I have done this three times: 96 BMW in 98, 2004 Pacifica in 2006 & 2008 Lucerne, built 9/07 in Jan 2009. The only problem I had with these cars was front brake rotors had rust spots wich caused chatter. All three manufacturers replaced with new rotors and that was the end of the problem. Saved $8000+0% on the Pacifica and $11,600 off sticker on the Lucerne CXL. BMW was a little harder to figure as a trade was involved. Fantastic way to buy a car. I ALWAYS look for leftovers, new car at a used car price.
What you are saying is that some dealer is going to PAY YOU to get this car of the lot.
This is just wrong. Pot lids or not get your s out of the car and run.
I would not worry about the resale value anyhow when buying especially if you would have kept it. After all its not like you can go out and find a 2.5 year old vehicl with this mileage and what would quailify as pristine condition. These values are arbitrarily assigned by the company based on what the average sales value of a used van was. Since NONE of those would have been in as good as condition or as low miles these values are worthless.
GSN_fan:
If you’re asking me if I’m going to try to “get the [SAME] van”, the answer is “NO”. It’s too far away to verify if it’s still actually there, and by the tone of their voice(s), it sounded like they didn’t want me to buy it anyway.
But I really don’t understand their behavior. I mean - yeah, it DID take me 3 or 4 weeks to show up initially - but that was because the place was so far away and I had other committments (or the weather was really bad one weekend). Then, of course, I didn’t buy on that visit because of all the shenanigans with the GM Dollars. When I mentioned to them that GM told me they certainly COULD HAVE verified my Dollars on that visit (using something call the “Internet” - you may have heard about it), the reply was (in a very rude tone): “Well, we’ve been screwed doing it that way before”.
So who knows what the real story was. Maybe the GM dollars could NOT be applied, they knew it, and so after my initial visit they finally made a concerted effort to sell it to someone else, otherwise swallow that loss when I returned.
I’d like to report this experience to GM, but I’m not sure it would be fair since I don’t know the whole story…
I actually ran across this situation once before myself. When I purchased my '97 Taurus in '98, a salesman told me he had a brand new '96 on his lot! It was purple, which is what made me quickly dismiss it, but in retrospect I probably should’ve at least checked it out. I paid $15k for my Taurus, but IIRC the '96 price was less than $10k!
They are supposed to be paid at full value, but who knows what the fine print says in any agreement between the manufacturer and dealer.
Like I said previously, when they tried to give me the $2000 up front and promise me the rest, they may have actually been giving me an instant $2000 discount that they were going to eat to close the deal (selling the van for $14k). Then there would’ve been an excuse afterwards as to why I couldn’t redeem the remaining Dollars. But then the Dollars would’ve remained intact going forward and I would’ve realized what they had done (but not have been able to do anything about it).
Please clarify…
YET ANOTHER LOST POST ON THIS BOARD. WHERE THE HECK DO ALL THESE POSTS GO? YOU CLICK SUBMIT and “POOF” - THE POST DISAPPEARS FOREVER. YOU CAN’T EVEN GO BACK AND RECOVER IT!
Anyway, I’ll say it again I guess (this time I’ll put it in the PAST BUFFER … but it never fails when I do that - only when I don’t):
I never concern myself with resale values when I buy a car. I always laugh when I hear people say that Japanese cars hold their resale values better than American cars. Well, that might be true, but you also pay more up-front for these cars. It’s not a one-way street! So the question (for most people) is: do you want to pay LESS up front for a lower resale value later, or MORE up front for a higher resale value later?
I choose to pay LESS up front for whatever the resale value is later. I don’t care about resale values.
OK … Now I’ll put this post in the paste buffer and click the “submit” button … Here goes …
Sure … it worked fine that time …
How do you people even operate a computer? When we were shopping for a new truck last fall (2008), we ran across a number of new 2007 model year Chevy trucks (i.e., built in the fall of 2006) still on dealer lots in southern Oregon. Odd, yes. But there was nothing hinky or especially rare about the situation CH describes. This is, after all, the same American car industry that’s now being managed by a Harvard Law School grad, no? They’ve made LOTS of mistakes. And if you’re worried about depreciation, just go to www.kbb.com, put in the model data and actual mileage, and see what the low trade-in value is as of today. Just don’t pay more than that … and you’re golden! Jeesh.
Yes, but 7 miles in 2.5 years? Why would it just sit on the lot?
philsidhu:
That’s NOT what I’ve described here. We’re in 2009 (in case you haven’t noticed) and it was a 2007 MODEL built in 2006. YES - that’s unusual. The analogous situation for your example (of last Fall) would’ve been running across a 2006 MODEL built in 2005 (NOT a 2007 built in 2006)!
To keep it straight in your head in the future, subtract THREE years from the current year and look for a BUILD DATE of that year. 2009 - 3 = 2006. A build date of 2006 means you’d be looking for a 2007 MODEL.
ANOTHER LOST POST. MAN, WHAT’S WRONG WITH THIS BOARD???
GSN_fan:
The dealer had told me (at least twice) before I visited that the van had only 7 miles on it. As it turned out, it had 600+ miles. So it didn’t just ‘sit on the lot’. It was being very casually driven to keep the fluids flowing and the tires from flattening.
Spoke with the Sales Manager today and was reassured that the van had, in fact, been sold to an older couple (with a trade-in). Good deal for the dealership. They probably got a lot more money in the overall transaction than they were going to get from me…
Aztec. Gotta be an Aztec. In one of those awful colors that would, maybe, have looked good on an Element, like Puke Green or Lichen Beige.
LOL! EXACTLY what I thought, up to this point! Right up there for the World’s Ugliest Car prize.
Colt Hero clearly has a LOT of time on his hands!
/Mr Lynn