trade in value

As I understand it, a dealer will give you about 70% of the lowest value listed on KBB, Edmunds etc. If the listed trade in value is $5000 then the dealership will offer $3500. That's exactly what happened to me. I too got up and walked away, but was lured back to talk to the "manager". I then got the real high pressure, for which I have NO use for in this day and age, but stuck to my guns and ended up with a trade in value of $4500. To listen to the manager you'd a thought he sold his grandmother to be able to give me the "extra" grand I wanted. I think the key is to stick tough when negotiating a trade-in with a dealer. Especially if your car is in very good to excellent condition. If it's a heap, then take the money and run!

 

Nowadays, many dealers use the Manheim Wholesale Auctions live sales figures as the new low-low max they'll allow you on a trade in.
They figure if they're not able to sell it for retail off their lot- it will end up at the auctions... so that's all they'll give you on your trade.

I think it's kind of a new thing, cause when I traded in my 2012 Prius Five for the 2012 PIP they didn't use the Manheim prices, but when I traded in the 2012 PIP for the 2014 Volt- they went right to the Manheim sheet once we settled on the price of the new car and the trade in negotiations began.

You'll do better with Carmax- but you don't get the trade-in tax advantage. If you're trading in- forget the KBB values... go all the way down to wholesale auction pricing to avoid trade-in shock.

 

+1 !

 

I recently was looking to drop my prius for a civc, I have had a prius for last 10 yrs and usually just trade in every 2 yrs and fight with dealer on trade in value. This is what I discovered about Prius Trade ins.

I bought a 2013 toyota prius persona trim with added upgrades the total was as much as a version 5 with full upgrades, around 30k. Granted I only had it one year but was curious about civic so figured would see what dealer was offering. 18k trade in value..... I left in disgust, and after calming down I went and started doing my own research.

KBB and Edmonds lists all of the Prius trim levels and while they dont cover all the options they at least give your a fair market value for your trim level.

No dealer uses either of these, they either use black book, NADA, or some other form and what I have found for some odd reason is that the prius doesnt have any trim options for any of these sites. You get a basic trim 4dr hatchback option and thats it. So no matter if you got a trim value greater than base model, it doesnt count. Toyota themselves use the same basis from what I can gather but they will work with you if going to do business with them, not many others will.
Every other toyota model has trim variants for trade in value but not the Prius, no one can explain this to me and makes me wonder how many trade in's I got screwed on because I had a trim package better than base model. Was it left out on purpose? By request? I wish I could find out but this has real soured me on ever owning one anymore and I have had 3 so far. Glad I was curious about Civic tho as led me to call and check with other sources and find why the value is being reported so low.

 

You can hardly blame the dealer for not trying to get the most out of you. Of course they know your trim level, when they list it back for sale, they normally have all the options and trim level listed......so they can get the full value.

The case of seller beware!

 

While the dealer may be aware of the trim levels and play dumb about them, it doesnt help when they have a program that competely ignores them. Yes they can make a killing off trade ins, but why can I go into this same site and choose Camry hybrid and have several package choices for trade in value and nothing for Prius when it has several versions other than base. If I can google the average price of a car so can dealer yet they will give you this is what our computer shows. Yes Seller beware, but most of the time I just figured Prius's take a huge depreciation hit, but part of that is due to fact their undervalued from the get go unless you bought the base package. Instead of having to fight with dealer , add the trim levels to their trade in sites and at least show me what that trims trade in value is.

 

It's a fine balance of highway robbery and helping you get into the new car you want. You always have the option to walk but they don't want that, do they?

 

I was offered $9,000 last week for my 2011 Prius 2 with 50k, dealer maintained with records. Dealer not too far away has a 2011 Prius ONE with 51k CPO for $17,800….so based on a $9k trade in thats a some nice profit even if they end up getting "talked down" to ~$15k.
Was looking at a used Tacoma Double Cab 4x4 with TRD off road, tow pkg, shell, etc… that they had "discounted" from $25k to $21,900. Blue book on that was $18,000 Suggested Retail and $14,000 trade in.

When I got up to leave he said "what if I give you $15,000 for your car?" Which my reply was "ok, lets do it and $17,000 out the door for the Tacoma and we're done" Then the manager came out and tried to tell me that they are only make $500 on that truck….so I asked for the documents on it with everything they paid etc….which he said he could not legally provide…Truck has now dropped to $18,988.

 

They would still need $7000 for the deal to work. So your trade in is worth $12000 now

 

They called today saying that they would do $14k for my car and $21 out the door for the truck…unfortunately I can't justify selling a car thats averaging me 55 mpg for a 15 mpg truck that I may use 10-15 times a year for off road.

 

That is interesting. I traded a 2011 Prius Two on May 20 of this year for a 2014 Avalon Hybrid XLE Touring. My Prius had 48,000 miles on it. I got $16,500 trade in for my Prius. MSRP for the Avalon was $38,000. I traded for $22,500 out the door. I did not think that was too bad. They had my Prius listed for, I think about $17,500. I traded in a suburb of Chicago.