Has anyone tried to trade in a truck lately?

Question

Someone was telling me that they were offering him less than 1/2 Blue Book Trade-In value because of the gas situation. Is that true?

Answer 1

Less than half blue book seems a bit extreme, but it's true that dealerships are having a lot of difficulty getting trucks off their lot, and a lot of buyers are using their trucks as trade-in. I don't know about there, but around central Texas, most of the used car lots are clogged up with large trucks and SUVs.

Tell your pal to look elsewhere... he might be able to find a better deal, but probably won't get "blue book" for it.

Answer 2

a dealer appraises the "actual cash value" of a potential trade-in based on what they could buy the same vehicle for at a wholesale auction.

yes, due to the current gas prices,  wholesale truck prices have declined dramatically and  auction prices on small, economical cars have jumped up in price.

sure, if you are buying a new truck you might get a decent trade allowance on your old truck trade...but essentially the dealer is just discounting his truck by showing you a higher trade allowance for yours! if you pulled the trade out of the deal you'd find that you could buy the same new truck for a sizeable discount because new trucks aren't selling very well either (once again due to gas prices!).

"the book" might say that a certain model year truck is worth "X" in wholesale value...but the auction (real world results) aren't always in line with the book prices!!

it IS a great time to buy a truck...a LOUSY time to trade one in!!

Answer 3

I run a new car dealership and I go to the auction to buy used cars for my lot every week.  I don't know where you live but here in S Calif and most of the US the truck and SUV market is terrible.  Let me guess - the reason the truck is being traded in is because the gas price is too high.  Samre reason everybody else is trading in theirs.

1/2 of blue book is about what these trucks and SUV are bringing at the auction ( I go 1 or 2 times a week).  And the answer is yes dealers do use bluebook to appriase cars.  A vehicle is worth something in relation to blue book like $2,000 less than wholesale blue book or in this case 1/2 of blue book.

This is all based on supply and demand.  When you have this many of one type of vehicle being traded at the same time and very few people want to buy them the demand goes down - way down.  If gas prices go down, the supply will change and trucks value will go up.

Answer 4

half of blue book seems a little low, although dealers dont use blue book because thier values are always way high, they might tell you they do and show you blue book for your car but they just charge you more for the car your buying.

That being said trucks arent worth a thing right now, no one is buying them, and even if they are new trucks are going really really cheap so no one is buying the used ones, therefore dealers are only giving wholesale prices on trade in because the only thing they can do with the truck is take it to the auction and try to get thier money back.

So all in all, yes trucks arent worth a thing and trading it in for well below blue book is common, I just had a guy trade in a truck, we gave him $11,500 and he bought it for $18,000 6 mnths ago.

Answer 5

No. Its much easier to trade in front of my PC at home (I don't get bounced around as much!). Thanks.

Answer 6

Its hard to say i just traded my 2001 ford f150 with 130,000 miles for 5,200 dollars at a local ford dealership. Trucks do not loose there value