Hey everyone,

I'm still on the fence of whether or not to sell my car and move into another one. My manual transmission is not cutting it for me . I've enjoyed everything about the car except the transmission for the last six months.

What are everyone's experiences with CarMax? Do they offer good prices? Kbb.com has a 2007 (they haven't published 2008) at about $28k for a Private Seller at the Good level ($30k at excellent). The car is basically stock and has 6000 miles on it and is in flawless condition (except one micro rock chip, doh). Local dealers are offering me $27k on a trade in so possibly I can get a little more selling privately?

 

Dealers will take it at $27k? And KBB Private Seller is $28k?

I say, save yourself the time and trouble (and risk) of a private sale, and just go with a dealer. Carmax will pay the same amount as most dealers...

 

Actually, sorry, the Kbb estimate is for a 2007 model. Mine is a 2008 (Kbb has not published 2008 values) so I'm not sure how much more it would be worth.

 

Having a dealer give you a $$ value for your trade in is only half the story; how much is he going to cut off the new vehicle? If he overcharges you on the new vehicle he can afford to offer you more on the trade. You have to know the bottom line to know if you are getting a good deal or not.

 

Sorry about your situation. What is it about the manual that you don't like? Just curious.

 

Ideally you negotiate the new car price, and only after you get the deal you want do you discuss trade. Since you have done the reverse, just demand invoice price including tax and tags out the door on the new IS.

 

The transmission just feels very clumsy.

-The throws are long.
-The revs seem to hang.
-Clutch travel is too long
-Clutch too "grabby"
-Second gear grinding noise
-Clutch chatter when engaging and when in neutral.
-Clutch is noisy on disengagement.

Overall, it just doesn't drive too smooth to my liking. I can never seem to shift fast in this car like I can on a BMW 3 series (E90 model).

 

most dealers are using n.a.d.a when trading in your car

http://www.nadaguides.com/home.aspx?...=58778&nozip=1

 

F-sport shifter kit?

Can't hurt to take it to carmax - at least they're hassle free and won't try to screw you on the car you are buying. The dealership is another story. Negotiate new car price first, THEN talk about the trade-in value.

 

how much you guys think a 17k 06 is250 smg auto tran. would sell at? everything perfect condition on the car

 

I used to work at Carmax for about 2 years. They WILL NOT screw you, trust me. They have assigned trained employees called buyers that will come out and appraise your car. The buyers have no clue if you're going to buy a car or not. Even if they knew, every price is no hassle, so there is no negotiating. It's a free appraisal, and its also a cash offer. So get the appraisal from carmax, and go see if the dealer can beat it. If they try to tell you to sell it to carmax, get the cash, and come back, just say no.

But first things first, negotiate the price of the new vehicle you're looking to purchase as if you are paying with cash, and you arent trading in anything. You can get them down to a good price THEN be like, "Well, I think I'm going to trade it in."

 

I sold mine to Carmax, and I highly recommend you give them a try. It's free, there's no obligation, and the offer is good for seven days.

Besides, I found (from personal experience) that it's pretty hard to sell a vehicle like this. I guess Lexus only imports 1000 of them a year for a reason: there's little demand.

By the way......

That's EXACTLY how I felt about my IS250 6MT. I thought the car was PERFECT, aside from the transmission performance.

 

Carmax offered 2k more than the dealer did on my 4runner. I've gotten 2 cars appraised there and they've given me pretty good offers.

 

I just sold my 250 AWD for $27K at Carmax. I felt it was a fair price and wanted to get out of the loan. The car sold two days later to a lucky buyer.

 

How close to the KBB trade-in numbers did they come? Thanks.