Vehicle Consignment

Summary of the Consignment Process

Selling your performance or luxury car can be a complicated and lengthy process with a lot of hassle along the way. Typically, you would need to pull together photos and set up the ads, then send these out to the various websites to market your car. Once the ads are live you need to stay on top of the myriad of questions from prospective buyers, deal with the “tire-kickers” that want to test-drive your pride and joy, and try to find time to answer phone calls and set up car inspections. And if a deal is eventually made, you need to figure out how to safely transfer the car and the title to the buyer while ensuring you actually receive the funds for the sale.

Instead, consigning your car through Driven will remove the hassle and headaches of selling your own car. Let us do the hard work for you: prepare your car for sale, advertise it in the best target markets, meet with prospective buyers, and safely complete the sale on your behalf, all at a sales price you have agreed to in advance. And, if you decide to buy a car from Driven, we may be able to leverage your consignment sale with Driven into a sales-tax reduction on the replacement vehicle.

Consignment has become more popular, especially when dealing with specialty vehicles, higher end performance vehicles, luxury vehicles and exotics. Car consignment works to your advantage by getting the maximum price that a private party is willing to pay, a price that is almost always higher than trade-in or wholesale. Working on the premise that you will get the best possible price for your vehicle and that the customer will get the right car that may otherwise be difficult to find, Driven operates as intermediary to offer a seamless experience that saves you the time, frustration and risks of trying to sell your own car on the open market. We are licensed, insured, and bonded, which makes the entire process less risky to seller and buyer. We can accept trade-ins from buyers and are able to work with the buyer to obtain financing which open up sales opportunities. We are able to offer warranties and services that supplement the value of your vehicle to maximize the sales price. We execute all title transfer and registration activities for the buyer, which frees up the seller’s time and keeps their personal information private. We are able to use existing relationships with transport companies to securely ship the vehicle anywhere in the USA or Canada, and even overseas if required.

Driven’s Car Consignment process has Six (6) Simple Steps

• An appraisal is conducted for Driven and you to agree vehicle condition and value;
• A consignment agreement is signed to state the agreed sales price and terms;
• Your car is detailed, photographed, and we advertise it in selected markets;
• Driven negotiates with buyers and organizes pre-purchase inspections, to sell your car;
• Driven handles all sales paper work and title transfer to the new owner; and,
• Driven pays you the proceeds of the sale, less the agreed consignment fee and costs

Details of the Consignment Process

For those looking for more details of the consignment process at Driven, please refer to the below:

1. Appraising Your Car

It is important we jointly appraise your car and agree a realistic selling price. The price that your vehicle will ultimately fetch is based on a number of straightforward factors including: mileage, overall condition and CarFax result, marketability, number of owners, availability of supplemental information (e.g. original documentation, service records) and uniqueness of the vehicle, are all weighed to come up with a reasonable sales price. We may point out some items that should be taken care of before advertising the car to help maximize the selling price (e.g. cracked windshield, worn out tires) and we can rectify these items on your behalf as part of the consignment.

We will agree on a target sales price (to start the advertising) and a minimum sales price. Driven has access to current and forecast wholesale, auction, and retail pricing data to help set the target and minimum sales prices. We advise and guide you on market rates and the achievable price that your vehicle would likely fetch in current economic conditions. We offer data driven analysis and experience from the sale and purchase of many vehicles as a method to guide and direct you to a reasonable minimum selling price. However, Driven will leave selection of the minimum selling price to you. Since our fee is based on a percentage of the actual selling price, Driven is incentivized to work hard in selling your car at the highest achievable price.

2. Consignment Agreement

A consignment agreement (contract) is a legally required document to give Driven permission to act on your behalf in the process of selling your vehicle. This is essentially a limited power of attorney around the sale of your vehicle, stating the minimum selling price you will accept, the duration of the consignment (typically 3 months), and various other applicable terms and conditions (e.g. you are required to retain insurance and registration during the consignment period, you state whether you allow test drives or not). Once the agreement is in place, we can move on with advertising your car.

3. Advertising Your Car

Marketing and selling your vehicle in a timely manner requires a great many services working in tandem. Secure storage of the vehicle, attractive store front, local business presence, and an attractive website are all important methods to increase the exposure of your vehicle to prospective buyers. At Driven, we charge a small initiation fee for the consignment for detailing your car, having professional photographs taken and listing your car on major car advertising channels. The initiation fee is refunded when we sell your car. Nearly all of Driven’s sales begin through someone seeing our inventory on-line, and many of these sales are to Out-of-State buyers who don’t ever see the car in person until the car arrives at their home. Having a broad package of photographs in a high-resolution format is critical to success with prospective buyers in today’s internet-based sales environment.

4. Selling Your Car

Driven will field all questions and correspondence with potential buyers. As needed, we advise you of progress and potential buyer leads generated through our advertising channels. In the search for their car, the buyers experience with a Driven consignment is also less stressful and more reassuring than responding to newspaper or social media ads. Seeing a real store front and dealing with professionals provides the buyer with confidence in the car being presented and at the conclusion of the sale, Driven will transfer the title for the buyer so they do not need to make trips to the Tax office or DMV.

Another advantage of consigning with Driven is our ability to accept a trade-in when selling your consignment vehicle, something you as a private seller would not typically be able to do. Being able to accept trade-ins broadens the pool of buyers for your car. As negotiations for the sale become firm, we keep you advised of progress but you don’t need to be involved in this directly, which allows you to remain private and not to expose your personal information to the buyer. If the buyer is out-of-State, Driven can negotiate shipping as part of the sale through our access to a network of insured and bonded transport companies with available enclosed trailer or open trailer shipping.

The sale is completed at a price at or exceeding the minimum price noted in the consignment agreement.

5. Title Transfer to New Owner

Under the consignment agreement, Driven is obligated to perform the title transfer from you to the buyer of your car. If you hold clear title to the car, the transfer is straightforward. If you have a loan on the car and there is a lien on the title, the transfer is a little more complicated and time-consuming, but in this case too, Driven will complete the process for your loan pay-off, removal of the lien on the title, and transfer of the title to the new owner. Driven executes a purchase agreement with you for your car, and assigns your car to the buyer. Driven completes a Buyers Order and all of the State paperwork required to legally transfer ownership of the car from you the buyer. Driven processes all the paperwork through the applicable Tax/DMV offices including payment of state sales tax and registration fees (known as TT&L, Tax, Title, and Licensing).

6. Proceeds of the Sale

Once the Title Transfer is complete and the buyer’s funds have cleared, Driven pays you the proceeds of the sale net of deductions for the consignment fee and other costs. Our consignment fee is typically based on a percentage of the price at which your car was sold to the buyer. Other costs could include those for service work done on your car via Driven, storage costs, or a credit back to you for the consignment initiation fee. Full payment of monies owed to you would typically be completed within a few business days for sales with clear title, or 3-4 business weeks for sales having titles with liens, or buyers requiring financing. Remember, if you plan to buy another car and do so through Driven, we may be able to use the consignment sale to offset your sales tax, another advantage of consigning.