Used Car Prices

[/pine]

Anyone else think that there will be a slew of cars that were "totaled" by insurances companies after Texas flooding will reach the market (regardless of preventative laws etc.) ?...There were literally hundreds of thousands of cars effected...

 

[fried1765]

Two words - private owner.

Wait another two months - sometime between Thanksgiving and Dec 31. Property taxes are due, kids need Christmas gifts... A cash offer way below the asking price may look attractive to the right seller.

Yup!
You can even go until the end January, when those Christmas bills need to actually be paid.
No good after March 1st though, when income tax refunds start to come in.

 

[Turbys_1700]

I bought a 2015 Chrysler 300 Limited this February at Car Max. Pretty painless. My old Buick had 220K miles on it and I figured it was time to get something better. Car listed for mid 30's new with the options on it and was priced at 22.5K with 6300 miles and warranty until 2019. Right now we will put around 6-8K miles on it per year. I figure I bought a relatively new car for a used price.

 

[two_bit_score]

Anyone else think that there will be a slew of cars that were "totaled" by insurances companies after Texas flooding will reach the market (regardless of preventative laws etc.) ?...There were literally hundreds of thousands of cars effected...

The thing most people don't realize about vehicles "totaled by insurance companies" is that there are a lot of vehicles that barely got wet that were "totaled" for reasons that had nothing to do with being flooded.

They are very good buys if you can find them.

TBS

 

[two_bit_score]

Deleted duplicate post.

TBS

 

[mjonesnh]

Purchased a 2017 Escape in Feb. After $4000 in rebates plus another $ 2000 in dealer discounts we were within $ 2000 of used 2015 with 20,000 miles. Saw one local dealer with 2017 used with 7300 miles that was $ 1700 more than we paid new at that time.

 

[coobie]

I have less than 16,000 miles on my 2006 Nissan X-Trail.

Yep,wife has 91,000 miles on her 2008 ford taurus.

 

[paulfun9]

Two words - private owner.

Wait another two months - sometime between Thanksgiving and Dec 31. Property taxes are due, kids need Christmas gifts... A cash offer way below the asking price may look attractive to the right seller.

Key word here is wait!!
Watch the add, especially the pics if internet shopping (no one admits they had to relist so many times so pay attention to the pics because most are too caught up in things to take different pics). Most will be relisted a few times before they start to lower the price and many will still be high then but that's when you need to start paying attention and be ready with cash in hand.

 

[jwstewar]

The thing most people don't realize about vehicles "totaled by insurance companies" is that there are a lot of vehicles that barely got wet that were "totaled" for reasons that had nothing to do with being flooded.

They are very good buys if you can find them.

TBS

True this.

I have a buddy that runs a junk yard so he is always buying cars at the auction. For both parts and fix/resale. Last March he bought a "flood truck". It is a 2015 Chevy Silverado 2500HD 4x4 Crew Cab with the DuraMax and Allison. It had 25k miles on it, not a scratch on the body. He bought it for less than 25k. It had apparently been sitting at an incline when it flooded. He sprayed the back bumper off, changed the bulbs in the license plate lights and had it inspected. He is driving it as his personal vehicle now. I keep telling him he doesn't need it and should sell it to me.

 

[Diamondpilot]

I would not touch a flood vehicle for nothing. Seen it too many times where issues show up 5 years down the road.

 

[Bird]

I would not touch a flood vehicle for nothing. Seen it too many times where issues show up 5 years down the road.

Amen, brother. That's just asking for trouble. I never knew of one to take 5 years before starting with major problems.

 

[PILOON]

I would not touch a flood vehicle for nothing. Seen it too many times where issues show up 5 years down the road.

Nor I!

Water causes delayed corrosion damage no matter how hard U work at deterring it.
OK on mechanical parts (transmission, differential etc) but for sure on nothing that is electrically controlled.
Sure I'd buy a fender from a flood damaged car but it ends there,
Corrosion never stops and especially wherever electricity flows. In fact electricity accelerates the corrosion process.

 

[WilliamBos]

Forget used, buy new.. There is no savings buying used, unless you can get it for 50% of new like DP mentioned.

 

[houstonscott]

No matter how you play with the numbers, a used car is the unreliable and maintenance required, half of the life of a vehicle.

 

[two_bit_score]

No matter how you play with the numbers, a used car is the unreliable and maintenance required, half of the life of a vehicle.

It all depends. When you buy a new car it becomes a used car as soon as you drive it home. Too many people think they got a bargain because they bought a car from an individual. Maybe they did maybe they didn't.


I like to buy new. But I keep my vehicles a long time.


TBS

 

[two_bit_score]

I would not touch a flood vehicle for nothing. Seen it too many times where issues show up 5 years down the road.

Amen, brother. That's just asking for trouble. I never knew of one to take 5 years before starting with major problems.

Nor I!

Water causes delayed corrosion damage no matter how hard U work at deterring it.
OK on mechanical parts (transmission, differential etc) but for sure on nothing that is electrically controlled.
Sure I'd buy a fender from a flood damaged car but it ends there,
Corrosion never stops and especially wherever electricity flows. In fact electricity accelerates the corrosion process.

I'd never recommend buying a flooded vehicle to a novice buyer. Experienced buyers cand find extremely good deals in salvage vehicles, including floods. But it's not for the faint of heart.


TBS

 

[Tomtint]

Cars are a commodity, their values fluxuate with market conditions and region. When you are a buyer, you are at free will to say no to any price you don't agree too. Not a scam, just free market values.

 

[parhamfarms2615]

97 and a 98 Tacoma 4x4 2.7 and 3.4 liter.i have the 98 for 10 years and over 250k.paid 5k,still runs like a top.97 with 230k paid 3 years ago.Also runs great.so play those numbers and see who came out good

 

[Stimw]

I found what I was looking for and at a great price!!
I was looking for a late model Kia Sportage or Hyundai Tuscon. They are basically the same SUV like Chevy/GMC.
I found a 2016 Kia with 42,000 miles on it at Hertz Rental/Sales in Winter Park Fl.
It was an off lease and when I called about it manager told me it was in "Show room condition" and he was exactly right! SUV is perfect.
I paid $4-5000. under KBB and they put on 4 new tires.
SUV still has 17,000 mile, 3 1/2 year factory warranty left and Hertz gives 12/12 warranty!
I bought the SUV, rented a U-Haul tow dolly and towed it over 100 miles home. Towed like it wasn't back there.
I am getting 27.1 MPG with AC on part time doing the math gal/miles.
I will add, Hertz was excellent to deal with and took personal check for total and did tax, tag and tittle on the spot.
They have a wide variety of vehicles for sale also.

 

[Garandman]

Just bought a loaded 4wd Honda Crosstour, 2014 75K miles, $15,600 New msrp was over $34,000. The dealer has a one price only, no haggling. It was the lowest priced 2014 Crosstour in the country on Autotrader besides one that had over 150k miles.

I never liked that one price no haggle before but this time it worked out for us.

Kevin

Bought a 2014 Outback 3.6R SAP last March. The SAP (Special Appearance Package) basically has every option Subaru offers, mostly functional. The dealer’s no-haggle price was very reasonable and couldn’t find a private sale anywhere.

We just bought a 2016 Tahoe private sale, wasn’t a great price but it was equipped exactly as we wanted and about $15,000 less than New.

We usually use Edmunds.com pricing, seems to better reflect the market.