We own a 2006 silver Prius, package #6 and have been really happy with it. We bought it for the HOV stickers to cut down on my commute time when we lived in the bay area. We've since moved to the Seattle area and hadn't even thought about selling it until a Toyota dealership manager approached me at a grocery store parking lot asking if I'd be willing to trade it in because he was interested in the HOV stickers. We were surprised by the random interest in the car so we googled for any information on the Prius with HOV stickers and found the NPR article online that indicated the Prius with the stickers are going for at least $4K over cars without. But is that a realistic expectation? He is offering us $18K trade-in for the car (Kelly blue book for the car with 30K miles is $15.5K). We have both the Maintenance plan and the Platinum Extended Warranty to 100K (that we purchased through Prius-chat) on this car but the dealer said that those are of no value to him and to try to cancel those packages with Toyota to get a pro-rated refund on them. Is that even possible to do? He is offering a trade for a brand new 2007 Prius, just about identical to the one we currently own, for $23.5K. I do realize that the trade-in value is lower than what we can get for private sale. But since we live in Washington, I don't want to have to deliver the car to CA either so I'm okay with the lower trade-in. But I just want to make sure that he is not trying to take advantage of us. thanks in advance for any help and guidance.
If I understand correctly, you are considering taking your perfectly good car... and giving it and $5.5k to basically get the SAME car again, just one year newer? I vote no. Keeping one more single-occupant vehicle out of the HOV lane is just icing on the cake.
OOps, I think I did something wrong before, sorry. I found this site while looking to buy a Prius. Is there a special area where people list used Prii for sale on this site? If so, please let me know where to find it. I'd prefer to buy from a private party. I'm in the SF bay area, south bay. Thanks. Kim
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(food4thot @ Sep 19 2007, 03:48 PM) [snapback]514955[/snapback]</div> I'm not impressed with that trade in offer. Check edmunds.com and nada as well as Kelly; the reports on trade value can vary widely. I was offered $22k in trade (this was against the purchase of a 2007 prius at $750 under MSRP) by a Toyota dealer a month ago. I have a 2006 with 14k miles, leather and NAV. No HOV stickers of course; I'm in Minnesota. Turned it down, although probably a fair offer. They had offered me $24k in trade in the early spring, but I think that may have been before Toyota dropped the MSRP on the NAV packages. rpm
food4thot, that sounds like a bad deal. A 2006 with 30K should be around for around $18-20K on fair market. Adding the HOV stickers for another $3K. You should trade him for a new 2007 with no money exchanged. I knew that because my friend just sold his Prius with HOV stickers at $3k premium and it was sold in one day!
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(food4thot @ Sep 19 2007, 03:48 PM) [snapback]514955[/snapback]</div> If you were to advertise your car for sale in California, I'm sure some buyers would be willing to fly (or Amtrak) up to Seattle to drive it home. The buyer could also choose to have a trucking company ship the car back to California at his/her expense (probably a couple of hundred dollars). I personally wouldn't have a problem adding one more single-occupant, yellowed-stickered Prius to the HOV lanes. For all we know, the potential buyer could be replacing their gas-guzzler with your Prius...
