was going to trade in my 8.
 

i went to trade in my 8 for a subaru forester.(just had kid number2 and could use the extra room) but they would only give me 15,500 for a red 2004 manual in mint condition with only 6200 miles on it. Also has the sport package, spoiler, side aero flares, rotory accent and spare package. WTF. I thought the 8 was suppose to be great at maintaining value? went to NADA and trade in value was 19,550. Can anyone tell me if NADA is wrong on this or is the dealer smoking crack.

lol sweet deal if i didnt buy mine already i make an offer on yours for 16000

yah, resell value on our cars suck ass. i have a loaded 05 GT w/ navi w/ under 4K miles. and, i paid $35k for it new. look at the numbers:

Trade-in Value:
Condition
Excellent $22,025
Good $20,805
Fair $18,675

Private-Party Value:
Condition
Excellent $25,050
Good $23,640
Fair $21,810

Suggested Retail Value: (Assumes Excellent Condition)
Condition
Excellent $26,435

We all got pwn'd...

While RX8s do not maintain their value too well, I wouldn't accept less than trade-in.

On a side point, I have two children and the RX8 does just fine. But then again, my wife has a Forester.

Not sure how you got the impression that this car holds value. It is probably one of the worst out there. The blue book trade-in pricing doesn't mean shit. Stealerships go by the black book value - which is what they would get at an auction. There are some sources where you can get this info. I think intelliprice.com is one. You can go to Chevy's website and compute your trade-in value. That's a more realistic number to expect. Good luck.

it certainly is an unfortunate thing but you won't be getting much more for trade-in. you may be able to sell it for about $16500 private party but that's about it. the thing you have going for you is the low mileage. the thing you don't have going for you for resale is that it is an '04 sport. i have an '04 as well so don't think i'm knocking it but i also bought mine recently pretty darn cheap and i don't see you getting much more than the $16500.

I would pay $17K for a car with that mileage

There's nothing worse than a FORD! for losing value, even though ford does own Mazda.

:rolleyes:

Here is what intelliproce said for mine 2004 sport pack 6 speed yellow
2004 MAZDA RX8 4D COUPE 6SP
$12,915 - $16,755


Trade in!
OMG

well u also have to consider the fact its a manual (going to take a hit on that) plus the fact its not like the RX-8 is a high demand vehicle in the used market (if it was civic, i'm sure it would command ridiculous prices). Anyways, private sale, i dont think is worth much more than 17K. The dealer probably going to sell it at 17995 or 18995 with the trade in price that theyre offering you.

take a hit b/c it's manual? please enlighten me.

WOW.
For those of you who have read my thread in the lounge, you will know that I recently traded my 04 RX8 in with 22k miles.

At two Ford Dealerships, I was offered 19k and 19.5k in Mobile Alabama, but the dealership in which I decided to deal with (they had the car I wanted) offered me 16k for it. I decided to take it. (I know, not my best deal, but I really like my new car)

Shop around a bit...and use the dealerships against each other, make it plain as day what the other dealership offers for your trade (plus $500) and try to get them to work their offer up.

better off in my opinion to trade your 8 in to someone that will give u a fair price (most likely not a dealership) then pay off ur 8, or just put that money down on the new vehicle.

P.S- if a dealership decides to give u more for the 8, they will (from my experience) normally just up the price u pay per month to make up for it, they will always make it seem like u got a good deal and get you excited when you hear they will take 19k for ur 8 instead of 17k for example. remember their working the numbers, not you, so pay close attention.

Conventional wisdom says that a car that comes with manual transmission as 'standard' will have automatic transmission as a 'desirable' option. That's probably true if you were dealing with a manual Civic, and you only knew how to drive automatic. Because you would pay more for the automatic transmission, you would expect to get some of that 'investment' back at the time of the trade in.

However, with sports cars, that tends to be less of the case. Witness some of the last generation Supras that came with manual transmission, for example. Also, some smaller cars with MT that were intended for an enthusiast market with both manual and automatic transmissions tend to do better, like the WRX.

Give CarMax a try if there's one in your area. They usually offer at the high end of the black book value if the car is very clean.

the dealership will RIP you off for sure. look into a private sale. good luck.

it's going to be hard to get it sold for near 19k though.

its always so sad to hear the value of our cars keep dropping!

okay, maybe i'm just not following b/c i didn't get much sleep and this is exactly what you are saying but especially w/ the '04, MT was the 'option' as opposed to AT. given that it is higher HP, higher redline, and did cost more off the bat. so the AT would be the one to take the hit, correct? i'm reading your second paragraph now and think that might be what you are saying but again, the no sleep thing.

I have 3 kids. 2 older and a 2 year old in a car seat. Unless the 8 is your only car, why trade it? The 8 really is a workable 4 door. It's a safe car with all the airbags, traction control etc. The only major failing is the trunk, sux for a baby carriage but that can be solved with selective shopping. I admit I had a different car when my son was born and a minivan backup.

Good luck on your trade. Seems a shame to ditch a nice car with such low mileage.

:) NH

The resale value of the car doesn't accurately represent the car itself, but actually represents the fact that Mazda made too many of them, and then killed resale value by dropping the price as much as 8,000 off MSRP in order to move them. When given the choice between a fully loaded RX-8 with 5 miles on it for $23,000, or a used car with 47,000 miles on it for the same price, you can clearly see why we're in the state we're in. Used cars had to have their price adjusted about 5,000 off the new discounted prices in order to sell. It sucks, but there isn't much you can do about it.

Mazda appears to have cut production to a more realistic level and stopped the high price cuts. I expect to see the price level off eventually.

stick shift might go for more depending on the car
used 6mt g35 goes for more than used 5AT G35, in fact when the coupe first came out. when buying new, you can generally buy a 5AT at or even a tad below invoice, that wont happen with the 6mt. The new 2007 G35 sedan 6mt are marked up above MSRP right now

newho, dude youre doing this all wrong. you negotiate the tradein, AFTER you buy the new car, not before. Or you should sell to privately. Otherwise they have too many chances to rip you off. you dont want to be the guy paying for the salesman's boat. please refer to www.carbuyingtips.com

only do trade-in if your old car is a half-sinking money pit that no one in their right mind would buy private

always do private sale to get the most residual value out of your car.

I agree with some of the other here, unless you have no other family vehicle in the family, then no need to trade the 8. I have an 11 month old and a 3 year old in mine and it works fine. Even have the baby on board sign in the back.