rajunwild

So with the gas prices being high, I thought about trading my '06 Silver TL in for and '08 Honda Civic Hybrid. I contact carsdirect.com to assist with this as I have found them to be advertising the lowest prices on any vehicle, and have used them in the past for negotiations. So after telling the person what I am looking for and what I will pay and can afford, he does his search and after weeks, gets back with me today. He states that I am currently $7k upside down with my TL and I would be looking at paying $34K for the civic with $600+ monthly payments. i cannot believe how fast my vehicle has depreciated. has anyone else experienced this?

twigglius

iTrader: (6)

I don't think the car has depreciated as much as you were informed. How much do you owe? What condition is the car in? Miles?

rajunwild

I owe $24k and I just hit the 20 grand mark. I purchased it used and have only had it for 1 year.

avs007

I find it hard to believe the car depreciated that much with barely 20k miles on it... On our 2G TL, I sold it to the dealer for $17.5k, and it had 62,000 miles on it.

maharajamd

iTrader: (1)

^ Yup. They are lyin! Don't believe that crap... good luck.

rajunwild

I don't believe it. Thats is why I called the guy back and told him to forget it. That is rediculous for a luxury car like ours to depreciate that much.

ndabunka

His "estimates" ase PURE BS. An 06 with 20K miles are still bringing $24K right now so it does look like you would "break even. I can get $19K for my 2004 NAVI with 48K miles. Acura's have been shown over and over to have some of the LOWEST depreciation of ANY vehicle (i.e. they hold their value better than most other regular cars).

special e. dition

Paid $22K for my 05 with 34k on it.. so that is about right.

Elegant TYPE S

iTrader: (2)

Biggest problem here is what we percieve our cars to be worth and what its really worth. There is book value and market value, and no matter how high the book value might be, the market value is what trade in offers and prices are going to be determined by. It sucks.

TeknoKing

^^^ Hey Raj!!! Still in Miami?

(I like your rims, when are you selling them to me? lol)

rajunwild

Tekno....I am not the raj that you are thinking about. The rims I have are stock and I live in Broward County. Sorry dude.....and thanks guys for all of the input.

TeknoKing

my fault, I didn't specify clearly enough... I was referring to Elegant Type S....

My fault!

MR1

Trade-in value and retail value are not the same thing. Look at the overall economy and current car sales numbers. Prices are down across the board. Why do you think dealers are offering such good prices? Every time they reduce the price of a new car the value of the used ones goes down. Anyone trying to trade something in today is likely going to be disappointed.

Fulani has a TL

iTrader: (1)

What I dont get is that people wanting to shift over to Hybrids due to the raising gas prices. You will not see "actual" value of hybrids for what is it 5-6 years after the purchase? I mean with raising gas prices, you have raising EVERYTHING and your pay will also increase (unless your a business owner, which then you see diminishing profits AHHHH, time to sell!!)

I think Hybrids are a Hype, just like E85 and Ethanol

tragic22

Did you take on a high interest rate? I ask because that may be why your loan is so much more than the car is worth.

rajunwild

My interest rate is at 8%.

ndabunka

Funai - The POINT of hybrids is that with fuel prices going up, you are better able to make up any additional cost in FUEL SAVINGS. Here's a solid example: Family of six driving a fully loaded 2004 Tahoe (Leather, Towing Pkg, NAVI, 4x4, etc) averages 15 MPG. The Tahoe (when new) cost $40K. They can simply buy another $40K Tahoe (or lease it or whatever you like). That same family can choose INSTEAD to spend that $40K on an IDENTICALLY equipped Toyota Highlander Hybrid (Leather, Towing, NAVI, 4x4, etc) and get an average of 26MPG (as I do now). That is 11miles to the gallon BETTER than the Tahoe. Most Americans average around 18K miles in a year. In the Tahoe that would have been 1,200 gallons of fuel. But in the equivalent Hybrid it would only consume 692 gallons of fuel.

While it is accurate that the cost of an individual gallon remains the same, the variable here is the AMOUNT of fuel required to cover those same miles. In this (very basic) example, you can see that the Hybrid saves OVER 500 gallons of fuel for the same miles. With fuel nearing $4.00/gallon, that is OVER $2,000 a YEAR cheaper to run the equivalent Hybrid. Most people keep cars anywhere form 3 to 5 years. Over 5 years, that is $10K in savings. If the Hybrid only cost about $4,500 more than it's IDENTICAL non-Hybrid version (see the mfg cost of a Highlander Limited Hybrid vs. V6 for verification), the technology pays for itself around the end of the second year (rather than the un-educated "GUESS" of yours in the 5th or 6th years). Seems like a NO-brainer to me TWO years ago. How about you?

Note: I never owned a Tahoe but rather we traded in a Lexus GX470 which had a $54K price tag and therefore would not have been an apples-to-apples comparison so I choose a more common and more affordable option in the Tahoe.

pokin

$7k upside down is not necessarily depreciation. Most likely, your original deal (purchase price or finance terms) was bad. If this is the case, keep and enjoy the TL for a long while.

rajunwild

That is what I am planning to do.

jvinhj240

Reading your post. I like your comparision but if only anyone have the same situation. Driving 18k /year. And w/o any lost of accident and etc.... What if you wreck your car? there are many reasons to list in the first 5 years and you lost your car. For me, i drive 4-5k /year and i dont like Hydrid why shuold i go w/ hydrid? Only good thing is that pollution. But if anyone should care is goverment they should let hydrid cheaper somewhere near regular cars. For example base Camry 19k. and hybrid 27k they are 8 k different. I mean differnt situations you cant just compare. To me, Hybrid are still expensive to make up plus who know what happen in between 5-10years. I will stuck w/ regular gas car.

avs007

Only problem, is that many people with Tahoes, that actually use their tahoes, tow something like a boat, which you can't do with a Highlander... (Can only tow 3500 pounds) Now, you can get a Tahoe Hybrid (which can tow something like 6500 pounds IIRC), which will average 20mpg while towing a boat (from what I remember hearing)... However, someone said a tahoe hybrid would cost something close to 60k or something like that. Maybe it was mid 50's, I can't remember. But $20,000 will buy a lot of gas....

Eoanou

The point of Hybrids are so that we slowly consume less fuel and lessen our dependency on it coupled with the fact you'll be saving money.

People must realise just because its not cost efficient to buy a high mpg capable car now does not mean we should wait til it is, because by the time it will be too late.

jvinhj240

Car maker dont try to save your money!!

Fulani has a TL

iTrader: (1)

I understand what your saying, but in this situation we are comparing cars to cars... Are people willing to sacrifice quality and size to fuel consumption? If so, I think that they made a improper decision when they initially purchased the TL, knowing that it would require 91 octane fuel, and knowing that fuel no matter what is going to increase.

Am I wrong in thinking this way? Because, me personally I chose the TL over another car was for the amenities it provided, and added luxury it had knowing in fact that it would use more fuel, but to me I am able to afford the fuel that the TL requires.

How about this, a family buys a Excursion because they will be towing heavy equipment, family, and cargo. When they could have saved the money and bought a Highlander, but not be able to tow the same amount of equipment, family, and cargo as the Excursion did. I think it comes down to what can you truly afford and what do you desire....

..Mark..

Before i picked up my TL A-spec i had a 01 Z06 and a 3.9 Dakota as a daily driver..

To me the 21 mpg city that i get out of my TL is like owning a hybrid..

Coming from my point of view after having owned couple of trucks as DD's and a Z06 and 300ZX twin turbo as my "weekend rides" you guys sound kinda ....

Its all relative though..

phatbastard

I sell cars for a living at a toyota dealership, and what this salesperson is doing is called "stealing the trade". Now days dealerships make alot of money on trade-ins, sometimes alot more then what they get in profit on the new vehicle you are getting.

Example, your new car invoice is $30,000 and you buy it for $32,000. There is $2,000 profit there not including holdback and advertising costs. And your trade is worth 20,000 based on NADA book and you trade it in for $17,500. There are other factors but the just made roughly $4500 off of you and probably more if they sell your trade for more.

Locksmith

dude i work at carmax....go get it appraised there. if we give you less than 20k....i'd be shocked

rajunwild

I appreciate all of the feedback and such, but I am not going to trade it in. It is being more of a hassle then it would be to get into some with better mileage and I would end up losing all together. And I do love my car. I went from a 4cylinder accord that was getting great mileage to this and I am very satisfied all-together but am probably jumping the band-wagon for the gas issue. I also think it has to do with the fact that their is the 4 gen out their and ours are no longer valuable, but I could be wrong.

rajunwild

Also I just checked CarMax's site and they are selling a comparable to mine for $25k+. That guy was totally trying to rip me off. But then again, I was going through Carsdirect.com and they go through dealers to get their prices.