berner73

My wife was hit on her way to work in our 2002 RL two weeks ago. She's fine but the insurance company ended up totaling the car. If anyone's interested in the residual value of a '02 RL (Navi) w/ 75K miles and in excellent condition, it's $14.5K according to the insurance company (w/ some negotiating). I'm sure it would have been less if we were at fault.

Started looking for the replacement and have narrowed it down to a Black or Silver '05 or '06 RL with no more than 35K miles. Just in case anyone else is in a similar search, here's what's out there (we live about 15 minutes North of Boston, looking in a 50 mile radius):

Haven't seen a single '06 that qualifies, but I expect leases to start rolling off soon. Lots of 05's as CPO. About half are in our mileage criteria. Sticker prices are between $26 and $28K. Most are in good condition regarding the exterior (a few scratches that probably can't be buffed out and the normal hood chips). Nearly all have immaculate interiors. I haven't started negotiating yet, as I want to wait a week or two and let the dealerships feel the vacuum of business leaving their lots. My hope is to get the car for between $21K and $23K, maybe less if the economy continues it's path.

Any thoughts or similar observations?

By the way, new to this forum and want to thank it's participants for sharing their knowledge.

CFoote

I don't know if this will help at all or not, but I would try and expand your search beyond Massachusetts and start scanning New England.

I live in CT and was able to pick up a '05 RL with 42k on it for $25,000 back in August. This was a CPO car, and it was located in southern NJ. It was in good shape, like you it had the usual surface scratches and some hood chips (you really can't avoid that stuff these days unfortunately). The interior was in very good shape.

The car has been great, no complaints. Hopefully you will be able to hammer them down even further, especially with Christmas coming up.

Chris

neuronbob

Welcome to AZ!

We've had a lot of people posting in the last 3-4 months who are purchasing off-lease 2005 RLs. Not many 2006s coming off lease yet, so you won't see as many.

For your price range, you'll find a 2005 for the most part, as you observe.

I recommend you scan the "RL Owner sign in" thread so you can see what people have paid recently for their used RL.

Hopefully we will be teaching you the secret 2G RL handshake soon, and you'll get sucked into the tech features along with the rest of us RL geeks.