Selling My 2010 and taking it in the shorts!

LOL!
It was like that here for a few weeks but the massive incentives and really low lease rates put so many cars on the roads here NEW thru that, their marketing blitz was brilliant. It creates a vacuum of sorts for business after the residuals adjusted downwards - even though they really only dropped about 2% ... and the rates doubled (even though the original lease rate at .00075 was unbelievably low and was the equivalent to a 1.8 apr) so the new .00150 lease rate not as good as the March one, but is still only about 3.8 for the first three years on approx 50-60% of the entire car balance!

The current rates are more realistic and definitely here to stay -- at least till the next gold digging jackass pretends he has a runaway Prius to get at the deep pockets of the Mother Ship....

 

Commiserations to any P-chat members suffering in this economy. Although my wife got laid off by Wal-Mart Corporate in February (better to have two 24 year old college grads showing up every day making $35k a year than an a ten year term middle aged woman making $65k), we are fortunate that our kids are in the final year of High School or already away in college, so the loss of income has been largely offset.

Anyhow, I have to say hybrids have been very good to us and we just bought our 3rd this past week - the Prius that brought us to this site. Our first was Camry hybrid I ordered sight unseen. I put 30k on it the first year and sold it for $2k less than I paid for it - right when gas prices were cranking. I bought a Chevy Tahoe hybrid program truck with 160 miles (off the Chevy dealer auction site) that had an MSRP of $55k when they could not give them away in late 2008 for $33k and just traded that vehicle in with 26k on it and got back $33.5k.

I don't expect to get the same scenario on the Prius but who knows? When gas prices zoom to $4 a gallon in the next two years, our precious Prius are going to be in heavy demand again. If not, I don't care. I am seeing 50mpg on the dash inside the first 100 miles and if that is optomistic, I am still going to feel good about this vehicle.

Losing 10-20% with 17k on the clock per the OP is not too shabby. Thank God I did not pay the $49k wanted by my local dealer on the Tahoe hybrid for a new one and took the used one with 160 miles on it.

 

I bought a Prius III December 10, 2009, and traded it March 10, 2010. Paid $24,350 for it new, and got $19,110 with 4,000 miles on it, and had had the brake recall done, and the 1,000 mile service. Emailed Toyota, asking them to reimburse me $2,000, as I felt it was the recall stuff that drove down the value of my trade, they said no. I'm disappointed with Toyota, this was my frst Toyota. Looking to join the class-action lawsuit, if anybody has any information.

 

Another thought, I traded a 2003 Mercedes-Benz E320 in on the Prius. 64,000 miles. It listed for $45,000 new, and I bought it with 49,000 miles on it for $17,900 in March of 2009, certified pre-owned from a MB dealer,one year/12,000 mile warrantee. Got $14,885 for it in trade, 15,000 miles later.

 

Is your last name Sikes or are you related? Oy!
Good god, I haven't read anything this whacked in a long time.

YOU chose to trade the car. It wasn't a service problem or a lemon or any other thing than YOU choosing to trade it.

I have sold so many Prius since 2001, I have lost count. Thousands. Loads of them are still with their owners or their owner's families.

There was no brake recall on Prius. There was a 2010 software flash to correct the car's feel when ABS and VSC were engaged. Plenty of folks did the software flash recall thing and kept on going in their Prius ownership.

If you trade out of a car every time there's a recall on a part of the car, you'll be changing cars so often you'll go broke.

Lastly, 19,110 for the base model Prius II with 4K miles is reasonable.

The III with base audio is nothing but a fancy II with JBL. You have to look at it like a II when it's a trade.

These II cars are $22,600 at invoice now, and were $22,222 at invoice thru early January. Even a III with base audio was only $700 more.

What SHOULD a dealer pay for a used late model car with 4K on it?

If you were BUYING your "used" car as a consumer and could right now buy your model car NEW for $23K-23,500, what would you like to pay for someone's used one with 4K? NOT 22 or 23K ... so the dealer who gave you $19K gave you fair trade value for certain.

Hey, using your method, I think I'll get me a Mercedes or BMW and when I get my first recall notice on some adjustment or part, trade the car for whatever they offer me, and then sue Mercedes or BMW for the difference because I lost money when I traded it...

 

Give it up Dianne - she's somehow trying to compare the deprecation of a new car to the deprecation of a used car...

 

Why would you possibly expect a new car to not depreciate? If you drive a new car off of the lot and try to sell it the very next day, you will get less than you paid for it. It is now a used car, and no one will pay as much for a used car as a new one, except under very special and unusual market dynamics.

Tom

 

Like comparing Reese Witherspoon to Della Reese.

 

lol!

 

Some people just couldn't figure it out that why I cannot get the same price for my Prius II like the used one the dealer is selling for $21K and only getting $19K for trading it in, or I should be able to sell it as private party as the dealer is selling.

 

Sorry to hear your situation. I recently checked the black book value on my 08 Prius. I paid $37 tax in (CDN). I've seen the price of the Prius drop a few times over the last 2 years.

Trade-in value is $16 - $18K. Toyota resale, my nice person. This was my first Toyota, I bought it in part because of Toyota's reputation for reliability and resale. Well it has been reliable but the resale value.... ha, what a crock. The result is I'm going to keep my Prius longer than I initially thought.... and I kinda wish I bought a Corolla, I would have lost a whole lot less money... oh well, nothing I can do now.

 

First off, when making a comparison, take the tax out of it. You make it very confusing otherwise, because tax "up there" or "over here" differs.

Second: any time a car changes a generation, and upgrades itself to a new and better version, you have a first year wave of reaction. Meaning, the value of the later years' old model (2007 - 2009) is in a glut on the market due to lease returns and trade ins on the "all new" so you have a window of time that your own car's value drops faster, but at some point, it will level out to a decent and more fair clip.

Let's face it. Cars depreciate. Some faster than others, and some depreciate FAST in spurts.

I agree that a Corolla could possibly have depreciated less but a Corolla here in CA would have averaged at $16000 and you'd have 0 apr right now. Anyone looking for used Corolla models right now is either going to buy new and pay 0 interest (if their credit is decent) or they are going OLDER ... so had you bought a 2008 Corolla for $16K, you'd have a car worth MAYBE $9k-$10K on trade because the new ones have $1000 rebates or a 0 apr for 60 months ... so a late model used needs to be VERY cheap.

The same could be pretty much said for all makes and models... Honda too with their "really big thing" leases. If you can lease a new Civic for $220 a month, how the heck do you rationalize paying $300 or 400 to finance a used one?

It's just how things are. Hardly anything with current promotions on them will return a huge resale value when traded because one must compete with that product new.

Dianne

 

Wow, I can't believe the complaints about cars depreciation on here. Really? You want to sue toyota because of a safety recall? The government wants to sue toyota because they didn't do the safety recall sooner. It seems that toyota can't win either way.

You can't sue a company because you paid high when the demand was high and then expect to sell high when demand has fallen off. Buy smarter.

I purchased my used toyota 4runner almost 2 years ago when gas prices were at $4 a gallon. It had 69k miles on it when I bought it, now it has 130k miles with only the scheduled maintenance done to it. Looked up the value after I purchased my prius last month, and was surprised to see that the value is at minimum, what I paid for it. Most people are selling them for more than I paid for mine. But all the people that were purchasing the prius at the same time I was buying my 4runner were paying a hefty premium because of market conditions. If that is what you want to do, i'm not going to fault you for it, but please don't whine and join a class action lawsuit because the market conditions have changed. Have a little foresight and be responsible for your decisions.

I am, and will remain a loyal toyota customer. I wasn't in the market for a new car, but I saw the market was ripe to make a good deal on a toyota right now. I purchased my 2010 prius with 10k miles on the odometer for $19,800. It was a demo model that had never been titled. I don't know for certain what the future holds, but my feeling is that gas prices will start trending upwards again and the publics tolerance for these high prices will start decreasing as well. Lets just see what this latest oil spill does to long term gas prices. Toyota's image will recover, and resale value will return.

 

Spot on, Carter.
I *wish* I had reason to buy now, but since I don't the opportunity costs kill the idea.

 

Carter, thank you. I know there are many others with common sense here. Or, shall I say, UNCOMMON sense!!

 

You are so right about those temporary incentives. I had a 60-month lease on a 2009 Touring, which I loved.

Alas, I had a friend's 2010 for two days while he was away ("drop me at the airport, drive it until you pick me up when I return') -- and there I went.

Took a while to find the right dealer as to price on the 2010 and trade-in on the 2009, but at that money factor of .00075, I was able to do a 3-year lease on a 2010, roll my loss on the 2009 (degree to which termination of the 2009's lease put me "underwater") into the deal, and come out with a monthly payment only slightly higher than it had been on the 2009.

And I love the 2010 even more.

And when the plug-in Prius comes along, I ain't going near a dealership's new car area ... or driving a friend's .... well, unless for some wierd reason those crazy incentives come back ...

 

I'm sorry about your tough circumstances, but surely you agree that anyone who purchases a brand new car, drives it 17,000 miles and tries to sell it will lose thousands of dollars. I believe 25 cents/mile is typical, and you're a little better than that.

 

Oh, you were asking for suggestions. My suggestion is to explore whether you can transfer your loan payments to a new buyer. The reason this will help you is that loans are typically set up so that you pay mostly interest and very little principle in the first year. If you paid $400/month for 12 months, the loan balance will have been reduced by probably less than $2,000. Check your loan pay-off amount with your lender to find out. That would be a good start. If you can transfer the loan to the new buyer, you'll still lose because of your mileage, but not as much.

 

Class action suit!!! Are you kidding me. The only people who make money in a class action suit are the lawyers. If your lucky, you may get a coupon for a free oil change at your local Toyota dealer as a settlement.

Friggin' lawyers. Nothing but a bunch of cork soakers.