Selling My 2010 and taking it in the shorts!

So you can make a lawyer richer, raise the price of future cars and maybe just maybe get a coupon for $200 off your next new Toyota.

 

Toyota hasn't been in the news lately. The media has forgotten about it. Summertime and its higher gas prices are a month away. Prius prices will Rebound, at least a little.

 

Re: Loss on Resale Lawsuit

A couple of posts have discussed whether a lawsuit would go anywhere if the cause of action was that Toyota's have dropped in value due to the recall mania.

Ford faced, amongst all its other lawsuits over the Explorer, a lawsuit exactly like that. And, as one poster said above, the owners got next to nothing while the lawyers got rich.

Here are a few comments drawn from a Bloomberg story at
Ford Lawsuit Settlement Gives $500 Coupons to Explorer Owners - Bloomberg.com

• Ford Motor Co. will give almost 1 million Explorer sport-utility vehicle customers $500 toward a new model or $300 toward other Ford vehicles to settle lawsuits claiming the SUVs lost resale value after a 2000 tire recall.
• Customers in California, Illinois, Texas and Connecticut who bought or leased Explorers from 1990 to 2000 will be eligible to claim certificates toward the lease or purchase of new vehicles, said Kevin Roddy, an attorney for California customers who sued. Ford, the second-biggest U.S. automaker, confirmed the accord.
• The accord, subject to court approval, could cost Ford as much as $500 million if all eligible customers received $500, Roddy said. The settlement resolves false-advertising lawsuits seeking reimbursements for customers claiming Explorers were worth less after the vehicles' tires were recalled.
• The plaintiffs' attorneys will be paid $25 million in fees for work on the economic-damages suits, he said.

'nuff said.

 

HCH class action settlement

On a related note regarding class action lawsuits, take a look at this gem of a settlement for HCH owners, that supposedly has been rejected.

ConsumerMan: Prosecutors win, but not clients - ConsumerMan- msnbc.com

Judge Questions Coupon Settlement in Honda Class Action - Law Blog - WSJ

 

I didn't trade my Prius because of the recall, I traded it because it was boring to drive. I liked it initially, and I still liked it when I traded it, but it wasn't fun to drive. I drove a VW Golf, and it has some of the same things I liked about my Mercedes. The suspension, and the engine, and the solid, well-built feeling it had. I traded the Mercedes because the warrantee ran out, and its transmission, and electrical systems were acting funny. I have nothing against the Prius, I like seeing them on the road, and miss certain things about mine, but the Golf is just so much more satisfying to drive, and with an ordinary in-line five cylinder, 170hp, 177lb-ft torque, it gets in the mid-to-upper thirties in the city, and on back roads, and I've already hit 42.6 with it on the highway, and it was still climbing when I got off at my exit. As to the suit, it's not because of the recall, but because Toyota hid the recall info from the government, and their customers, undermining people's confidence in them, and causing my Prius III, which I paid $24,340 for to drop in value to the point where I could only get $19,110 for it as a trade. Yes, I decided when to trade it, but, I feel that if Toyota had been more forthright with what they knew about the problems with their cars, I would have gotten a higher trade-in value for it. I was disappointed with Toyota, I'd heard good things about their cars, and had always wanted to try on. I felt the brake "problem" the first time it snowed, but I thought it was just the ABS pulsing. Once I got used to it, I thought that's just how that car operated, and I never felt unsafe in it; I'd just allow more distance to stop in snow. I did like the car, I just traded it because I found another car I liked better, but I feel I was harmed financially by Toyota's hiding things, and the psychological reaction it caused when people found out about it. I think it's a shame, but I think they need to be responsible for their behavior, and the effect it had on me, and other people.

 

stupidity is not a right, it's a privelage.:rockon:

 

Added paragraph divisions so each assertion stands alone.

I am not a lawyer and have no idea what the law says about selling personal property. I think some state consumer laws may apply but it is an area I have no experience. If it were a stock sale, the former stock holders might have a claim if it can be shown those who knew of the secret information used it for personal gain. However, this is not a stock, an investment, sale.

There is a question of determination of the loss. It is my understanding that driving a new car off of a lot results in a $5,000 loss of value:
The Cost Of Driving A Car Off The Dealer's Lot - Research and Read Books, Journals, Articles at Questia Online Library

Drive a (Nearly) New Car for (Almost) Free!

How Does a New Car Lose Value After Driving Off the Lot? | eHow.com

So let's take the consensus value, 20% instant depreciation:

$24,340 * 20% = $4,868
$24,340 - $19,110 = $5,230
$5,230 - 4,868 = $362 (* assumes no fees or taxes)

$362 * (1/3) ~= $120 (* after attorney's fee)
​

I'm no lawyer but this is my understanding.

Bob Wilson

 

Do you still not understand that $19k as a trade-in price is fair? And that comparing a brand-new car price to trade-in price is comparing apples to oranges?

You should have sold the car private party - you'd get at least 2-3k more more selling it that way.

 

Without knowing how many miles he had it seems ballpark reasonable.

CARS are not gold coins. You will always lose money when you sell one you recently bought. This is why until now I've never bought a new car and I only leased this one because Toyota has ridiculous deals on them. As soon as you drive a car off the lot you've just lost thousands alone.

 

Seems to me you should have looked at a Golf as well as the Prius and spent your money at the Volkswagen dealer in the first place.

However, VW have been sending a lot of cars out the door with their own subsidized leases (the sign and drive deal) and in short order the value of your VW will be tied to those cars coming back off lease.

Depreciation is always gonna kick your wallet. You made the mistake and don't want to accept the consequences.

 

With cars - when you are buying a car it always seems the cars are worth more money than you think. when you are selling it always seems like the cars are worth less money than you think.

No way around it

a golf? you got to be kidding right? that's a good car if you are 18

 

Suing for loss of value is idiocy. Imagine if Toyota had reported that it was suing all owners back in 2008, when values were higher than expected. It would be the same lopsided logic. Toyota has never represented to a customer what the car's value will be over time.

We win some, we lose some. Lucky for us, there is a fair chance that the value will rebound, but Toyota has no responsibility towards the perverse stupidity of the American marketplace.

 

Newbie here. I too am considering a used 2010 PriusII with under 3000 miles from a private owner. Given that I can buy a new one for right around $21k with free maintenance, what would be a fair price for this car? $20k?

Resale is a real concern if you have to sell the car down the road for whatever reason. The glut of 2010s on the dealer lots tell me that $18-19k would perhaps be a more realistic price for this car.

 

Danix, will you have to pay sales tax ?

 

Yes, 9.25% "use tax". Used car transactions are taxed in CA. The more I think about this, the more of a bad idea I think it is.

 

I'm very doubtful of your mileage, unless you're hypermiling.

In Consumer Reports testing, they got 17 city/34 highway, 24 mpg overall and 30 mpg on a 150 mile trip on 2.5L 5 automatic.

Per EPA tests at Side-by-Side Comparison, I see this:
manual: 22/30, 25 mpg combined
auto: 23/30, 26 mpg combined

 

Second that. The VW I5 is notoroiusly uneconomical for an engine of it's output. The numbers you've quoted would make more sense with a TDI, but not the I5.

 

The difference between the price I paid for my 2007 Prius and the price I sold it for this weekend is $7,000 or $184 for every month I owned it and drove it 52K miles. That's less than 14 cents per mile. Doesn't sound so bad to me.