$8500 Trade-in value?!?!?

I went to a dealer yesterday to possibly trade in my X for something with better gas mileage (my gas bill last month was over $350) and the guy comes back with a $8500 appraisal... for an '01 XE 4x4? Granted it has 58k miles, but $8500 when they know I owe $17k? Atleast tell me "no"... I asked why they didn't just spit in my face, I probably wouldn't have taken that as bad...

Welcome to the real world.

If you want to get paid what it's worth, NEVER "trade-in" your vehicle! Dealers always give you far less on a trade-in than you could make if you sold your vehicle yourself.

Why do you think dealers love you to trade-in your vehicle? They make big bucks when they turn around and sell your Xterra next week for several thousand more.

When you are trading in your vehicle, you are paying for the convenience of being able to drop off one vehicle and drive home in another. That convenience can cost you thousands. Is that convenience really worth that much $$?

Be smart. Sell your vehicle yourself and get a lot more for it.

Dave

One other thing:

It rarely makes sense to "trade-in" a vehicle to get another one with better gas mileage. Any $$ savings on gas mileage is lost in the trade-in. Don't believe me? Do the math.

I have to tell you that $8500 is a very poor deal. Last year at exactly this time, I traded in a 99 frontier, 4X2, 4 cylinder for the X I have now and got exactly $8500 that much. Trust me, it had no bells or whistles. I can't see how the car market would have changed that much in a year, but who knows. I'd try a couple of other places to see what they'll give you for it.

Mike

Your math doesn't work out...

You're driving 4,500 miles per month ?

I got 13K for my 01' SE 4x4 manual. I had someone offer me 8500, only b/c it was a manual and they said they couldn't sell it. Every one else was 12K-13,500. I had about 54,000 on my truck.
John

I have a 01 SE that I bought in Dec. of 2000 with 63,000 miles on it, which equals 3150 miles/month (I am pretty sure I did the math right)

32 Months divided by 63,000=1968 Miles a month
So you were a "tad" off.
BRX

12 months(12/2000 to 12/2001)
12 months(12/2001 to 12/2002)
07 months(12/2002 to 07/2003)
--
31 months

63,000/31=2,032 miles per month.
You were only over by 1,118 miles per month.

Hey Ian... with your commute to work included ... how many miles a month do you put on your X? Just curious.

I normally drive anywhere between 3-4k miles per month... 90% in town... gas mileage sucks (I knew that when I bought it, I just didn't realize it would be this expensive)!!! Exxon bill sucks worse!!! I love my X, but at this rate I can hardly make a profit... Hey Ian, where'd ya get 4500 per month? Dssherod... I was prepared to take a $3k hit on my truck, simply because that was my rollover from my last trade... sounds kinda dumb, I know... and as for $ difference between trade and gas, I was shooting for lower payments, also... I was looking at a 00 Civic with 27k miles for $10.9k... not a bad deal... unless you try to roll $9k negative equity into it...

For some odd reason I have 48,000 miles on my X. It just turned 4 years old. That's a lot of miles for someone who works at home.

Moab is always about a 1300 mile trip, I've done that 7 times. GOX is about 1000, 3 of those. I don't know where the rest of the miles came from.

I was estimating.
$350 for gas at $1.40 a gallon = 250 gallons * 18 MPG = 4500 miles.

Can I ask what you do that requires driving 160+ miles per day (I would kill myself if I had to do that) ?

Search Ebay Motors for a 1997-1999 Geo Metro. You can get one for under $1000. It can get 45 MPG, and you'll never worry if someone dents it in a parking lot. If it breaks down, leave it and buy another.

Dammit!! I had a feeling I was off!!! Math was never my strongest subjet.

I'm paying just over $1.40 usually for gas (I usually use mid-grade because my truck has a tendency to sound like ass if I don't), and getting between 15-16 mpg... I would almost be happy with 18... I'm an apartment locator in Austin... my office is up north, and for some reason most of my leases are on the other side of town... plus I have to show people several different apartments... I love my job, but after a full day in the X my ass hurts!!! And there is no way I could buy a Geo! It does sound like a good idea, and probably is, but I need reliability and something I'm not totally embarrassed to drive...

I'm hunting for a used VW Diesel or Honda Civic. I don't give a fuck if I lose money selling this Xterra now, I just can't fucking take it up the ass at the gas pump anymore. $45 every 4-5 days, please god make it stop.

Wow , I have had mine for 20 months. I have 41,000 miles, 4,000 when I bought it. so 37,000 miles in 20 months comes to 1,850 miles a month. I have no idea what my trade in would be, but then again I havent thought about it.

I got 14 grand trade in for 2001 XE 4x4 with 36k miles. It went on sale for 15,900 and was gone within a week. Dunno if they sold it or got rid of it though.

Good gosh, that's what I put in my Dodge Diesel every 2 weeks for a 34 gallon tank and 600-650 miles. Gas up north must be pricey huh?

Can't really compare too much as I have yet to really drive the X consistently on road; sucks the gas big time off-road however.

Thats $45 Canadian

Sorry Gentlemen, when I traded in my Xterra, I got $15,500. in trade, it was a 2000, with almost 50,000 miles. I am curious to see what they are gonna charge the next guy who buys it.

My point exactly - pricey!

Try selling you car on ebay. Now remember, often times ebay is considered a hotbed of "good deals" so you may not get exactly what you owe on your car, but you will probably get better than $8,500.

To purchase my new Xterra I had some cash but also wanted to trade in my '92 Mitsubishi 3000GT. This particular model is worth about 5K in mint condition, which mine was not. Mine had 169,000 miles, a major electrical problem that interfered with shifting (automatic transmission), and a torn leather seat. The dealership offered $500 for the trade!!! I put my car on ebay, mostly for kicks, and it sold for $1875 to an out of state buyer who was looking for a car to fix up!

Good Luck.

Screw all that... I'm keeping it... got new tires, wheels, and Shrockworks bumper on order... gas mileage... what the hell is gas mileage? I've got a kickass truck!

I traded my '02 XE with 45K miles in this weekend and got $13,500 for it. Plus they have a $1,500 rebate on Sentras, so I only had to roll about $2,000 into the new vehicle. (See my post under Dealerships for my incredibly awesome experience!!)

By the way, payment ended up being $100 less per month, plus $100 per month gas savings (according to my calculations based on my personal driving habits), and about $50 savings on insurance. That extra $250 per month is definitely worth it to me!

I traded my 2001 4x2 XE lease in last weekend.

They gave me $14,500 for it . . .

Plus 1.9% financing . . .

Plus $1500 rebate . . .

Payments on this purchase are the same as my lease was . . .

Plus, thanks to Marlboro Nissan's warranty specials, I was able to have the dealership look up the current extended warranty specials on the internet, and match it! So I got my 72-month/100,000 mile warranty rolled into the purchase, at 1.9% fininacing (beats paying 8% on my credit cards) . . .

Now, I'm getting ready to go up and have my new Long Trails put on. Damn thing came with Grabbers, but I put up a fuss and told 'em it was a deal-breaker: New tires or I walk.

What the hell, not like it was a big thing to them, but it made me feel even better about the deal . . .

Jesus, man! I'm goin' blind. Stop using those damn things!

I hope if I ever sell my truck that I get more than I owe on it. I haven't hit 25,000 miles yet, zero trips to the dealer except for regular maintenance, and it's just plain purty.

Even if the little dohickey on the floor that holds the mat in place did snap off...

You guys suck ! Hey Graham... how many miles on your truck when you traded?

36,840.

It was time to get a new one. Needed the new warranty . . .

I guess that makes a difference... an '01 4x4 5spd with over 50k miles and no carpet would probably go for a little less... but that's ok... my truck now kicks ass!

Where is gas 'only' $1.40 a gallon? Send some this way! I currently pay $1.65, and that could buy a lot of potatoes ...

Tacoma it is $1.42

Ha! I just paid $1.28 in Austin... :p

Bet you its cheaper in Corpus.

When I lived down there, the national news was alwasys saying what the lowest gas price was in the country. We always had them beat from $.05 to $.10, sometimes even more. So, if you paid $1.28 in Austin, I bet it's probably $1.23 at most.

damn that would be nice.

that would be nice too(close but not quite)

A lot of people do long commutes, My wife for instance was commuting in the Xterra, 51 miles each way every day. was filling up the X 3 or more times a week.

we got smart and moved closer to her work

BTW, My X will be 4 years old in Feb. It has just over 90k miles.

What a joke! My 1991 Toyota 4x4 pick up, long bed, reg. cab, 5 speed, with 400,000 kms. was just written off. State Farm gave me $6600 CDN. Although I loved it, who knows how many more repairs would have been needed? Screw the dealers, sell privately.

LOL, somehting i just learned from the jeep guys, did you know that any Rollover is a total...

two guys I know rolled their jeeps(one TJ one cherokee) slowly, insurance totaled them, then they took the money the insurance paid them and bought the trucks back...

one guy now has a 2000 TJ paid for, and the money left over allowe dhim to buy a older honda for his commute.

not that I'm suggesting anyone roll their X, but it is interesting

Well...I'm with you on being frustrated...I dont want to own a truck anymore...I'm fucking trapped though. I cant sell my truck for the life of me and the dealer wont give me anything less than date rape for mine!!!! Despite it having a great warranty and kept in Pristine condition!!!! DAAAAAAAAMNNNNNNNNITTTT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

cbx,
I know what you mean.
Although I did visit the local Honda place to check on a new Accord for the wife, they offered me 14k on a trade...I was expecting something more like 12k.
I've been advertising for a few weeks now at 14900 and haven't had any bites...I don't get it, especially when all of the other trucks around have 2x the mileage for 2-3grand more...
I guess people would rather just buy from a stealership and pay a few grand more, knowing the dealer did nothing to improve the condition of the vehicle outside of a wash and carpet cleaning :rolleyes: . Heh.
Anyway, if I can't sell it, I'll just keep the thing...I think the used market has been soft for a few years since we've had the 0.whatever% financing...people don't want to spend that much on a used vehicle when their payments look about the same on a new one.
Bogatyr

I sell New and Used Nissans for a living. I read these post were everyone is telling us what they got for trade in value.....Well that is only half of the story. If a vehicle is worth $10,000 and they got $11,000 on trade in, it only means they paided about $1,000 too much for the new ride. Dealers can always adjust the trade in and new vehicle numbers to appeal to different buyers. I a customer is trying to buy a different vehicle and trying to get it for little or no profit to the dealer, the dealer will usually try to make up the lost profit by offering a lower trade in amount. I have to agree with the first post...try to sell your vehicle first to get more money for it. Just for the record. I sold my 95 Kingcab 4x4 SE(old style truck) with 125,000 miles on it for $7,000 and bought a 00 Xterra with 125,000 miles on it for only $8,500. I went up 5 yrs for only $1,500.

Wanna sell a car?

http://www.autotrader.com

$30 and the ad stays until you sell your vehicle (just have to edit it every 30 days - add a space, delete it back out & save at a minimum).

Had a '90 240sx w/120K miles on it. Sold it for high blue book in 4 days - had people calling me from out of state! (should have asked more for more) Secret? Clean the hell out of your vehicle, take tons of pictures (I had about 30) and link to them from your AutoTrader ad.

Ups your chances over dealing with local methods. I advertised in local classifieds, parked it in the local "swap lot", etc. and got nothing - put it on AutoTrader and it was gone in less than two weeks.

The more detailed the ad, the better too - it all counts.

Good luck!

I sold on Autotrader too. Both a 2000 Nissan Xterra 4x4 and a 2000 VW Jetta GLS with WAAAAAYYY too many miles. Both times, had the cars around a year, and got what I owed, plus some.

I am going to be selling my wife's 1999 Honda Accord pretty soon, and I plan on using autotrader again. It is a 1999 LX with leather, sunroof, power everything and 53,000 miles. I am looking for 11-12K on it. (shameless plug)

Got 11,300 in trade for my 01 XE 4x4 P/S/U with 66500 on it. It had numerous dings/dents, and lots of backwoods pin striping. It needed new tires, brakes, rotors, and was due for new belts I believe. Blue book trade in value was only $9100…

I purchased my 4x4 Xterra w/ 60,000 miles for $12000. I got it at a VW dealership in that i found on autotrader. Auto trader works well. I was looking for a month and I saw lots of Xterras posted and bought within a few days