Anyone ever done such a thing? I'm contemplating getting rid of my Terminator due to frustration and $$$ problems. I'm sort of thinking of trading both the Cobra and my DD for one new(er) car but also thinking of trading just the Cobra and saying "I owe X amount of dollars. I don't want any extra. Just take it off my hands." Do dealers do such deals?
Trading a car to a dealer without buying another?
- Thread starter EB85
- Start date
Dealers do buy cars without selling another. The problem with doing this however is they still need to make money off the car, so they're going to offer you funds based on what they want to make on it. This could be quite a bit lower than you need or are expecting. Even then, if they don't want the car, they may not offer you anything.
The further the car is from stock and depending on the condition, a dealer may pass all together.
I'd check CarMax if they're in your area, they'll give you a quote that is good for 7 days. If CarMax won't buy the car, I doubt if you'd get another dealer to buy it.
The further the car is from stock and depending on the condition, a dealer may pass all together.
I'd check CarMax if they're in your area, they'll give you a quote that is good for 7 days. If CarMax won't buy the car, I doubt if you'd get another dealer to buy it.
Just sell it private party. It sounds like you don't need to sell it, and have a dd currently. So post it up for what you want, and make much more than you would trading it in. As stated above, the dealership has to make money, and by definition they have to offer you less than its worth. Good luck and keep us posted! :beer:
Don't forget, right now its a sellers market as these cars are on the up and up.
Don't forget, right now its a sellers market as these cars are on the up and up.
I agree with a CarMAX quote. You won't get much more at a local dealer if you're not buying another car.
There's also a misconception that dealers will give you more for your trade if you purchase another car. At the end of the day most of them value the vehicle and whatever the market value (based on auction data) is. If they increase your trade value when negotiating all they're really doing is reducing the discount given to you on the car you're purchasing.
There's also a misconception that dealers will give you more for your trade if you purchase another car. At the end of the day most of them value the vehicle and whatever the market value (based on auction data) is. If they increase your trade value when negotiating all they're really doing is reducing the discount given to you on the car you're purchasing.
car max or private. i had a lady go to carmax and sell her nice 370z for $2k more than we offered her. then she came back and bought a wrangler from me 
we do buy cars outright so i would expect some dealers to do the same but expect a lowball.
we do buy cars outright so i would expect some dealers to do the same but expect a lowball.
Call hi end. I bet they will have a trailer and check at your house in a few days and it will be low hassle and a fair price. Wouldn't be surprised if they don't see this and PM you.
price it appropriately and it will sell fast. I sold my roush on craigslist in a few hours. Person came with cash the next morning.
Carmax will more than likely give you the best price. I just sold them my 11 GT and the whole thing was quick and painless. They did tell me that anything they buy that's 10 yrs old or has 120,000 or more miles goes straight to auction so if you do go to carmax give us a location so all of us can keep an eye on your local auctions lol. Like someone else mentioned check with Hi-End as well they are always looking for cobras.
I sold my '11 Roush 5XR to a Chevrolet dealer for more than I paid for it. I did not and will not ever buy a vehicle from this dealer. They just happened to give me the best offer.
Carmax was the lowest offer FWIW.
Carmax was the lowest offer FWIW.
Carmax is a rip off too. Sell it yourself. Don't screw yourself on purpose.
Carmax is the biggest joke ever.
I posted this in another thread somewhere, but Carmax actually averages more gross profit per vehicle retailed than a traditional franchise dealership. They also spend less money on reconditioning the vehicles. They ALSO acquire vehicles at 78-79% cost to market where a typical franchise dealership will pay in the realm of 83-85%.
CARMAX IS NOT THE ANSWER.
A typical dealership's gross profit margin is in the mid to high single digits, Carmax is below.
I posted this in another thread somewhere, but Carmax actually averages more gross profit per vehicle retailed than a traditional franchise dealership. They also spend less money on reconditioning the vehicles. They ALSO acquire vehicles at 78-79% cost to market where a typical franchise dealership will pay in the realm of 83-85%.
CARMAX IS NOT THE ANSWER.
A typical dealership's gross profit margin is in the mid to high single digits, Carmax is below.
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my dealer buys outright, you don't have to buy one from us. That being said I feel like we low ball pretty badly. I had them do an appraisal on my truck and it was pretty awful, I got about about 4 grand more when I traded it at the ford dealer for my ST. Another lady went to CarMax and they beat our offer by about 2 grand. We matched it for her but it was a pretty big hassle to get management to do so.
seems like trading/selling to a dealer is only really worth it (in most cases) when it IS a trade on something else due to the sales tax savings. When I got rid of my lightning their trade offer + sales tax credit on the truck made it not worth the hassle of selling myself as Id have to get absolute top dollar to come out ahead.
I've tried doing this with my last 2 cars and like everyone else said, you're going to get killed on the value.
Everyone knows trading in a car (for another) you get shit deal just because the dealer has to make some money. However trading in the car without buying another one is even worse in terms of what they will offer you. Both of these cars are going for around 23-24k either at dealers or private sellers and the offers that I got for them from dealers were in the 16-17k range just because I wasn't buying something else. It was laughable really, but most probably didn't even want to be bothered with such a transaction, so they gave me a really low number just to walk away.
So that should really be your last resort, especially with a car like a Cobra. If it was some random mass produced car I would say fine, but when you have such a strong community and people are still looking for these cars (even as projects) I would definitely try to sell on here or to a fellow guy looking for a Cobra.
Everyone knows trading in a car (for another) you get shit deal just because the dealer has to make some money. However trading in the car without buying another one is even worse in terms of what they will offer you. Both of these cars are going for around 23-24k either at dealers or private sellers and the offers that I got for them from dealers were in the 16-17k range just because I wasn't buying something else. It was laughable really, but most probably didn't even want to be bothered with such a transaction, so they gave me a really low number just to walk away.
So that should really be your last resort, especially with a car like a Cobra. If it was some random mass produced car I would say fine, but when you have such a strong community and people are still looking for these cars (even as projects) I would definitely try to sell on here or to a fellow guy looking for a Cobra.
Here's the thing: I owe money on the car and what I owe is about what it's worth retail or thereabouts. It's a 'vert which helps on the retail side and the mileage is good. The car is clean, too, and stock. I'm going back to the stealer later this week because they offered me a respectable amount for my DD and if they can take the Cobra off my hands for what I owe, I can get a new DD and be where I want to be on payments. I'll also be going from 2 insurance payments, 2 registrations, 2 gas tanks to fill and 2 cars to maintain down to 1 so I can hopefully start to get back on my feet a little more solidly.
If you owe retail on it...you won't get that for it, obviously.
I shouldn't actually say "retail". I owe about $14k on it. They told me worst case scenario is they take it off my hands for $12k and the extra 2000 gets rolled over but they might be able to do better when they see it.
Gotcha. Well, that makes more sense.
I would think you'd be able to do much better than $12,000 selling it privately on here, and still have it sold in a couple days.
I used CarMax last year and it was painless. I was going to trade a Chevy Cruze in on my S3 but CarMax offered $4,000 more than what Audi did. CarMax's offer was actually comparable to what I would have expected to sell the car for privately so I was surprised. I was trading in a car that's easy for them to turn around quickly though, whereas your Cobra will either sit on their lot for quite some time or go straight to auction so I doubt they'll give you a reasonable offer. If you don't need the car gone yesterday then I'd post it on here and Craigslist for a week or two before trading in.
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