Vincent05

I saw your deal and contacted them this morning. They want me to come in and says they will beat the deal I was offered. I hope to get a deal like yours then that would kinda offset my trade in a bit. Fingers crossed.

sc400

Same experience here. I tried to trade-in my immaculate '13 Fsport with 12K miles and received 20% or about $6K less than the KBB trade-in value at two dealers here in the Bay area. There are two reasons: first is the dealer told me that buy the cars at whole-sale price and look at the wholesale market for the going rate for the car. It's ironic they sell you at retail price!
The second value I understand the dealer will try to stick it to you is tax. When you trade in the car you only have to pay the tax on the difference between the trade-in value and the new car's value. For instance, new car value is $50K, trade-in $30K so the tax you pay is on the $20K. The dealer knows this so they decrease this amount from your trade-in value as a courtesy to you I guess.

coolsaber

My advice to those in Vincent05's position.

1) Make spreadsheet. Figure out what your vehicle is worth on the open market. How do you do this?
a) Find what your exact car is selling for on the open market. Preferably at Lexus dealerships only. Take that number and multiply that by .9 to get what the dealer would pay you for your model
b) Take Edmunds value (usually the lowest) and place that on your sheet
c) Get two to three written offers for a simple sale, no trade in etc. CarMax comes to mind as the easiest place
d) This one is the hardest but probably the best indicator at any given time. Dealer Auction Pricing. This is what dealers are paying for similar models.

2) Once your sheet is populated your car lies between all those 4 numbers. Go to dealer and see if you can get such

3) If the dealer is playing hardball, then your options lie with another dealer. Always though figure out your own states individual tax laws. From there figure out your tax burden if you sell the car indepently of your new car transaction vs together. See if its worth it.


Disclaimer: Experience/opinion not actual guaranteed advice

Vincent05

Have a few appointments tomorrow to get my car appraised for a cash sale. One is a Toyota dealer and the other is at Car Sense. Both are thru KBB cash sale.

DBXL

It is my understanding in California, that the trade-in has no effect whatsoever on the amount of sales tax that you pay. So in the example above, you would actually pay sales tax on the $50K amount as opposed to paying sales tax just on the $20k ($50k - $30K trade-in).

JmanJour

Placed a factory order F Sport nearly fully loaded with a local dealer. Paid invoice price with some negotiation.

cec327

Same in MD. $25k x .06% tax rate worth about $1500. Back in the day , most deals were something like this: You get $32K trade and nothing off the sticker or we'll give you $6000 off the sticker and low ball the trade. Doesn't seem to work that way anymore . You make the deal and then the give you wholesale for the car or sell it yourself. Bottom line--cars are and always have been a stone loss. You want a new car, you pay the price of at least that's the way that I look at it.

cec327

Hope that you talk to Sam Kim. Also, you will get a good deal. --I thought that 10% off the sticker was pretty good. Hope you can do better than I. Let us know how you did .

gmanusmc

You are correct - not sure if SC400 was including CA in his post - CA residents pay sales tax on the full sale price on a retail purchase. On a lease, tax is computed on the amount of the monthly base payment.

bwsteg

It all depends on the dealer offering the trade-in offer. Some dealers move cars quicker, etc.

I traded in my 2015 rx350 f sport white/red about a month ago. Only had 1200 miles. I paid $500 over invoice for the RX so about $51,xxx not including taxes, etc. I was able to trade it for $43k. Although I did lose some money, I feel as if it was a good/fair trade.

Vincent05

Done deal at Silver Spring Lexus. Took a hit on my trade in for $24,500. They discounted the RX350 f sport with a MSRP of $60,739 to $55,000 (9.5%), no tax and tag yet. Think I got a good deal, the best deal I was offered before going there was $25,000 for my ES and a discount of $3600 off of a same RX MSRP. Thanks Cec327 for posting your info. Just have to wait for them to bring it in now.

I did not want to go in because of how every dealer promises a great deal and then just offer to beat the price by $500. She kept insisting I come in and would be very happy. They don't talk deals over the phone so I hesitantly went in thinking this was gonna be another of the same saga. Was kinda stunned when she brought out the deal from the manager. Was offered a discount of $5100, I offered to put a deposit down right there if they can do $55000 flat before tax and tag. She took my credit card and offer to the manager and deal was done.

My sales rep was a woman, her name is Alina Dehaney. She is so nice and sweet, even bought us lunch while waiting for the finance department. Top notch dealership in my eyes, wish they were closer to me.

cp73

We got our new RX 350 last night. I love that car. But my wife gets it. Silver/Black interior, with Blind spot, touch free rear door, heated and ventilated seats, 12.3 Navigation, Intuitive parking assist, premium pkg, moonroof, espresso walnut interior, heated walnut steering wheel, cargo cross bars, mats. Sticker was $50,583. Got it for $45,000 plus I had a Lexus certificate from the LA Car show last November for another $1000 off. So final price was $44,000 plus tax and license. I feel this was a great price and I used this board to help me get it. Thanks to everyone who contributes. Live in So OC in California.

skarface

What was your otd price? Thanks!

cp73

Out the door it was $49,118.15. That included $3606.80 sales tax plus $511.35 license and doc fees. I found all the dealers in this area were within a few dollars of each other on the doc fees. That included a $80 doc fee which I know is garbage. You can see the sales tax at 8% was based upon $45080.00. Good question.

ChitownK

Awesome deal w/o certificate which was ~11% of msrp and the certificate made it a smoking deal. I could have used one of those on my purchase at the end of March.