Took a look at an SC300 at a local dealer today... clean car but the miles were a little high for the age, price was right and even though it was an AT car I decided to take a look and see what kind of deal I could make on it.

Decided I was going to trade in my Eclipse (Spyder turbo) and my Chebby van custom love machine/tow vehicle, knew I would have to up a little cash to do the deal and did some price shopping on the autotrader to see what the dealers were getting for what I had (as well as what they had). Got a figure in my mind of $12K for my vehicles and went to do a little dealing

Drove the car, it was a nice driver... clean interior, probably some old ladies car that hadn't been reamed on so I was ready to do some dealing. They took a look at the 2 trades and decided that between the 2 of them I had a total of about $6000 to offer against their $16K car.

Needless to say I was not impressed. I told the salesvermin he was out of his mind and told him to go get my keys. when he started to hesitate I walked past him into the managers office to get my keys and told the head sales vermin he was obviously high on crack. When he tried to defend his lowball price I challenged him to pull out his NADA book and we would take a look. Needless to say he balked so I just quietly picked up my keys off the desk and walked out

I hates sales weasels... Everybody gotta work and everybody gotta make a living but come on

Ok, end of rant

Rob_O

 

What year was it?

 

hey I was in same situation with my purchase. I pick up a 93 SC300 from the local lex dealer. I didn't even bother trading in my car. Remember the used car market really is in sh*ter with the all 0% financing going on. You be better off selling it yourself. Dealer will never lose $ on any used trade. They are giving you the price of below wholesale of your trade so they can make profit when they turn over to whole sale next auction. This will depend on your model and the year. What I've heard is that dealer will use the black book price of your vehicle plus the dealer profit when calculating the trade in value. So if your vehicle sold for $6000 in last weeks at wholesale auction, more likely dealer will give you something like $5000 for your trade in. I was outraged at my last trade offer for my 94 max at the local nissan dealer. So I cancelled sale of 2001 anv. max. Carmax apprasied the same car at 4k, what does dealer offered the trade at? 3k. exact same car. Difference is that Carmax is the wholesaler while dealer is a broker selling it to the wholesale. Of course if the car is in certifiable condition they will sell it them selves and you probably get higher trade in.

 

The SC? It was a 97 with 87K miles

The price was great for the car but I'm not gonna take it in the crapper to make the deal. I have a CD about to rollover, maybe I'll pull about 12K of it and take cash with me... drop a medium stack of large bills on the desk and see what happens. I know how the smell of money always gets the weasels all bent out of shape. Skip right by the sales vermin and walk into the managers office just to be a ***** about it

If I'm gonna sell the convertible myself I'll wait until springtime, always easier to sell a convertible on a nice sunny spring day when they can drive it around with the top down

Rob_O

 

I know what you are going through, I went to take my 1995 ES300 a couple of months ago to the lex dealer and other dealerships and they wanted to give me 7K for it, I was like what the heck, and walked right out the door and i am still driving it and my other ES300. I will sell it myself in a another year or so, I paid cash for both of them and will use them for a while. Good luck with your car purchase and hope you get a nice deal. I would not go back to that same place you went to, it makes me sick just hearing about those scumbags

 

Seems like you have to be ready for war when you walk into the showroom these days. A couple years ago when I bought my car the haggling took all of 5 minutes, I had a price in mind and they offered it... plus I took it out on their hide when some things went wrong and they paid for most of it (no warranty). I love to screw with car salesmen.. I haven't met one yet that knows more about a car than I do. Many don't even try to sell me a car, they are usually too intimidated to try the usual crap. I'm still looking for a dealer dumb enough to let me drive a 'Vette. One of my favorite things to do is to park my Lexus and watch the salesdorks swarm like bees. I've gotten to test drive 3 Mustangs, an M3, a Firebird WS6, a WRX and an Audi or two just on the merit of my car alone. Use it to your advantage and start writing for Motor Trend!

 

In retrospect I should have kept my wits, spent about 2 hours haggling with them and when they thought I was about to sign told them they were out of their minds and walked away

Guess I was just a bit too high strung yesterday... but then again looking at some of the most recent posts on this board the same can be said for a lot of us.

Rob_O

 

Rob-O:
Remember, time is the weapon of the BUYER. Stay away from too much coffee before car shopping. Eat up alot of Saturday time (very valuable) with the car salesman. Make your deal and final offer at the end of the month. Every day the car sits on the lot costs the used car dealer money.

 

Hahahha. Actually, don't go yourself, come in with someone to do the talking. Make sure one of the people has a facial expression like he/she is going to eat someone. Walk out few times, etc etc. I walked out about 5 times with my father out of the dealership. Finally, in presence of the manager I made a deal with my father and sales person that I will buy the warranty from them. Guess what, I got it and canceled it in 2 days after getting the car. Hahahah.

 

so you bought that SC300 from that dealership, what year is it? It is pretty nice if i must say so

 

No, I'm thinking I'm just gonna hold off, start accumulating parts and wait for the right car to come along. The price is definitely right for the car but the fact it's an OBD2 car with an AT makes me less keen on it than if it was a <'96 5-speed car. I'll list the convertible and the van for sale myself, if they sell and that car is still sitting there then maybe I'll deal with them.

Rob_O

 

My car is a '97, yes OBDII and it's also automatic. I was planning on buying such a car. Sure 5 speed would be okay, but my auto is not bad. You guys whine too much about OBDII. It's a minor detail. When you're going turbo it won't make much of a problem. Second, automatic tranny doesn't mean the car is slow. Like I mentioned before, build automatic is faster in 1/4 mile than a 5 or 6 speed. Infact it's also more reliabile and less problems with mis-shifting, etc etc. I bought my car because I want to go turbo sometime when the time is right. Auto is also better because it does have the traction control (think of winter) and it makes driving a lot easier with a free hand.

 

Can i ask you guys a frank question? Why do you guys go out and spend all that money for those pretty cars and just race and rag them out? I would never dare race my car or ever push it hard off a start, I baby my car all the time and cant imagine hurting it like that, not to mention the repair costs associated with this type of driving. Just my opinion on this. Can you guys give me some insight.

Thank You,

Erfan

 

Why? Why not? It's not like everyone does it all the time. Then everyone spends however much money they want to spend on the car. I push my car quite frequently and so far I haven't broken anything. The only money I've spend on repairs would be just normal maintnance. Just because you race it now and then doesn't mean you hurt the car. Infact, it may be a good thing. I imagine you don't have too much knowledge about cars. The honest answer is because I can and I have nothing better to do. Hahaha.

Ps. Sorry to be an *** and start assuming. Lately I have been somewhat agressive. Maybe I have madcow disease. Hahah.

 

Well that is your opinion, just wondering thats all. You might want to have that checked out, looks like it has spread and gotten really bad