I had a heartbreaking Friday

I'd been waiting for a blue Automatic Fit Sport to come in after putting down a hold deposit. After three weeks, it was here! I made an appointment to test drive and headed down there.

She was lovely, drove just like I thought she should. I was ready to buy!!

Then, they examined my current car (a 2000 VW Jetta GLS V6 with leather interior, fancy wheels, and 100500 miles on it) and said they'd only give me 2300 for it. Uh....Kelley says it's worth 6500 in Fair condition, which means there's some damage. Someone knocked of the driver's side mirror and insurance wouldn't cover it, the plastic around the stereo is shot, one side of the bumper is loose, etc.

They came up to 3K, but that wasn't enough to cover the payoff and I would've had to roll 2K into my loan...that's just not a smart thing to do. After the bad financing deal I did with the Jetta (hence, I'm still paying on a car with 100K miles on it), I couldn't afford to make that mistake.

So, sadly...no Fit for me. Fortunately I like my Jetta. I'm just worried he's going to start to fall apart in the next couple of years...

*sigh*

 

ouch...that's bad dude...buy lotto and you might get lucky, but if you can, def buy the fit asap cause it's still 100% JAPAN made...

 

sell the VW private and go get t3h FIT!

 

Yes, why not sell it privately? You'll at least get more than $3k. If the KBB says $6500 you could probably sell it easily for $6k. If you give up your Fit and change your mind later, sounds like you'll have a very long wait.

It's best to give up a car before it starts falling apart cuz you'll only have to spend more to get something back for it. That's how I felt about my CRV, it was 1 yr. from becoming a headache so off she went. Dealer offered $2K!!! I sold her for $5700. And now I'm the proud owner a Fit.

 

Agreed, you never get as much for trade-in as you do selling it yourself!

 

Private sell it!! Then..... THE FIT IS GO!

 

Definitely to private. You will always get more when you sell private. You have to remember that dealers are trying to make a profit off of the car that you trade in too, and they generally will make more money off of used cars then new ones.... well depending on the car... your car will most likely go to an auction to be sold there, but they will get probably $5K for it.

 

Sell it privately for sure A good friend of mine had a 2001 Jetta Wolfsburg and had so many problems with it, they will never buy a VW again.

 

I agree with everyone. Sell it privately!

 

or be like me and crash it...my 1999 plymouth voyager dealer said 2300...insurance paid me 5300 after i crashed it lol...make sure it's the other guy is at fault though lol

 

A car dealer is never going to give you more than wholesale Blue Book for the trade-in. If they say they are, than they are probably building the difference between wholesale and what say they are giving you somewhere else in the deal. It's not anything shady, they just can't give you more money for your trade than their guaranteed selling price for the trade. Sell it privately.

 

yes, definitely go for private sale on the jetta. From what i understand the blue book price is an estimate of about what you or the dealership could get for the car in a sale, so of course they want to make profit and won't give you the full price you deserve.

 

Car dealers make more on used car deals then they do for parts or new cars.

 

Assuming of course that you can afford the car in the first place etc.

Take the deal. The Jetta is a sink hole. You can't get out of your bad financing deal from before but you don't have to go down with the shi.

Be sure to get a good rate (I got 6.02 from Honda) and don't take the full 5 years to pay it off if you can pay a little bit more each month.

I'll agree that you should not go out and buy a corvette for an investment or some other get rich scheme- but unless you have better transport than the jetta.. I'd take the deal.

Edited on later:
Certainly not saying you shouldn't try getting more..
Maybe another dealer will give a better trade-in, especially if the car is not on the lot.
Not disagreeing with others on getting more selling it yourself - but not enjoyable for me.

 

3000 is more then what your vw is worth. your car is not in fair condition. it's poor, it's doubtful if it can even be a retail car.

kbb is garbage as far as car pricing goes.

 

This is coming from a dealer's perspective of course.

My 150k CRV was worth way more than the $1k the dealership offered. It even had a crumpled bumper which I showed in the advertisements. I still had 5+ people calling for it for $6k. My point being, don't trade in, you'll get at least twice as much in private sale (even in "poor" condition).

 

You will get more if you sell it privately, but with that many miles on it, I can see why the dealer gave you the offer he did. They can't turn around and sell a car with that kind of mileage. At this point, they would be buying it just for parts. I agree with what some others have said - sell it ASAP and get a Fit.

 

This was the suprise of the decade for me.

After calling the saleswoman to tell her I'd just have to wait and to go ahead and sell the car, I had a message on my work voicemail Wednesday morning from the sales manager. They really wanted to sell that Fit by the end of the month and he wanted to see if there was something he could do to help me out (?!??!??). So, I called him. They were willing to raise the money on the trade in a bit, lower my interest rate by a point, and sell the car to me at MSRP.

SOLD!!!!!!!

So, I now have my Fit after all and I'm thrilled with her. She doesn't have a name yet (my family names all the cars), but I'm working on it.

Thanks to everyone who gave me the advice to go ahead and get the car. YahOOOOO!

 

Awesome! Congrats on your new Fit

 

That's great news! Congratulations!