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Selling your car can be very time-consuming and even a downright hassle at times. If you’re selling it to a private party, then you have to deal with vetting calls and low-ball offers. And if you sell it to a dealership, you will want to make sure that you’re getting the most money possible. But what if you could your car completely online without having to haggle or even leave your house? In that case, CarGurus has a solution.

The CarGurus Instant Cash Max Offer is an easy point-and-click affair

The CarGurus Instant Cash Offer
The CarGurus Instant Cash Offer | Joe Santos

Selling your car can be a pain if you’re planning to sell it to a dealership or used car dealer. When going this route, you’ll want to shop the car around to different places like traditional dealerships and Carmax in order to get the best offer possible. However, CarGurus recently rolled out its “Instant Cash Max Offer” program where private car sellers can get quotes from a “network of thousands of different dealerships” with a few simple clicks, according to the online classifieds site.

To see how easy it was, I decided to see what steps would be necessary if I wanted to sell my 2008 Honda S2000. After logging onto CarGuru’s “Sell My Car” page where sellers can find their instant cash offer, I was greeted with a series of fields to fill out about my car. After clicking “continue” at the end, I was greeted with an instant cash offer of $19,865 within seconds.

It’s not a bad offer and it seems competitive with other sites like Carmax and Carvana. However, I don’t plan on selling my car, but for anyone that is planning to sell theirs, the process is simple. After obtaining the offer, sellers will need to fill out their personal information including a pick-up spot and time for the car. When that date arrives, the vehicle will be picked up and a check will be given to the seller after a quick on-the-spot inspection. If this sounds familiar, it’s because Carvana has a similar process, except they don’t work with a network of dealerships like CarGurus does.

The cash offer works well for the dealerships involved

A car parking lot with two rows of 6 cars of mixed colors with black, silver, and red cars.
Dealership car sales | Getty Images

This online selling process isn’t just convenient for car sellers, it’s convenient for the participating dealerships as well. The dealerships currently involved in CarGuru’s Car Offer network can easily acquire cars to add to their current used-car inventories without having to work directly with the sellers. Instead, the vehicles are picked up via a “white glove” service, inspected, and then delivered to the dealer’s lot.

So far, the dealerships that are already involved in the process see it as an asset. Here’s one testimonial provided by CarGurus:

“Inventory acquisition is a major priority at Archibald’s and we often look for ways beyond auctions or trade-ins to purchase vehicles, and that includes searching for consumers who may not immediately come to us to buy a car,” said Danny Archibald, Owner of Archibald’s. “CarGurus’ large shopper audience coupled with this latest offering should increase both the quantity and types of inventory coming through our dealership, and we’re excited to see how it can work for our business.” 

Whether you’re a seller or dealership, CarGurus makes buying and selling easy

 In this photo illustration, the CarGurus logo is displayed on a smartphone.
In this photo illustration, the CarGurus logo is displayed on a smartphone. | (Photo Illustration by Rafael Henrique/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

Ultimately, CarGuru’s Instant Cash Max Offer makes selling your car a breeze. The only unfortunate part is that the service is only offered in the Florida, Massachusetts, and Texas areas. So if you don’t live in one of those states, you’ll have to wait. But at least it’s better than vetting phone calls or getting offers from different dealerships.

Related

CarMax or Carvana: Which Is Better for Buying a Used Car?