Very Low Trade-In Quote from Dealer

[zozmanCTS-V]

Originally Posted by joshdctsv

Solution: Mod the hell out of it and drive it into the ground! It's only a bad investment if you puss out within 5 years

Absolutely! Leasing is renting. You have no equity and lose a ton. Buy a used V that's 2-3 years old and keep it until it dies. You don't get clobbered with initial depreciation loss and you have spread out your cost over a much longer year span.

Randy

[RightTurn]

Originally Posted by kueh

I don't know if there's a CarMax in the NJ area, but I've found them to give pretty good values for the cars. With CarMax, you can just sell them the car without buy anything from them.

CarMax is da bomb. When trading a Lexus a couple of years ago, I actually got $4500 more from Carmax than the dealer was offering for my trade. They will give you a written offer for your vehicle. Another option is to go for a high-dollar SUV with tons of options; that's where the negotiation $$ are.

[Vdrenaline]

Originally Posted by BowenCT

Vdrenaline,

I'm afraid that dealer is spot on. Dealers use, and ONLY use Galves price guide when giving the value of a trade or off-lease vehicle. They do not use KBB, NADA, or Edmunds......never. I have the current Galves price guide right here with me, here is where they got thier number:

A 2004 CTS-V in "good" condition, ("good" as in a car that they would have no problem parking on thier lot and trying to sell) which yours sounds to be, with average milage of 39K is valued at $23,450. The penalty for milage is $275 per 1K miles over 39K, that puts your car at -$2200 for milage. That puts your car at $21,250, by the book.

Now depending on what they are trying to put you into, they could manipulate that figure a bit to sweeten the deal one way or another.

Trust me, as an 04 V owner, this hurts to digest. Unfortunately if a private sale is out of the question, then you must be willing to play by the dealers rules.

Best of luck.

Thanks for that info Matt. I think I found the best solution for my situation: I was having my V serviced at the Greenwich Caddy dealer and spoke to a salesman there while waiting. He was a real gentleman. Despite my interest in a slightly used Escalade that he had on the lot, he counseled me to keep the V until the end of the lease in Feb 2008, pay the mileage overage which would work out to approx $3000 (if I go 15,000 miles over) and buy a 12 month/ 15,000 mile GM extended warranty for $1400. That scenario would let me keep my V and pay only $4400 instead of trading it for an SUV now and losing $10,500. I can make do with the V for 1 more year then get an SUV at that time.