AboutDanny Expertise I can help you with negotiating,walking you through the process so you feel in control,keep you one step ahead of the sales,help you with the financing,to lease or buy and should you buy new or pre-owned.
Experience I have 18 years of upper mgmt, I've been a finance director,new car director,used car director,general sales manager for stores that sold a 1000 new and used cars a month. I have extensive experience with special financing needs. I know,domestics,imports and highline automobiles
Education/Credentials Ford Blue Oval,Dealership,accounting,service,parts and GM trng.
Awards and Honors Ford Blue Oval, 300/500 Club, BMW certified, Nissan certified.
Question In June I traded my 2002 Toyota Avalon XL and paid cash for a 2009 Avalon XLS, in anticipation of a situation that did not develop. I find that I don't like the car nearly as well as I did my old one (it's too big, too hard to shift, I don't like leather seats, too many functions that I will never use etc.)
This is what I am thinking about doing: Sell or trade the XLS, with 5000 miles, (My zip is 73013 if that helps.) The KBB trade in value value is Approx $29K. I want a stripped down 2009 Avalon XL, cloth seats and as few extras as possible. The KBB MSRP is approx $29K. I bought my last two AValons at 75% of the sticker price before trade in. that comes out to around $21,700, target price. (I realize that it will be more because KBB MSRB is always a little low and most cars have a couple of thousand dollars worth of "extras".)
Is this realistic? would I be better off trading the car at the Toyota dealer or selling it outright to a place like carmax or diffee motors which is a local company that has been in business for 50 years, "buying nice clean cars" as they say in their ads.
If I can talk the Toyota dealer into giving me a reasonable trade in, How do I trade down? Do they just hand over the car and a check for the difference? Seems unlikely!
Thanks, Jo
Answer Hello Jo, I went to autotrader.com and looked within a 500 mile radius and the closet I found was a car for $31987 retail 1400miles . When I looked at edmunds.com, they showed 23970 trade value and 28800 retail, I think the reason for this scale is there are not enough 2009 Avalons out there to really know what it's worth to some websights. I think your right to take it by Carmax,Difee Motors and your local Toyota dealer. I don't know what your tax laws are but here when trading a car you only pay taxes on the difference and if the car your trading is worth more than the car your buying you pay ten dollars. I have people that have better appraisals from Carmax but with Carmax buying it the cannot receive the tax savings because it's no longer a trade in. Now if you can have Carmax find your next car and use it as your trade it will work out. So the dealer may be lower but what would you pay in taxes. As far as trading down, yes, they cut you a check for the difference. If it were me, I would have my car appraised first and tell the dealer you don't know if or what your going to buy. There are dealers out there that if they find out your planning on buying, they are going to try and make your equity even with what your buying. Let me know, Good Luck
