Trade-in value: how'd you do?

My recommendation is not to take anything less than the Kelly/NADA trade-in value for your car from a dealer. Kelly is usually very close to the auction price, which is what the dealers go by. That changes day-to-day. They will give you what they think they can get at the auction.
Anybody know how to get the daily auction price on a car on the internet? There is a site, but I think you have to be a registered dealer to access it.

 

I'd suggest calculating the price for your car on edumunds.com, kbb.com and nadaguides.com, so you'll have a range of prices, though my experience (at lease for late model high end cars) is they tend to be a bit on the high side compared to what dealers will offer for trades. The important numbers are the auction figures, since that's what they could buy or sell the car for. I was able to get the Manheim auction prices for my car before I sold it, so was well prepared for the negotiation, and got slightly above that when I recently sold my '05 BMW 545i.

 

Auction price is indeed what they are at a minimum willing to put into your car. Bottom line though is most dealers in all car lines are surviving on used car sales right now. If your trade is clean with fairly low milage and a "good" brand, they will want your car. You can deal with them. Yes they know they can sell the Prius for MSRP, but if they can make a $1K on your car too then that's a + for them. You do have to be reasonable and realize a dealer won't want to take your trade if he can't make money on it. If it needs tires, a 60,000 mile service or some reconditioning that has to be taken into consideration.

 

Well you truly are the only one that knows its condition well. If a dealer knew all about this car as well as you, would you expect a better offer )

The bad thing about milage is it's simply a scale for the kbb and edmunds folks. But there is a point I believe where a car loses value in interest by a consumer. I believe when you pass the 60K+ mile mark you should either trade or plan on keeping the car. There comes a point too, if you're in a loan where in the latter part of the loan where you're simply paying it off at the same rate of depreciation, so owning it longer doesn't necessarily build up more equity. Knowing when to jump out is tricky and most of the time just a personal decison as to how much loss you can stomach.

I lost about $8K in depreciation on my TCH when I traded. Most people would choke. But I've lost more than that in one year on several vehicles. When I see people complaining about losing $500 more on their trade than what they wanted it makes me smile. Trading is like playing poker in Vegas. The house always wins.

 

Went to CarMax out here with my '01 Camaro SS. I still owe $5200 on it but did not tell them how much of course. The car is in pretty decent shape and would have taken a $3500 offer and paid off the rest, but they seriously low-balled me at $2000. Darn near killed me. I know it's not the most desireable car right now, but come on, it's certainly worth at least the $3500. I took some pictures of it and posted on Craig's List and hopefully it will sell quickly. I priced it well below what others were advertising just for a quick sell. It needs to go like yesterday. My car is going to be ready to pick up within the next 1-3 days. I was expecting to be upside down maybe $1500, not $3000. We'll see what happens. Either way, it won't prevent me from getting my car, but may just have to swollow a little more than I expected which means the payment goes up a bit. None the less, the money I will be saving in gas will more than make up for it.

 

I kinda got hosed. $14,000 for a 2006 white Prius, 22,500 miles in excellent condition. I told him I thought I was getting a bad trade so the salesman left for 20 minutes, and then offered me $14,400. I took it. If I had to do over, I would have kept the 06 so my wife and I could both have one.

 

I'm going to be trading in my 2004 fully loaded in with only 17,000 miles on it. I would normally keep it as is, but I personally feel its time to swap out. I'm looking around 13,000 for it. Seems to be the medium between Edmons and KBB.

 

Yikes! It's deals like that that make me think I should just hang out at the dealership and watch for someone who drove in in a Prius to be sitting in an office for a long time looking annoyed. I'll bet I could get a great deal by just popping my head in and saying, "I'll give you $500 more than whatever they just said!"

 

I got $12,250 for my 2005 silver Prius with almost 45K miles.

Tires were the original OEM tires and needed replacement badly.

I was hoping for $12,000 for the trade, so the extra $250 was a bonus (although I tried to pressure them to go to $12,500, with no luck).

Happily driving my 2010 Barcelona Red Prius IV!

 

I got $15,000 for a 2006 Prius Package 8 with 33k miles. They first offered me 13K and I said no way - not even close. Then they countered at 14k and I said I would walk. We finally closed the deal at 15K. The online web sites for a trade in are way high in my opinion. Edmunds stated a trade in value of $18,400 but in reality that seems on the high side.

 

Typically when a car is around 100,000 miles, a consumer is a lot less willing to purchase the vehicle and in most instances, these cars are taken to the auto auction. It's interesting how you don't want to sell the car to your friends/family, but feel that the dealer should give you good money for the car.

Someone will end up with the car, and don't you think it's unfair that they would pay hard earned money to get a vehicle, then have to pay for various repairs? hwell: That doesn't sound like you want to give them a fair deal...

 

As a non-smoker with a reasonably sensitive nose, it is important to me that I buy a car that has only been driven by non-smokers. A few shots of febreeze may help for a while, but that smell has a way of continuing to eek out of the fabrics. Judging from the fact that in private ads other non-smokers point out that the car they are selling has never been smoked in, I suspect I am not alone in this preference. Does anyone know if their smoking status (for lack of a better phrase) had anything to do with their trade in value?

Curious....

 

ya know that is exactly what i am doing and no i am not rich (in fact i am one of the poorest people on this forum!) and it will leave us a little tight on finances for a little while, but we are most likely going to need another passenger car anyway with one job definitely moving 25 miles down the road (dont know when, it keeps getting pushed, but one this is for sure, the original first of june target has passed and no end in sight)

another thing is that i see gas prices going up a lot sooner than i expected. i figured them to stay pretty low as the economy starts to recover, but they are on the rise and i think we are hitting $3 + gas soon making a good economy car for the 50 mile RT even more essential

 

I have the same car as you did. 2006 Prius Package 8 but mine only has 18,700 miles on it. Did you trade it into the dealer for the new Prius at this price??

 

Yes - traded it in for 15k for a new 2010 Prius IV with solar roof package. Hope that helps.