Topic: How much can I sell this Honda for?

[parasound]

I'm in Nova Scotia my mother asked me to sell her car for her since she feels the dealer did not offer her a fair trade in value.

The car is a 2000 Accord EX-V6, the car is totally loaded, Signet Silver in color, lady driven, dealer maintained (every single service and she has all documents), almost 140,000km accident free, no smoking etc. The car still looks to be in really good shape and has never had a major problem. I think the dealer offered her $10,500 saying that is what they could get at the auto auction for the car. They don't sell cars with that many kms on their lot.

What could I hope to get? I checked trader.ca but there is no similar car in our area listed.

[The Mighty Duck]

Privately, in BC that car would probably be adertised asking roughly $16 000 - relatively high kilometres for the age.  The trade in price is probably close to fair, you will not get close to private sale value on a trade in.  You get what the dealer can get for it at auction, and by the sound of it it'll be going to auction.

If you want more money, sell it privately.  If it's too much hassel, trade it in.  You might get a few hundred dollars more for it, but I'd say $11 000 or so is probably the best they'll give you.

[hondasalesguy]

In Ontario the wholsesale value of that car if it needed NOTHING would be around $11,000 - $11,500.

If she sells it privately for $13,500 she no longer has a $1600 tax credit coming her way against the purchase of a new car so the net is really only about $12K. Tell her to go back and try to get $11,500 for the trade, even if the dealer has to discount his new car by $1000 to get to her $11,500 figure that is probably fair for both parties.

But you didn't tell us if this is at a Honda dealer or elsewhere...

[paulk]

Looking at the Auto Trader prices in Nova Scotia, you could probably ask $13000 for it and perhaps sell for $12000-12500.  The dealer offer wasn't all that bad actually.

[parasound]

Trade in was at the dealership the car was purchased at.

If the dealer is selling  the car to the auction house for $10,500 doesn't that mean some else will buy it at a higher price (a used car dealer) then resell it again for even more money? Shouldn't I be able to charge some of this money selling privately?

 

[Craig]

A little, yes, but at the expense of the PST you save by trading in.

[sterling]

Trade in was at the dealership the car was purchased at.

If the dealer is selling  the car to the auction house for $10,500 doesn't that mean some else will buy it at a higher price (a used car dealer) then resell it again for even more money? Shouldn't I be able to charge some of this money selling privately?

 

You can charge whatever you want to sell it privately. A couple of posts have mentioned the 13000-13500 range. As some have said, if you sell it yourself you will lose the tax credit for trading it at a dealer so you'll need to deduct that amount before determining how much more you'll get by selling privately.

You are correct that a dealer will try to sell for more than they buy for (duh  ) But you have to remember that those businesses put a lot of effort into selling those things. Those buildings, lights, staff, inventory, the advertising, etc. aren't cheap.

[paulk]

In general, you can expect to get $2000-2500 more on a private sale than the wholesale price.

Also keep in mind that prices you see in the local classifieds and the Auto Trader for private sales are asking prices or "wish" prices.  You should mentally adjust them downwards by 10% to more accurately guess what they might sell for.  Prices that are in the upper 25% are usually more wishful thinking than realistic.  Also, carefully consider what vehicles being advertised are the equivalent to your vehicle.  You have the highest trim level, but you also have high mileage (basically what a person would expect on a 1998 vehicle given an average amount of driving).

[articsteve]

You know the car may look great and ride good in her opinion, but a car that is 6 years old with 140k can easily have worn susupension parts and brake parts that won't pass a safety but is still driveable.  Tax in that could run close to 1K.

Trading in a known good car to a dealer is not a pleasant experience.  Great if it's a bag of dung; a good ridence kind of thing highlighted by relief.

[safristi]

,,so you too had a Daewoo Pileodung Arctic..........