Happy with Car Price, but Two Nagging Things

They always say that you should negotiate trade-ins only after you get the car price you like. One of the reasons (a least) is because of what you're willing to do to get a "good price" on the new car. For example, if you get a "great price" that's $3K below MSRP, but they give you $4K less than they should have on your trade-in, you actually just effectively payed $1K over MSRP for the new car. So, you should get to a price you're happy with for the new car and then negotiate a price you'd be happy with for the trade-in.

If you'd like to get an idea of what the Trade-in value of your car was, you can take a look at Kelly Blue Book trade-in values. Trade-ins are usually much less profitable than private party sales, so it's possible that you didn't get screwed *that* much.

There are great debates here about whether the Extended Warranty is worth it. You have intelligent people arguing both sides, and there are reasonable arguments on both sides. Basically, it's an insurance policy; you're paying a little bit now to not have to potentially pay a lot later. However, as you point out, the Prius has a very good repair incidence record, so it may not be worth it.

As far as canceling the warranty, you should be able to do that within 30 days of the purchase. If you then decide you want it, you can do it any time before the 3 year/36K mile standard warranty runs out. If you do decide you want it, you can get it for a very good price ($990 currently) here at PriusChat.

 

Yes, to supplement those good points:

1. You can cancel within 30 days and get a full refund. Or you can cancel after 30 days and get a pro rata refund.

2. The $990 warranty available here is not only cheap (you will not find a lower price), but it's better than the OP's. The OP's warranty is 7 years/75,000 miles. The $990 one sold here is Toyota's Platinum Care 7 years/100,000 miles extended warranty. Note that you can also buy Toyota's lesser extended warranties here at correspondingly lower prices.

 

Used cars values are really driven by the entire market on how the economy is and i have seen market indexes that state that we are not in a good place right now. kbb just projects the value based on predicted market data and so are n.a.d.a. and edmunds. I also traded my car in with a kbb trade in of 23,500 and only got 19,500 for it. i am in the auto finance industry and i research liquidation, loss mitigation and legal damage assesment for our company. i have access to one of the largest used car broker and they offer services such as used car sales information. my data stated that i can only get between 18,000-21,000 for it and yes i feel raped too but what can i do. unless i wanted to buy the prius 6 months from now or even later but i am happy that i did it.

if you can give me the details, i can look your car up for you and see how much you were supposed to get for your car based on national auction information. btw, i also sold my jeep liberty to carmax and expected to only get 7,800 for it as kbb said and also my auction data. it turns out they bought it for 9,500 whereas my evo as stated above to have 23,500 was only offered for 16,000. go figure.

anyway, just be happy with the car and cancel the warranty. you can always purchase it within the next 36,000 miles but so far this is the only board i have been a member on that do not have a section called "quirks and quarks" so i have decided not to get the warranty.

 

I got my 7/75,000 here from Troy for something like $650 or thereabouts.

Cancel that extended warranty immediately and contact Troy. It's the exact same warranty you just bought. Only you save another $400.00.

While trade in is fast and simple, you always make more money on a car through private sales. However, with 120,000 miles that's a harder car to sell.

 

My dealer wanted to give me $4500 for my trade in which was worth a lot more.

I sold it myself for closer to $6000.

I floated the trade in value on a credit card to keep my loan balance lower as I negotiated for the car.

If you can, sell it yourself.

 

I'm curious if anyone has ever been able to negotiate the price of the car before telling them you have trade in? Every dealership I have been to won't do that. In my experience purchasing the prius it didn't matter because there wasn't any negotiations, at that time it was sticker price, but they did try to scam me by $2500 by giving me blue book for a lesser model than I was trading in.

Steve

 

Yes, but in my case my package #2 was advertised by Toyota on their website for $21,900 ($1000 under the MSRP). I knew my price when I got there. I was able to get them to give me $1500 on a 1991 Ford Explorer that needed some body and exhaust work that they originally only wanted to give $500 on.

 

I agree with you, that does seem like a high price to pay for the convenience. Unless there is a 'cooling off' period in your state on sales like this then it sounds like you are probably bound to the sale.

 

trust me, they always make excuses. I traded in a 2 year old mercedes (which i traded in for a 4runner) and only gave me 8,000 below kbb trade in (which they actually sold for 10,000 more a week later) just because they told me they couldn't sell a luxury car. They lowballed me on the evo because they said it is a performance car that no one wants. They also lowballed me on an accord because they said the car has too small of an engine. ok then... i have had cars all across the plane and they always had an excuse why the trade in is so low. most of it they use the reason why you are trading the car in.

however, i have been scammed before and lost thousands of dollars in counterfeit bills (m.o., cashiers checks doesnt make a difference to me as they can be copied too) and i thought id rather lose 3,000 than lose the entire car if some private party buys the car out of state. i actually got offers for 4,000 more than trade while posting on craigslist but was too scared to do it as ive never sold a car before.