Are these "we want your car" offers from dealerships legit?
 

I have a 2013 brz now and will be taking over a 2018 Accord touring the next month. I've thought about keeping the brz still since I love driving it but kinda don't want to have two cars.

The plan is to sell it privately but it has a timing cover seepage still that I'm sure will bring the price down. I was hoping that if I bring the car to the dealership, maybe they'll give me a better offer as they can just fix it up in house and refurbish it for sale.

Don't know what the offer is yet, I'll part the car out then bring it in. I'm sure the offers are to just get me in the door to buy a new car, which j MIGHT as the new Forester looks interesting. But it's unlikely.

No.

Yes the are legit. Just make sure you bring your Vaseline,

they always try to get you to buy a new car, and will usually try to give you crap on the old one. If you are going to try and sell the car anyways it cannot hurt to be able to laugh them in their face when they lowball you.

Dealerships always lowball you. you may be able to negotiate it to a somewhat acceptable offer but it will always be on the low side.

When my sis family purchased a new car they wanted to sell her old car privately for maximum value instead of getting a lowball trade-in . 2 or 3 price drops and almost 2 years of it collecting dust in the garage they eventually sold it to a used car dealer for much less than what they were asking for.

I didn't want to deal with the hassle and the possible chance my car sits unsold forever so I just traded my old car in when we got the X1.

I had a Ford Ranger I hoped to get rid of and got one of the letters in the mail saying they'd over me so many percent over the "book value" of the vehicle from a local Ford dealer. According to KBB the truck was worth around $9k... The dealer offered me $5k.

Kicker to this story, before I went to the Ford dealer I swung by CarMax. They offered me $10k. Immediately after getting the quote from Ford I drove back over to CarMax and accepted their offer.

Hope this experience helps... Oh, and yes I learned my lesson and I will NEVER buy another Ford.

They don't want your used car. They have plenty. What they want is to sell you another new car.

This is an angle to accomplish that. If they say, "We want to sell you a new car," your mind goes to how much it will cost you. If they say, "We want to buy your old car," your mind goes to how much you will get. Since receiving is a more positive incentive than paying, they think it will work better in getting you in the door. Based on the number of times people have brought it up here, it apparently works to get people's attention.

Plus, car salesmen particularly like it when you have a trade and/or finance the new car with them, because it gives them more things to negotiate. If you just walk in expecting to pay cash with no trade in, all they have to negotiate is the price, and chances are good you'll walk away with a better deal. If there's also a trade and/or a loan in the mix, the salesman will use that to lever more money out of you.

For example, if you don't like the price of the car, the salesman will say, "Well let's talk about how we can make that work with a lower monthly payment instead." If you don't like the loan terms, the salesman might say, "Maybe we can give you a little more on your trade instead to make that work." Over time they'll keep jumping back and forth between the negotiated terms in a classic misdirection scheme, and in the end they'll get more money out of you. A really good salesman will take more of your money and leave you feeling happy about it.

So the dealer isn't going to buy your car from you for a decent price unless you're trading it for a new car and getting raped on the loan terms or price of the new car. You will almost always do better selling it yourself on the used market.

They called me a few days after I went in for service to tell me that my car is in Exceptional shape. (I know that it's mine) And that there was a high demand in my area for CPO FRS. " We will offer you higher than blue book", they said.


I politely told them to: EAD.

Just traded in a 2016 Jetta for my 86. Blue book private sale was 13000-14000ish range, I got 11800. Factor in the tax benefit (close to $1k) and it's likely only a few hundred less than I would have gotten private sale.

Like anything else, you have to negotiate. I had a spreadsheet with offers I got from other dealers and from volkswagen dealers.

All cars have an actual cash value (ACV) that rarely varies more than a couple hundred dollars between multiple dealerships in the same area. If any of those dealerships are showing a significantly higher number, it is because they're using the markup on whatever is being purchased to pad the number associated with the trade in to make the buyer feel better. If any dealership shows a significantly lower number, they're either trying to pad the markup on the car when they plan to resell it, or they plan to send it to auction and are attempting to minimize the risk of a loss.

If you're just looking to unload the BRZ, the dealer offer will never be higher than what you could get private party given the same circumstances. That said, usually the lowest hassle way to find out is to swing by a Car Max and have them appraise it. If the simplicity is worth the lower amount, then you can just leave it with them and walk away.

As others have stated, the purpose of those fliers are to get you into the dealership to buy something new. It almost worked, you were considering a Forester (it seems like) specifically because of the flier.

Remember there are three values in the dealers book, retail sales value, wholesale value, and loan value.


Retail is the high value the dealer expects to get with some kind of guarantee or warrantee. Usually more than a private sale.


Wholesale is what they expect to get at the auction. Less than private sale.


Loan value it what the bank thinks it is worth.

Dealers make more margin on used cars than new ones. It's good business to have good quality used cars on the lot.

I got one for my truck and I went to see what they would give me for it. Not a bad offer really but they won’t budge on the price of the new truck I was looking at. So we’re three days and 6 emails in now. Lol

Sure it's legit but +1 on the Vaseline :bellyroll: gotta remember they're running a business and have to squeeze every bit of profit to meet their goals. It's almost always better to sell privately, unless they make you a good offer. They almost wanted to take my 335i for free lol be smart, don't do anything on impulse, and don't let the numbers confuse you. Remember, no one is going to put a gun to your head to buy or trade. You are always in control :thumbsup: