Trade-in Value: Test Your Knowledge on our 2007 Chevy Silverado LT
After nearly two years of faithful service, it came time to bid our 2007 Chevrolet Silverado LT Crewcab goodbye.
It was a faithful steed in which I had taken many great trips, including driving 54 miles of bad road on the way to the Racetrack in Death Valley National Park (shown in the photo).But we were done testing it and it had to go.
Recently, we've been taking our vehicles to Carmax when we're done testing them. They appraise the vehicle and offer to buy it. The process is quick and easy and sometimes we're surprised with the price they pay us. But we decided to try using an autobroker to see if we can improve the figures we get.
As an experiment, we took our Chevy to Carmax and got a price (good for seven days). Then we called the broker and gave him the specs. We paid $41,494 for the truck new, almost two years ago. It now has 32,000 miles on it. Read about all the options on our Chevy on the longterm blog.
So, anyone care to guess what Carmax offered for it? And for bonus points, what do you think the broker offered.?
- Posted by
- Philip Reed August 11, 2008, 3:32 AM
- Permalink
- Categories:
- Selling cars
- Technorati Tags:
- Carmax, Chevrolet, pickup truck, trade-in
I don't think this would be a quiz if the offer weren't terrible, so I'll just take an off the top of my head low ball of $28k.
Probably much worse than that. I'd guess $14,200 from CarMax and $16,200 from the broker.
I'd assume 55% depreciation, for a price of $18,675 from Carmax and maybe a little more from the broker, say $19,500.
17K
oops, 17K from carmax and 18K from the broker person.
$21,500 from the broker and $20,750 from Carmax.
$1 Bob.
I just wanted to make the Price is Right reference. I actually have no idea...
I'm wondering if we have some dealers reading this blog. There are some very good guesses here. I'll be posting the real figures soon but the reasoning and the guesses are sound...tho no one has nailed it exactly.
Frankly, in this climate of shock and awe over resale values I was wondering if we could turn this truck back into cash. And the difference between Carmas and the broker was substancial.
Carmax - $22,800
Broker - $24,000
By the way, it's now $1 Drew, doesn't sound right does it?
I don't know the exact prices but i'm willing to bet that Carmax was higher than the broker.
I believe CarMax offered $19,000, while the broker offered $20,000 even.
Well, sackajacka almost had it right when he guessed that Carmax offered $14,200 and the broker offered $16,200. Actually, Carmax offered $15,000 (they always seem to offer even numbers) and the broker offered $17,500. Obviously, we sold it to the broker even though he charged us a $600 fee for handling it. He later told me that he used three different buyers to "shop" it. There were several sources who refused to to buy it at any price. Since the new purchase price was $41,494 I make the depreciation to be 57 percent over two years.
"depreciation to be 57 percent over two years"
Not quite. You're comparing wholesale to retail. You'd need to compare it to what you could have sold it to a broker for two years ago. I'm sure it's still pretty bad, but not 57%.
That's unbelievable... have you ever had a car lose so much value over a long-term test?
Brn: You're right. We paid retail for the truck and sold it at wholesale. I suppose a fairer thing to do would have been to compare the invoice price to the resale price. That would make the depreciation more like 54 percent over two years.
Vacagrande: No, we've never had a vehicle depreciate this much. But we've never had gas prices this high before either.