Well the time has come to buy the first house. Between my girl's car and mine, they cost too much money. And between the two of us, we don't have a vehicle that can transport a thing (her SC430 has more trunk space than an S2000, but I'm not throwing mulch and crap in an SC.)

My car has 8K miles on in. Minding the time of year and my location, anyone car to throw out some numbers on what to expect as a GOOD offer for trade value? I just got one at 24.5K and another at 23K. Car is excellent condition.

Obviously this depends on what I'm negotiating off the price of the new vehicle. But still, I wanted to work this from both ends. If they only give my 23.5K on trade, I'm going to hit them up for another 1000-1500 off the selling price.

Thoughts?

 

first off - congrats on the house purchase!

only thing i could recommend is hold off from buying another car until your home loan goes through - don't need any more hits on your credit!

-= joe =-

 

thanks for the advice - definitely good advice. Ironically, it might be a 4Runner that is the trade, which I see you own. Any advice on whether a 55K mile 2000 4Runner will last 6-7 years if taken care of? They have one on the lot (2000 Limited, Certified) that they're asking 18.5K for. I'm thinking about getting it down to 16K. It's either that or an Xterra, which I'm unsure about how long they last.

 

Good luck with the house!

I don't think you are going to do much better than 23-24K for your car at a dealer. It can be a hassle, but you'll probably get another 2K if you sell it yourself. If a dealer does offer you more than 24K or so, then they are going to kill you on the new car, they will get their money from somewhere. Try to keep the two transactions separate if possible.

Can you keep the S, and convince your girl to sell that ugly SC?

 

I don't know how you can go from an S2000 to a 4Runner as a DD. Won't the lower gas mileage cancel out any savings from the lower sale price? I figure I'd get an old tacoma if I really needed to haul a bunch of mulch and crap.

 

I'd go for a 4Runner over an Xterra.

If you average 15k miles a year, you should easily get another 6-7 years out of the 4Runner.

 

I would sell the Lexus instead of the S2000. But that's just me.

 

Same here.