Have Car Dealers Stopped Trying?
There comes a time when all good things have to end. Or at least they should. Consider the plight of my SUV. It’s been reasonably good to us, but I went to trade in my used car and try to get a deal on a new car and got the opposite of what I expected in a down economy.
We had an issue previously with that car, but managed to get it repaired for a huge discount. The car ran as good as the day we bought it. We tried to do everything right on the purchase — got a credit union loan, negotiated a good deal on a single-owner used car with low miles. We even set up an aggressive payment schedule to make sure we kep “right side up” on the deal.
All was well and good until we went to look at used cars. The amount we owed seemed like we’d be able to trade in after doing a bit of research, but we were in for a shock. Here’s the numbers:
- kbb.com Trade-in value on vehicle currently: $11,500
- What CarMax offered for trade-in 2 months ago: $9,000
- What a dealer offered for trade-in 2 months ago: $8,000
I didn’t save the trade-in value from back then, but it was higher than 11,500. What surprised me was how low the trade went to. Naturally, when a dealer can’t sell used cars, they have to discount and that comes off of the trade-in value, but we hadn’t expected thousands to come off.
Both dealers said that he car was in good condition and there were no problems. But the trade just wasn’t there.
To make matters worse, neither dealer seemed interested in making a deal on a car, or even aggressive sales. Sure, CarMax is normally more laid back, and that’s part of the appeal, but they didn’t even try. It wasn’t like the deal soured after the trade-in value was found, either. Back when sales were up, dealers would jump all over me in the lot, even when I was just browsing. Now we were the only interested people around and they didn’t exactly trip over themselves to make a deal.
For now, we’re just staying with our car for a bit, and maybe we will try again later. Maybe we will just hang onto it, like my other car and save money as we go.
What’s your car buying experience been like lately? Let me know in the comments below.
