I've had dealerships flat-out tell me no when I showed them prices printed from Edmunds.
All the dealers here love to quote KBB when doing sales (high KBB of course) and dont even look at any pricing guides when taking in a trade. They go by auction listings only.

 

It makes sense if you think about it. why buy your car for more than they can buy one at the auction for? Your car is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it. The people wanting $22K-$25K for your 2005's with 25K-30K miles are the same guys not willing to pay over $29K for a 2007. Right now you can steal an '07, so that's hurting the older ones on the road. The good news is that there's not a whole lot of pre-owned S2000's on the pre-owned market, and the ones that are out there go quickly.

For reference a 2005 S2000 with 16K miles we looked at earlier had a trade in value of $21,500. My 2005 with 7K miles was traded in for $22,500.

Yes dealerships charge more for cars. They wouldn't exist to not generate a profit. It takes more resources for a dealership to retail a vehicle vs. the guy who sticks the car in front yard with a for sale sign in the window.

 

I paid for an inspection at a Honda dealer a couple of days ago on an S and it was $90.

 

Thanks for all the replies, folks.

The reason why I showed the Trade In value; I think that if i can buy a s2000 for what the KBB Trade in(lowest) value is then i would be getting a pretty damn good deal.


The person listing is a women who doesn't seem to be fraudulent; however never judge a book by its cover and i will look the car over with a fine tooth comb. Also I will indeed get a inspection. However I'm a little worried about taking the car to the Honda dealer with her because i would hate for her to ask them what THEY would buy it for and it be more then im offering.

We shall wait and see, But I'm thinking that I wont find a better deal. She told me that she would sell it for $21,000. So I figure that if i show up with 20,500 Its done. After All money talks.........


Does anyone know if you can buy a car cash, THEN get a loan for it. That way you could get around paying tax for the whole 20k?

I will keep you guys posted, I cant wait to FINALLY get my S2000. I'm kinda sick of driving my integra. I barely git vtec anymore.

 

Dealers use Black Book and online auction guides when appraising cars. They use NADA and KBB as retail pricing guidelines......sometimes. Most of the time they just mark a car up to wherever they want.

KBB, NADA, and Edmunds' public books/sites have a little bit of a "fuzz" factor. They need to sell books or get traffic to their website to sell dealers leads, advertisements, etc. He who gives the consumer the most value for his trade is going to win that customer over. I'm not saying their figures aren't accurate, but be very skeptical. They compete under capitalism just like anyone else.

 

Do they check for frame damage or if the car was in an accident?

 

I bought an '03, Honda certified with a new top in April.
57K on the clock for 18,800, so.fla area.
by looking around, I think I did OK.

 

No they won't check for frame damage. That's a bit extensive for a basic inspection.

You can check yourself to see if the car was in an accident. Just check every panel to make sure the OEM VIN sticker is still present. I'd personally avoid any car that was missing any of the three from the front end.

 

Same here, I waited for a real long time (almost a year) until that one deal popped up and I got my Sebring Silver for $22k w/ 15k miles (2005).

Shop around and wait for that deal, you'll be happy that you did.

 

Was the car in good condition?

Was there anything wrong with it?

Thats a damn good price.