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Pros and cons

2K views 8 replies 9 participants last post by  GYPSYTDA 
#1 ·
Made up my mind that I can't live without an E. My problem is I have an 01 Ford Explorer Sportrac with only 11,500 mi on it. According to Kelly Blue Book and USAA the trade in value is only between 2 and 3 k below the price of the new Ex I want to buy. Where does this put me is a barging situation with the dealer ? I have ZERO experience in buying a new car having spent almost 30 yrs in the military on the move. Any advise would be most appreciated. TIA Tinker :cry:
 
#2 ·
[quote:516aca45b1=" "]Made up my mind that I can't live without an E. My problem is I have an 01 Ford Explorer Sportrac with only 11,500 mi on it. According to Kelly Blue Book and USAA the trade in value is only between 2 and 3 k below the price of the new Ex I want to buy. Where does this put me is a barging situation with the dealer ? I have ZERO experience in buying a new car having spent almost 30 yrs in the military on the move. Any advise would be most appreciated. TIA Tinker :cry:[/quote:516aca45b1]

You may be better off trying to sell it privately. At least take it to Carmax and get an offer (doesn't cost anything) so you know you have an alternative if the dealer tries to kill you on the trade-in.
 
#3 ·
>You may be better off trying to sell it privately.

I second this. Sell it on your own. You will take a beating if you try to trade it in. The low mileage doesn't help you much with it as a trade-in, but it's a super selling point as a private-party sale.

>only between 2 and 3 k below the price of the new Ex

Don't set yourself up for a big disappointment - there is no way that your truck is worth $16-17,000 as a trade-in. I just ran your vehicle through Kelley and got $12,500 for it, and that's with options.

The most common mistake that people make in the early stages is rating their recent-model trade-in in "excellent" condition... dealers never never never give you better than "good" for it. Never.
 
#4 ·
Having just gone through this myself I couldn't agree more with the learned comments above.

We went from two cars down to the Element. The first we sold using a publication called Auto Trader which is much cheaper and better than newspaper ads, and used by everyone. We got a very good value for that 1996 Nissan 200SRX with only 16,000 miles.

But we decided to trade in our 2000 F-150 XLT with 55,000 miles. Well, we got "Fair" value for it even though it was in very good condition. That decision probably cost us $1,500 to $2,000. I never really figured it out because I didn't want to get depressed. One advantage to a trade-in was in Arizona the trade-in value is deducted from the purchase price of the new car in determining sales tax. So that was a $900 benefit.

So, if you want to avoid the hassle of a private party sale (ALWAYS call to confirm Cashier Checks, btw, a local guy "sold" his $30,000 car to someone a few weeks ago who gave him a fake check. I ask for cash.), oops, back to subject. If you don't want to sell it yourself, be prepared to take a significant value hit.

By selling/trading our two cars we almost paid for our Element too!
 
#5 ·
I also just traded in a vehicle for my E. '02 Tacoma 4x4, Wa state also does the "tax only on the difference in cost" thing. Add that to the hassle of trying to sell a new vehicle(way too costly for most people shopping the paper), and trading was the only way for me to go.
I went in knowing I was going to lose on the deal, but when I finally figured out all the numbers(like 2 months after buying!), I only really lost about a grand...

peace-
jesse
 
#6 ·
I would definitely try to sell it on your own, but that is a difficult task if impatient. I brought my car in, rated it as Excellent on KBB, and wouldn't budge on its worth. When the dealer said that there was no way they could give me that price, I walked. Started to back out of the parking lot and low and behold my cell rings.... "Ok, Ken, you got, we'll take your car for that, just come back in....." "Perfect, I'm on my way back in...." There is alwasy room for haggle. Kill or be killed when dealing with car salesmen.
 
#7 ·
In today's market, you'll never get what the truck is really worth.

I've been trying to sell a 96 Rodeo for over 4 months (even in the winter when 4wd's are in high demand). KBB and other sites valued it between $6-$7400 for private sale. The vehicle is in VGC, low miles. I started it for sale at $7500 OBO. No calls for a long time, dropped to $6400 OBO, very little action still. It's tough to sell a vehicle when the used car lots are selling the same vehicle one year newer with less mileage for roughly $5k...and likely coming down on that price in the end too.

In the end, I got $4400 trade for it and sent it down the road for a leftover 03 Wrangler X loaded with options at a steal of a price. The trade in value on KBB was $4110. You'll never get $15- $17K trade in on that vehicle with the car market the way it is today. You have to figure the markup on the E's, which aren't all that much. My guess, you *might* get $10-$12K actual trade at most. Used cars just aren't worth squat right now, no matter how new.
 
#8 ·
It all depends on your personality. Selling a car yourself is not for everyone, and you can't be emotionally involved or impatient in any way, shape, or form. I've been reading this board for a while, and have been fascinated by Es since their introduction, but I have not yet rushed out and bought one yet as I'm deliberate by nature. I sold my car first and it wasn't quick, but it makes my buying approach much more straighforward. No financing and no trade makes it imposssible to confuse the numbers. My car was a late model Audi, so it was quite expensive and it took almost 2 months to sell. It was also in pristine condition and had all the service records, which helped. But I researched the local market first and simply used Edmunds and KBB as guides. If you aren't on the low end of the price range for comparable vehicles in your area, your car won't sell. Its simply capitalism. I've seen some idiot on Autotrader locally clinging to the same high price on his Audi. It was there before I listed my car, and its still there months later. In the meantime, its already depreciated another grand because of this guy's emotional attachment to his car. If you can't wait for the E, then just trade it and don't worry about the loss, which is inevitable. But if you do sell yourself, watch the market locally for several weeks before you list. See which listings move, and which languish, and then price your car accordingly. In theory, it you get anything more than the shockingly low trade value, then you are money ahead.
 
#9 ·
[quote:f950122447=" "]I also just traded in a vehicle for my E. '02 Tacoma 4x4, Wa state also does the "tax only on the difference in cost" thing. Add that to the hassle of trying to sell a new vehicle(way too costly for most people shopping the paper), and trading was the only way for me to go.
I went in knowing I was going to lose on the deal, but when I finally figured out all the numbers(like 2 months after buying!), I only really lost about a grand...

peace-
jesse[/quote:f950122447]

we had a '01 Tacoma (ext cab, off road package) we actually sold it for more then we paid! in '03 when we bought our Element.. we sold ours ourself! I sold mine online.. to a buyer locally so that worked out beautifully! He even had the same credit union so the money was instantly transferred over!

NEVER tell a dealer you have a vehicle to trade.. you can say you may or may not.. Get the price up front.. ottherwise dealers will pad the price to cover the trade.. so again I will say NEVER tell the dealer you have a vehicle to trade.

To get a value on your vehicle go with consumer reports, this will give you a print out value of your vehicle to take to a dealer if you wish to trade... stand firm no negotiating on your trade.. but again already have their price for your new vehicle negotiated.

I see the date of your post was over a month ago.. so not sure if you have completed your transaction... so this might be wisdom for the future.

In the past I would have pristine looking vehicles to trade that under the hood did not function.. like the bomb i had many moons ago it was an '87 Topaz (purchased new for like $6K so not a bad deal, for a vehicle that did not run!), I traded to purchase an '86 prelude.. it was 1992.. and i got $3K for the bomb.. so another note is make sure your vehicle looks good.. more often then not they go by how it look rather then if it runs! Get it detailed!

Consumer reports does have selling advice as does edmunds and a few other sites.. read alot before you go forward, you will gain alot.. and if you are backed with knowledge it puts you in a better bargaining position (adding confidence).. if you don't have confidence when you go in.. they will pick you dry!

Good luck keep us posted!
 
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