Thread: Working on a vehicle sale, never sold a car before.

So, since my dad passed a few years ago, I've been on and off about selling his van. The body is a little rusty, but otherwise it's in excellent mechanical condition. I finally decided to go ahead with it, sell the van since we just plain dont need it and it just sits, and sell/junk our old 95 explorer, cause that has an excellent engine to it also, but the body and chassis is so rusted out I dont even feel safe driving it sometimes... then using the proceeds from those 2 sales to buy a newer, circa 2004 explorer.

The explorer Im not so worried about, because Im more leaning towards junking it due to the chassis condition... even if I do sell it to someone it'll be for like 500-700 as a beater vehicle. The van is in much better condition, though, all around. I finally got inside, removed all the seats, shampooed and vacuumed everything so it smells good and looks brand new inside. Cleaned up a lot of stains from drinks and candy and junk from when I was a little kid going places with my dad. Found a whole baggie full of amusement park tickets that my dad bought when I was way younger, but we never used up. The whole thing was feels.

















It's got about 95k on it, it's a 2000 Dodge Grand Caravan... a lot of options, premium sound... only 1 owner ever, my dad bought it with 2 miles on it. Other than the 2-3 rust spots on it, the paint is in good condition. Chassis is a little bit rusty but not terrible. 3.3L motor, FWD. With all the options, KBB puts it at $2063. That was exactly what I wanted for it, so Im going to ask for $2500 so that I have room to go down and deal. I've got all that fairly worked out.

What Im not sure of it the process. I was only ever present for 1 car private party sale, and my dad handled the whole thing.... and it was with a family friend, not a stranger. We test drove it, paid them with a check, then we all went to my dad's notary friend and did the paperwork. Im not sure how it should go with a stranger. My other 2 cars I bought from a dealer, and they handled all the legal stuff. Im gunna have them meet me at the local grocery store parking lot in the afternoon, I have a test drive route planned that doesn't take us anywhere isolated, and I'll have plenty of people aware of where/when I'll be... hopefully I'll have a friend with me.

I plan on saying in the ad I'll only accept cash or maybe money order, because we'll be able to buy the money order right there at the store we're meeting at. I dont want to deal with checks and other easily fraudable methods. So, say they like it, they want it, we work out a price. They give me the money, then what? Do I need to drive us to a notary? Do I need to make an appointment with a notary to make sure they're available? How do we finalize the deal? What do I do with my license plate, are they going to have to bring their own, or will the notary provide one?

Being you are in PA yes you need to go to a notary to transfer the title. They will have to bring their own plates to transfer onto it or will have to get temp tags from the notary. They will pay taxes on the sale price at that time too.

Make sure you bring your drivers license and the title and make sure the buyer brings their driver's license and proof of insurance.

As far as making an appointment or whatever it just depends on the notary. Most are available for set hours during the day, some do it on a part time basis and you might need to call them to arrange a time.

How the front strut towers look under the hood? Those tend to rust out REALLY bad on those models, if they are in good shape then you could what you are asking.


As for selling the vehicle, in MY state all you need is a title. If you have the clean title in hand all you have to do is fill out spots for your name and the person buying the car. At the bottom of our minnesota titles is a section you tear off and the info on that if what you would go online to report that you have sold the car and no longer are going to own it. I would also write up a bill of sale and have you and them sign it, that way it can't bite you in the ass.

Good things I don't live in PA, that would suck balls to have to be at a notary/dmv to sell a vehicle.

Well what I said applies for PA resident to resident sale. When I bought my Stealth it was a WV title. All I needed was the seller's signature, but I did go to a WV notary to have a Bill of Sale notarized because I got it for $3500 under book and the state can come back and try to make you pay more taxes if they think you lied about the sale price to save on taxes.

I welded in a replacement strut tower on mine. They make a panel for $30

Here, you are expected to buy it, insure it, get temp plates (if out of state sale) then get it inspected and instate plates.

Most misuse a plate to get said car home..lol