DerrickWilliams

$12,500 for my 04 gt with 47,000 miles. I thought I had heard it all until this guy came back with that price. Nobody wants to touch these things. I wonder what that means for future resale value. The previous generations hold great values as older cars, but were they this bad when the cars were relatively new?

Elara

That's about a 41% resale value on a three year old car. When you consider your average car loses between 75-80% of it's resale value in 5 years, that's not really all that bad. Just by driving a new car off the lot, you lose 15-25% of the value of it automatically- so you've only lost really an extra 10~12% a year. And you've got pretty high mileage on it too- the average is 12k per year. And that's just what you're being offered by a dealer who still has to clean, fix, and resell it at a profit.

msrecant

KBB shows trade in as being between 14,500 and 16,500 (fair to good condition) so unless there is a specific problem with your car, the dealer is saying that he just doesn't want the car. $12,500 is way too low unless he is giving you a super discount on your new car.

Try taking your 8 to CARMAX and see what they will give you for it.

RX8Maine

Is private sale a possibility for you? You'll always come out a little better.

DerrickWilliams

Yea i guess when u pass that 30000-40000 mileage range your resale goes way down.

brillo

use edmunds.com, KBB is crap, their numbers are inaccurate. What you care about is not what price the car was offered at, but what it sold for.

DerrickWilliams

I think the car is in excellent condition.

Elara

excellent means like-new- and no dealer will ever, in a million years, give you an excellent rating on a car's condition no matter how well you've taken care of it.

ZoomZoomH

iTrader: (1)

at the 30-40k point you might as well keep the car for the long haul... or at least a few more years but keep the miles down

a 5 year old car w/ 60k miles is a lot more sellable than a 2 year old w/ 40k lol

msrecant

Yes, KBB is absolute crap! Edmunds shows $15,200 to $16,500 (average to clean), a much more accurate set of numbers.

SiLVeRE8

iTrader: (8)

by hearing the price they offer you... you might as well keep it......

devious12

I don't know where the info is from but they have been a pretty reliable source, www.carbuyingtips.com

"If your car is over 4 years old, dealers give you only 25% of fair market value!
If a dealer offers market value for your trade-in, they are making up for it on the back side of the deal in the form of full retail price, or wasted dealer extras. Anyone who thinks a dealer is really giving them market value for their trade in is living a pipe dream"

in other words we're f*#ked!

I'm trying to sell mine which is still waiting on another engine, brand new tranny and the dealer will only offer me 17k...hahahaha, but then again I shouldn't be laughing, I'm the one getting screwed.

Selling private is a problem right now, because everyone who has asked about my car, follows with, "oh those have lots of problems"

therm8

Quoted resale values mean absolutely nothing when trading in a car. The dealer is only going to give you what they can to make a profit on the trade in. If the car is older than 3-4 years and not in high demand, they'll only give you what they can get at auction for it. My trade in on the 8 (5yr old Volvo C70 at the time), BB'd for $13-14k, but every dealer I went to started at $6-7.5k as an offer (that's what they were going for at the auctions). After walking out of several dealerships, one finally offered $10k for it and I took it.

People are afraid of the 8 when it's new. Not many people are going to want one when it has 50-100k miles on it. Just a fact of life. Rotary engines scare the masses.

I'll keep mine until it dies once or twice, or until I become independently wealthy .

Rosko350z

I would say sell your car private party and you'll come out a LOT better. Those effin' dealers just want to steal your car. They're in business to make money, not give you a fair price on your trade-in... and Carmax buying your car is no exception.

Before my current car, I had a very sweet '03 Mazda6. I sold it private party using autotrader.com. It took me over three months, but I sold it for $1,000 over Kelley Blue Book RETAIL value. Yes, I got the occasional screwball, and a couple of stupid, low-ball offers that made me want to slap somebody, but I'm a cheap f**ker. Have patience. Persevere. You will always lose money on cars. Just try to lose as little as possible.

I've given this advice to probably a dozen people. Nobody has heeded it yet. Maybe you can be the first?

bbtheory

These offers don't suprise me one bit. The 8 is an enthusiast car, not for everyone. I paid under 22k for a new 05 6spd with a 30k sticker. As much as I hate to admit it, this car would never be one to top a resale value list, no matter how good it is, simply because of things like having to add oil. It is not a Camry!

I traded in an 04 Acura TL with about 16k miles on it a few months before I got my 8 (on a Subaru Tribeca, my other car). I paid 32 for the Acura and got 26 from a dealer in trade. I owned it for 2.5 years (I bought it when it just came out). There are vehicles out there that hold value, but they tend to be very limited, Acura's, some Toyota, maybe a few european models.

BunnyGirl

My mom always get excellent condition on her cars. They are generally always immaculate with no interior damage except maybe a few minor scuffs along the lower door panels from getting in and out. When she was getting a new Tribute one of the dealerships offered her $8000 trade-in for excellent condition on a 2000 MPV LX, and we have this in writing. The place where she did get her Tribute from made the same offer but after all their BS (prolonging the paperwork so that it took three full days to complete all the steps so their discounts no longer applied, et cetera) they basically ended up taking it for free. After it was released to the lot it sold in three days for $12,000.

captain mercury

carmax offered me $50 for my Plymouth Gran Fury. i decided id rather drive it off a cliff. yea i donated it to Salvation Army.

BunnyGirl

My brother had some old crappy car that he had bought as a first car and when he traded it in to get a new car they gave him somewhere around $50 also.

RedSheDevil

yea, private sale will always get you more money.

i sold my '99 300M for 10k through autotrader.com when carmax offered me 3500.

GulfCoast

I nearly always buy used because I prefer someone else to eat the depreciation on the car. When I bought my 8, I paid a fair price (win/win). I also typically buy cars that don't have great resale value for that reason: they depreciate faster and I get more car for less money.

I do agree about selling private, if possible. Why let the dealer make all the profit? I remember going to a Honda dealer to look at a 2003 or 2004 (I think 2003) S2000. Before I got there, a woman came in, saw it, and told her husband to stop his paperwork on a Solstice across the street. The salesman told me they got around $28,000 for it. The interesting thing is a Toyota dealership had recently offered me an immaculate 2004 S2000 with only 14,000 miles (fewer than the one that sold at the Honda dealership) for less than $24,000. So, the woman paid more for less (and the Honda dealer made a killing). Selling private, you might find someone like that, too.

Elara

BunnyGirl, they may tell you that, but they are basing it on their own system of rating cars, which, by definition, is geared towards flattering you to get you to agree to trading in your car. One of the biggest problems dealers and places like CarMax have with KBB and Edmunds is people coming in saying "KBB/Edmunds said my car is worth $XXXXX" when, in fact, they are basing it on the excellent rating. Unless your car is a show car, constantly polished, waxed, washed, cleaned inside and out (engine all shiny, like it was when driven off the lot, included), with no dents, scuffs, scrapes, wear and excess creases on the seats, discoloration/stains on seats from sun/spills, has new tires, rims with no scuffs or scrapes, and just generally looks like it was driven brand new off a dealers lot, it's almost never going to get you the KBB "Excellent" valuation unless you're getting 4squared by the dealer.

msrecant

The problem DerrickWilliams has is that the dealer is offering $12,500 when the "fair" condition KBB is $14,700 and "fair" condition Edmunds is $15,500. There is at least $2,500 missing from the dealer's offer unless DerrickWilliams' 8 is in really poor shape.

BunnyGirl

The offer we had in writing gave it the same value as the KBB "excellent" rating, listed all of the discounts given, invoice price plus the few hundred over for being a Costco deal, et cetera. I know in a lot of situations they won't give you a good deal on trade-ins or they find a way to add extra fees. In this situation, since it was through Costco the price was already set. Then they took off the advertised dealership discount plus the MAC cash. Then trade-in was mentioned after they had given us the price and then they subtracted the $8000 for the trade-in (which was the top price listed at KBB for the options on her van) after they had already given the prices for the other stuff, so they didn't have any room to add back in other stuff with this type of purchase arrangment.

In my mom's van basically only the front two seats were used and the back end for groceries with the back seat folded down into the floor. The inside was stain free on the carpet and the seats. The engine wasn't spotless and shiny but that's just normal if you drive. Basically the only thing that wasn't in nearly brand-new-looking condition were some small rock chips on the hood/front. It wasn't freshly washed but it was early spring when this all took place so that means it was still raining pretty much constantly. It was also considered to be low mileage since after six years it had right about 60,000 miles on it.

I know this isn't the usual that happens when you do a trade-in but it does happen. My mom takes extremely good care of her vehicles. I, personally, have never had to deal with trade-ins or anything since Bella is my first car and she's only four months old. I intend to keep her for a very long time.

BunnyGirl

Maybe it's because they think his mileage is too high?