Quote:
Originally Posted by cossie1600
I was attempting to buy a car today. In my prior experiences, blue book was useless as their trade in value is always too high and no dealers would come close to it. Black book and NADA are much closer to what the cars would sell for (most banks use NADA to determine your max. loan value). Lately whenever I go into the dealership, they always seem to reference the blue book when it comes to the value. Of course when I went to the dealership today, they offered me what the blue book offered (on the extreme low side, but whatever). What I don't understand is why the sudden change? I also don't understand how the blue book is actually lower than the black book/NADA (retail value is higher though). Upon more comparison between the three, i noticed KBB has the lowest trade in value while one of the higher in retail value. I don't know if they are just being conservative or the dealers got to them and started getting them to change their numbers since a lot of consumers were using that number. What do you guys think?
2009 370z with 20K miles with sport package 6 spd (I am not selling my car, just as a reference)
Average Condition
KBB Trade In = $22,804
NADA Trade In = $23,925
Black Book Trade In=$23,100
Good Condition (Let's assume the dealer used good even though a lot of used cars are beat)
KBB Retail = $28,634
NADA Retail = $28,025
Black Book Retail= $28,200
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When I traded my Z06 in, the trade value they gave me was "based off of what we can sell it for. We called a few other dealers in our auto group in Houston, etc. to see what they are getting for them."
I thought it made sense, and got a fair trade for my Z06. It worked out to within about $1500 of what Lou was going to sell me a 370Z for, except since I bought in-state, I didn't have to pay TT&L on my 370Z.
$57,800 owed on my Z06 = Paid off.
$43K sticker on my 370Z = I paid it.
Going rate for my Z06 based on market research I did, and what i could buy one for tomorrow, as of then: $52-54K.
They ate in trade-in nearly what I ate paying MSRP.
Why did I trade so early? I wanted a 370Z. Period.
Why not keep the Z06 longer, until I was right-side-up in it?
Depreciation happens regardless. I would have lost the same, except it would have been more time, and more interest added to it. Why wait? The only people that makes sense to is people who have some myopic view of things as an "immediate". I got into the car for a helluva good price, and got out of it for a decent price. Keeping it for 3 years so I could be shown + value on it would have only given the dealership more leverage over me, and I would have gotten less for it, paid more interest, etc. The only advantage would have been saying "They paid me more than I owed! YAY!"...a privilege you pay for for those 3 years leading up to it.
I used what I owed on it as leverage. "I will pay you sticker, if you pay my trade off, and I don't care what you show me in what column to arrive at that juncture." They made maybe $1K over invoice unless they found a sucker (which they didn't, it was sold to a dealer in Houston, and I know who bought it).