Carmax equivalent in Canada?
 

Hey all,

I'm in a interesting situation. My fiance from Canada as a Ford Focus (Canadian car), and I've convinced her that we should get rid of it to get a RX350. She moved to the U.S. in Ohio so we are a few hrs from Niagara Falls border.

We would probably have a hard time selling/trading the car here in the U.S. b/c it is a Canadian car. We are buying the RX at a big wholesale dealer, so they will low ball the trade indefinitely. I would like to just do a quick sale on the car, like at a carmax...problem is, I don't think Canada has a carmax, but is there an equivalent to that place? I can't place an ad for private sale in Canada b/c we don't have the time to drive back and forth to show the car. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks everyone :)

You can use CarProof. This is what I used when I was looking for vehicles in Canada.

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Hi, thanks for the quick response! :)

I tried to look on that website, but it seems like it is a vehicle report service (like carfax), as opposed to a car buying agency (like carmax). I'm looking for a car buying agency that would just buy the car. Any further help would be greatly appreciated!

Oh, sorry I was mixing the 2 up. I'll see what I can find out, hopefully somebody else will post up.

I'm not aware of any kind of service in Canada that's the equivalent to Carmax. Furthermore, even if there were, I'm sure you'd have to physically get the car back to Canada to turn it over to the buyer anyway. If I were you, I'd think about consigning the car in Canada - you'd be able to leave the car behind and go back to Ohio and wait for it to sell.

I read about this a few days ago, can you give me more details about consigning the car? I read about a place called "Bulletproof" near Mississauga that also consigns. I'm considering this, as this would be a lot easier for me to do, versus converting the car to American standards, and then trying to sell here in the States.


Thanks again!

I guess consigning cars isn't that common in the US, but it's a pretty standard way of selling a used car up here. In simple terms, you enter into a consignment sales agreement with a dealership and basically leave your car at the dealership to be sold by them. The consignment sales agreement sets out the minimum price that the car has to sell for and the dealership then takes a percentage of the ultimate sale price as a commission (typically 20 - 25%).

The consignment sales agreement will also typically set out how much "marketing" the dealership will be expected to do (run newspaper ads, detail the car from time to time, etc.). From a legal point of view, the car remains your property until sold, so you need to ensure you maintain insurance and registration on the car (although there is usually "overlapping" insurance coverage via the dealership as well). When a buyer decides to purchase the car, the sales documentation transfers title from you to the dealership immediately before the sale to the buyer, so the buyer is technically buying the car from the dealership, not you.

I've sold cars by consignment a few times and its worked out pretty well. It is an especially attractive option for persons in circumstances similar to yours, i.e. who aren't physically present to be able to show the car to interested buyers.

an other way is CarFax.