SAIYAJIN

Hey guys,

Some of you may know I am looking to put my order in for my 03 S2000 in the coming weeks. I'm currently working with Castle Honda and using references from this board as leverage for my purchase. Specifically, I've referenced S2K.TO's purchase all in of 52,500 (~45,500 before taxes) as my new car price. I was given a price of around 46,500. I think I can get the 45,500 given S2K.TO bought his car at Castle as well. This is basically invoice plus all those extras. (S2K.TO, I apologize if you didn't want me referencing your purchase; I boldly assumed it was public knowledge given in was posted in this forum)

The issue I have now is figuring out how much I'm going to get for my trade in. If I get the car for $45,500, the dealer only makes hold back and is likely going to want to hose me on my trade in. The car I am trading in is a 2001 EBP Prelude SE with ~30K KMS. It has a bumper that needs fixing/replacing and one rim with a scratch on the lip from a parking incident. I would value the dealers cost to fix these to mint condition at $1000 tops based on quotes I have received myself that were much lower than this.

Mint cars with similar mileage are fetching 27-28K retail (at least as an asking price). To be conservative I place my retail value at $26K based on the damages needing to be replaced. My tax benefit for trading in is $3900, i.e., I am equally well off trading in at $22,100 as I am selling myself at $26,000.

My question is, how much should I expect a dealer to give me relative to fair retail value? Is it the bottom end 85% (22,100) or is it much higher as I suspect it should be, all things being fair given the tax benefit is no cost to the dealer.

What I'm hoping to get as far as price is trade in plus 20,000 plus tax in which case dealer makes holdback plus 500-1000 on my trade in

The maximum it would ever make sense to go is trade-in plus 23,000 plus tax in which case dealer makes holdback plus 3500-4000 on my trade in. Given that this is the margin on a MSRP S2000 bought straight up, anything beyond this should not even be in play.

Any of you have any tactics on how to get closer to option number 1?

Any other comments? As always, your very generous help is much appreciated.

By the way, as part of the deal he is offering me OEM parts at cost. So, if any of you need OEM parts, let me know and I'll see if I can swing some for you.

koala

I think what you want to pay attention to is your net difference.

$52,500 OTD for 03 S2K
$21,000 + tax (is that 15% in ON?) on your trade in = $24,150

52,500 - 24,150 = $28,350

I think you want to make sure your net difference is no more than that amount. The lower the better.

I think that would be a really good deal for you.

koala

Just something to keep in mind - my '02 RSX Type S fetched $26,400 (trade in for my s2k) and it was only 7 months old w/ 17,500 km's on it. At that point in time, Acura dealers still had '02 rsx-s' kicking around, and they were going for $29,900 brand new...

I think an '01 prelude SE is probably going to go for 26k... that sort of idea.

Good luck tho, I hope you do well on your deal.

SAIYAJIN

Koala, I was speaking specifically of net difference. Just speaking in pre-tax terms. I want 45.5 and between 22.5 and 25.5 for my trade in yielding pre-tax difference of 20-23K

I think a post-tax difference of 28,350 is a little high based on a trade in of 21,000. I would really be getting raped on my prelude if I let it go for that.

You got 26,400 for your RSX? Wow. Assuming they could sell it for 28,400 tops, that's not bad. If that's the case, I should be able to get 24,000 for even my damaged prelude bringing the pre-tax difference to 21,500. Having said that, I'm sure you didn't get your S2000 for 45.5. did you? If you got if for 46.5 plus F/PDI etc., they still made $4k plus holdback. If that's the case, it would be the same as me getting it for 45.5 and a trade in of 22.5 for a pre-tax difference of 23K. If that is the case, I suppose it might be fair.

Still, however, I think people whom have bought straight out (not lease, finance or trade-in) have got the car for 2K less than MSRP (correct me if I'm wrong). In which case the dealer makes 2K plus holdback. I think I'm entitled to at least this deal and hope for a trade in of at least 24-24.5K

koala

My S2000 was a year old (22km's). I got it for $39k, one free set of tires for the S2K and one set of tires they needed to put on the RSX.

Sorry, I guess I was a bit confused about your deal anyway...