Was just wondering what everyone esle was getting for trade-in on '03's. I have an '03 Rally Red with 20,100 miles. Went to the dealership today as they have been calling me to try and get rid of an'05 ssl they have. My car is in good shape, besides a few tiny rock chips in the hood that have been touched up and barely visible, and two of my Brembos that the clearcoat started to peal. I have the power sun roof, and all the interior Mitsu accessories: ( sports meter kit, shift knob, sport pedals, and door scuff plates. Dealer said the most they could give me is 18K trade. I looked at the quote and they rated the car in fair condition on KBB. Said they could not give any higher rating than fair. Thought that was funny as they are all selling outright for 21-24 depending on condition and mileage. Needless to say they didn't get rid of their last 05 ssl today. Anyone else get any bad trade-in quotes by dealerships?

 

sorry to hear about the dealer ship woes.. I'm going through the same thing as well. I'm gonna (want) trade in 2 cars for an Evo .. I blame myself so bad for screwing up when I bought my Srt-4.. no down payment, no equity and i'm gonna lose my *** on it. On the other hand I have alot of equity in my mercedes and hopefully I can use the equity to get out of my srt. I went to the stealership and they wanted to give me 11k for my srt-4 and 16 for my mercedes... basically I told them to pound sand, and have just been waiting it out. my srt books for about 14K trade and my Benz for 19K so yeah, there were trying to screw me

 

sounds typical....

 

I wound up getting $20.5 trade-in for my 03. It had 30.7K miles on it and was in very good condition. They initially offered me $19.5. I told them have a nice day, then they took another look at it and offered me the final value.

 

I showed them the 20,500 to 23200 trade-in value that NADA and Edmunds gave me for a car in average to good condition. They said they could not give anything more than a fair rating. I read the sheet they printed and Fair meant that the car needed mechanical, body, and interior work by a professional and may include some rust. I don't know what they looked at becuase there isn't a mark on the car besides the few stone chips that have been touched up. Also just put on new pads, slotted rotors, tires 2 weeks ago. I was told to take the weekend to think about and they would call me on Monday. There wasn't much to think about based on their offer. I guess I'll be perfectly happy with my '03.

 

just go to another dealer

 

thats the game and how it works. My buddy bought the Mazda 6 when it first came out for like 20000 He went to trade it in and guess what they said they couldnt even give him 10000

 

My dealer gave me 21K on trade-in w/ 35K miles for my 03. Definitely hold out for more.

The funny thing is in Dec last year, they were only going to give me 19K (with much less mileage) for trade in on an 8 MR.

 

No matter what, you are going to get pretty raped on a trade in. Your best bet is to sell it privately.

 

word, sell it yourself, heres a personal example,

i was getting trade-in offers of 16k or so for my 01 Camaro SS with 28k, fully loaded and immaculate.

i put on autotrader and some crazy fool came and paid 21,000 cash (my advertised price) the next day. needless to say, im really glad i didnt trade it in.

 

Dealerships go by what the "Galves" book states is the value of a used car. They could care less about KBB(worthless) and edmunds. Most dealerships just wholesale the cars to other dealers. Seems a little unfair but I have taken a beating several times just as we all will when trading in a used car. You are much better off selling the car privately and taking cash out of pocket to cover any differences over and above your loan amount.

 

I used to work a dealership a few years back. They make more money off of trade ins than they do on sold cars. They will always low ball you (big time); if you don't like the quote, they have already built in room to play with the price. I've seen them give away cars for practically nothing because they know they can make up the difference on the trade (which they don't necessarily pay their sales staff commission on).

Oh, and if you have any aftermarket modifications, you almost always want to sell private party.

 

All the aftermarket parts were off except for the exhaust and mbc. The mbc is hidden and I told them I'd put the stock cat/exhaust back on. Still got a "fair" rating on trade. Will shop around to different dealerships and see what I can get.

 

Get rid of the mbc, don't let them find that sucker.

 

Sorry to hear you are having problems with trading in the car. The only suggestion I would give you is not to trade it in. Sell your car on your own. It maybe a pain in the a**, but in the long run you will be happier. You should be able to get between 21,000-25,000 depending on condition. The delership is going to pay as little as possible. Walk away if you are not happy with their terms.