2022
- 2010 Toyota Yaris, 146 000 km (Bought: 4600, Sold: 5800)
I bought my first car at 16 in October of 2020. This was before covid, when everything went wrong in the car market. I bought it for 4600$ and sold it during the pandemic, August 2021 for 5 800$ in Sudbury. I made money on selling the car, and had fun doing it: listing it, talking to different people, communicating with mechanics and learning about the automotive rules and regulations in Ontario. However I had no mechanical knowledge and didn’t know how to get started.
2023
- 2015 Chevrolet Sonic, 154 000 km (Bought: 70000, Sold: 10 000)
- 2014 Honda Accord EX-L, 63 000 km on engine, 320 000 on body (Bought: 5500, Sold: 9500)
- 2017 Volkswagen Beetle, 168 000 km (Bought: 9100, Sold: Trade)
- 2014 Subaru Crosstrek, 221 000 km (Bought: Trade, Sold: 13 900)
- 2014 Scion tc, 165 000 km (Bought: 11 000, Sold: 5300)
Second semester or March 2023 I bought my second car, a Chevrolet sonic in Ajax for 7 000$. I later sold it in Sudbury for 10 000$. I was able to make a pretty big profit since during the pandemic, no one was selling their cars, cars weren’t being built and there was a shortage. That affected used car prices to skyrocket, however there were private sellers that were still used to pre-covid prices, so that’s how I was able to find cheap cars.
The third car was a Honda Accord from Brampton for 5 500$ in October 2023. I sold it in 3 weeks in Sudbury for 9 000$. Right after that sale, I was obsessed with buying and selling them so bought a Volkswagen Beetle a day later for 9 100$ in Sudbury.
I later traded that beetle for a Subaru Crosstrek in London and sold that one in Barrie in November 2023 for 13 900$. I had 3 cars in 2 and a half months. I did this because at the time it was very easy. There was a high demand for vehicles and I was able to profit off of it. This is car flipping, buying cars and selling them for profit.
My dream car ever since I was little was a scion tc. I loved that it was a hatchback coupe, so in December 2023 I bought my “dream car” in St-Catherine’s for 11 000$. This was the first car I ever lost money on, however I drove a total of 55 000 km in 10 months using that car. I ended up selling it in Sagamok First Nation for 5000$.
2024
- 1995 Mitsubishi Pajero Evo, 140 00o km (Bought: 9100, Sold: N/A)
- 2007 Honda Element, 187 000km (Bought: 2500, Sold: 7000)
- 2017 Volkswagen Golf TSI, 179 000 km on odometer, 531 000 km on body (Bought: 5500, Sold: 3000)
- 2002 Toyota Celica 222 000 km (Bought: Trade, Sold: 1 000)
- 2018 Hyundai Elantra GT, 53 000 on engine, 253 000 on body (Bought: 4000, Sold: est.9500)
I started working at a power plant and was making extra money so I decided to buy a collector’s car, a right hand drive Japanese Mitsubishi Pajero for 9100$. My dad paid half and it’s a car that we share in the summer together to go off roading in the snow machine trails close to my house in Chelmsford. I still haven’t sold it since the initial plan was never to flip it and keep it forever but since I live in Toronto and the car is located in Sudbury I haven’t had much time to enjoy it. Having an import was one of my mistakes since: they are hard to repair, hard to find a buyer, no space to store it.
I was able to make a profit in Toronto when I bought a Honda element downtown for 2500$ in May 2024, and sold it for 7000$ downtown in June 2024. This was a special case since there was a trend in early 2000’s vehicles becoming popular again because of their multi functionality and interesting aspects therefore the price on them went up. Honda elements were making a comeback since drivers could use them as more than daily vehicles. I sold it to a photographer who used it as a portable storage locker. Making money off of cars has a lot to do with consumer and market trends, and being able to understand what they are since they aren’t very obvious. I found out about these trends by going to a lot of car showings, talking to a lot of buyers and sellers, as well as asking questions.
After the Honda Element is where I got messy. I found a 2017 Volkswagen Golf TSI for 5500$ in July 2024. It was too good to be true and was a complete mess, with the odometer rolled back and the turbo blown up. (Hence the importance of looking at a CARFAX before buying)
I ended up trading it for a 2002 Toyota Celica, however I only kept it for a month because the person I traded it from couldn’t flip it or sell it successfully so he paid me 1 000$ to take the Volkswagen back. I later sold it to the Albanian mob in Mississauga for 3000$, which I considered very generous since the car was a piece of garbage.
The final car in my saga is a 2018 Hyundai Elantra GT that I bought for 4000$ in Trenton, November 2024. This was the best deal I ever came across on Kijiji. 3 hrs after it was listed I called the seller directly and dramatized my story of being a broke student, something he resonated with and influenced him to pick me over other buyers that contacted him before me. I’m currently selling the car for 11 000$, hoping to get around 9 500$.
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What I learned:
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The key to getting a car at a good price has a-lot to do with the way you present yourself. I would often make stories to persuade the seller that it was going to the right person. Making a personal connection was my strategy and I would often get my ex friend to help me and pose as my half brother. He is the one who gave the the confidence to buy and work on cars, helping me get it safetied or getting work done.
I mention the place where I sold every car since almost all my sales were in Northern Ontario. Buying cars in Toronto was cheaper and people up north weren’t willing to make the drive, so I would drive back and forth a lot between Sudbury and Toronto to sell my cars and make profit. I learned car trends, what northern Ontario drivers look for vs. Toronto drivers and there is a difference. Brand was also a determining factor on where I sold cars. The beetle was sold in London because people down south have a tendency to get more specialty European cars since they have specialized shops.
I compiled a list of crucial things to keep in mind while buying a used car that most people forget about:
- get a carfax (shows car history, damage, liens, odometer) and make sure the vin and odometer (number in the window and number of km on dash) matches. If they do not match, the odometer is probably rolled back or the car is stolen/rebuilt.
- Check if it is clean title on top of the ownership (rebuilt cars are sometimes hard to insure and could have potential problems from the rebuilding process)
- Cars that have been in accidents aren’t necessarily bad, depends on what was done and can usually be bought at a cheaper price
- Buy a car with a safety/ Makes it easier to register under your name. However there are some mechanic shops that make fake safety certificates so do your research on the shop that safetied the car if it comes with safety.
- Buy a car that’s easy to get parts for and inexpensive to fix if you’re looking for a long term vehicle. More common cars are easier to fix since there are lots of parts available
- If you need parts go to a U-Pull lot, which is a car lot that you can rip parts off of cars for a discounted price.
- Look on Facebook marketplace, Autotrader, Kijiji and Kijiji Autos.
- Private sales are often way cheaper than going through a dealership but don’t offer warranties and is as-is.
- Get your car appraised at a lower value to pay less taxes
- Ask why the owner is selling and make sure that the seller is the one who legally owns the vehicle
- When you buy, check easy beginner friendly stuff like tire tread, brakes, signals and all buttons/functions working, make sure there’s sufficient fluids
- get a UVIP before buying the car to see if the car has any liens (money owed on the car), to check the history of owners. From this you can deduct small things like where the car was registered and by who/when and know a little bit more about the car’s history.
Things that are oddly specific to look at in cars:
2000’s and older: Frame structure, rockers, rust on EVERYTHING?, integrity of floor, e-brake, transmission (go through all gears)
2010’s and newer: surplus of scams that has led to cars not having clean titles or being in unreported accidents, rolled back odometer, electrical issues.
When you go for a test drive, go on the highway as well as residential. If the owner declines without a good reason, that’s enough reason to assume the car has problems not previously mentioned and isn’t fully road safe. When was the last time it was safetied? What’s the reason for selling? Does the owner know what it needs for safety? Where, when and how often was the car serviced? – all valid questions
Facebook marketplace isn’t always the best, but has its advantages. It’s good if you want things done fast for cheap, but sometimes it’s more of a hassle with no guarantee. On fb marketplace i got
- wrap my car 9/10 1800$ – 2 teens from Richmond hill – great job just unorganized
- Rockers, cv axle and brakes/caliper 1700$ 5/10 (did a horrible job on rockers but everything else was good) – Randy from Oshawa (self explanatory)
- Special safety shop #1 10/10 – 250$ – same day service- mechanic in a strip mall in Vaughan
- « No name » Tires from a tire shop off marketplace 0/10 – 400$- all tires eventually blew
- Volvo tires and rims for my mom from private seller in Newmarket 10/10 700$
- Frame work done, brakes, rotors and caliper – also special safety shop #2 off marketplace – 2/10 – 2200$ safety day of -wrote the VIN wrong on the documents, fixed the front end with zipties and broke my windshield
- Various car parts/wraps from private sellers across the GTA – 10/10, best way to get parts for cheap other than U-Pull wrecking yards (also a great option, ex. Kenny’s U-Pull)
I hope you can learn from my mistakes and see what’s more likely to work or not. Flipping cars is a lot of trial and error, but I made some profit, learned a lot and found one of my passions while doing it.
Do I want to keep doing it?
No.
Why?
Legal issues. Keeping things legal is expensive.
x0x0, Chloe
