On October 7, 2020, I officially said goodbye to my 2013 Ford Focus. For several reasons, I decided to part ways with the sedan. It’s currently a seller’s market. And I don’t have use for a car that’s just going to sit in the driveway all day. Still, I became a bit wistful as it disappeared from view. But American compact sedans rarely appreciate in value. And I could use the extra cash in my bank account.
It’s been about a year since I started contemplating selling the Focus. As early as September 2019, I even started writing about those thoughts here at Curbside. Back then, I plugged the Focus into KBB’s appraisal tool, which spit out $7,738 as an offer for the car. But KBB doesn’t buy cars, so I assume that’s not a “real” figure. Three months later, when I got surprised with a $250 rear main seal replacement, I entered the Focus into Carvana. They valued the car at $6670.
Between late 2019 and March 2020, I continued to occasionally visit Carvana to check up on the latest valuation for the Focus. Once the pandemic hit, Carvana outright stopped buying vehicles. Around that time they valued the car at $5,800. As things calmed down and demand for cars bounced back with a vengeance, the value kept going up…and up! Eventually, Carvana valued my car as high as the number in the above screenshot. Unfortunately, I was still unsure about selling it, so I decided to wait until the day after I took the screenshot to make a decision.
And of course their offer declined substantially 24 hours later! I took that as a sign that the used car market was getting back to normal and that the coming winter would see a slowdown in demand. So I saved the offer and had a week to decide if I wanted to go through with it.
Here are the factors that convinced me to sell the Focus. For starters, budget cuts at my current employer resulted in a substantially reduced paycheck. By my extremely rough calculations I’m going to make about a quarter of what I would have made if the pandemic hadn’t occurred. So it goes. And the pandemic means I’m pretty much only going to the grocery store and back. Additionally, Ford manufactured the Focus in October 2012. The eight year old sedan still had its original tires and battery, and at least one of those things needed to be replaced by 2021.
And of course the whole PowerShift DCT debacle influenced my decision as well. My original clutches worked well and their replacements felt fine too. But I didn’t want that issue hanging over my head, especially as the car aged.
There’s also my newfound access to press vehicles. This might be the biggest reason why I ditched the Focus. Being responsible for three cars means at least one of them gets neglected. That’s my experience anyway. Obviously, whatever press car I have on hand will not be the car that sits still. In practice, it was the Focus that got shortchanged.
But my general Focus neglect started when I picked up Ms. Cougar. After I got my 1986 Taurus, I rarely cleaned the Focus. Not that it was ever all that dirty, mind you, but last year I hand washed the Focus at least twice. This year, I took it to the local automatic wash. I also opted not to fix the cosmetic issues from my little garage door incident. A local auto body shop wanted to completely repaint the front bumper and charge me $770 for it. Nope! Granted, I could have shopped around, but I think by that point I was already committed to selling it.
The sale process itself was a pretty painless experience. Carvana wanted me to upload some documents to prove I owned the car. They promptly reviewed them and allowed me to set a pick up appointment. A gentleman in an Acura TSX showed up to collect the title and lien release statement. Naturally, I assumed that it would be an all-in-one affair, with a flatbed taking the car away at that moment.
Instead, the Carvana employee collected everything he needed from me and installed this lockbox on the driver’s door. The keys were inside.
Several hours later, the flatbed picked up the Focus. Oddly enough, the tow truck operator didn’t even know about Carvana! Oh well.
Before the initial appointment, I made sure to clean everything out of the car, and to delete all my personal information from the infotainment system. I also included some goodies for the next owner. Hopefully Carvana leaves them inside the car.
Never opened!
And that was that. Overall, I will miss this car a bit. I didn’t do anything too exciting with it, but it was my willing partner for almost eight years. I probably should have never purchased the car in the first place and it was extremely foolish for me to purchase it new. But I think everyone gets to make at least one major automotive mistake in their lifetime. And I’m not sure this even qualified as a mistake. The car fit me like a glove.
I especially liked the steering wheel. Automakers now seem intent on sticking steering wheel buttons wherever they please. But on the Focus, things were simple: audio and phone functions on the right, and cruise control on the left. Driver assistance features probably make that setup impossible to emulate these days, but the layout really worked for me.
Is there a possibility I could have received a bit more for the Focus? Maybe. But I didn’t feel like dealing with tire kickers during a pandemic. And the DMV went appointment-only months ago, which would have made things a lot more difficult if the paperwork was messed up. Carvana’s process ensured I didn’t have to deal with any of that. And judging by the asking prices of similar models in my area, I’m almost certain dealers wouldn’t have paid me $7,595 for the Focus.
I don’t know what my next daily driver will be. I probably won’t even consider one until I absolutely need to. What I do know is that it will most likely feature taut handling, just like the Focus. Either way, I hope the next owner gets as much enjoyment out of the car as I did.
Bye Focus, seems like the right decision.
Our 2013 (with 5 speed manual) got a lot of use this summer as our son got a warehouse job at a food wholesaler.
I was just thinking I should get my COAL update on the silver Focus I got rid of in May published. CC effect, huh?
It sounds like you made a good decision – that money is worth morein your bank account than in your driveway.
There is no shame in selling a car that does not fit your life anymore. I have known too many people who keep a car “because they’re not gonna gimme nothin for it” and then it sits around and deteriorates until it is worthless or they finally wise up and take less because it is now older and in worse condition. You made a good call, particularly for a car that has proved itself as one that does not age as gracefully as some others.
The Carvana idea sounds like a good one, particularly in the current environment. I have known people who have sold to CarMax, which is the analog version of Carvana, so far as I can tell. You won’t get top dollar, but then again you won’t waste a lot of time either.
IMO you made out like a bandit on that trade-in. Used car prices are nutty right now. We’re getting ready to replace my wife’s 95k mile 2012 Camry SE here probably next spring, I got a trade in estimate from carvana just for kicks, it came back around $9k, that is, more than the trade in valuation from Carmax 3 years ago when the car had 30k fewer miles(!). I had it listed briefly for private sale on facebook marketplace for $9500 and interest was kind of tepid although I did have someone that looked at it and was interested before we decided to take it off the market for now.
Agreed. Own it for 8 years and get something close to 40% of the original price back?
“ But I think everyone gets to make at least one major automotive mistake in their lifetime ”
Yeah, he’s still waiting on that. I got less for my two year old Focus at trade in back in 2003…
Just figured I’d give everyone a little update, because 2020 is a never-ending cascade of unpredictability. But I applied to an auto writing position at a prominent site on Wednesday and got hired a day and a half later.
The new job does not entail new car reviews, so in hindsight, selling the Focus wasn’t the best idea, as money will be much less of an issue now. But there was no way of predicting what would happen, obviously. And it means I could pick up a successor to the Focus before 2021. Or something like that.
This also might mean I contribute less to CC, but rest assured I’ll still be around. And you’ll continue to be updated on Ms. Cougar.
Anyway, peace and love to everybody here! This is perhaps the best automotive community on the series of tubes we call the internet.
Selling the Focus wasn’t the best idea? Pah! This particular year, you wouldn’t be able to know if was your head or your ass that was next in line, let alone your car, so I’d count it as a win.
And in news just breaking, heads, cars and asses have all just crashed because of the sudden boom knitted boat covers.
Peace and love it is, and for mine, I thank you for your articles here, Mr S. Long may they sometimes turn up into the future.
Congratulations on your new job. I’m very happy to for you, and glad to know some of our young alums (like Will Stopford) are ending up in good jobs in the industry.
And this gives you time to think about what you want for a new car.
Congrats on landing the job Ed, that’s excellent news and well deserved. Don’t worry about hindsight making the Focus sale seem unnecessary now, you received top dollar for it and now you can put those skills to work finding a new ride. And then we’ll get another COAL, so everyone wins.
You’ve done well, getting a job at a time like this.
And we all make automotive mistakes, just that some of us don’t talk about them. But you’re among friends here.
If there’s an automotive community on the net that’s better, I haven’t found it.
Everyone is focusing on the sale of your Focus. Considering the focus (sorry) of the subject matter of this site that’s understandable. You did well on your sale. That’s history. Going forward, you have a new job when many aren’t so fortunate. A car sold is a memory. A new job is an opportunity. Best wishes in your new pursuits
Congratulations on the new gig and on unloading a Focus, that though yours seemed fine, was surely scarred on the private resale market.
I too sold a car using Carvana a couple of months ago – It was the sedan I bought last April and unloaded to Carvana for a price that was $1,027 less than my original purchase price (which I will admit was a phenomenal price). So yeah I think I did great and they gave me $2,500 more than CarMax offered as well as $1,500 Vroom, another online dealer. In my case a guy showed up in a CarVana branded flatbed with all the paperwork and hauled it away, so a one-man operation in that case. Check their website with your VIN every day for the next week or two and you’ll see your car on their with the minor front damage pointed out to any potential buyer…It’d be interesting to see what they sell it for.
A note on the pricing – I have learned through talking with a rep several times since we will likely be giving them our Highlander in the next week or so that if you request pricing more than once for the same car their algorithm will drive the price down (as you saw). So if you enter info, make sure it’s right the first time and don’t assume the price will change in your favor if you try to requote it. In our case once you accept you can choose a pickup date up to about three weeks out and then change it two times more as long as the mileage remains within 1000 miles of the original quote mileage, we did this due to the Tesla taking longer to arrive than originally thought.
The car I sold to them showed up on their website a week later for only $800 more than what they paid me. It sold the same day.
But CarVana is legit, everything they said would happen in our case and Ed’s. Zero hassle, they’ll direct deposit a check by the next day with constant updates as to that check’s progress OR for $5 bring a cashier’s check to the pickup.
Oh, I’ve made more than one major automotive mistake in my life. Looking back thru the cars I’ve bought shows several I shouldn’t have bought and a few I wish I’d kept. I do wish I’d kept my Olds Ciera with the 3.3 V-6 and the Nissan Sentra SE-R Spec V, but the situation at the time justified their tradings.
You might have gotten out of the Focus at just the right time with the upcoming maintenance replacements and the DCT fiasco. Price a DCT replacement and count yourself lucky. Dealers would have given you $5,000 for it. Maybe.
It sounds like you did quite well considering what I recently paid a private seller for a used Mustang convertible with low miles and ” all the bells and whistles “.
I agree with everything everyone else said and then some. The focus had a good stay but if it’s not getting a lot.ofnuse, let it go, get the cash, and may it be a blessing to it’s new owner. Now you’ll have more time and energy to devote to your fun cars. Sounds like overall a great experience. Oh, and CONGRATULATIONS on the new gig!
Sounds like the right call to me. While yours was fine that transmission certainly hampers the value of it. It also opens up a spot on the driveway for something else as well. 🙂
Feeling empathetic over your employment and income situation; congrats on the new gig and I hope financially you get up to speed quickly.
Hmmm, Carvana. Wonder what they’d offer for the Saab…..
Interesting to hear about your selling experience. I’ve had decent luck selling two cars to CarMax, but I was left wondering when they’d get large-scale competition for the used-car buying process. I am surprised, though, that they provide trade-in quotes without actually seeing the car. I suspect that if a significant proportion of people try to cheat the system (selling cars with obvious problems that are unseen in the photos), that they might have to change their business model. But right now it sounds about as hassle-free as possible.
Rreplacing cars is the problem I face I really dont want to downgrade but upgrading isnt as attractive as I thought it was later C5s dont have a hatch at least the model I like hasnt so rather than get an automatic for the mostly city driving I’m doing now I;m keeping the manual car I have, after all Im driving a manual truck in that same traffic all day and that is ok especially now Ive been placed in an American conventional day cab CAT with an 18 speed where the stick goes straight into the box rather than through a difficult set of cables like the Freightliner Argosy cabovers and I prefer the C15 CAT engine to the Cummins or Detroits, life is good
Im glad you were able to find stable employment and get a nice chunk of change for your car. Personally, I will not bother with these Focuses unless they are much cheaper since there are too many potential headaches.
Good for you in gaining employment and selling your car. Tough times on both sides of the border for many people, so you’re doing well. I’m happy to be employed and in good health along with Mrs. M.
I had an early build 2012 Focus SE company car when I was employed by Wurth. It followed a very reliable and comfortable 08 Focus SE. So my experience with both generations has been favorable considering I had to drive up and down a mountain to reach a mine every two weeks. And they were great highway cars.
Boggles the mind how cars hold their value in the USA, that same car is worth £1000 here in the UK
Scotty sez USA used car prices bogus. I can believe that.
Take the $$$$ & RUN!
I paid $8000 Australian dollars for my 2013 Focus S hatchback 14 months ago,with only 72,000 kilometres,or 45,000 miles on the clock.