Hello fellow TSX friends, I drive a 2004 CG TSX 6MT non-navi with 17k miles. It's all stock except an OEM body kit.
Today I went to a dealership and asked what they would offer me if I trade the TSX in. They offered me $18,000. Is this normal for dealerships to offer much lower price than kelly blue book or edmunds.com? I checked Edmunds.com and the trade in value with fair condition is about $20500, and excellent condition is $21300. My car is in excellent condition but I understand that dealership will never consider it this way, but I am just wondering if it is normal to drive over $2000 down the edmunds.com price. If so, I will definitely consider selling it as private party. Thanks very much!

 

I don't have any experience with a TSX trade-in, but every time I've tried to trade in a car at a dealership, they totally low-ball you.

Best advice I can offer is...sell it privately, completely separate from your car purchase. When I bought my TSX, I actually financed my TSX and sold my Explorer myself right after the purchase. After I sold the Explorer, I paid off the loan (before the first payment was even due).

 

Best advice is negotiate the price of the car you want to buy. BTW, dealer cost is as follows: INVOICE PRICE - 3% Holdback + Destination. Offer them $200.00 over that price - trust me they will accept.

NOW, discuss you have a trade and dont go low. They offered me $21,800 for my TSX - 05 w/27K miles non-navi.

-good luck

 

I was offered 19K tradein for my 04 TSX towards the purchase of a TL. It had just over 40000 miles at the time. I think the saleman was willing to go a little higher but I backed out of the deal without giving him a chance.

 

Received 21.5 for 04' pwp auto non navi w/29k mi. towards a an 06 pwp auto navi

 

i suggest you go and sell it privately.. no matter how good of a price the dealership gives you they wont be able to beat selling privately.

 

Selling privately will get you $1-2k more, but also consider the tax advantages of trading in a car, and weigh out the difference.

Let's do some simple/naive calculation for instance, if you are getting a new car for $30k, and selling your trade-in for $20k, assuming a 6% tax rate:

you pay $30,000 + $1,800 = $31,800

after trade in: $31,800 - $20,000 = $11,800 out of pocket


Assuming for the same deal, you trade in your car to the dealer instead, you pay tax based on the difference:

you pay ($30,000 - 18,000) * 1.06 = 12,720 out of pocket


So by selling private, you saved $12,720 - $11,800 = $920, in this case it would still probably make sense to sell private


This is all based on the assumption that you can sell the car for $2000 more in a private sales. It's probably much easier to let the dealer handle all the paperwork. The point is, research on how much you can sell it for in a private transaction, and calculate some figures similar to above to see how much you actually save.

Also, I have read on here that in some states you can get this tax advantage even in a private sales, but that I'm not clear on myself either...

 

Thanks a lot! All of your sugestions are excellent! And some of you got really good price on trade-in! I am jealous! One thing I feel lazy about selling in private is the time I spent in writing ads with photos and posting to different sites such as auto trader, craigslist, etc. It also takes time to schedule different people to come drive my car. But if I can get an extra $2k, then I wouldn't mind at all. Thanks again for your inputs!

 

i traded in an 04 tsx with 30k miles and got 21,600.

 

Thanks Supraken, I didn't know that the tax is applied on the price difference. I don't feel too bad to trade it in if that's the case. I will check on the price of private sells in different websites to have an idea first.

 

May I ask how you guys got $21k trade-in? Did the dealership give you this as first quote? Or is it better to trade it in the Acura dealerships?

 

just curious.. what do you plan on getting next?

 

why you want to get rid of the TSX ?

 

(flame suit on) I am checking out the evo 9 GSR with the SE package, which includes HID, aluminum roof and some other goodies. This is just too tempting to me, and I am still not married... so i wanna give it a try.

 

Dealerships will always lowball you.
I bought a 23000 Toyota and lexus was giving me 13000 so i went to Acura where they gave me 18000 and came home happy with a Tsx that night...

 

So I think RMATIC09 got an awesome deal. Is your tsx with navi? I checked kelly bluebook and the trade in is around 20k for my car, which is 04, with 17k miles

 

When you trade a car in, you get to deduct the value of the trade-in from the value of the car you are buying when calculating sales tax. If you trade in a 20k car on a 30k car, you only have to pay sales tax on 10k. Here in Jersey, thats $700 in sales tax on a trade-in versus $2100 if the vehicle was sold privately. You will also need to have the title in hand to sell your car privately. If your car is financed you will have to pay off the loan first.

 

Why the flame suit, most likely put on the cool suit Wow, corny much.

Evo 9 GSR is sweet. You'll be damn happy with that car.

 

21,6, n on navi. We told the dealer (star nissan) , we were getting 22 for it private, but wanted the tax break. Obviosuly he low balled us. We agreed on 20,600, somehow they made a mistake and put 21,600, and we snuck away with the extra K.

All i had was OEM bodykit....(and an intake which they did not notice), if you can, let them appraise your car in the rain, hides alot of paint impefections (which i did, and which i had)

 

That's amazing that you get 20.6 already, and you got 21.6! Talking with dealership really requires a lot of preparation, otherwise I will just walk out losing a lot of money. Thanks guys! I am going to try it again today, wish me luck!

 

did they find out about your accident ?

 

I asked a dealership about the trade-in. And they told me that it is illegal in California to apply tax after calculating the difference of the prices between the value of the new car and the trade in. Are they cheating me? I thought it is legal in most states from here http://autos.msn.com/advice/article....tentid=4021163

Thanks!

 

dealerships need to get the price for as low as possible so they can make a profit on the car by either selling it to someone walking in the door, or wholesaleing it, or even putting it in the auction. If trading in is worth losing some money for you, so you can just get rid of it, then go for it. If not, then sell it. Thing is, a private party will check everything, like the brakes, engine, etc. The dealerships dont check anything. They just look at the physical condition of the car, not the technical stuff in case it has problems. I traded in a while back, my eclipse which had a transmission that was acting up. No problem.

 

Dang, it is unfortunate. I just checked that California actually does not allow the tax on price difference.

http://wlstv.lawinfo.com/index.?action=AutoLoanCalc

If you live in a state where your sales tax is calculated on your full purchase price check this box. If this box is unchecked sales tax is calculated on the purchase price less trade-in. Currently California, the District of Columbia, Hawaii, Maryland and Michigan allow no deductions for trade-ins when calculating sales tax. In addition, Alaska, Delaware, Montana, New Hampshire, and Oregon have no sales tax on autos.

 

Wow, no sales tax on autos. Its like a dream. Wish we had that here in Cali.

 

But the way I have just drove home the Evo 9 :gheywave:

 

they will low ball you, but you also have to realize, kbb is not the bible the dealers use, i forget what it's called, but it's a different book. also, virtually no car would ever really qualify as "Excellent" condition.

the dealer is probably being fair, what can he sell the car for? a brand new tsx non navi is $27,000 is, that's if he charges full price. so a 2005 wiith miles is going to go for a few thousand less, and a 2004 even less. so say he can get 22,000 for it (just pulling that out of my butt, but anyways), he wants to make money on the car. also, what kinda deal did he give you on the car you're buying? he's either going to make money on the trade in or on the sale.

you also have to consider the tax break you get when choosing private party vs trade in, sometimes it's worth taking a hit in price to save the money on taxes.

i'd say you should be able to get closer to $19,000 for the trade, especially if it's in excellent condition, try shopping around if it's worth the effort to you.

 

Congrats!!

Pics? So what did you end up doing with the TSX?

 

Actually, KBB IS the bible that ALL car dealer in the United States use. Difference is, the dealer's KBB is wayyy different than the consumer version available at Barnes and Noble or online at www.kbb.com.

There is a computer program version of KBB that dealers use, because its way quicker, called Karpower. They can put in the VIN of the car and it'll put in all the car's info automatically. You just have to click on dealer installed options that may be on the car etc. Then you get a book value, print it, and thats what ALL dealers use.

You may have had it a little confused because of Karpower, but Karpower is by KBB. On the dealer version of KBB there is no such thing is "excellent" "good" or whatever as far as the shape of the car goes.

 

No, my accident never showed up on carfax, maybe because there was only body damage, nothing with the engine?

 

Here is what I drove home

 

NICE Evo!! Thing must be SUPER FAST!!!

How much did you end up getting for the TSX?

Possibly...but was the accident reported through DMV?

 

I got $20k from TSX and $29999 for the evo 9 SE. It's not the cheapest deal but considering that the SE just came out for a month or so, I was quite happy with the whole process. It's done in a very friendly, no pressure environment. And yes, the thing is ridiculously fast. Although I am still breaking it in, trying to keep the rpm below 4k, it is already very fast. The turbo kicks in at around 3k rpm and I can feel the crazy pull. The ride is actually not bad. It's just a bit harder than TSX.

 

So TSX_Tim, looks like you'll be changing your name now to EvoIX_Tim?

 

I thought I did well on the trade-in, but compared to some of you guys I guess I should've gotten more! A year ago, my 6MT 04 TSX was traded in for just under $19,900. It had 28,000 miles and the left door was $500 flawed. I'm not complaining, but hmmm...would've been nice to get that extra 1k.

 

That car is sick. Enjoy.

 

iamhomin, what car did you get after you traded in your tsx? Sorry I missed some of your previous post so I didn't know. I am enjoying the new car very much. Still breaking in, but passing in highway is so easy and cornering is so much fun. I am going to mod it soon.

 

The other book that a LOT of car dealerships use rather than the KBB is the NADA. BTW, when in doubt, take the car to carmax and get a free apprasal. When I got my TSX, I had an 02 GTI and the Acura Dealer wanted to give me 8k for it (BB was 16k) so of course I walked out, took it to Carmax and they offered me 11.5k...I took that since I was desparate to get out of it, besides, I only owed 12k on it at the time. FYI, no accidents or anything.

 

Yea I think if we have patience, we can always get a lot higher trade-ins. But too bad everytime I got into the dealership and saw the car I want, I lost all my cool and could not wait and do more research in different dealerships.

 

yeah i traded in a car to get my tsx. a g35 actually.

i traded it for exactly the cost of the tsx, but i had to pay just the tax. full tax on the entire car.