Well, unless the fusion is paid off already, you are going to take a hit trading it in such a short time frame. You would be better off trying to sell it yourself. You will get the maximum out of its value. As for the 07 ... the price should be considerable less than the 08 due to the fact they really should want to get it off the lot. I suggest doing some arm twisting. If they don't give then find a new dealer ... and make sure you show them your new Patriot from the better dealer.

The reason he is working you over is the fact that you are trying to trade in a Ford Fusion with low miles and he sees a man and woman who trades up early and often (whether that is true or not). This means he has the upper hand in the deal because you are pre-disposed to trade, therefore he will hold his ground and wait for you to flinch. I suggest waiting until he says "so do you really like the Patriot?" Say "yes, but you aren't willing to deal so I'm out of here." If they have the keys to your car and are reluctant to give them back ... just start dialing the sheriffs office. That's what I'm going to do the next time a jack*&& salesman doesn't want to give my keys back after they have done the trade-in inspection. I sick and tired of that old salesman ploy ... its just irritates me.

 

I would have thought I would get a better dealon an 07 as well.. But it is not the case.. Its funny too they have an 06 Milan on the lot they want 16500 for ith 26000 on it..I dont mind taking a hit but not to the tune of 10k in value

 

Use edmunds and kbb to get estimated trade in values. $12k sounds low, but not that low. Then find another dealer.

 

it sounds pretty close to me, I mean maybe 1k low or so, but it's a dealer, what do you expect... I don't get the gripe...

 

You dont get the gripe? You cant be serious

 

$12,000 doesn't sound all that low



KBB says you could expect to get about $14k from a dealer for a fairly loaded fusion with your stats or about $11k for a base version.

I'd sell it on your own. Cars like the Fusion, that get pretty good gas mileage, should move pretty quick.

 

My dealer gave my wife 5 grand for her 2000 Focus with 90k on it, in trade for a well equipt 07 Compass E-package . Your car should be worth more than what he is offering. However, I got 12 thousand for my 06 HHR with 20,000 on it when I traded it for an 08 Patriot.

What is probably happening is that they think there may be a Patriot shortage in the near future when they shut down for the 09 model change over. So the dealer wants to get top dollar out of that car when there are fewer available.

 

Thanks for the reply.. You may be right..Its too bad really.. The Pat seemed like a nice vehicle BUT not THAT nice

 

I took a pretty good hit on a 2 year old Accord when I traded it for the Patriot. It wasn't a complete screwing, but it wasn't what I knew the car to be worth retail (and I expected that).

When they came back with the first numbers, I picked the keys off the desk and said "well, I'm sorry; we seem to have wasted your time." He went back and brought out some more respectable numbers.

 

I do want to point out that the amount they give you is dependent on the car your buying. If your buying a 18k patriot vs. a 30k grand cherokee, there is a big difference in wiggle room for them. They can't give you 14k for a used focus and then sell you a new patriot for 14,500 - they are limiting themselves making any money.

Now if your buying a 30k cherokee, they may be able to give you 14k, because they have higher margins on the more expensive vehicles.

I was in the motorcycle dealer yesterday, and I was waiting for a dealer to help, because he was with another guy. That guy put 250 miles on a bike and said his wife hated it, so they wanted a different one. The dealer was not even going to give him HALF of the guy paid less than a week earlier as a trade in towards a new bike purchase!

KBB trade in value is 12.5-13.2k and he offered you 12k? That really doesnt sound that far off. Ok, so "kbb is bullsh*T", maybe your right, but it's what a lot of dealers use!

So they give you 12k, sell the car for a fair profit, say 15k? Do you really expect someone to pay more than 15k for your car? If yes, by all means sell it on your own, but that sounds about right to me.

Now I'm not saying you should be "excited" for that price- It's certainly not HIGH, but It doesnt sound "unfairly low". clearly I don't know what options it has. I'm guessing it's not fully loaded with AWD because of the price you paid. But say your car had an MSRP of 22500, and you got 1500 off. Today they are giving 2500 cash back, so this same car (2008) is only listed at 20000, and then we'll use the same assumption I used for yours, 1500 off, now it's only 18500 for the car new... Well if the car is 18500 new, what would someone pay for it used? maybe 13,500-14,500? subtract a dealer profit of 2-3 thousand, and you've now got 10,500-12,500? 12k doesnt sound so unfair to me.

Clearly I'm using a BUNCH of assumptions but I've got to, given what you said! I mean it sucks, I wish I could sell my used cars for more than that, but it's a common understanding that "the value of the car drops in h alf when you drive off the lot"- now it's not exactly HALF, but it does drop a ton!

Good luck.

~B

 

Well according to KBB
A 07 Patriot with 300 miles is worth 11650 If this dealer thinks thats fair I have a bridge in Brooklyn I can sell him

 

Why do you want to get rid of the Fusion after only 1300 miles in a year? Keep it/drive it or prepare to get hoses as almost every domestic buyer does if they trade/sell within 3 years.

 

My wife would like to get back into a 4x4 But as it stands she will have to keep her front wheel dr

 

For 1300 miles a year is 4WD worth it?

 

SHe was using my 4x4 to go everywhere and I used my beater for work so hence its time to get a 4x4 If momma aint happy no one is happy But I sure as hell am not putting the dealers next generation thru college on 1 vehicle lol

 

If you have 3 vehicels, try selling the Fusion on your own. The 4-cyls should be pretty good with today's gas prices. Then, all you have to negotiage is the new vehicle price, not the trade value too. Are there any other dealers close by? I take it for granted there are 39 dealers within 50 miles of my house.

 

no 1 dealer in my area next dealer 30 miles away

 

I think Ill let the Patriot rot on their lot for awhile longer They are NOT selling like gangbusters hence he has 3 07s left plus 08s

 

First I would highly suggest using email to contact all dealers

second I would not discuss trade in or anything else until I got my price i am happy to buy it for.

The patriot lowball brice is about 400 below the 'base price' and may even be lower. Couple that with the 2500 in incentives and you can really knock them down if you take a month to do it via emails and short visits.

Your trade-in has nothing to do with the car you are buying. You are trying to sell the beast. And selling to the dealer is selling to someone who will pay you less than anyone else.

I would suggest craigs list or the local papers and see what happens. Definitely take your time on this one, lots of many involved.

The dealer sells and manipulates buyers all day. You buy a car what, every 3 to 10 years? You are no match for their abilities.... go slow.

Sell you vehicle yourself. Get a loan from somewhere first.... then haggle online with all dealers. Then visit and argue with them more.

Walk away if they upset you.

Be safe.

 

good advice thanks

 

You have to get the trade in value from kelly blue book and stick to your guns. I hate buying a new vehicle. With gas prices so high I had to get rid of my 05 dodge dakota V8. I expected to get at least 14,000 for it. They at first wanted to give me 9,000. I said I want at least 14,000 or forget it. I did still owe like $9,000 on it and they agreed to pay it off and they gave me a 1,000 rebate on top of the 500 rebate offered at the time. I ended up settling for 12,500 on my trade. You just have to be prepaired to play the game.

 

indeed metal ..when the 09s arrive these morons may be singing a different tune

 

Unfortunatly, the car market is also soft right no which doesn't help. After trying to trade my grand Prix prix I was getting so lowballed i sold itself and got over 2000 more than what they wanted to give me, yes it took time, but it was worth it. it helped I happen onto a CHEAP Caddy Fleetwood in good shape for 100 bucks to drive for a while, then sold it for 1200

 

Y'all crack me up. You use all these bullsh!t ways to buy cars. Try something different. Treat the sales guy with respect and be cool with him. If he is a jerk then leave. Find the sales guy you get along with and tell him what you are trying to do. I would rather deal with someone who is honest with me and I will be honest with him. A small quick commission is better than along drawn out car deal any day of the week. But always start with e-mailing dealers.

 

You'll never get what you could get on your own at a dealer. The purpose of being in business is to make money. They have to buy your car at a wholesale, so they can re-sell it and make a profit. As businessmen, they are going to try to maximize that profit however they can get away with it. It's to be expected. I fought it for forever, but it just ain't worth it. When I bought my new Patriot last weekend, I took a completely different approach, and it saved a lot of trouble and headache for both me, and the salesman.

I just told the guy look, here's my trade, here's what I can pay a month, and here's how long I'm willing to pay it. I don't care how you work it out, but work it out, and I'll buy the car from you right now. And he did. Easy as that. I came out about $2300 negative on my trade, but who cares. With the rebates and other discounts, and him working to get me the right interest rate, I got the car I wanted, for the payment I wanted, for the term I wanted.

Two factors that helped me out are a) I wasn't asking for the moon, I was looking for a good deal, but I was actually pretty reasonable. b) I plan to drive the Pat for at least ten years. If I was planning to trade it in 2-3 it wouldn't turn out to be as good a deal, but like I said, the plan is to keep it.

The last car I bought was my XJ. I went in with an attitude about what kind of deal I was going to get, and in retrospect I wasn't all that nice about it. I got to the dealership at 1pm, fought with them all day long, lost valuable time out of my life I'll never get back, and stressed myself half to death. Finally left with my XJ at 1:30 am. Twelve and a half hours to buy a car, none of it enjoyable. By contrast, the "here's what I've got, here's what I want, work it out and I'll buy right now, don't and I won't" approach, coupled with a friendly attitude, had me spend less than two hours total at the dealer, and got me exactly what I wanted. Focusing and the payment and term I wanted, got me a great deal with low stress, and minimal time out of my life invested. If I had been hung up on trade-in, I would be hating life right now. With the rebates, and other discounts, the neg. trade was really non-factor at the end of the day.

I'm not saying you're wrong, or that this will work for you, just that it worked great for me.

 

You'll never get what you could get on your own at a dealer. The purpose of being in business is to make money. They have to buy your car at a wholesale, so they can re-sell it and make a profit.

Actually they buy/trade below wholesale. I sold my '99 Dakota to get the Patriot. My aunt is a used car dealer and she told me that my pickup was $4000 black book (the wholesale auction price dealers use). I took it to Carmax just for fun. After they "inspected" it, they came back with an offer of $3000. They came back with this number because if they took it off my hands for $3000 they could wholesale it and make $1000 or if they could sell it to a customer they could probably make $2000 or more.
I ended up selling it to a guy for $4500. It was below the suggested private sale price (from kbb.com) of $4900 but both of us were happy. He got a "low" price, and I know that I got $500 dollars more than if my aunt had auctioned it wholesale ($1500 more than what Carmax or other dealers would have given).

Everyone wants a good deal, the challenge is getting all parties involved to not be too greedy (dealer asking too much and buyer expecting much lower).

 

I wish I would have gone that route when I bought my wife's car. I got jack for my trade AND only a few thousand off the car.

However, when I bought my second car, I e-mailed the dealer and said, "hey, I bought a car from you 6 months ago. I'm interested in a new car, but don't need one. I see you have some 07s you need to get rid of, and if your willing to give me a good price I'll take one". I never even went into the dealer. I just discussed via e-mail, fax, and phone calls.

I ended up getting the car with everything I wanted but uconnect- Including the trailer hitch, mud flaps, a nice looking pinstripe. In fact it was fully loaded plus those "add ons". I got it for the base limited price. (21k for a 27k car, 6000 off MSRP with sunroof, +++ all options but uconnect and navi). Never once did I lie, argue, or anything else- I just said hey look heres what I got, heres what I want to do, lets work together to see what we can do.

Of course initially they said "how about 25k, it's the best we can do" and I said, "ok thanks for the help- call me if anything changes" and a day later they called and sealed the deal.

I think your right. the lying, arguing, route works for some people, but I'm juist not interested, and I think a lot of people aren't. Why fight someone when you can work with them?

I kind of wish jeep would switch to a saturn pricing strategy, and a toyota production strategy. Then we wouldnt have all these 07s laying around, and we wouldnt have to argue over price, AND resale would be a little more solid.

~B