and they offered me $10,500 for it! WTH!!!!

I cant believe that. I paid 29,900 for it July of 2001, and its worth 33% of its value 2 yrs later. Has anyone else tried trading in the car. Kelly blue book, NADA, and Intelichoice all say its worth 16-20.

This is crazy!

 

That's definitely a lowball number, so they obviously don't really want your car. But they're still willing to take it off your hands at that price.

 

Wasn't this car once involved in a pretty bad accident? Major repair?

 

What were you looking to get?

Erik

 

Yes it was in an accident. It was fairly bad. No frame damage, just aot of body stuff. The body shop ripped us off on the repair. It was the first C230 coupe they had ever seen and there were not an "repair numbers" to go by.

I was looking at a 2003 Chevy Tahoe Z71

 

Well, that could also be your problem. It will be hard to move a Benz at a Chevy dealer. They know they will sit on it for a while and are preparing. Fact is right now there are over 10 Coupe's on Ebay, and your not going to get much for the car no matter what you do.

I bought this car knowing full well I would put on over 100,000 miles in 3-4 years and dump it for the value of a Civic...

Erik

 

Tell me about it!!!

Timmy, I feel your pain., my E55 is with around the low 20s (trade)

 

Hmm a person I knew went to the Nissan dealer and traded his 99' ML320 with no optional items and got like 16,500 from it. The car had 59,000 miles and not very perfect interior.

 

That's why I have no guilt in offering a below wholesale price when looking at used cars. Dealers sometimes offer 4-5K below wholesale book. I feel I'm doing the owner a favor if I offer 1-2K below book. I was offered 10K on my Honda CR-V when the cheapest ones for sale were $15K and many where going for 17K and wholesale book was 13.9K. They are just out to rip you off, don't let them get away with it, never trade a car in. What I do is call around 2-3 dealers (of the brand you are selling), ask them if they are interested in working a deal on my car for close to book and see what they say. You would be surprised, I've sold cars that way for only 500 to 1,000 back of book, unheard of in this area for straight trade-in's. When you sell it, go back and torture him to make you a better deal since there's no trade involved. Those Tahoe's should easily sell for 10K below MSRP.

What's funny is they probably only make about $1,000 selling you a coupe, but a used one they like to make $10,000.

 

The ML is around $38 K, the coupe is $10k cheaper. There is a point at which the used price levels off and it really doesn't matter. 16,500 for a car that is less then 5 years old with only 60,000 miles took a $22K loss...thats just as significant.

Erik

 

are you looking to sell yours?

 

Yes lots of dealers are making a killing selling used cars. Don't let them rip you off. Sell it on your own by advertising it in the local classified ads (PhotoBuys or Recycler). You will get top dollars selling it to an end user. I've done it a few times. Works wonders.

Those f***** car salesmen should be sent one-way tickets to Iraq.

 

I'm pretty sure 99' ML with no extra options should be about $35,000. Yes its a very big loss but imagine all the problems youre gonna have on a ML after the warranty is over He sure did get less than 50% back but thats not bad at all!!!

 

I got $18,000 (real money) for my base coupe when I traded it in on my Ram. Timmy, come down to Atlanta and you will do better on both trade in and on final price on the Z71. All they are going to do is wholesale it, and since new trucks are selling for 1000 under invoice with 3000 in rebates, they are just trying to make some money somewhere. Plus if they car faxed your car, they know it was in a bad wreck. Most states make dealers disclose that kind of info to the retail customer. That really kills the value of the car.

 

Thats the weird thing. The accident doesnt show up on carfax. We have a great price on the Tahoe. Its a 2003 Tahoe Z71 with all the options you can get, sticker is $46K, we have them down to around $35K for it. We are insurance agents for GMAC, so we actually get to buy the vehicle at suppliers price. Thats a killer price on the Tahoe, but we cant take a hit like that on the coupe.

 

Is the paint work on the car obvious? Even if you can't see it, a good used car manager can spot paintwork pretty easily. And even the ones that can't spot it well use a gauge to measure the thickness of the paint.

 

The paintwork isnt noticable at all. The chevy dealer put the car on the lift and they never said anything about a wreck on it. We are leaving for carmax now, so hopefully it will go well. I'm itching for that Tahoe.

 

No, but I've noticed that.

 

Timmy, The price of the Z71 is directly related to what they can give you for your car. If they gave away every penny they had discounting their truck, they have to make some of it up on what they offer for your car. It's a nutshell game.
What if they had said $40K for the truck and a $15K trade allowance? Sounds better, doesn't it?

ALSO - No one has brought the fact that when Benz offered those $4,000 rebates on '03s, it made the value of used ones drop by AT LEAST that much.
Thanks, Benz!

 

trade in suck! just sell your car to someone. ebay!

 

Red,
actually what Timmy is talking about is the GM supplier plan. That is not a price that every consumer gets. In addition that price is predetermined and the dealer's hands are tied. Because of this plan people who qualify buy the vehicle below published invoice PLUS they get to keep all incentives. Trade in on those situations is usually not a good deal because the dealer only makes a minimal amount of profit (GM commission) and therefore will try to steal whatever you want to trade.

 

you are 'out of control'. i can't believe you also post in the w203 forum when you have an E. but that's ok, Es are welcome.

 

Aha. I see. Thanks for clarifying.
Still, the value of our cars has tanked. I'm trying to negotiate with Benz to get into and '04 since my '02 is very unreliable.... but I'm afraid that the hit is gonna be huge.

 

Well, e-bay buyers want to pay trade in prices!

 

haha, I like to comment on other forums if I have something to say, I'm not just post whoring

In this case it was a comparison of how the loose of value doesn't just apply to the C cass but also to the E class (worst yet the AMG)