if you actually want to make money or not loose on a trade is to trade off very early before you are upside down on the loan(value is greater than what you owe) or you pay off in full then sell/trade later. I had to deal with this issue three times in the past two years when we traded two cars in for new and then traded in one of the new ones 6 months later. Dealers need to try and make their money but you aren't stuck with what they offer, there are thousands of other dealers to work with until you are happy

 

Your wrong resale value is among the best you'll ever see. Read up its all over the place

Trade-in value which is a totally different thing will always suck on any car. It actually all depends on the dealership and how they deal with trade ins. Its a big # game. 95% of the time you'll never make out trading in a car thats less than 3-4 years old

 

Why did you buy it if you didn't intend on keeping it?

Even if I won the lottery tomorrow, I wouldn't want to get rid of my Evo.

 

welcome to the world of resale. sucks but it is the world.

 

I have to agree, resale value is actually very good for our cars, but the timing is bad to try to sell it....

Dealers have to buy cars and make money reselling them after fixing them up. Even if your car is completely stock, and 100% mint, they still can't be sure your not one of those tools who modded the "F" out of the car and put it back to stock.

Sell the car privately, I wouldnt try to sell it on the forums though since everyone here seems to want to get top-dollar for their own car, but will lowball your nuts off when buying one.

I saw an interesting trend over the past 2 years.. The car was worth LESS in the first year or two after buying mine, than it is now.. And of course, a modded car is undesirable unless the car has a reputation and its work is completely documented by a reputable shop, and even then you'll take a loss on a modded car anyway.

If your car is Bone stock, and has has always been, you will do pretty well if you can have the patience to sell it and take the time to wait for the right offer.

For me, the first thing I did when I was able to, was pay the car off completely, it took away any urgency that might have come up that would have required taking a huge loss on the car if the need arised to sell it. Since I love this car, and have already gotten my moneys worth, any reasonable amount I'd get for the car if I decided to sell it would be "Found money" in my pocket.

Cars and the car hobby are generally a money pit.. Very few cars will make any return on your investment. The Evo is one of the few cars that actually is worth a bit more modified if it has not been abused and is documented..

 

25 minute commute makes you want a luxury car? mine is 45 mins to an hour commute for 20 miles

im from newport news originally where do u commute to?

 

i got 21,500 for my 03 with 30k miles on it

 

FWIW I'd only buy a bone stock Evo.. After seeing how many of the cars a butchered I'd much rather not deal with problems.

 

My round trip is over 100 miles a day.. At least 1.5-2 hours each way, sometimes longer on the return.. Its all stop and go 55 or less type driving.

My solution is to not drive the car every day, and pick up a comfy daily driver. Though I drove my car from 2003-2005 every day to work and never had a complaint about "comfort"

"This ain't a Benz son..."

 

yah jack i know what u mean mines like that just on a smaller scale. ive been driving my car daily for over a year now, as long as i have my music, ac, and heat im good. i used to commute with the talon which had no AC, made the drive feel like an eternity

 

Take it to car max and have it appraised. My R32 appraised for 24K there, trade in is 24-26 depending. They seem to be pretty fair and they don't have alot of evo's in stock

 

What most of you are not realizing is that it is incorrect to determine the re-sale value of an Evo through a dealership. Although a dealership might offer you a great deal on that new G35 that you desire, they are already thinking about how much they are going to be making on your evo when they resell it. So in essence you are getting a crappy deal on that G35. Even if you sold your evo privately for lets say 24K, you better bet you won't be getting that 27K deal you initially where offered. What you need is a few lessons in car buying. You never tell a dealership you have a trade-in until you bargain on the car price. And even then after all negotiations are out on the table, your best choice is to get up and walk away and tell them you'll come back another day. It is a proven fact that people that walk away from a dealership never come back, because they are aware of this they will try their hardest to keep you from leaving. That's when the ol, let me talk to my manager and see what we can do speech starts coming out. Trust me it's just part of the game. And honestly you should still walk out no matter what they say. I promise you you'll get a call a few days later or even the next day with an even better offer. Just make sure when they call you tell them that another dealer is offering something just slightly lower than them. This will make them go nuts and desperate and you'll be offered a better deal. Good luck. Put it this way.. I bought my 03 Evo when they where selling for 31-32K and I managed to bring it down for 27K.

 

I have a similar opinion and similar experiences..

I went to buy my car with financing already taken care of, how much I had for a down payment, and they tried everything to get me to trade in a car, and take their financing plans and "Flexible" stuff..

I got one of the first Evos in the USA/Northeast so I paid around 30k for it at the time, Never regretted paying "too much" since it was impossible to get these cars for under 35k let alone paying just about sticker. But I ended up making out in the end and got the deal I was expecting.

If I would have waited I would have gotten a much better deal, but I wanted to have the first car on Long Island, and I did..

 

Portsmouth. Trust, the commute isn't harsh at all. I just don't like puttin shyt tons of miles on it.

And for who asked why'd I buy it if I didn't intend on keeping it, I never intend on getting rid of any car I get. Sometimes you just get tired of things. I'll more than likely end up keeping it because I don't feel like going through the hassel of selling it out right. But this really wasn't a thread made to discuss MY decision of what I want to do with MY car.

 

You are getting rid of your Evo because because you have to drive 22 minutes longer to work? My commute is 20 minutes and I know most people would kill for that. Maybe you forgot that you're spending 22 additional minutes behind the wheel of an EVO