At 12k miles, trade-in on my 2002 TE was under $12,000. At 18K miles, it dropped to the $7,000 range.
Take the $12,000 and go with it, you are well ahead of the game. Make sure you get GAP insurance on the deal, cause your $27K GT will be worth around $18K when the front wheels leave the lot after you purchase it.
With the GAP insurance, at least you won't have to pay a deficit balance of $9,000 if it gets totaled before the first payment is due.
Use the estimated prices from the used car guides on the public on an outright sale. If you mention Kelley or Blue-Book to the salesman, he will merely laugh at you (if he is polite), or show you the excess used cars that they take to the auction every week, where your 2002 LE would bring the dealership around $6500.00 (on a good night).
It isn't just the Cruiser; the low interest rates have the market flooded with trade-ins. It is cheaper for the buyer to purchase a new car, as opposed to a used one - especially is the used one is only a year or 2 old.
My 2 PTs (2002 TE and 2003 GT) have averaged around $1000.00 depreciation per month of ownership. Both were purchased new.
At around 18 months, the car has depreciated to it's actual value, and starts to stabilize.
This is the way the market establishes the actual value of goods; minus inflation.
Using the numbers crunched by the car market, an 18 month old PT Cruiser costing $27K new is worth around $9K (as long as it hasn't been driven much over 1K miles per month). Actual worth of the car new is estimated to be less than $12,000 - adjusted for inflation.
When you consider a young couple, recently married could decide between a 16' by 80' mobile home that they could live in for the next 20 years or a car that is guarenteed to loose half of it's value in the first year, you begin to see the futility of the entire situation.
It looks like the money situation is gonna get a lot worse before it gets any better. Spend all you want, we'll print more.
If you want to see the salesman squirm, try to get them to lease you a new PT for 18 months at less than $1000.00 per month lease payment, with zero on the down stroke. Then try to get him to explain whay the dealership can't write that kind of deal. (they don't want to be buried by the depreciation in the first year).
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