Car Max

[MR. evil]

Randi and I are in the process of buying a new car. All the paper work has been signed and the only thing left to do is to pick it up. The dealer we are getting the car from out in the Boston Area has been really slimy to deal with. Seeing how they gave us such an outrageously low price on the car I had a feeling they would try to screw me on my trade in. A 2001 Nissan Maxima with 115,000 miles on it. So on a whim I took the car down to the Hartford Car Max dealership on my lunch hour on Thursday to get it apprised. Car Max buys cars from people even if you don’t buy a car from them. In about 30 minutes I had an offer from them…..$4000, which was exactly the number I was hoping to get as a trade in. I was told the offer was good for 7 days. The Car Max dealership in Hartford is on the same strip that all the major new car dealerships are on. My appraiser told me that many of the new car dealerships will send there customers to Car Max to sell their trade-ins because Car Max usually beats what a dealer will offer.

I talked it over with Randi, and acquaintance that works as a car test driver / writer for Consumer reports. He told us to take the Car Max offer and run! So on Friday morning I brought the car and title down to the Car Max dealer, signed a few pieces of paper and had a check in hand in no time flat.

Later Friday afternoon we were at the new car dealership to sign all of the paper work on the car. The sales guy asked about our trade and I told him we sold the car out-right to Car Max for $4000. He joked and told me they would have given me $5000. But then told me there was no way the dealership would have given us $4000 for a car with 115,000 miles on it. He and several others at the dealership told us we would have probably been lucky to get $3000 from them. So we ended up making out pretty good.

 

[o3jeff]

Should of held onto it until you picked up the new car if the offer was good for 7 days then you would of been able to come riding.

What did you end up getting for a new car?

 

[MR. evil]

Should of held onto it until you picked up the new car if the offer was good for 7 days then you would of been able to come riding.

What did you end up getting for a new car?

Well I need that money to go towards the down payment. We are getting a 2009 Honda Accord Coupe, V6, 6 speed manual trans in blue. It was a royal pain in the but to find this car. Honda only made 1000 of them with manual trans and no one has them.

http://automobiles.honda.com/accord-coupe/

 

[deadheadskier]

Looks like a sweet ride

 

[MR. evil]

Looks like a sweet ride

It is! But so was my Maxima. I had that car for 7 years with no issues. The only things I had to replace were standard were and tear items.

 

[deadheadskier]

I'm sure the Honda will be an equally reliable car. My college beater car was an 82' Honda Accord. It ran fine until I sold it in 1999 with 235,000 miles on it. I had it for the last 60K and the only thing I had to replace was the clutch and some minor suspension and brake work.

I really like the new Accord design, especially the coupe.

 

[o3jeff]

Great choice going with a Honda, I have been really happy with my Acura TSX and have had no problems with it, but then again I only have 27k it and it's an 2004.

 

[MRGisevil]

Tim what did I tell you about talking shit of the car dealer before the keys are in hand? If you jinx this for me you're sleeping in the shed -.-

 

[MR. evil]

Tim what did I tell you about talking shit of the car dealer before the keys are in hand? If you jinx this for me you're sleeping in the shed -.-

All the papers are signed, calm down

 

[Geoff]

A new car dealership in New England will typically go by the Galves auction price book to set the trade-in price. That's the average wholesale price for the car at auction accounting for mileage and condition. The dealer also has some expense to haul it to an auction and deal with the paperwork so that gets subtracted out.

A used car dealer, whether it's a mom & pop or a monster chain, can offer more for your car as long as it's a car they think they can sell. They can put it up on a lift to look for problems and test drive it... something you can't do at an auction house and that dramatically reduces their risk. They don't have to pay the auctioneer fee (I think it's 10%) to obtain the car. They don't have to put it on a flatbed and haul it to their dealership.

 

[campgottagopee]

A new car dealership in New England will typically go by the Galves auction price book to set the trade-in price. That's the average wholesale price for the car at auction accounting for mileage and condition. The dealer also has some expense to haul it to an auction and deal with the paperwork so that gets subtracted out.

A used car dealer, whether it's a mom & pop or a monster chain, can offer more for your car as long as it's a car they think they can sell. They can put it up on a lift to look for problems and test drive it... something you can't do at an auction house and that dramatically reduces their risk. They don't have to pay the auctioneer fee (I think it's 10%) to obtain the car. They don't have to put it on a flatbed and haul it to their dealership.

Very true---if a new car dealer tells you your car is worth 3500 what they mean is that's all it's worth to them. Getting a car to auction isn't cheap----if a dealer put 3500 hard money into a car it will have to bring back close to 4000 for them to break even. Sounds easy, but trust me it aint.

 

[WJenness]

Well I need that money to go towards the down payment. We are getting a 2009 Honda Accord Coupe, V6, 6 speed manual trans in blue. It was a royal pain in the but to find this car. Honda only made 1000 of them with manual trans and no one has them.

http://automobiles.honda.com/accord-coupe/

Nice.

I was contemplating that car (the 07 or 08 version) when I was car shopping.

The difficulty of finding the 6 speed pushed me away from it.

I think we're seeing a reversal of the everyone drives automatic trend that has been happening in the US for a while now... Most of my friends drive stick, and the ones that don't all wish they did. The car manufacturers / dealers seem like they haven't noticed this trend yet, making finding a car difficult but making car buying decisions much easier.

-w