[A4] Prospective A4 Buyer

[Nathan Widmyer]

It was only something that came up in the course of conversation and not
something I was serious about.  I kind of only mentioned it as an example of
how less-than-stellar I felt that I was being treated.

I've always said I'd like to work on it for an extended period of time,
which I can't do at the capacity I'm interested while it's my work car.
Also, my father expressed an interest in buying it from me as well so I'll
likely not let this car go too far away from me.  Since you mentioned the
classified ad, I bought this 90 back in early 2001 through a tiny classified
ad too so I know classified ads work.  I probably won't sell it either
because the money recouped from selling it will hardly help me when
purchasing my next car anyway, so I might as well have an additional car in
the end.

On 7/7/06, Dan DiBiase <d_dibiase at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> *Nathan Widmyer <lighthousej at gmail.com>* wrote:
>
> That carsdirect.com site looks very helpful, thanks.  When I clicked on
> the link, the sunroof and sport suspension options weren't selected as they
> are in the car the dealership wanted me to get into.  When I selected those
> options, the price only went up to $31,365 which is still under their
> quote.  When I do buy a car, used or new, I want to walk up to the table
> with lower numbers than they have so they realize I'm not some dumb jerk.
>
> I asked them to appraise my 1994 90 at the sitdown we had.  Prior to the
> appointment, I went to kbb.com and did my personal trade-in value of my
> car and kbb.com put it at $3k.  The guy wrote down $1800 for the trade-in
> value and knew I was getting the shaft.  I confronted him about what
> research I did and got $3k and noted that $3k wasn't excellent, but rather
> average/good.  He started naming minor things purely as a result of wear and
> tear that establishes the $3k figure but he was counting the wear and tear
> beginning at that $3k.  The defects he named were paint chips on the front
> bumper from driving on the interstate, my rear headrests are cracked along
> the seam, and poor tires.  The dealership is rather small, their lot is a
> little bit larger than a Taco Bell and figured they wanted to charge me
> extra (beyond the gouging stores [like bookstores]) for the honor of trading
> and them having to manage it.
>
> I felt quite unsure about doing business with them but I'll continue to
> talk to them as long as they might be willing to compete for my business and
> save me money.
>
> Nathan, don't even waste time trying to trade it in. If you sell it
> privately you'll get your $3,000 for it. All a dealer is going to do is
> wholesale it out for like $1500, he's not going to turn around and put it on
> his lot. You'll only get something approaching KBB if it's a late-model car
> he can sell retail. It's a little more of a hassle selling it privately, but
> in my mind, it's worth the extra $1200. You can advertise free on
> craigslist.com and other places (like Audifans marketplace) - I actually
> sold my '95 Jetta through a classified ad in the paper!
>
>
> Dan D
> '04 A4 1.8Tq MT-6
> Central NJ USA
>