Hey guys,


A guy i work with bought a Lightning about 8 months ago, its a red one, basically just like mine except no tonue cover. The thing is he is going to go down to the dodge dealer and check on a 21,800 SRT4. He is asking me what kind of deal he can get on his truck, its low miles, i think 15,000 and its a 2001. He wants to know what i think as far as the kind of deal he is going to get, what do you guys think?

 

Race him when he test drives it. Problem solved?

edit: P.S. Slap him upside the head with a large dead trout!

 

A new vehicle depreciates very fast off the lot.
This is not as true on a used vehicle.
The low mileage (15,000) can be thrown out of the equation.
(unless he bought it with high miles and now it has low miles)
The answer he seeks is how much did this Lightning depreciate in 8 months.
I would tell him it's worth a $1,000 less than he paid for it.

 

Raoul, I didn't know radio shack stayed open that late!?!
Did you break in again? Did you remember to wear your gloves?

 

woudlnt the lightning be worth more than the SRT4 though, how would the dealership work that?

 

I think the easiest way would be to bluebook it. Check kbb.com and nada.com Tell him to print one out and bring it to the dealer, they can't really argue with that. I'd use nada.com though because it seems to bluebook considerably higher.

-Craig

 

The Lightning may be worth 21,800 and he may have paid around that for it but, no way is it's trade-in value 21,800.

Used Retail and Trade-In are two different numbers and never shall they meet.

The Used Retail is a number derived so that the dealership can stick their hand in your pocket.

The Trade In value is a number derived so that the dealership can stick their hand in your other pocket.

A dealership will never trade vehicles and cut a check to a private party, unless the diff is at least $10,000, then they might cut a check for $2,000.

 

If he bluebooks his Lightning on KBB.COM, he should be looking at "TRADE-IN" value. This is considerably less than the "RETAIL" value that he paid to the dealer when he bought it. KBB.COM also gives a "PRIVATE PARTY" value for those of us that buy and sell as individuals. The difference between these values is significant.
My 1998 F150 XLT with 73,000 miles has the following values;
Trade-in = $7,900.00
Private Party = $9,695.00
Dealer Retail = $11,570.00.
This is how the dealer will "nail" him.

 

I think the title of the thread says it all.

Look, if you get a good deal and I get a good deal and everybody gets a good deal then the salesmen have no one to squeeze and they will starve or end up on the endangered species list.

Don't you ever watch the Discovery Channel?

The car buying public is like the herd of Zebras crossing the river.
Your co-worker is that zebra that is at the edge of the pack and thinks he's about to step on a log so his feet don't get wet...

Only, that ain't no log, it's the salesman waiting for him to trade his Lightning for a cheaper Dodge.

ewweeeeee!!!.....don't look cause it's gonna be gross.

 

He thinks they might want to trade even up then just transfer his payment to the Srt

 

...and the zebra with his leg in the croc's mouth thinks the croc just wants to ask for directions.

 

I was just thinking...
...you do seem concerned about this transaction. Are you sure this isn't one of those, 'I have this friend who..." threads?

If it is, I hope I haven't been to hard on your ahh ...friend.

 

lol, no its not me, i just get alot of questions from him about it but the last thing i would buy is a neon

 

Neon's are for girly men.

 

I bought my 1999 lightning in January of 2002 with just over 3000 miles for $17,000.

Last year I checked the blue book value and it was $16,500 (right around there).

I checked a few weeks ago (same place) it is now woth $18,000.

It currently has about 24,000 miles.

(IT"S GOING UP IN VALUE)