f1 tech

I was going to buy an RX8 this past weekend. Most of the 04 Rx8s were discounted at 5000 off MSRP. I currently own an Audi A6 4.2L in very good condition. Blue book priced it at 26K for excellent, 24K for good, and 21K for fair. They want to give me 19K and won't go any higher. It seems to me that dealers only use the dealer black book and internet research tools like the Kelley Blue book and Edmunds is a waste of time. Man, I'm so pissed.

legokcen

Yeah, they did something like that to me too. Only offered me $1500 for my 94 Camry in great condition. Wouldn't do anything else with it. I sold it myself for $4800.

czr

iTrader: (3)

You aren't considering any overhead nor the convenience that the dealer has to account for when trading in a vehicle. You'll maket he most out of your car if you sell privately.

cortc

Trading in a car is always bad business, sell it yourself as not even the tax break is worth it...

f1 tech

Unfortunately, I had it appraised by a Audi dealer as well. He is offering me the same amount. The funny thing was that he has the exact same car on the lot for 33K! The only difference was his is a 2001.

subduedracer

A dealer can only go buy the black book. When the vehicle is already discounted he has to start showing real money. If he was selling th car for MSRP he could show you trade value. If a dealer took your car on trade and keep it for months they send it to the auction and get black book. If they gave 24k for it and then put it in service and spent $800 more plus internal charges, which are normally $500. They end up with somewhere around 25300 in it. If they then take it to a auction if they can't sell it. They loose thousands. Plus Audi's are very soft at the auction right now. Looking at my black book your car is worth about 20500. They were trying to hold back about 1500 on the trade to make money. Thats just the car business. You should try CARMAX. They put more into cars bacause they sell them for retail. Sell it to them and then go buy the 8.

cortc

subduedracer: Is right on the money, that is how it works... If you don't want to loose about 3k sell it on your own, you may get about 1,500.00 more at Carmax...

Icemastr

You expect to buy a car below a dealerships cost then get angry when they won't give you more then wholesale value for your car?

Think of it from their perspective, they are selling you a car and making no money and buying a car from you that if they don't buy cheap enough they will lose more money on. If you owned a business would you even deal with this type of customer? Our dealership averages about $1000 in repairs, cleaning, and advertising to turn around and resale a trade in on our lot, plus if they take a car in on trade to resale they are going to need to purchase it low enough that they can put it back up for sale to at least start with a $4000-$6,000 markup, which quickly becomes a lot less profit after paying a salespersons commission, advertisign costs, refurbishing costs, and of course the next customer will probably want to negotiate the price down too.

When I value trade-ins I consider, can I sell it on my lot? If I had the car for more than a few months and didn't sell it, would I lose money running it through the dealer auction? Am I making enough profit on the car I am selling to cover the cost if I had to wholesale the car and lose money but still make a good profit off the deal?

Most of the time when dealerships give you a better amount for your trade, its because they are making a lot of money on the sale of the car you are buying.

You can't always have your cake and eat it too. If you think you can get a lot more for your car sell it privately then.

Also of all the dealerships I have been a manager at I have never heard of a dealer "black" book. I use the N.A.D.A. price guide and Kelley Blue Book with wholesale and retail values.

subduedracer

The Kelly Black Book is info on Manhiem Auctions over the last 45 days. Great tool for me in appraising cars.

f1 tech

According to NADA, my trade in values at $23,125.

Icemastr

I don't get a Kelley Black Book i just look up the manheim auction info online. But I also go to a couple of other auctions beside Manheim.

BillK

If only those of us in the "real world" could get access to Manheim data.

Really, folks, if you saw what the Manheim values were for cars you would:

1) Get severely depressed
2) Realize the kbb.com and Edmunds values are pure fantasy, usually high by at least 10%...

Stone

Once upon a time I was a car salesman. It was a 6-month stint between bank jobs, can anyone say downsized? Anyway this was a Chevy dealership but the basic idea holds true. When a dealer knocks $5000 off MSRP they are at invoice or below invoice and cutting into hold back money (the price under listed invoice the dealer ship buys for). Usually when they sell a car at that deep of a discount they try to argue wholesale for wholesale price, meaning that they want to give you what they will get when they take your car to action. (by the way most dealer ships lose money when selling trades at action, their goal is to simply break even) When they price your beloved car for trade they take the lowest possible number out of the book, (I.E. poor condition) and then knock between $1000-$1500 off that. So just know that unless your trade is a junker that you can get $1000-$1500 out of the dealer, then if your persistent you can get more. Just take all the research material you can with you and lay it all out and stick to your guns. Unfortunately all the nasty stereo-types you hear about dealers are true, of course there are very good hard working honest people at the dealer these are the sales people who actually have repeat customers, if you find one of these people hold onto them.

Raevik

f1 tech:

Seriously. Sell it yourself. It's really really REALLY easy to do.

To get my 8 I was selling my 1996 m-edition MX-6. It was in good condition and blue booked around $4k (trade in) $6500 (retail). The dealer offered me $2000. CARMAX was worse...and offered me $1800.

I sold it later for $4600. I just signed up at cars.com and a really nice guy from Jersey flew down and bought it 10 days later.

BillK

Note of course that this doesn't always work and you have to go through the pain and suffering of being available and having multiple lookie-loos drive your car, especially if it's something fancy or sporty.

So while an MX-6 might only attract actual buyers, if you are trying to sell something like a Corvette or Porsche every guy who's never been able to get a dealer to let them test drive one will come knocking on your door...

rx8wannahave

f1 teach,

What are the spec's of your car? Year, mileage, options, tranny...etc etc etc

If you have tried using edmonds (cause I think they give you a fair price) you probably will not get more than that and most likely get less from a dealership. My wife's car was valued at about $1,300 and Carmax gave us an insulting $500...but, that's probably all I would have paid someone for it anyway so I could not say much about it.

Like they are telling you, your best bet is to sell it yourself.

What are the spec's on your car and I"ll give you an honest answer on what I would give you for the car if I wanted it. If it's a 2000 the car is about to be 5 years old and I think that the dealer price sounds a little fair, again...if anything, sell it yourself.

f1 tech

Oh, the Mazda dealer originally was going to give me $14500. Then he upped it to $17500 saying they he thought it was a 2.8, not 4.2. What B.S.... Then he calls me this morning saying he would offer $19000 and not a penny more. I really hate his business, guess I'll be selling it on my own.

rx8wannahave

$14,500...now that's just insulting, but what do you expect from a dealership (sorry if I'm offending anyone but I've had my experiences with them also)

Go sell the car yourself...that's your best bet.

Vrimmick

How about you pay msrp on rx8? I am sure they will give you blue book on your A6 then... Yes I used to sell cars. I quit this after 5 months customers drove me crazy. In bad times when the sales was low my dealership would sell cars giving away everything including kickback and any bonus from the manufacturer hoping they can make something on a trade in. And customers would still cry for more. Well obviously there was no incentive for me since I would make **** on a commission so I treated such customers like what I was making - hey they deserved it. Sell your car yourself, that is the best thing you can do.