Private-party sellers deserve the same fair, data-driven pricing that dealers get at auction. We built CarLlama to close that gap.
If you've ever tried to sell your car on Craigslist or Facebook Marketplace, you know the pattern: 40 messages, 35 lowballers, 3 no-shows, maybe one real buyer three weeks later. Or you take it to a dealer who quotes you trade-in value (below wholesale), then resells it for $5,000 more.
Every step of that process assumes the seller has bad information. It's built on the gap between what a car is actually worth today and what the seller thinks it might be worth.
CarLlama runs your vehicle through the same data streams professional dealers use — Kelley Blue Book retail comps, Manheim auction indices, vAuto live market pricing — and surfaces an honest offer within minutes. Our number reflects current wholesale demand, mileage, trim, condition, and regional market. Not a stale book value from three months ago.
We're not here to trick you into accepting less than the car is worth. We're here to buy the car. If our number makes sense to you, the deal closes in one visit. If it doesn't, no harm done — you walk away with better information than you started with.
Our offer isn't retail. A dealer who resells your car has reconditioning costs, lot expenses, advertising, financing overhead, and the risk of holding inventory. That spread — typically 15–20% — is real work, not markup for its own sake.
We price at the wholesale level, the same level dealers bid at auctions, with a modest margin that keeps us in business. For most sellers, that's more than a trade-in quote and considerably less hassle than a private sale. It's the math that matters; we just surface it honestly.
Every offer is computed from real market data. We'll show you the inputs if you ask.
If we can't make a fair offer, we tell you. We don't waste your time.
Your data is yours. We don't sell it. We don't spam you. We buy the car or we don't.
CarLlama is built and operated by car people and software people. Our founder Carl Sadler has been in the Bay Area used-car business for over a decade, buying and appraising thousands of vehicles per year. Our technical co-founder Mike built the underlying valuation and acquisition platform that powers both CarLlama and its parent system, Tolao.
We're based in Richmond, California, and we buy vehicles throughout the greater Bay Area.
CarLlama
3860 Hilltop Road, Richmond, CA 94803
Phone: (510) 367-6129
Email: hello@carllama.ai
Hours: Mon–Sat 9am–6pm Pacific