Have only had the Crossfire since last August, but I might be parting with her in a few weeks.

We've had a recent--soon to be addition to the family and I was thinking of trading her in for a more family friendly car.

2006 Limited--Alabaster--36k miles. I drove her for 3 months, then put her away for the winter. Took her out during March of this year.

I was wondering if it would be better to sell her as a private seller or trade her in at the dealership. I feel as though the dealer trade in would lose me a few thousand dollars.

Any guesstimates from you guys on what she might go for??

 

maybe 11.5-12.8. On a good day maybe 13

 

You may try this trade in value from auto trader! https://tradein.autotrader.com/ATPag...rketPlace.aspx Also know what car you want when you go to dealer ,how much it should cost you, and what they try to stick you with financing, extended ,warranties . Now sometimes at closing i

accept some of this crap just to shut them up, knowing that i can cancel it at a later date but get this in

writing . If u want a ext warranty get the factory only, not some aftermarket. Also you may shop % rates

online, credit union etc many times you can walk in with a check and they will beat that interest rate. The last

car i brought i went to lot while they were closed picked out car got vin then had them email me price and that's what i


paid. I actually enjoyed this, this Dealership was also great to work with. good luck and do your research

 

My experience is that CarMax offers auction value, where most dealers offer trade-in value, which is considerably less.

Sell it privately or take it to CarMax.

 

something else to think about when trading you only pay sales tax on differance ! Where if you sell it yourslef & buy you will pay all of sales tax ?? Something to think about ! Our sales tax is 7 percent !!!!

 

I went to a few dealerships in Western NY and the best offer was from West Herr Ford for $10800.
He kept telling me that the car was worth less than 9k when he pulled it up on his system...then I asked him to show me how he pulled it up..the same system pulled up trade in of $12600..then he started to stutter and said that I didn't take into account reconditiong costs...I had to laugh and walk out.

 

FYI - these are the same things. Auction value (aka MMR) is usually way less than NADA trade or CBB. Most dealers buy the vehicles at the auction for about RBB (rough black book) knowing that the banks will base the finance advance on CBB (clean black book). The difference minus recon fees minus sales tax on the veh when sold is their profit. That money is obviously eaten up with advertising costs, floor plan, sales commissions, rent, etc.

All of these are the reason that a lot of the time it is better for you to sell private party, but there can be issues with that as well. I know of several people who sold cars private party and were paid for them, but the buyer had an at fault accident before transferring the title & the old owner was on the hook for liability. After all the seller was still the registered owner. Plus when you sell private party you don't get trade tax credit, but that isn't available in every state.

As far as not taking into consideration recon costs that the dealer will have to spend - that is a little naive. Most dealers are required by law & their insurance company to do a safety check on the vehicles they sell. The average recon cost is about $700 per veh at an average franchise dealership. Would you want to buy a car at a franchise dealership that didn't have the oil changed, didn't have the brakes checked and had the previous owner's fruit loops in the seat??? Of course not. All those things cost money. Detail guys have to get paid, mechanics have to get paid.

Carmax is a unique situation because they own their subprime company. There isn't a bank to reel in the overadvances so they can overcharge for their vehicles in subprime and they play the percentages in prime. That fact does allow them to offer a little more money for the street purchase vehicles that they buy. How much they pay for a certain vehicle also depends on their need for the vehicle. Obviously if they have 100 Dodge Caravans in the area they aren't really needing another one so the money won't be quite as strong. If they have been selling a lot of sports cars, they might give you top dollar for your XF.

Maybe the "why's" will help you decide what direction you would like to go.

 

I wondered why CarMax offered me so much more than dealers or small, private lots, Kim. I assumed they were paying auction value, not trade in. It was explained to me that trade-in value is set at about 10% below whatever the latest auction value is .... is this incorrect? The guy told me that this is how a dealer protects himself from being stuck with a car, if it does not sell, he knows he can take it to auction and get his money out of the car.

It made sense to me, but it sounds like you disagree. I THOUGHT I was talking to someone who knew what he was talking about, sounds like I wasn't.

 

Mark - who would set a trade in value? Set by who?

Here is the key fact about dealing with anyone in the car business - they are always going to be better at buying & selling cars than you are. I know that is a crappy fact, but its the truth. I don't know how many car deals I have been involved in as of today, but I know I was over 10,000 in 2006. For fun we sit around and guess the book on cars. I work with a guy who memorizes VIN#'s for fun (he is weird). I can structure car deals in my head & that is a common trait. My point is that anyone with any tenure in the car business is an expert. Take the deal that you are happy with and proceed. A little insider tip is that if you are happy with your car deal then the dealership probably made some money. If you are really happy then they probably made a lot of money. Usually the ones who think they got screwed the most actually got the best deal. One of the little ironies of life.

As far as dealers protecting themselves from loosing at the auction, there really isn't a way to make that happen. I have had the book values on a vehicle change $1000 in a week. You couldn't even get a car to the auction & run it within that time period at most franchise stores.

I think the dealer in this case told you something that he figured you make sense to you & therefore make you feel better about the deal. That happens a lot. Its called closing.