I'm looking at trading in my 96 BMW 328i when I buy the 2004 TL. It has 140K miles on it, engine runs well, it is in pretty good condition - a few dings, etc.

I'm worried that at this high mileage I have no chance of getting the low Kelly blue book (about $9K) from the dealer.

I can go for the private sale, but it will put some uncertainty into effectively getting the TL model I want, due to the availability of cars at the time the sale goes through. If I could get the low blue book from the dealer, that would make things go much more smoothly.

Am I likely to get anything near the low blue book from an Acura dealer for this car? Any suggestions or tales of previous experiences are welcome.

This is all that's holding me back at this point (sigh) from the new car!

 

I took my '97 Maxima to Carmax. They showed me that the KBB value online was $4300 (which I knew from going there myself). They gave me $4800 for it because I kept it in great shape. Paint looked like new even though I only waxed the (black) car once or twice. By the way, I had 128k miles on it. You may want to check them out for the heck of it. I doubt the dealer would give you more than Carmax for it. Most dealers were offering me $1500-$2500 max for my car.

 

Your best to try to sell it privately if it you have the time and don't mind some aggravation. (Actually you very BEST situation is to give the car to another family member who will appreciate your gift but I digress).

I had a '98 Town & Country to trade on my '02 Odyssey I was buying a year and a half ago. The dealer offered $3500 (I didn't return an offer, I just felt we would be too far apart). Then Carmax quoted me $5300 which I said I'd think about. I ended up selling for $7000 privately.

That said, I will say that the selling experience was aggravating. People calling and not showing up. People coming and low-balling. Dealer reps coming and low-balling. Not fun. For me, if the car will sell for less than $5000 it might just be better to try to get the dealer up from fhis initial trade in offer. If I am not mistaken, you can just pay sales tax then on the diffence between your new car less the used trade in.

You have to do what you feel comfortable with and have the time for. Selling privately is best return but takes work.

 

The Acura dealer may not want to give you much over low wholesale for it.

High mileage high-end cars are more typical inventory for the 'used car lot'. I have a 1994 325i with 145k that I will be private partying in a few weeks.

I would expect to be offered less than KBB trade-in or NADA trade-in. If I had to guess, I would say the dealer would give you around $5-6k for it. I would think you could PP it for $9k. For my car, I would expect $4-5k from the dealer and maybe $7k from a PP.

 

Thanks all for the advice, and thanks for letting me know about Carmax. Think I'll see what the dealer will do, and when I get over it, I'll try Carmax and PP.