Kelley blue book vs. Edmunds.com

Why trade it in? You do much better selling it privately. The dealer will never give you fair market value for your car. It's more of a hassle selling it yourself, but IMHO it's worth doing.

 

Dealer offered me 14.9 on my '04 this evening... basic '04, 26K on the clock...

:lol:

http://priuschat.com/Thinking-about-tradin...Pri-t13373.html

I'm DAMN curious, what have dealers quoted you?

 

I'm selling my 04 also to get an 06. The NADA was about 19.2 plus $1k for options. The dealers (3) all offered me 19k. when I asked, they said that all dealers go with base trade in and do not include any options markups.

Funny thing is as I was making a phone call in my car in the parking lot, another sales guy came up and said he could probably get me $21k for my car. I thought he had a private buyer but turns out he meant the same manager who had just offered me $19k. My regular sales guy came out too. A few days later I got a call from my regular sales guy saying he had gone to a 'higher manager' and they could give me just over $21k. I was on my way out the door for a 3 month vacation so I declined.

Right now I'm asking $22,450 and had my car sold for $21,750 but the lady had a house emergency and backed out. I keep getting told I will get $22k easy but no luck in like 6 months so far, some calls though.

Hopefully I'll be able to sell my car before my 06 comes in (probably Feb). I love my 04 and I am not willing to pay 3 or 4 thou to upgrade to an 06 (even with the rebate included).

John

 

Keep in mind that your sales tax on the new car is reduced for the price of the trade in .
I don't know what your sales tax is but at 7% @ $16500.00 = $1155.00
So the dealer really is offering you a trade in value of $17655.00 and no hassel.

 

And if you end up moving, most states require you to show proof of what tax you paid, and you pay the difference in rate.

For example, you buy a Prius in New Mexico, no tax on hybrids, you move to Florida, they make you pay 6% (roughly, can't remember the exact %) on the purchase price to register your car there

Or you buy your car in Texas, 5% tax paid at purchse. You move to Florida, you pay 1% (6-5).

The scam is the states usually just give you a bill for the full tax in their state, and if you are not aware you just end up paying the whole thing. So if you move to Florida they give you a bill for 6%, they don't ask if you've already paid.

Just something to be aware of.

 

What's the point of trading an '04 for an '06? I considered it myself for about 15 seconds. But it's a lot of money for relatively minor improvements. I'm waiting for the next major model revision, which I am hoping will have significant efficiency improvements, and maybe some fun stuff we have not thought of yet.

 

I second that. That's a pretty new car, and you basically get only the same thing in return... (plus you lose the Nav override!)

I too wouldn't be willing to lose too much in the deal!

 

i have to agree, i am more than ready to trade in mine for the next model, but i dont consider the 06 to be any different than my car and it aint really. it just has a different option pack.

besides, im fairly confident that Toyota will be releasing an extended EV operation vehicle in the next version. sure it will cost $5,000 more, but i be first in line to get it.

besides... im still 200 miles under 20k miles... my baby barely broke in.

 

From a Toyota dealer perspective.. KBB 'hates' all Toyota's. The $2K difference you find is generally the same differential across the board on all Toyota's at KBB. I will say that it is good for us frankly. It's a lowball number. Edmunds is closer to the real auction values.
Condition is a MAJOR factor in the trade value though. Average is about the top you can expect from Edmunds if your vehicle is perfect with 30K miles in 2 yrs. Good is typical condition if it has any kind of wear; dings, needs tires, smoker inside, kids wear, etc.

 

All the price guides are simply what they are called, guides. The true indicator is the local market. Last month I was shopping for a used Classic Prius.

Of course owners want to recoup top-dollar for their automobile, especially a coveted and prized Prius!

In the private sales arena I saw prices of $10,000 to $19,000 for all years and mileage combinations of 2001 to 2003 cars. In the dealer arena I saw prices from $9,000 to $21,000 for virtually the same mix of cars!

I ended up buying a "pre-owned" Toyota Certified 2001 Prius from a local Toyota dealership for $9,500. The KBB price was $14,000, Edmunds $14,900, both nowhere near what I paid. And realistically, while I enjoy my Prius, it's an econobox that should be worth about $2000!

I also priced 2004 and 2005 models, and found that I could buy FAR below any guide price. I'm talking about low mileage, excellent condition cars.

During my shopping I also discovered that every dealer I walked into ALWAYS had at least two brand new fully loaded cars to choose from, without any tacked on dollars over MSRP.

I could not believe that people were paying $4k over MSRP after being on a waiting list for months!! What list? I came out of my shopping experience believing that there are alot of unscrupulous Toyota dealers creating artifical hype in order to jack-up the sales price. I still am getting salesmen calling me with available cars!

 

Actually you happend to hit the perfect situation. Since summer there have been few if any Prius' on any lot in the US. At the beginning of Nov Toyota shorted the entire US market so that where we normally expected 6-10 units on Nov 1 we got 2!! Then on the 15th allocation they made it up so that on the 20th instead of 6-10 we got 12!!! But then the '06s came in right behind them 2 weeks later. We had 3 on the lot for a short time, probably like most stores, for the first time in 6 months.
That being said there is no reason for anyone to pay $4K over sticker. Since the Gen1's came out in 2001 we and everyone in CAT have been at sticker only; some may offer nominal discounts to complete a sale.

 

When I traded in my 04 for a new 05 in July my dealer allowed me $17,000. and that was for a package #4 with 45k on it.

 

That varies by state. California tax is not reduced by a trade-in.

 

Wait a minute here. Didn't your new car salesman tell you that Toyota has the highest resale value and will hold it longer than any other car on the market? Yet when you take it in for a trade they cut you off at the knees. Gotta love the dirt bag salesman.