Living Car Free - Best Way to Sell Car

I'm very slowly getting around to selling my car. (Won't be quite car-free, just cutting back from two to one.) With the Internet, there are a lot more choice for advertising these days. What are peoples' experience with the best way to advertise? Broadly, there is the internet, newspaper and ad magazines, or sitting out on the street with a "For Sale" sign. Since most cost money, I'm wondering where I would be best off concentrating my efforts. Advice?

I'm a little concerned because we tried to sell this vehicle (a 1996 Ford Windstar minivan) once before, a few years ago, but couldn't find any takers. Maybe we didn't try hard enough, or in the right venue.

I have had success with cars.com. (autotrader.com is another option.)
Take lots of photos. Just like with ebay, lots of pictures can make
anything look interesting, even a Ford Windstar ;)
Be as descriptive as possible in your ad. Good luck.

This might not be the best place to find out? I might be wrong, but I'm thinking we probably have pretty limited expertise with car trading. Even when I had a car, I would drive it until it died, then just sell it to a salvager.

there'a also craigslist.org which is free. it's divided out by major cities.

I used autotrader to look for a car several years ago. I thought it was a good site. I'd try craigslist also. I didn't even know craigslist had added a section for Maine. I had to check. Like others said, use pictures if possible.

When I sold my last car, I put a For sale sign in the window and parked it on the street and sold it within a few weeks. I sold another car I had back when lived on a back country road, I just parked it in the front yard. But that took a few months and I only sold it for $400 (Diesel Mazda 626 that needed some work)

You have to pay somewhere ~$35 to put a listing into autotrader. So I didn't bother with using them.

Definitely, use pictures. You'll get more responses.

Signs in the windows and try putting up notices in your local college bulletin boards and stuff like laundromats, Craig's List, etc., last car I sold, I sold back to the dealer I got it from, actually got more for it than I think I'd have gotten from a private party, and their checks generally don't bounce. One before that, put signs in its windows and parked it near the local college. Went around the campus (walking) and putting up ads, I got a call on my cell, the windows in the car's windows did it, that and having it parked in what turned out to be a kind of "nerve center" area for a lot of students. The one before that, went to the owner of a local scooter shop, we talked a bit and he decided to buy my car. One before that, a co-worker bought it.

Hmm, very little official stuff like trader papers here, seems to be social networking to a great extent.

Here in Los Angeles, there is The Recycler; most major cities probably have something similar. It may not be as slick as Autotrader. When I sold our old T-Bird, I had 3-4 people at my house trying to out-bid each other to buy the darn thing. Also, make sure you're pricing it correctly; usually mid-point between the Kelly Blue Book Retail and Wholesale rates. Good luck.

I have tried craigslist.org, newspaper, cars.com, carsdirect.com, and autotrader. I got the MOST responses from (in order of success): carsdirect.com, cars.com, craigslist.org, newspaper, autotrader. I've sold 2 cars BOTH through carsdirect.com. I received a few replies from craigslist.org, but no success. Also, never got any from the newspaper and autotrader.

Here's what I would do: If you're not looking to sell quickly, list on craigslist ONLY for a couple weeks (be sure to put a few pictures). If that fails to sell your car, list it on carsdirect and cars.com. That will run you about $60 total.

I'm planning on taking my car down to the local branch of CarMax to get a quote on what they'll pay for my car. I just hate dealing with sealing things that have any kind of negotiable value. And, if they offer enough, my wife and I will drop to one car and I'll either buy a new commuter bike or upgrade the components on my road bike, or maybe both. :)