Real-World Trade-In Values

corvette

People will pay crazy money for low mileage cars.

steine13

>> Believe it or not, $4950 is cheap.
Wow. I was floored by the $7 auction price for this:

>> 2015 Dodge Grand Caravan SXT
>> 104k long miles, beige cloth seats in "ok" shape, clean carfax, charoal gray, roof rack, alloys -- IOW the usual equipment.

So basically the same miles, four years difference, loaded & leather vs. cloth seats -- $2k difference at the auction. That's crazy. I'd MUCH rather have the newer car. I'll pass it on. Thanks!

Regarding miles -- I don't think I told y'all about the '07 Mazda6 I picked up for $500...?

220k miles, stick, needed a battery, suspension safe but a little loose, NO check engine light/codes. Really amazing to drive. Miles really mean less than they used to, IF the car is maintained properly. And here in the rust belt, miles really are only half the problem. Thanks again -m

corvette

@steine13 sounds like a steal! I always figure *any* car that runs and drives decently is worth at least $1-2,000, regardless of miles or cosmetics, so I think you done good!

steine13

oh sure, now that it runs, but it was one of those things where i called the junkyard first to see what the bottom was before i pulled out the cash... plus it was from a colleague who was moving, not the kind of thing you can pull off on craigslist.

Sandman6472

To figure the final price of a car, do they add up all their fees plus the tag price and take the tax off that final amount?

qbrozen

Sandman6472 said:

To figure the final price of a car, do they add up all their fees plus the tag price and take the tax off that final amount?

No. Sale price, not tag price. And incentives can vary. If customer incentives, then they are taxed. If dealer incentives, they are (typically) not. As far as I know, most states don't tax the DMV fees, either.

Sooo.. in NJ, it would be (sale price + incentives + dealer fees)xTax + gov fees.

sda

In SC, it is $600 max, but then the city/county taxes annually with tag renewal.

Sandman6472

I've looked at both the Golf's paperwork and the Audi's and both times, the dealer fee was added in before the tax was figured. Maybe it's a Florida thing, but it's the same on both. Even found the paperwork for the Tucson and the Civic and again, the same thing, dealer fee added in before the tax amount was calculated.

stickguy

yes, dealer fees are added in before tax, because the state considers that to be part of the selling price (which it is, just part of the top line money that goes into the dealers pocket). Same with customer incentives. State does not care who pays them, as long as they get their cut of the action.

qbrozen

Sandman6472 said:

I've looked at both the Golf's paperwork and the Audi's and both times, the dealer fee was added in before the tax was figured. Maybe it's a Florida thing, but it's the same on both. Even found the paperwork for the Tucson and the Civic and again, the same thing, dealer fee added in before the tax amount was calculated.

As my calculation above takes into account.

nyccarguy

Sandman6472 said:

I've looked at both the Golf's paperwork and the Audi's and both times, the dealer fee was added in before the tax was figured. Maybe it's a Florida thing, but it's the same on both. Even found the paperwork for the Tucson and the Civic and again, the same thing, dealer fee added in before the tax amount was calculated.

Those Florida doc fees are a tough pill to swallow.

Sandman6472

But, I always just care about the "out the door price". Tell the dealer to make the numbers fit however you can, I usually have a trade and say "my trade and such and such an amount out the door. It's never been an issue really. But yes, those fees are outrageous but that's part of buying a vehicle in Florida. Those other bogus fees at the Chevy store yesterday pissed me off, it's just like an admin fee for a popular vehicle...I won't pay them and would rather walk out.
Totally agree that the Sonic is old, looks old, a new one is needed. So very glad that deal fell through. I didn't even counter as I was so mad. My wife saw it and let me be, didn't say a word. Very smart lady as she knows, I never get that mad, NEVER! They both saw it and didn't question me as they knew I needed to just calm down, which I did within minutes of leaving that hell hole.

qbrozen

so what did you get for the accent?

treyxt

looking for trade value on:

2017
Chevy
Malibu
LS
36,000 Miles
Good condition with no issues
zip is 21701

qbrozen

treyxt said:

looking for trade value on:

2017
Chevy
Malibu
LS
36,000 Miles
Good condition with no issues
zip is 21701

about $10k if it isn't a crazy color

Veekeepoo

Love a trade value please... THANKS in advance!!
2016
Chevy Malibu hybrid
Leather/Bose/upgraded paint (white pearl)
57000 miles
Zip code 91791
Tiny nick front wheel well (see pic)

28firefighter

That is more than a tiny nick Not to mention the condition of your wheel (that we can see). This is not going to be pretty.

Veekeepoo

Yeah.. lol.. I thought the same thing after I posted. I still have the insurance money to fix... what would both scenarios look like please...

qbrozen

Veekeepoo said:

Love a trade value please... THANKS in advance!!
2016
Chevy Malibu hybrid
Leather/Bose/upgraded paint (white pearl)
57000 miles
Zip code 91791
Tiny nick front wheel well (see pic)

Ehhhh... I’d say around $8500-$9k as is. If perfect, would be like $10k-$10.5k.

Sandman6472

Looks like they'll only give her $4900 for it. Would've preferred more like $5500 but we're ready for this incident to just go away. Think we did pretty good getting her 2020 Accent for $17K plus door edge guards and 3 oil changes.
So ready for all this drama to be over so we can all get back to our somewhat normal lives. Next thing up is getting her moved into a new apartment come April 1st. Think she'll buy in a couple of years when we all re-locate to the middle of Florida finally!!

qbrozen

Was that 4900 after her deductible?

I did say $5k min, so not far off.

toywaltz

Wondering what you're seeing for this:

2018 Ford Expedition Limited 4x4 22,000 miles Columbus, OH. Seems to be a ~$10k swing between trade offers I've received and purported "good deals" on cars/autotrader/etc.

qbrozen

toywaltz said:

Wondering what you're seeing for this:

2018 Ford Expedition Limited 4x4 22,000 miles Columbus, OH. Seems to be a ~$10k swing between trade offers I've received and purported "good deals" on cars/autotrader/etc.

Unfortunately, there are some big swings at auction, too. But most are related to condition. If this unit is in good condition with no former paintwork, then it should be around $43k-$43.5k as a trade.

toywaltz

qbrozen said:

Unfortunately, there are some big swings at auction, too. But most are related to condition. If this unit is in good condition with no former paintwork, then it should be around $43k-$43.5k as a trade.

Huh. I've had two offers below $40k and truck is spotless.

jmonroe

toywaltz said:

qbrozen said:

Unfortunately, there are some big swings at auction, too. But most are related to condition. If this unit is in good condition with no former paintwork, then it should be around $43k-$43.5k as a trade.

Huh. I've had two offers below $40k and truck is spotless.

Try Carvana. They surprised the hell out of me in April. In fact, they seem to do that a lot. There are probably 3 or 4 guys in here that can back-up what I'm saying. It won't hurt to look.

jmonroe

28firefighter

Definitely check Carvana, Vroom, Carmax etc. If the offer comes in higher and you're trading on a new car, try to get the dealer to match - they'll be more inclined with substantive evidence. That way, you get the benefit of any trade tax credit.

Michaell

28firefighter said:

Definitely check Carvana, Vroom, Carmax etc. If the offer comes in higher and you're trading on a new car, try to get the dealer to match - they'll be more inclined with substantive evidence. That way, you get the benefit of any trade tax credit.

I can confirm that. When I traded in my Mazda CX-7 for our Subaru Outback, I got the Subaru dealer to bump their trade offer by $2000 because I had a CarMax quote from earlier in the day that they had to match.

toywaltz

jmonroe said:

Try Carvana. They surprised the hell out of me in April. In fact, they seem to do that a lot. There are probably 3 or 4 guys in here that can back-up what I'm saying. It won't hurt to look.

jmonroe

Carvana is showing $39.3k. Just submitted to Vroom and will see.

qbrozen

Here is the pertinent data for you. Like I said, you have some outliers. The one that could be hurting you is $39k for a perfect condition 17k mile unit. The asterisk there means Manheim considers it an anomaly.

jmonroe

toywaltz said:

jmonroe said:

Try Carvana. They surprised the hell out of me in April. In fact, they seem to do that a lot. There are probably 3 or 4 guys in here that can back-up what I'm saying. It won't hurt to look.

jmonroe

Carvana is showing $39.3k. Just submitted to Vroom and will see.

Good luck. Just curious, what were dealers offering?

jmonroe

jmonroe

qbrozen said:

Here is the pertinent data for you. Like I said, you have some outliers. The one that could be hurting you is $39k for a perfect condition 17k mile unit. The asterisk there means Manheim considers it an anomaly.

That really doesn't make sense. I see that is in the Burgh, which is where I am. That pretty much explains why I bought my last three new cars out of state (2 in Ohio and 1 in Virginia).

jmonroe

stickguy

It’s an auction. Sometimes bidders don’t bid and it fell through the cracks.

toywaltz

jmonroe said:

Good luck. Just curious, what were dealers offering?

$39.5 and $39.9k. I had been expecting right on what qbrozen posted.

jmonroe

toywaltz said:

jmonroe said:

Good luck. Just curious, what were dealers offering?

$39.5 and $39.9k. I had been expecting right on what qbrozen posted.

I'm surprised that Carvana was the low-baller. If nothing else now you know.

jmonroe

toywaltz

jmonroe said:

I'm surprised that Carvana was the low-baller. If nothing else now you know.

jmonroe

Vroom came back $41.1k. With no tax advantage to selling, it's not a good option anyway.

28firefighter

No, but you can use that with a dealer you're shopping with to ask them to match it. Then you would get the benefit.

toywaltz

28firefighter said:

No, but you can use that with a dealer you're shopping with to ask them to match it. Then you would get the benefit.

Yes I plan to try but there's not much motivation when the dealer knows his offer still nets me $1,700 more.

explorerx4

I traded my car in a couple of months ago and got 2 dealers to match Carvana's higher offer.

xwesx

toywaltz said:

28firefighter said:

No, but you can use that with a dealer you're shopping with to ask them to match it. Then you would get the benefit.

Yes I plan to try but there's not much motivation when the dealer knows his offer still nets me $1,700 more.

If you go into it from a net difference standpoint, it doesn't matter how the dealer spins it. In other words, how much are you willing to pay for the new vehicle on top of your trade value, out the door?

Once you decide that, you just need to present the offer and stick to your guns. It is up to you to either accept the lowball offer or walk.

Sandman6472

When I buy a new vehicle, and just like we did Sunday when my kid bought a new car, we told them that we have a deal on the table for $17K plus door edge guards. If you can match it, or beat it, we'll buy the car today. They matched it and gave her the 5K, 10K & 15K mile services, so we bought the car there. At that point, it's up to them to make the numbers work on the sales sheet. They have their doc fees nonsense which is very high in Florida, so they have to play with the numbers to get to that important $17K. Make the numbers add up just as long as we're paying only $17K. In her case, they took $5K on her credit card, so she just had to write a check for $12K at the end. We didn't do any financing as they didn't have a 0% rate on this particular unit but if they did, we'd have done that.
She's happy with this amount out the door which is all that matters to us. She got a damn nice vehicle for a great price. A win/win for all. Now, if the deal wasn't fair to both sides, the dealer would've said no and then we'd either have to raise or offer or leave. We left the Chevy store because their price plus all the fees was just too high in my opinion. And to be honest, the Sonic felt like an old car, nothing really made her want it over the Hyundai.

explorerx4

Not the way I would have bought a car, but to each their own.

kyfdx

If a dealership employee doesn’t shed tears at some point, then I haven’t done my job.

jmonroe

kyfdx said:

If a dealership employee doesn’t shed tears at some point, then I haven’t done my job.

That reminds me of '87 when I was trying to by a used '85 Grand Prix. After a few trips to his sales manager because I was not coming off my price, as I was talking to the salesman and was about to leave, the SM barges in and says, "is this the guy that's trying to steal our car"? I replied with, "you tell me, am I going to do it or not". After one last try by the SM to get another 50 bucks out of me, with no success, I'm happy to say I stole it.

jmonroe

breld

Seems to me Carvana is cooling off a bit on their somewhat aggressive offers. I wonder if they were pushing a bit hard to get noticed and get the business going and now are falling back in line.

Echopark seems to be aggressive in their buy offers right now, but they're only in CO and TX I believe.

nyccarguy

breld said:

Seems to me Carvana is cooling off a bit on their somewhat aggressive offers. I wonder if they were pushing a bit hard to get noticed and get the business going and now are falling back in line.

Echopark seems to be aggressive in their buy offers right now, but they're only in CO and TX I believe.

I agree. They gave me a strong buy price on my Q40, but I got a better price (not by that much) for my Mom's 80K mile 2016 Cayenne from the Lexus dealer.

stickguy

Darn. Hope I didn’t miss my only shot to clean up on the RDX!

andres3

I think the Carvana model was to overpay until they got their "name" out there. Now they are getting greedier.

jmonroe

stickguy said:

Darn. Hope I didn’t miss my only shot to clean up on the RDX!

How do you think I feel? My Genny will be 5 years old in June and fully paid off too. Not that the payments are all that much (350 bucks a month). Putting that money in the bank ain't gonna be much fun but its better than hearing Mrs. j start talking about a dining room suite again like she mentioned a few weeks ago. Yep, there are worse things than not getting a new car.

jmonroe

sda

jmonroe said:

stickguy said:

Darn. Hope I didn’t miss my only shot to clean up on the RDX!

How do you think I feel? My Genny will be 5 years old in June and fully paid off too. Not that the payments are all that much (350 bucks a month). Putting that money in the bank ain't gonna be much fun but its better than hearing Mrs. j start talking about a dining room suite again like she mentioned a few weeks ago. Yep, there are worse things than not getting a new car.

jmonroe

You still haven’t bought her the dining room suite? Has she banned you to the dog house?

jmonroe

sda said:

jmonroe said:

stickguy said:

Darn. Hope I didn’t miss my only shot to clean up on the RDX!

How do you think I feel? My Genny will be 5 years old in June and fully paid off too. Not that the payments are all that much (350 bucks a month). Putting that money in the bank ain't gonna be much fun but its better than hearing Mrs. j start talking about a dining room suite again like she mentioned a few weeks ago. Yep, there are worse things than not getting a new car.

jmonroe

You still haven’t bought her the dining room suite? Has she banned you to the dog house?

Nope, no dining room suite yet and no dog house either. I'm pretty good, huh?

jmonroe