When I went to buy my/our xA, I was going to trade in my 2001 Solara V6 SLE (every option, great shape, 100K miles but otherwise almost perfect). The dealership quoted me 5 thousand as trade-in!! I walked out and sold my car for 9,500 a week later (thanks to CraigsList). I know the dealership has to make a profit, but they could have easily sold the car for 11-12K.

My classic 300zx finally hit official "Classic" status this year and the prices doubled (no joke!!) on KBB and a few other sites. When I bought the xA I mentioned trading in my old car as well, but the dealership wouldn't even LOOK at it because of the age, even though it only had 84K miles on it. I was given a quote of "800 at best," even though before hitting classic the car was worth more than 3,500 (double that if you find the right buyer).

Besides showing a complete lack of sports-car history in my city, the dealerships around here are complete robbers. Is this to be expected from a dealership nowadays? I've purchased a lot of cars, and I've negotiated cars for family members, so I have a few notches in my belt, but this was the first time I ever looked into trading in a car (I've privately sold the others for a pretty good amount). I know dealerships love to get money, but I never figured they would try and rip me off of 3-4K when they could have still made 2-3K off of my trade-in AND given me a good trade value... any other experiences?

 

dealerships are a business and they want to buy your car and sell it for a profit.

they wanted to buy your solara for 5 grand and sell it for 9500, so that they make a profit, pay their bills and stay open.

as for your classic 300 zx. you don't trade in a classic car, dealerships only want to pay the kbb value, which really doesn't give a damn about the car being a classic. it uses a depreciation method. your car can't lose value over the years and suddenly be worth more when it reaches classic status. kbb doesn't take that into account.

so to sum up, the dealership will always pay less for your trade in than it is worth because they aren't looking to keep your car, they want to turn around and sell it for a profit. that is why you tend to make more money selling a car privately.

 

also, you must take into consideration that the dealership relieves the risk of you trying to sell your car privately. What happens if someone you let test drive your car wraps it around a tree? detailing, inspections, warranty, advertising, and selling all cost money. I'm not saying it costs 4500 dollars, but they also have to leave room for people who want to haggle/grind them down to the lowest price they'll take. in the end, the dealership might make MUCH LESS money than you would by selling it yourself, but it relieves your burden. also, cars with over 100K miles are incredibly hard to finance if you don't have tier 1 credit (720+)

 

"they wanted to buy your solara for 5 grand and sell it for 9500"

The dealership could have very easily sold it for over 12K, which was the average price for my car, miles included. If I got 9,500 private, the dealership could have sold it for much more.

"as for your classic 300 zx. you don't trade in a classic car, dealerships only want to pay the kbb value, which really doesn't give a damn about the car being a classic. it uses a depreciation method. your car can't lose value over the years and suddenly be worth more when it reaches classic status. kbb doesn't take that into account."

My car wasn't classic when I bought my xA, but the point was that the lowest trade-in was 3-4 times higher than the offered price. Since my '87 only had 84K and is in excellent condition, it should have been at the medium trade-in, which was 6-7 times what they were offering.

so to sum up, the dealership will always pay less for your trade in than it is worth because they aren't looking to keep your car, they want to turn around and sell it for a profit. that is why you tend to make more money selling a car privately.

Also, I'm not sure what you are talking about, but my car's average retail 3 years ago was somewhere around 3,200. If you KBB my car w/ specs, it's avg retail is now at 6,300. If you ask me, that's a pretty big jump up in one year.

I do understand that they have margins to maintain, and it is much easier to trade it in, but when I can sell my two cars for the total purchase price of one new car, vs trading them in for 1/3 the price of the same new car, that's not what I call fair, especially since a dealership will always be able to sell a used car for thousands more than private party.

 

I guess you just have a different viewpoint. my dealership marks up all used car trade ins about $3000 from what we put in them. That gives us plenty of room for negotiation with customers. some dealerships MAY try to get high retail for a car and mark it up 6 or 7K dollars, but it's rare.

 

Maybe it isn't a different viewpoint, just different dealerships. When I bought my Solara, I got a great deal at a smaller dealership (paid 2-3K under retail), but this Toyota/Scion dealership had the same exact year/make/model/color solara for sale - it had 30K less miles and a convertable top, but they wanted 19K for it, vs. the 13.5K retail for a convertable and vs. the 10.7K I paid for mine right across the street...

No joke! 19,000 dollars for a 5 year old (at the time) Camry... didn't even have navigation, aftermarket stereo, or anything special.

 

I traded my 10 yr old Escort to purchase my xD. They first lowballed me at a trade in of $500, I told them for that price that I would go and sell it myself and possibly come back later to purchase. I demanded KBB trade in allowance or I would leave. I did this on the last day of the month and I got my price.


So, when I got surveyed by Scion, I screwed them with the trade in procedure that they tried to do with me.(That is all I screwed them with, I gave my salesperson a good review and everything else) I HATE when dealerships try to screw you with a trade in value that is not even close to KBB at least....

 

what bothers me even more is when they use one source for trade-in since its lower, and another for selling used cars because it is higher. stick to one already... (KBB/NADA/BlackBook, etc.)

 

our dealership uses auction data on the car being traded in with similar options and miles. we give a middle range figure on most cars. I'm glad you got the deal you were looking for after you sold your car, though. enjoy your new scion!

 

i haven't purchased my xD yet -_-, but I am loving my xA.

(I can't find a blue one with VSC... i wanted a stick for a while but around here, those are nonexistant. can't wait to get it though! but i've learned my lesson - sell my cars on my own!!)

 

Just be thankful that you were able to sell your car privately for an acceptable sum. I didn't even try to trade in my '95 Ford Probe cause I knew I'd get something ridiculous like $500--I was able to sell privately through AutoTrader. I only used AutoTrader (no classifieds) and paid $50 or so and waited about 6 weeks for the right buyer. I did my own detailing and washed the car once per week. I ended up getting over $2k, which became my down payment on the D.

I guess for someone with a potential trade, it's really up to the individual. What's worth more, saving time and getting less $$ at the dealer's or getting more after some small ad money but waiting longer for a buyer... For me, I was in it for the money, so I was willing to wait.

 

I am selling my RX8 to CarMax and then purchasing my xd RS 1.0. I got more money than trying to trade in at the dealer and my dealer even recommended that I sell it there instead of with them.

 

I traded in my '05 xA when I bought my RS 1 xD, the dealership gave me $9500 for it. I tried selling it for 3 weeks prior to trading it in, one guy offered me $9700, I laughed at him.

 

The solara deal seems about right for a dealer offer. Few folks take the dealer offer - you shouldn't be upset by it - it's just the way that dealerships work. You should never trade in a vehicle to a dealer - ever - ever - ever.

The 300 deal was your bad. There isn't a dealer around that will pay even 50% of market on an old car - no matter how great it is. Old cars go to independent used car lots - they don"t end up on new car dealer lots. The 300 is just too old to bring into a dealership inventory and the auction price is too flaky to make a car like that desirable to a dealer.

Basically, you are learning two of the well known realities about dealerships. Not their fault - you just need to exclude them from your list of options in the future.




Always remember - an immaculately clean car always commands a higher price and demand - NEVER show your car unless it is as clean as you can make it (and don't make it look "greasy" by using too much armor-all or tire lube.