$500 car

I would have bought a new Saturn quite a long time ago except that mine
keeps going.

Every time I go into a dealership they offer a trade in of $500 on my
SL2, leather seats, CD player etc. Yes, I understand they dont want a
12 year old car with 120,000 miles on it. But it works fine, drives
great and besides brakes, a muffler and a couple of batteries it has
cost me very little.
I just can't see me turning in a car in great shape for nothing.

 

Same $500 offer here. Mine is only 10 years old and 120,000 miles.

One dealer told me they offer $500 on ALL cars older than 5 years! He said
that their policy was to have no used cars on their lot older than 4 years,
preferably 3, and that any trade-in older than that was only $500 as they
turned it over to a salvage/auction broker just to unload it and keep it off
their lot. Said cars older than 4 years weren't worth the trouble as too
many people came back complaining about broken items on a "as-is" sale as
though they had a warranty. It was more of a discouragement on managements
part not to let people dump their clunkers off. Most of their fairly used
car stock were trade-ins from short-term lease owners and they knew the
vehicle's service record. He said to sell the Saturn myself.

Kind'a puts a new wrinkle on depreciation values - rather steep after 4
years. Lease pricey cars. Own cheaper cars.

B~

 

Personally sounds like a car you can sell yourself, or keep at a
backup. Insurance should be very cheap if you tell them it's a spare
and you intend on not driving it.

later,

tom @ www.URLBee.com

 

Resale values of all cars in general suck. Sounds like he should keep
using it as his daily driver until the wheels fall off. Leaving it sit
will do more harm than good. Another 120k-200k miles of use makes it
worth WAY more than any 500 dollar trade-in.

 

Good point. If the car still works, he'll be saving from 200-400
bucks per month contining driving it.

Trade it in, you got a new car payment, and higher insurance costs.
Geez, I'm cheap.

later,

tom @ www.CarFleaMarket.com

 

On the other hand, I couldn't stand the rough ride of my two SW2's by
the time I traded them. My '97 had 42,000 and my '01 had 49,000 miles,
and they were simply too uncomfortable on my 54-year old butt. I
suppose the shocks were wearing out or something. But I got good
good trade-in dollar amounts, so it was worth it. I'm driving a Vue
now for payments a mere 17 dollars more than they were for either SW2.

 

It could also be tires. Some model tires become hard as rocks after a few
years of use.

 

Good point. I've known people that would complain about how their
cars road real rough, to find out their tire pressures were all over
the place, one too much, the others way to low. So every time a crack
or bump was driven over, the car felt like uneven.


I'm a little younger than 54, so trading in two cars for one, and end
up paying more money, with probly a longer loan now, and have the one
car consume gas like the two combine, too much for me. I'm frugal.



later,

tom @ www.CarFleaMarket.com

 

It could also be tires. Some model tires become hard as rocks after a few

When I put Michelens on after 49k ... it was like getting in a new car ... it
drive better than new ... I have heard others say that too ...