I searched and looked at thread titles to see if this neatly fit under a past thread. Didn’t see one. Specific reason for starting this thread is to give a heads-up to Forum members about the increased value of your clean used car—-in just the last couple months.

We sold my wife’s Volvo XC60 to CarMax this morning. We have a special order, new car on the way. We had an offer from the dealership on the car; CarMax just beat that offer by $5,200! We had actually checked in with CarMax in July when we were dealing on the new car. At that time they offered $3,200 less than the deal we made today. This issue is the ongoing chip shortage. Good, clean cars and trucks continue to sell at premium prices because there’s no inventory out there. You would actually think the dealerships would learn that they can’t lowball a customer anymore, but they’re slow to learn. I actually talked to our salesman on the new car yesterday. He asked if I could wait because he’d like to talk to the used car manager (we couldn’t wait, we’re going out of town). I don’t think it matters, they’re not coming up $5k, it’s not in their DNA.

Talked to my brother. He’s got a really nice car that he shopped a couple months ago. After talking to me he ran the car through CarMax too. Offer had increased $2,500 over a couple months ago. They have an appointment Thursday.

If you’re shopping for another used car, I don’t know how all this works out for you, but if you can buy or order new, worth looking into.

If you have a lease and it's coming up, don't return it to the dealer, they will just take it back and you'll get zero credit toward your new purchase.

Instead see what the payoff/buyout is at the lease end, compare it to current market, ie take it to carmax for a free offer, if you have equity, and you probably will, buy it from the leasing company.

A) if you like it, keep it and drive it as you'll never get a cheaper used version and if you turn it in the dealer will keep it and retail it.

B) if you want a new vehicle, the only way to get the cash value on your lease turn in is to buy it first.

quote:

Originally posted by HRK:
If you have a lease and it's coming up, don't return it to the dealer, they will just take it back and you'll get zero credit toward your new purchase.

Instead see what the payoff/buyout is at the lease end, compare it to current market, ie take it to carmax for a free offer, if you have equity, and you probably will, buy it from the leasing company.

A) if you like it, keep it and drive it as you'll never get a cheaper used version and if you turn it in the dealer will keep it and retail it.

B) if you want a new vehicle, the only way to get the cash value on your lease turn in is to buy it first.

That was not the case for me. I sold my leased Honda CR-V to the Honda dealer in July, which was 2 months before my lease ended. The dealer offered me $5,000 over the buyout price and wrote me a check. I could have put the 5k into another Honda lease or purchase, but I didn't. My lease terminated when the dealer bought the car--no end of lease hassle or inspection. Very easy.

I just sold my Subaru Outback that I purchased for $26,641 for $12,500. Essentially 3x what KBB says it's worth.

It's 10 years old and has 150k miles on it.

Things are a little weird out there.

Sold my suburban for 3,500 less than what I paid in 2017

quote:

Originally posted by davetruong:
Sold my suburban for 3,500 less than what I paid in 2017

That's pretty sweet.

We're in the market for a new ride and have to take delivery before Jan 1 for tax purposes.

Not super excited about negotiating a good deal in this market, but we're starting early and and will hopefully wear someone down.

My folks have a Lease coming up in FEB and not sure what to do. My advice to was to look at buying the thing since it only has 24,000 after 2.5 years. Folks love to lease cars which is a rip off to me with how little they drive.

Used prices are one reason why I bought a new Tacoma, they offered me so much for my Subaru I could not pass it up (well, there was a longevity issue with the Subaru but I would not have traded it in if they would not have given me so much for it).

Vroom just paid a relative $2K more than the purchase price for a 2020 Bronco Sport w/ 10K miles.

I got a steal on my Rogue in November just as the stupid hit.

I bought it the second it hit the lot at CarMax before they started raising prices.

quote:

That was not the case for me. I sold my leased Honda CR-V to the Honda dealer in July, which was 2 months before my lease ended.

Actually a good example of an alternative tactic, similar in that you found a dealer that would buy out your lease early. Then give your the difference in value.

The point being don't take your lease vehicle to term and hand it back in, you're losing money.

Another data point, or maybe just a story:

I recently "had" to upgrade to a diesel truck (2017 model). My gas F-250 (2015 model) wasn't up to the task of pulling a new trailer...

The same dealer I bought he gas truck from used (3 years ago) gave me a few bucks MORE than I paid for it...! I'd say $8k more than it was "worth".

The flip side to that is I paid probably $10k more than I should have for the new truck.

There's a lot of reasons I'm not unhappy with my deal (mainly, the gas Superduty's value was dropping while the diesels will hold way longer)...and as I said, I needed the upgrade to utilize the new trailer.

Overall, I'd say my experience backs up the advice here: If you have an extra or unused car...sell it now/soon!

- Brian

quote:

Originally posted by Aeteocles:

quote:

Originally posted by davetruong:
Sold my suburban for 3,500 less than what I paid in 2017

That's pretty sweet.

We're in the market for a new ride and have to take delivery before Jan 1 for tax purposes.

Not super excited about negotiating a good deal in this market, but we're starting early and and will hopefully wear someone down.

Tell me about that tax deal???

Vehicles with a GVWR of 6000lbs or more and used primarily for business can qualify for an accelerated depreciation under Section 179 and bonus depreciation in the year it is put in service.

Record keeping is onerous, and you'll need to keep a log of each and every trip with the vehicle and the related business purpose of each trip.

Thanks for the heads up.

Been looking to trade my RAV4 towards a Highlander. Of course everything is in small supply right now.

Entered my RAV4 info at CarMax and printed their offer sheet. When the dealer asked how much I wanted for the RAV4, I said "here is what I can get".

Dealer came within about $600 of the CarMax offer. The closest CarMax is in Vegas, so it was close enough on the price.

Of course the Dealer won't budge on the Highlander price, in addition to their $3,000 "Market Adjustment". But for what I'm getting for the RAV4 it more than makes up the difference.

Thanks.

FWIW, Vroom picks up your car so you don't have to bring it to them. In the three local instances I know, they came to NH from MA twice and once from CT. The hauler does a very thorough walk-around but once he loads it up it's theirs and you get a wire transfer in <week.