Just about all of us have 'been there, done that' but I've been mostly guilty of taking the lazy way and just traded in. Knowing full well that I was getting ripped off.
Here's what happened in the last week for me. Yeah, I bought a new car for the wife.
I've been eying some cars for the last 6 months or so. Now I was getting close to pulling the trigger. How much is her car worth, I had been thinking. It's a 2016 Cadillac SRX with only 41,000 miles. It can't be worth much because of the age but it does have low miles going for it. So I looked around to see what they are selling for. Most of those models sell for around $15k but they have 70,000 + miles on them.
I go to KBB.com and look up the value for trading in ($10,800) and selling myself (see above - it depends on many factors).
We pick out a car and start the dreaded car buying experience. I figured, going in, that I would take $10k for the car on a trade-in (the lazy way) and I would be happy with that.
We get to that point in the buying process and they offer $6200? HUH? SERIOUSLY?! Deal breaker.
We discuss how we both arrived at the figures and he used KBB too! I must have done something wrong. I thought I was honest answering the questions. Why the huge discrepancy? I have to go home and run that again and get back to you, I told him. I guess we'll sell it ourselves. I go home deflated. I was ready and now not so much.
I get home and run it again at KBB and I come up with $10,800 again! I ran it twice. I guess we'll postpone buying a car for now and explore options for selling it ourselves.
Then I see ads for companies that will buy your car for cash. Okay, I'll see what they say. I think I did Carvana first and they offered $9800. Then I did Carmax and they offered $14,400. I did a couple more and got a $9200 and a $1500 (WTF?).
Now I go to the Carmax next step. I send them a copy of my title, registration, and both of our licenses. They will check our documents and get back to me. I get a text the next day and it was approved. Next step is to schedule an appointment which I did.
So now I'm skeptical. I research online the reviews of selling your car to Carmax and it was mostly positive. I bet they try to offer less when you get there but we'll sell it to them if they give us the $10k.
I paid $305 to have it detailed. I went with the Full Service Package where they do it all, tires, trunk, engine, clay bar wax and buff, the whole schmear. The car looked great!
We go to the appointment at Carmax and they are setup like the typical car dealer. Cars everywhere, big building, big service department, showroom, the whole 9 yards. We go up to the desk and check-in and grab a seat in the waiting room. About 20 minutes later a woman calls our name and we go to her desk. She asks for all the paperwork that I sent in and our drivers licenses. She turns her computer screen towards us and lets us see what she's doing. She clicks around and we answer a few questions and she gets up to get the printed forms for us to sign. She comes back in about 2 minutes with the forms and a check for $14,400. What? Aren't you going to look at the car? She said she would see it after we leave because she has to drive it to the service bay. I'm not saying shit! Is this for real?
So I go to order an Uber and she asks if we need a ride. They provide a Lyft for free as long as it's 60 miles or less. So we do that and leave. 10 minutes later the Lyft driver picks us up and takes us on our way.
How do they do that? Suppose I lied about the car. Suppose the seats were ripped, the tires were bald, whatever?
Just a crazy experience I thought I would share.
Here's what happened in the last week for me. Yeah, I bought a new car for the wife.
I've been eying some cars for the last 6 months or so. Now I was getting close to pulling the trigger. How much is her car worth, I had been thinking. It's a 2016 Cadillac SRX with only 41,000 miles. It can't be worth much because of the age but it does have low miles going for it. So I looked around to see what they are selling for. Most of those models sell for around $15k but they have 70,000 + miles on them.
I go to KBB.com and look up the value for trading in ($10,800) and selling myself (see above - it depends on many factors).
We pick out a car and start the dreaded car buying experience. I figured, going in, that I would take $10k for the car on a trade-in (the lazy way) and I would be happy with that.
We get to that point in the buying process and they offer $6200? HUH? SERIOUSLY?! Deal breaker.
We discuss how we both arrived at the figures and he used KBB too! I must have done something wrong. I thought I was honest answering the questions. Why the huge discrepancy? I have to go home and run that again and get back to you, I told him. I guess we'll sell it ourselves. I go home deflated. I was ready and now not so much.
I get home and run it again at KBB and I come up with $10,800 again! I ran it twice. I guess we'll postpone buying a car for now and explore options for selling it ourselves.
Then I see ads for companies that will buy your car for cash. Okay, I'll see what they say. I think I did Carvana first and they offered $9800. Then I did Carmax and they offered $14,400. I did a couple more and got a $9200 and a $1500 (WTF?).
Now I go to the Carmax next step. I send them a copy of my title, registration, and both of our licenses. They will check our documents and get back to me. I get a text the next day and it was approved. Next step is to schedule an appointment which I did.
So now I'm skeptical. I research online the reviews of selling your car to Carmax and it was mostly positive. I bet they try to offer less when you get there but we'll sell it to them if they give us the $10k.
I paid $305 to have it detailed. I went with the Full Service Package where they do it all, tires, trunk, engine, clay bar wax and buff, the whole schmear. The car looked great!
We go to the appointment at Carmax and they are setup like the typical car dealer. Cars everywhere, big building, big service department, showroom, the whole 9 yards. We go up to the desk and check-in and grab a seat in the waiting room. About 20 minutes later a woman calls our name and we go to her desk. She asks for all the paperwork that I sent in and our drivers licenses. She turns her computer screen towards us and lets us see what she's doing. She clicks around and we answer a few questions and she gets up to get the printed forms for us to sign. She comes back in about 2 minutes with the forms and a check for $14,400. What? Aren't you going to look at the car? She said she would see it after we leave because she has to drive it to the service bay. I'm not saying shit! Is this for real?
So I go to order an Uber and she asks if we need a ride. They provide a Lyft for free as long as it's 60 miles or less. So we do that and leave. 10 minutes later the Lyft driver picks us up and takes us on our way.
How do they do that? Suppose I lied about the car. Suppose the seats were ripped, the tires were bald, whatever?
Just a crazy experience I thought I would share.
