Shocked by Saturn

[pdo321]

At least this was to me. I'm looking to trade the Redline in (new house comes first) and all dealers give me a $12,000-12,500 trade-in. Then I go to SATURN and they say they can't do better the $12,000. It's a '04 Silver with 8500 miles, no modifications or any problems what so ever. I just think this is a huge lowball. NADA is the only place I find info on this car, average trade-in is @$14,600. NADA may be a bit high but really. Maybe I'm wrong?

[XeroState]

The Edmunds TMV trade in value for your car with no options in outstanding condition is 12,291.

[pdo321]

Well I guess NADA is waayyyy off. And that this Domestic is not a departure of the normal horrible resale value of Domestics. Sorry, I'm just pissed.

[dazednconfused75]

I really don't know why you expected it have a good resale. Saturns are not known for their great resale value. How much do you owe on it?

[clevelander2002]

i think 12500 is a good trade in considering a lot of people are buying them brand new (left over) for in the mid teens

[mailmars]

Originally Posted by pdo321

Well I guess NADA is waayyyy off. And that this Domestic is not a departure of the normal horrible resale value of Domestics. Sorry, I'm just pissed.

NADA is always high.. but we are are talking trade value here guys not the retail value.. when you take trade value for a car you have just set the dealers profit margin.. Trade in at 12,500 sell it for 15,500... 25 percent mark up.. so minus sales commision, DMV fees for them taking it off your hands, overhead cost, cost of money etc... dealership puts about a 1500 in bank.. really new car really old car=private sale. Trade on either is going to kill you...


Mark

[Kirtsky]

Someone on here in a thread earlier today was saying they got $14,xxx for trade in. Yeah, I wouldn't think they would have a great trade in. I would think to get near 13 would be great, as I only paid just over $17,000.

[pdo321]

I paid a tad over 17k for mine after discounts, this is better than if I bought before the big sales. I didn't know about Edmunds TMV, I probably wouldn't have posted. I always thought using any online appraiser (NADA,KBB...) you would be able to get a ballpark figure, I never thought it would be that far off. The local dealer sold an '04 3 months ago with I think 12000miles for $16995. That and NADA is what I was using for a gauge. I guess I learned something new today.

[CarNut]

Originally Posted by pdo321

I paid a tad over 17k for mine after discounts, this is better than if I bought before the big sales. I didn't know about Edmunds TMV, I probably wouldn't have posted. I always thought using any online appraiser (NADA,KBB...) you would be able to get a ballpark figure, I never thought it would be that far off. The local dealer sold an '04 3 months ago with I think 12000miles for $16995. That and NADA is what I was using for a gauge. I guess I learned something new today.

My local dealer had one with less miles at $13,500. The other one they're talking about here at 14+ trade in was an 05. Unfortunately, 12K - 12.5K is about right for an 04. Don't forget 06s are out. No matter when you bought it, to a buyer its still a 2 year old car.
If I were you I would sell it yourself. Browse around the threads here. I think there was a guy looking to buy a low mileage one in the 12 - 13 range. Or you could just keep the car. It's a bad time to buy a house now anyway. Take it from someone who's bought at the peak of the market before.

[redline14]

Well, it really depends on what dealer you go to because different ones use different books. I think my saturn dealer uses nada, while a lot of the other ones use kbb. I've never seen a dealer that uses TMV though. Some dealers also use black book, which I'd never even heard of before. Unfortunately though, $12000 trade in for your car is about right. They just don't have very good resale value.