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Aside from the limited supply of used cars these days (people are holding onto them longer, soft economy), there is also some seasonality - around tax time (April-May), I've heard that the price of used cars goes up a lot.
I got offered 78% on a three-year-old late model car with over 60,000 on the clock. As a trade-in.
Im not trying to get you upset but "trade in" and cash value are 2 very different things. Any dealer could give you trade in of 1500 bucks on a kids broken skate board and make it look like it on paper. Cash money value is what you need to know in my opinion. A big trade in= a big sales price before the trade in is applied .It a shell game of what is the real price
Recently I saw a Toyota RAV4 2012 V6 AWD limited with 8k miles priced at $29,000, I said I would pay no more than $23,000 for it and the sales guy looked at me like I was crazy.
Here is how I arrived at my price: A 2013 Toyota RAV4 AWD limited can be had for $29,500. Granted the new model does not offer a V6 but it does offer a number of enhancements that the old model does not offer. I took 20% initial depreciation off the cost of $29.5k figure and then took 1000 off since it was a model change year. I arrived at $22,600 which I thought was reasonable but I rounded it up to $23,000 for good measure.
The guy would refuse to budge from $28,000 so I walked away. Are these people nuts pricing used cars close to the price of a brand spanking new one?
The whole "it loses 30 percent of its value as soon as you drive it off the lot" concept no longer applies these days.
It's been that way for a little while.
So you can't realistically operate under that theory in most cases.
You will find some exceptions, of course, but I have done a lot of car shopping in the last few years, and I have consistently seen that 1 or 2 year old car is not generally much of a bargain anymore.
Im not trying to get you upset but "trade in" and cash value are 2 very different things. Any dealer could give you trade in of 1500 bucks on a kids broken skate board and make it look like it on paper. Cash money value is what you need to know in my opinion. A big trade in= a big sales price before the trade in is applied .It a shell game of what is the real price
True. And they weren't willing to budge more than $500 off MSRP on price of the car. This was when the new Passat TDI had just come out however so that wasn't particularly abnormal. Cash deal so no financing played into it. As a general rule, however, you'll get more in private party than you will on a trade-in. The dealer has to make money somehow on the sale, and since they typically dispose of those vehicles at auction unless they're making up for it somewhere else. The private-party "good" condition from KBB was higher than what the dealer offered on trade-in.
Point is, 20% on something like a Toyota which holds value pretty well... yeah, the OP was nuts. It's great if that's all he thinks it's worth, but the market isn't determined by that. I happen to agree that late model cars aren't particularly worth it. No harm in low-balling. I gave a similar offer on a three-year-old Civic with nearly 100k that was on the Honda lot. Since they didn't want to budge off selling that for $1,700 less than a brand-new one, I left it for someone else. I'm sure they sold it to someone eventually. If they weren't, they wouldn't be pricing them that way.
The used car market is very hot and low mileage lat models generally don't lose retail value at the same rate as before.
This.
Quote:
Originally Posted by stan4
The whole "it loses 30 percent of its value as soon as you drive it off the lot" concept no longer applies these days.
It's been that way for a little while.
So you can't realistically operate under that theory in most cases.
You will find some exceptions, of course, but I have done a lot of car shopping in the last few years, and I have consistently seen that 1 or 2 year old car is not generally much of a bargain anymore.
And This.
The 1-2 year old used cars are barely any cheaper than the new ones at dealerships. You really gotta look in the 5 year range, 50k miles before you start seeing much in savings.
Part of this has to do with cars lasting longer too.
This is how I price used cars. I go on Autotrader and do a search over a large geographic area, something like 200-500 miles. Realistically, there are usually about 5-10 cars prices right. Basically they are at dealers that don't haggle and just post their lowest price. The rest will be much much higher.
Location: Danbury CT covering all of Fairfield County
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I bought my 2010 Nissan Altima for $14,650 with 18,600 miles in the end of October. Two very minor dings, but about $8000 less than a new one.
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