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How much is your car worth? If you had to sell it tomorrow, what do you think you could get for it?

I'm asking because I'm looking for a used car (can't afford a new one, alas), and Edmunds.com says that my present car could sell privately for about $1400, and I think they lie. It's a '92 Camry, white, in pretty good condition but I think it needs a bit of work (like new shocks, plus new tires), but it has 230,670 miles on it! Would anyone in their right mind buy a car with that many miles on it at all, let alone pay $1400 for it?!!

So, according to Edmunds, I can get $882 as a trade-in and $1434 from selling it privately. Is it really worth that much? I was figuring on donating it to the Red Cross to get a $500 tax deduction because I thought it would be worth less than that...

Oh, and click here to see what Edmunds claims your car is worth. Probably more than mine.

Ouch...1100 dollars for my pop's 89 Mazda for retail price and as low as 300 dollars! Oh well it broke down anyway heh.~Jason

For my poor baby(94 black Probe)...I'd get around 2200-3600

Not too bad...but I do still need her.

My Volvo 240:

Trade-in Private Party Dealer Retail


Base Price $1,048 $1,541 $2,362

Optional Equipment $0 $0 $0

Color Adjustment $0 $0 $0

Regional Adjustment $-66 $-96 $-148

Mileage Adjustment $515 $515 $515

Condition Adjustment $0 $0 $0

Total $1,497 $1,960 $2,729

Stupid zip code searched the net fowr a walid zip so pay that part no heed

Z hun... you best off just trading it in. as good as toyotas are it will be a tough sell with that many miles on it. A dealership would be more apt to take it in and give a fair price because you are buying a new car from them. Maybe if you can get someone that really doesn't know better to buy it, you might get over a grand, but....

and according to edmunds Mr. Happy Honda is worth:

$10,624 as a trade in
$12,040 to a private party, or
$13,429 at retail

Col. Crackpot wrote:Z hun... you best off just trading it in. as good as toyotas are it will be a tough sell with that many miles on it. A dealership would be more apt to take it in and give a fair price because you are buying a new car from them. Maybe if you can get someone that really doesn't know better to buy it, you might get over a grand, but....

Yeah, I know. That's why I was so surprised--I never thought anyone would say I could get anything more than $500 for it. I'm sure if I had the patience I could probably find an idiot to buy it for a grand, but I don't have that kind of time. Good ol' Bob's going to die pretty soon, methinks.

And on a related note, if any of you happen to stumble across a used VW GTI, manual trans., 2-door black or silver (preferably), less than 100k miles for less than $10K in the Baltimore/DC area, let me know. That's what I want.

Bah, they don't have my Dad's M-reg Audi A4.

You can usually get a better deal when trading in a crappy car, because they are essentially just giving you a better deal on the final price of the car. If you didn't have a trade in, you'd be able to negotiate the final ticket price lower.

For example, when I bought my Accord, I didn't have a trade in. I negotiated the guy to $1000 less than the MSRP, inluding spoiler ($700 by itself) and the stupid stuff they make money on like mats, mud guards, shipping, "air tax", etc, etc. I thought that was an OK deal, but let's say I brought in a trade in, the guy might give me an extra $1000 on the trade-in, then stick to the MSRP for the price of the car.

Wait until it's worth less than that deduction, then do it.

Or wait until it's 25 years old and you can declare it to be an antique and sell it to car collectors.

Zaia wrote:How much is your car worth? If you had to sell it tomorrow, what do you think you could get for it?

I'm asking because I'm looking for a used car (can't afford a new one, alas), and Edmunds.com says that my present car could sell privately for about $1400, and I think they lie. It's a '92 Camry, white, in pretty good condition but I think it needs a bit of work (like new shocks, plus new tires), but it has 230,670 miles on it! Would anyone in their right mind buy a car with that many miles on it at all, let alone pay $1400 for it?!!

So, according to Edmunds, I can get $882 as a trade-in and $1434 from selling it privately. Is it really worth that much? I was figuring on donating it to the Red Cross to get a $500 tax deduction because I thought it would be worth less than that...

Oh, and click here to see what Edmunds claims your car is worth. Probably more than mine. :D

It's not surprising. Though I myself probably wouldn't pay any more than perhaps $1100 for it (since it's going to need some non-trivial part replacements and apparently has been driven, on average, almost 21,000 miles a year.)

Probably could sell my truck for $20000, but that is just becasue I bought it 4 weeks ago.

Col. Crackpot wrote:Z hun... you best off just trading it in. as good as toyotas are it will be a tough sell with that many miles on it. A dealership would be more apt to take it in and give a fair price because you are buying a new car from them.

Whooboy. Dealers love guys that think like that. A car's retail price is a shell game, in which the dealer tries to get you to think you are getting a good deal by spreading the money around on things like rust proofing, car mats, sunroofs, spoilers, extended warranty, car trade in, etc. Its in your best interest to eliminate as many shells as you can, so you can focus on the price of the car.

Put the car in the paper for three weeks for $1000, or whatever. People do buy cars like this, because even if they have 250k miles on it, if its running good, its going to be as if not more reliable then many other car manufacturers at 100k. If you sell it, you'll be money ahead, and you'll be in a better negotiating position. If you don't, you have the dealer to fall back on, and you're out $20 for the ad. I think its worth that risk. Oh, and decline the floor mats ($30 bucks at autozone), spoiler ($250-350 painted and installed at any aftermarket shop), extended warranty and anything else the bastards try to tack on.

Well $600 for my Geo, it's got 80,000 miles, and has some rock fall damage to the front, but it still drives really well.....

I'm having to guess for mileage, because my baby's at my parents' house, but here goes:

$7861 retail

$8868 private party

$10654 dealer retail

I did have to drop back a year, though...they didn't have my car's model year on their website.

I have almost 300,000 miles on my car, so it can't be worth that much

I have a 1997 Civic 2dr EX. (Silver) I probably could get between 5-6 thousand for it. It has 117,400 miles, a dent on the rear, left quarter panel, soda stains on the front passenger floor mat, and the lid to the little storage space between the front seats is broken.


Zaia,

As for your Camry, that model is pretty darn durable. 1400 seems high but if its in good condition physically I bet you could get it. Especially if you are in a place where you dont have rough winters. Personally Id pay a grand for it.

Trade in $529
Private Party $945
Dealership $1,652

Trade- In: $56,094

Private: $59,132
Party

Dealer: $64,196

Too bad it's a 1:20 scale model, but if it was real it would be worth that much. It's a 2002 BMW M5.

Make: Honda
Model: Civic LX (4-door)
Year: 2001
Miles: 39700
Color: silver
Options: side airbags
Condition: clean (some dents and dings from gravel from driving thru the Narrows construction zone for the last 9 months every day, and some interior damage from computers and other stuff being hauled around. Also a twitchy transmission.)


Trade-in
$8,749

Private party
$10,036

Dealer retail
$11,241

Certified used car
$12,091

aerius wrote:Trade- In: $56,094

Private: $59,132
Party

Dealer: $64,196

Too bad it's a 1:20 scale model, but if it was real it would be worth that much. It's a 2002 BMW M5.

Ooh, an M5. A mate of mine has one, a year old too! Convertible as well, damn sweet ride and this guy works in his family business of selling paint!

1988 (I think, I can never remember quite) Subaru GL
190,800 miles.
Maroon, stationwagon, 4 Dr., no AC.
BIG Dents in the hood where it came unlatched at 45 miles an hour and slammed backwards. (Nope, it didn't break the window.) I took it home, used a cast-iron skillet on the underside of the hood, or, Bonnet, as you brits call it, to pount out the dents and folded up corner of the hood.
New tires.
Seat belts- functional
Radio- functional
windows which roll down AND back up- 1
Windows which rolld down, but not up (Without help)- 2
Windows which tell you to go fuck yourself when you push the toggle switch- 1
Liftgate struts shot.
rear shocks-shot to hell and makes a squeaky-squeaky sound on speedbumps



Gas milage-33 MPG (Yes, I measured)
Mechanical problems- 0
worth- Fuck you, I love my car.

(But seriously, 450.00. is all I would take while still being able to look myself in the mirror.)

shit. Hit quote....again....fuck me with a chainsaw.

Zaia,

The value (at least for trade in) is representative of the fact that you can sell the car for spare parts and scrap. Its value is thus NOT what you can resell but what you can sell for scrap. No dealer will resell a vehicle for less than about 3.5-4K because there's just no margin otherwise.

CmdrWilkens wrote:Zaia,

The value (at least for trade in) is representative of the fact that you can sell the car for spare parts and scrap. Its value is thus NOT what you can resell but what you can sell for scrap. No dealer will resell a vehicle for less than about 3.5-4K because there's just no margin otherwise.

Ahhhhhhh. Ok. That makes sense, then.

My dad told me to check out the blue book price, which has the dealer price listed around $3500. That surprises the hell out of me. In a good way.

Drive it till it dies!!!

PS. Keep a cell-phone with you in the car.

Seriously, I tend to drive cars until they either die or begin costing so much in repairs that it would be cheaper to buy a new car. Why replace any more frequently than you have to?