Anyone here a car dealer? I need inside help!

[Beauty]

Here is the story. Last year in August we bought a brand new 2003 Suburban Z71. It has CD/Cassett/4 wheel drive/ Northstar or Norstar or whatever (We don't use it). Anyway we paid cash for most of it and only financed around 8,000. Well now we owe right at $6,000 less than a year later.

We are considering two different things.

1. Paying off the Suburban in full
2. Trading it in on a Yukon or Tahoe in hopes of now oweing much in the difference after they have paid off the Suburban.

So I need some inside help. What do you think? The Suburban is really just a bit to large for what we need and a Tahoe or Yukon would fit much better.

 

[~Sparkly~Zoe]

I think it would depend on what the trade in value is, what the new percentage rate of the new vehicle is, and how much that new vehicle is going to cost!
I would think that working out the cost of the new vehicle first is better because this way they can't up the price on you after they find out you want to trade in.

 

[dmfuru]

Sell the Suburban privately. You'll never get what it's worth as a trade-in to a dealer.

 

[Serena]

Beth, get the Consumer Reports thingy for that. It tells you how to do it.

good luck

 

[mrsv98]

Beth, do you have a CarMax near you? They will give you a written offer on buying your car, and you do not need to buy one of their's. We have dealt with them twice and I will never buy a car from anywhere else! Both times, they gave us the Kelly Blue Book value something you will never - well rarely - get from a dealer. The car buying section is separate from the car selling section so you don't get any games of, "Well, let me see what we can get for this, I have to talk to my manager." We actually bought new from them, but I am not sure what types of SUVs they carry but they are worth a look!

 

[GladysK]

Go to Kelly Blue Book on the net-do a search for address. You can pull all the details of any vehicle and they will tell you both the trade in value or what you might get as a private sale.

 

[WebmasterAlex]

Be careful with the "blue book" values, there are different versions for consumers and dealers.

 

[jipsy]

www.edmunds.com

 

[faith]

The bad news Beauty is that a car dealer will rarely give you a good price on your used car. Especially one only one year old. Right now, atleast here in Michigan ,the last thing they want to do is add to their used car lots. Consumers can come to them and get a better interest rate plus a rebate on a new model, so they are stuck with their used cars for a lot longer.

 

[4greatboys]

mrsv98--we sold our Grand Voyager to Carmax when we were getting my suburban. It was only 2 yrs old and every deal wanted me to give it to them. The amount they were willing to give us was a joke. They gave us a very fair deal at Carmax. Yes we could have gotten a little more selling ourselves but this was much easier and we were happy with the deal.

Beauty--I saw used suburbans with 30+ miles on them selling for me than we paid for our new one.

 

[Beauty]

We don't have a CarMax....remember I'm in Mississippi....we don't have ANYTHING...LOL!

Thankfully around here SUVs are in high demand. We are going to talk to several different people this afternoon and compare. One is a close personal friend who was in the car dealership business forever so he won't lead us wrong. I'll let you all know what we decide and thanks!

 

[ToyStory Fan]

Originally posted by dmfuru
Sell the Suburban privately. You'll never get what it's worth as a trade-in to a dealer.

This is true to a certain extent, but not always the best answer.

If you sell it privately you need to make sure that you get the trade-in price PLUS the sales tax savings you would have gotten as a trade in. (basically the trade in value multiplied by your local sales tax rate) If you trade in your car, you get a sales tax credit on the new car you are buying...for example new car is $30,000, and the trade in is $20,000...you only pay sales tax on 10,000. So just be sure if you sell it privately you take that into consideration.

 

[WebmasterAlex]

Plus you want to make sure you make a decent profit over the trade in. Aside from the hassle of selling privately there is the hassle if there are problems.