Trade-in values for Gen II Prius

Edmunds shows the trade in is $15K for your Prius, expecting the dealer will give you $13K for it.

 

yep, times have changed. part of it is the economy, part of it is that for the most part, Toyota has finally caught up with the demand, and finally; part of it is the 2010 Prius.

in Sept 2006, my 28 month old 2004 pkg 1 Pri was totaled. i had paid a total of just over $22,000 after taxes out the door. no incentives of any kind. had just over $30,000 miles on it. insurance company paid me "fair market replacement value" of $23,800 (at the time the waiting list for a new Prius was 6-12 weeks. keeping in mind that the full hybrid tax credit was ending sept 30th)

back then there were a total of less than 250,000 Priuses worldwide. used, new, it did not matter, they were in demand.

now, when i was first in the market for the 2010, put out feelers on trade-ins, or just plain out right sale of the 2006 i have. now its a pkg 4 that was $26,500 out the door, nearly the exact same mileage (actually less than 1000 miles more at the time) and best i could probably get was around $14-16,000 if i sold it, probably 2-3,000 less on a trade in.

that was biggest reason i just decided to keep both. there may come a time that we will need them both, so why not?

 

My KBB/Edmunds/NADA averaged value was about $11,000 for a car in average condition. I got $9,000, but I was happy because my old prius was used as an animal transport vehicle and the back seat was DISGUSTING even after a serious cleaning.

*EDIT* I should also mention that I got the new prius for about a grand under MSRP.

 

It is hard to tell what you are really getting on trade since the dealer will sometimes subsidize the trade in value with the price of the new one. One dealer offered me $18k for my 08 pkg5 with 15000 miles and a $500 discount on the new vehicle. Another offered me $19k with no discount.

finally sold it for $19500. Makes me a little ill to think about it since I paid 26600 new exactly a year before. But I got into the new one for 23,500 so the difference was 4k which makes me feel a little better.

G

 

2005 Driftwood Pearl
66K miles
Minor paint damage on front (due to a long road trip and love bug splatters that weren't washed off for about 10 days).

Other than that, good shape. I was willing to take the hit on the trade for what they were offering me the 2010 for.

 

Geez.

I took a look at the aucionvalues. I'd suggest ( asuming your car is decent and will not need a new set of tires to be retailable ) the trade range is $14,000 up to $15,000.

The reasons that you've seen the trade values drop are certainly due to the economy and some regions are worse than other. Heck, the Prius values are probably lower in New Orleans or anywhere in the south.

In Wisconsin we would have seen that same Prius value go from as high as $19k in June of '08 all the way down to $11k in November/ December of '08. Recently Toyota began offering 3.9% for 60 months on Prius and fuel prices went up ( May ). Values had already been on the rise but the fuel and special rate brought the values up.

The rates will run out in the next month. The summer selling seaon will be over soon and trade values will decrease again. The market is saturated with Prius now and dealers are going to see very soon that the pre-owned Prius inventory is aging. If you're going to trade....do it soon. Heck, I'd suggest that you get it done before August or in the first week of August. We'll ( the used car appraisor ) will be busy with the "cash for clunkers" program and will probably miss the down turn in the market. We'll figure it out around the 3rd week of August.

 

Bumper dings & hairline scratches don't qualify as excellent condition. Excellent condition is "showroom new". $15000 sounds good so I'd take it if I could. Next week the car will have more miles, be older & have more competition so the price will fall. However, if the price of gas spikes then the demand increases & so will the price. Don't bet on increasing gas prices in the immediate future.

 

$15,000 for a 2006? wow... prices must be going up.

 

The only thing the solar drives is the fan, I was disappointed at the results was still for warm inside for the cost. I have a 2006 with pkg 3 in absolute excellent condition and offered me 12k on a trade in then up to 13k, big deal, so on a 30k its 18k and my car absolutely no way I will keep my 06, and I keep pounding on on only camera with NAV system, I don't need NAV system, but I would like a camera.

 

I got 12k for my 2005 with Nav. It was equally trashed with a very dirty interior, 2 front window dings (one just a star and one fairly deep), rear fender dented (needed back-up camera) and many, many scratches,
I was just stopping to look at the solar roofs....... I knew I'd never make it out without taking one home with me.

 

So does the Prius have a good resale value? Hearing of people losing $10-12k on 3-4 yr old cars makes me a little uneasy about paying MSRP.

BTW - I was looking on Edmunds' "true cost of ownership" thingy and they have the '09 Prius depreciating $5,181 in the first year. Other cars like the Civic, CRV and Accord lose about $2,200 in the first year. Is this because the '10 is already already out and a new '09 Prius is essentially 1 year old when you buy it?

 

I just looked on carfax for my car a 2006 prius is selling for over 17k with 40k miles, so if they give me 12000 for the 2006 and nothing off the sticker they are making almost 8000k gross profit, this is not counting any kick back from the manufacture for meeting quotas. Nice profit, to much for me.

 

That's not what they're selling for, that's what they're asking. The first prius I owned, I bought used. The asking price was $20,000 and I paid $16,000. No one should ever pay anything close to the asking price for a used car on a dealer lot.