gen Audi Allroad) I searched E-Bay for a long time. I came up with a good deal from a private seller. I also found a friend who is a private pilot who would fly me to a near by city for the price of the gas. I then printed out the Ebay add and took it to a nearby dealer who had the car I wanted. He told me the price he wanted, I told him no, he asked what he would need to do and I handed him the Ebay add. He said "This is 300 miles away." I replied Audi's have wheels and they are fun to drive, I am looking forward to the trip. He matched the price.
 
I didn't think about eBay. Just checked and there's nothing in states close to me. Interestingly, it looks like Florida's prime CX-5 hunting grounds!
I checked all the sites that came up in the first 2 pages of Google results for "used cars Utah" and no luck. But I either get alerts from all the sites or I check them daily.
 
fdew said:
My car before the CX-5 was a bit specialized so it was hard to find. (A first gen Audi Allroad) I searched E-Bay for a long time. I came up with a good deal from a private seller. I also found a friend who is a private pilot who would fly me to a near by city for the price of the gas. I then printed out the Ebay add and took it to a nearby dealer who had the car I wanted. He told me the price he wanted, I told him no, he asked what he would need to do and I handed him the Ebay add. He said "This is 300 miles away." I replied Audi's have wheels and they are fun to drive, I am looking forward to the trip. He matched the price.
Click to expand...

Nice! I'd go 300 miles! Especially in a new car! I tried negotiating the Blue Book private seller price from a dealer but the sales person said they only had the car for 2 days so they couldn't drop it too low. I'll try again if they still have it in a couple weeks.
 
Popular Mazda Models
Mazda CX-5
There are 133 vehicles near 84044

http://www.autotrader.com/

OK maybe not. Select PRIVATE SELLERS ONLY.... zero.
There's some good prices near you at dealers. You should consider going to one.
 
Last edited:
7eregrine said:
Popular Mazda Models
Mazda CX-5
There are 133 vehicles near 84044

http://www.autotrader.com/

OK maybe not. Select PRIVATE SELLERS ONLY.... zero.
There's some good prices near you at dealers. You should consider going to one.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I don't know if it's typical but it seems like here, there's plenty of used ones at dealers but none from private sellers. Blue Book values the same CX-5 at $2,300 more from a dealer so I was hoping for a private seller. But if it the dealer prices seem good, I'll start shopping at dealers as I can stomach the dealer price if necessary. There's plenty of private seller CR-V's so they end up being available for cheaper than the CX-5's despite a higher book value but I just can't stomach the look of them! Haha!
 
Mike_R said:
Yeah, I don't know if it's typical but it seems like here, there's plenty of used ones at dealers but none from private sellers. Blue Book values the same CX-5 at $2,300 more from a dealer so I was hoping for a private seller. But if it the dealer prices seem good, I'll start shopping at dealers as I can stomach the dealer price if necessary. There's plenty of private seller CR-V's so they end up being available for cheaper than the CX-5's despite a higher book value but I just can't stomach the look of them! Haha!
Click to expand...

In my experience, not too many people will have paid off the vehicle in 2-3 years, so it will be hard to find a private seller that has the title. Couple that with the fact there is over 10x more CR-V's sold, and you have some work to do to find a decent CX-5.

Craigslist can be great, but can also be a perfect place for a private party to flip an auction car, or a branded title car such as a flood damaged, or quickly repaired damage.

A Mazda dealer could be a great place for you to start... Drive a new one, so that you know what they are supposed to feel like. Then if you poke around, I am sure you can find one that is at another brand of dealer where it was traded in, or even at the Mazda dealer as A Mazda Certified Used car to get a warranty.
 
mazdadude said:
In my experience, not too many people will have paid off the vehicle in 2-3 years, so it will be hard to find a private seller that has the title. Couple that with the fact there is over 10x more CR-V's sold, and you have some work to do to find a decent CX-5.

Craigslist can be great, but can also be a perfect place for a private party to flip an auction car, or a branded title car such as a flood damaged, or quickly repaired damage.

A Mazda dealer could be a great place for you to start... Drive a new one, so that you know what they are supposed to feel like. Then if you poke around, I am sure you can find one that is at another brand of dealer where it was traded in, or even at the Mazda dealer as A Mazda Certified Used car to get a warranty.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I figured not having many previous model years was part of it but I didn't even think about the fact that such a small amount of buyers would have it paid off that fast so they trade it in if they want a different car!

There's a highly recommended repair shop here for used car inspections that only employees ASE Master Technicians and frame specialist so I was planning on only buying from a private seller that will let me take the car there/meet me there. I will also get a carfax.

But the point you make about financing, combined with my requirements of a clean title and being able to take it for an inspection pretty much made me lose hope in finding a private seller.

I actually went to a non-Mazda dealer on Thursday who received a CX-5 via trade, like you said, and I got them to go $1300 below Blue Book dealer pricing and 50% more on my trade-in than the KBB trade-in value but the CX-5 had more miles than I wanted and I didn't realize yet it would be so hard to find a private seller so I didn't bite. If I can get another dealer to go that low on a vehicle with miles in the range I want, I'll take it considering everything now.
 
May have to check a neighboring state for more private party stock.
 
What's your budget??? With the 0% for 60 months financing and rebates a new one with warranty may make more sense than a used one without warranty. We were looking for a low miles 2-3 year old one in back in January for my son, but with deal available thru the dealer at the time it made more sense to buy new.....
 
fw_fw said:
What's your budget??? With the 0% for 60 months financing and rebates a new one with warranty may make more sense than a used one without warranty. We were looking for a low miles 2-3 year old one in back in January for my son, but with deal available thru the dealer at the time it made more sense to buy new.....
Click to expand...

$15,000 is the most I want to spend. I can go more if I have to but really don't want to.
 
FWIW I used a broker to purchase my '16 Touring FWD. My son had used him a couple of times and was pleased with what he could do, so I gave it a shot. I told him what I wanted, and he started looking at the auctions he goes to. He found the one I have now with only 18k on it. He passed on others he had found earlier (it took him about a month to find) due to where they had been, condition, etc. These brokers make their living at finding good cars, and his fee was a flat $750. I feel like I did well in the transaction, and have an almost-new vehicle when I would have been happy with one 2-3 years old.
 
OP - I would consider seeing if there are any CPOs with high mileage - otherwise a private party sale for a car worth 15k is a risk unless you can identify tell tale signs of a collision or bumper damage and evaluate how good the maintenance has been.
I am comfortable taking a risk on cars under 10K on CG, at that price point the $500 or so that dealership will pocket becomes a big factor - but 15K? you might as well buy from a dealer who has one on his lot for long.
 
Kaps said:
OP - I would consider seeing if there are any CPOs with high mileage - otherwise a private party sale for a car worth 15k is a risk unless you can identify tell tale signs of a collision or bumper damage and evaluate how good the maintenance has been.
I am comfortable taking a risk on cars under 10K on CG, at that price point the $500 or so that dealership will pocket becomes a big factor - but 15K? you might as well buy from a dealer who has one on his lot for long.
Click to expand...

I was planning on taking any potential cars to a highly recommended mechanic that everyone says is great a pre-purchase inspections so that would mitigate the risk enough for me. I'd be willing to go higher mileage (70-90k) if the car had more history to show it's long term reliability, particularly with the fuel dilution seen by some CX-5 owners in climates similar to mine and our incredibly salted roads here in Northern Utah that cause damaging rust in some cars. But the fact that there hasn't been enough time for >100K miles and long term reliability testing makes me want to avoid high mileage cars.

I'd also pay a $500 dealer premium in a heartbeat but KBB lists the dealer premium as $2300 and a CPO premium as $3300 for the CX-5 here. And those premiums seem correct with the dealers I've talked to. 2014 Touring, 46K, CPO was $18,800. '14, GT, 77K, CPO was $19,000 after negotiations!

I'm kind of thinking that without private sellers, the CX-5 is just beyond my budget considering I don't want more than 50k miles. Which is unfortunate cause there's no CUV with as good of MPG, ground clearance, low book value and reliability so far and that's not even considering how much better the look and interior is compared to the contenders, IMO obviously.
I think my options are a 2012 Rav4 (not reliable enough in the couple years before and too low of clearance after) or just giving up on ground clearance and getting a hatchback.
 
also when searching on sites like craigslist, be sure to try different typed inputs, for instance searching "CX-5" will bring up different results than "CX5"
 
Mike_R said:
I was planning on taking any potential cars to a highly recommended mechanic that everyone says is great a pre-purchase inspections so that would mitigate the risk enough for me. I'd be willing to go higher mileage (70-90k) if the car had more history to show it's long term reliability, particularly with the fuel dilution seen by some CX-5 owners in climates similar to mine and our incredibly salted roads here in Northern Utah that cause damaging rust in some cars. But the fact that there hasn't been enough time for >100K miles and long term reliability testing makes me want to avoid high mileage cars.

I'd also pay a $500 dealer premium in a heartbeat but KBB lists the dealer premium as $2300 and a CPO premium as $3300 for the CX-5 here. And those premiums seem correct with the dealers I've talked to. 2014 Touring, 46K, CPO was $18,800. '14, GT, 77K, CPO was $19,000 after negotiations!

I'm kind of thinking that without private sellers, the CX-5 is just beyond my budget considering I don't want more than 50k miles. Which is unfortunate cause there's no CUV with as good of MPG, ground clearance, low book value and reliability so far and that's not even considering how much better the look and interior is compared to the contenders, IMO obviously.
I think my options are a 2012 Rav4 (not reliable enough in the couple years before and too low of clearance after) or just giving up on ground clearance and getting a hatchback.
Click to expand...

I see what you mean - it is hard to find one under 15k, also note if you are going for hatchback the mazda 3 hatch retains value well (more than sedan). so that sticker shock will be coming if you are looking there. Another thing you can look are at Hertz car sales - they are about 1500 cheaper than regular, but your brakes / tires etc. will be more worn due to rental usage.
 
Please log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

B
2017~2024 Updated review on my 19 Signature
2
Replies
26
Views
5K
Young-nyc
Young-nyc
mac.mc78
6 month Review of my 2019 CX-5 Signature
2
Replies
28
Views
5K
Anchorman
Anchorman
U
    • Like
20,000 miles in a CX5 GT-R...
5 6 7
Replies
129
Views
20K
bluegrass
B

Latest posts

Back