Advice on trading my '05 for an '09

If you truly want the new safety features and have to get them, sure, go for it!
Use the car as a trade in and upgrade to a brand new one.

But if you feel you can live without the safety features and simply get an after market
GPS unit which i hear are just as nice as the built-in one you will be saving a lot of money!

If it was me I would save the money and wait for the next generation!

my two cents.

 

you would be better selling it on your own than trading it in. the market now is good to sell a prius, even with some years on it. you might want to get on a wait list now and then sell yours when they tell you it is on its way.

 

You can probably sell your Prius for what you paid for it new. The dealer will not offer you that. I would sell to a private party. Order your new car and sell the old one when the new car comes in. It might be a little hassle,... but you could have 10 grand to put into your new car.

 

IMO there is nothing better than a free and clear car. sending off that last car payment was the most liberating and most enabling of several large lifestyle changes we've recently made...

 

You wouldn't have five years of car payments. What you get on your current car, way above blue book BTW, would be applied to the new car. So you might only have a year or two of payments.

 

I looked it up and your car according to New Car Prices and Used Car Blue Book Values - Official Kelley Blue Book Site has a trade in value of about $18,500, but it says the private party is $19,000 (which you most likely could get more either way right now). I'll assume that at 3 years you probably owe approximately $10,000 So lets be optimistic and say that you can sell for $22,000. After it pays off your current Prius that leaves you with $12,000 to put down on a new one. So lets say that you buy a new 2009 Prius package 6 w/ leather and it costs $29,000 MSRP. $29,000 - $12,000= $17,000 for your new loan. Factor in that you would have paid a theoretical $10,000 to pay off your existing loan if you do nothing.
That means it would cost you about $7,000 to upgrade to a 4 year newer car with more options with no miles. But this is just my best guess with the information we have.

 

SO basically you would be getting a new 5 year loan and have nothing to show for the 3 years you have already paid? uh no, I would keep the old one. The only safety feature you are probably missing are side-airbags and you can get good GPS units for $100-250 that you can stick on the dash

 

Wow.

I have a 2005 with 30,000 miles on it. And HOV stickers.

Private party lists $21,225.

And I think I can get an extra $2,000-$4,000 for the HOV stickers.

I can basically sell it for more than I originally paid for it.

My car will be paid off in April 2009. I think I only owe a few thousand on it. So...I could sell and move up to a 2009. If I got a loan I could upgrade to the highest package.

Hmmm.

I really didn't want to buy another Prius until the plug in was available. But I'll get the best payback on my HOV sticker investment if I sell now. They expire in Jan. 2011 so the longer I wait...the less valuable they are.

 

Blue Book (and Black Book) can be misleading. The used car managers can check on computer and see what actual cars in the area, like yours, are currently selling for. May or may not agree with what you think it is worth. Taking your car to CarMax and letting them tell you what they would buy it for, would be a much more accurate valuation, IMHO.:decision:

 

Carmax is lowballing everybody these days! Don't go there! My brother works there and they are 3000 vehicles over inventory company-wide right now. You probably don't know that they shut down their entire production team company-wide due to a surplus of vehicles. This is not the time to get a "fair trade" from Carmax or sell it to them. The guys who work on production were essentially laid off this week to try to alleviate the burden.

Good Luck with your 05 though. I might consider doing the same if I were in your boat, but I have an 05 package 6 with all the bells and whistles so I'm okay with mine for now.

 

Wow is right! My 2007 Package 1 with 23,000 mi is at almost $23,000 for KBB trade-in value. Locally, similar used Priuses are listing for $26K plus! I paid just under $22,000 for it 15 months ago. So much for the big depreciation as soon as you drive it off the lot. Mine has appreciated! And I'm still not interested in selling it. Maybe once a plug-in becomes available.

 

I've just read through this thread, and I really do not understand why you would consider selling your car to the dealer now.

Are you really going to be able to get a 2008 (and at a reasonable price)? If you get a 2009, how long will you have to wait? If you wait, what is the guarantee you'll still get the currently advertised price (on either the trade-in or the new car)?

My (conservative) suggestion: Get your own finances more stable. Your car is not only fine, it is great. How much would you have to pay, today, to purchase your Prius? Is this the same amount you had hoped to see

 

If I were in your situation I'd wait for the next gen Prius. Meanwhile, I'd get a GPS unit with Bluetooth (e.g. Nuvi 760) and add an Aux input mod to play MP3.

Can't do anything about VSC though.

 

are they going to pay the taxes and fees you were charged when you bought your car? or are they just going to give you the price you paid not including tax and fees? if the latter then you will be loosing money.

 

I second the advice about Carmax. They lowballed us on a quote for our Explorer. Pretty much the same dollar for dollar that the dealer offered us.

Enterprise also buys cars, but I don't know how well they offer.

 

BTW my husband also has a 2005 with the HOV stickers, 80,000 miles to boot. But he's keeping it because those stickers are so valuable to us personally as he has a long commute. If he worked locally we'd probably cash in on the situation as well. Seems to me you can sell the car for more than it's worth (private party) and pay cash for a new car, maybe even not having to finance anything at all.

In 2011 when the stickers expire will be right when my son turns 16, so the car will probably be with us long-term. It will save us having to buy him a car and my husband will probably get something new at that time.

 

hi

so people sell cars private party all the time and tell the buyer i still owe money on the loan and you will have to wait a couple weeks for the actual title?

im probably going to wait until the 2010 my, i dont need the built in navigation that much, i got mine at the right time, and i dont think with the current demand and waiting lists for prius cars, toyota financial will offer any kind of incentives anytime soon on these cars. i was able to get 4.9 % apr on the car