I brought them my. 2 year old juke with 20k on it, they went over NADA and KBB with me on it and told me it was worth between $15.5k and $16.5k (perfect car, only a small door ding) and then they offered me $13k. They had a couple of them of the lot between $18k and $20k , I told them to go F themselves.

 

They are going to give you a low offer for your car and then sell it slightly above market value.

A few years ago I took my Nismo in to see what I could get from them. At the time I think market value was around $24k for it. They offered me $17k.

I don't think they take into account if it's a low volume edition. I left.

 

it's safe to say, if you want to unload a pos you can't sell on craiglist, take it to carmax.

if you actually have a decent car, sell it yourself and not throw away 30-40%

if you absolutely have to sell to them, take it to another dealer and trade in, you will still get hoesed, but hopefully not as bad.

 

its like any other business...they want to make a profit. if you can live with not getting the whole value of your car and dont want the hassle of selling it yourself then sell it to Carmax or any other dealership. no dealer will give you top dollar for it...they just wont make money that way. case in point, a guy i know has a Nismo 370, engine is built (low comp), supercharged, and some other work done. he considers selling it because its still not as fast as he wants it and hes already sunk a lot into it, so he goes to the local Nissan 'ship, and they offer him 26.5k (i think), which is actually pretty good IMO. but he wont take the offer because of the mods (which we all know youre not going to get anything out of, even if it is Stillen parts with warranty...). i think they were pretty generous, considering he popped a piston and had to rebuild the engine. they still want a profit though, so they probably would have listed it at 30k or more i think.

 

When I sold my 07 touring and was looking at an 07 Nismo, I briefly considered Carmax. I went there and they had a Nismo for sale so I got my Touring appraised for trade in.

Me trying to sell my car to them:
350Z Value: $14,500. Carmax offer: $11,500

Me trying to buy the Nismo from them
350Z Nismo Value: $24,000 Carmax price: $27,000


So here you see they rip you off a few grand on trade in and also rip you off a few grand on sale price. Nothing wrong with that, but just be aware of their business model.

 

Did you buy your NISMO for 27? I know they don't budge much, but I bought my 07 Touring + Navi @ CarMax for $25k back 3 years ago (only 10k miles) Overpaid, but was worth it having such low miles.

 

Carmax can oftentimes give really good appraisals on trade-ins. Mostly because if they pay you a lot for your car, chances are you'll buy a new car from them. Then they jack up the prices to KBB value or even higher, but people see it matches KBB price, but don't understand that that should be the starting point for negotiation with a dealership, not the ending point.

I used to sell cars for 5 years and used to send (or sometimes drive) customers to Carmax to get an appraisal, then compare the costs between trading it in with us (which gets a tax credit) or selling it to Carmax and then still...purchasing from us. Worked about 90% of the time.

I've sold 2 cars to Carmax, both for pretty high (above KBB) values. No nonsense. They just make sure there's no lien on the vehicle, you sign some paperwork, and then get a check.

 

That's because they are a "no hassle" dealer. There is no negotiating. The price is what it is.

 

I know this. Which is why I said they match KBB price, and it's the ending point. The point I was trying to make was KBB price is not what you should pay for a car, but everybody thinks that it means it's a good price.

 

Nope, ended up paying $23,000 for one from a forum member and it was in better condition than the one at carmax, and sold the Touring to another forum member for under $14,000, so everybody go a good deal out of it. Really narrowed down the price delta compared to what would have happened at carmax.

 

I sold it to Carmax today. There were no surprises. I would have wanted slightly more on the sale, but it was well worth taking less and walking away without a headache. The entire process took 10 minutes.