MonkPDX

Thanks for the advice, RPF.

My first purchase from this dealer was a new J30T (Oct.1993). Great car BTW. I drove it for 10 yrs and 90K. It was RWD, unlike the I35 that replaced it. Planned on getting a IP G35 sedan until the LR coupe in the showroom knocked me off my feet.

I CC'd the GM of the dealership with my e-mail to the salesman, expressing my feelings about the insulting trade-in, and told him I want to deal directly with him, if I proceed.

I have a possible buyer for my G35, but I don't know if he can act quick enough to salvage the 3.9% & $1,000 rebate. The buyer is the same person that sold me the 19" ADR's and T1 R's and he understands and appreciates the minor mods. (AEM/Borla/grills).

I forgot to mention that I am a "dreaded SMOKER", Gasp!! However the dealership has "Perimeter" Ozone machine and for $120 they run it all night to remove the smell.

Regarding sales tax, I don't think I would pay a sales tax in WA or CA.
Do CA cars have different emission requirements, or are the G37's the same
for all 50 states?

samizer

I got $14,900 trade-in on an 03 G35c with 83,000 miles and a big dent in the rear bumber that had not been fixed from a fender bender two weeks prior. You should be able to get more for your trade. Mine had a few nicks in the paint and of course the rear bumper had a dent, but was otherwise in pretty good shape. I would either sell to a private party or find another dealer.

DiamondGCoupe

iTrader: (4)

Yeh fortunately when that happens they don't take anything but the book into consideration. There's no, well we have to make $5k so lets sell it for $6k less than KBB. Lucky you totalled yours, got rid of it in a split second and got top dollar!

camp3r

iTrader: (2)

My dealer offered me 16,500 for my '04 G35,I sold it to a friend for 21,000 and the tires were bald!!

Littlejoe

Nothing like sticking it to your buddy. Good Job!!!!

Callaway

The problem is, the dealerships could give two craps about KBB values. Their stance is KBB is not buying the car and the hassle of having to either send it to auction or recondition for selling. I used to work at a car dealership and it would always make me chuckle when customer's threw in the KBB argument.

SteveG37

This is a great point. Most dealers will offer you thousands less than KBB value, I really looked into all this before trading in my 06 Scion tc for my G37. They originally offered my 10k for my tc, book value was around 14k and I had a supercharger on it as well. I felt insulted and basically laughed at them.

At any rate after 8 hours of haggling I stayed firm on telling them I wanted 15k for the tc, but I knew I wouldn't get that much, my goal was to get the $40k MSRP G37 for close to $25k after trade. I kept telling them I didn't care anymore what they gave me for the tc and that I only wanted to pay $25k for the new G37. They eventually came back to me with a price of $25931.18 (how they came up with that I have no freaking idea), but I gave in at this price and on my bill of sale it shows me getting $14500 for the trade and they put a $500 infiniti rebate in also to get my total price just under $26k. In reality I probably only got about 12500 or so for the trade and they probably took a few grand off the MSRP of the G37. I think you're better off coming up with an amount that you want to pay for a G37 after your trade and work towards that price rather than worrying so much about what you're getting for the trade in.

The one plus for sure about trading in, is the sales tax you pay on the G37 is calculated after the trade amount is subtracted, so in my case I saved another $900 instead of selling privately and buying the G37 at full MSRP.

MonkPDX

Thanks for the reply SteveG37,

I agree with your logic and will go this route if my Pvt Party buyer doesn't step up soon. No sales tax in OR, so I am ok there.

RPF

Well, then one could go to the library and copy the relevant page out of the NADA Black Book and use that.

A car dealer can't just pull a value out of their a**. If they do, and you as a consumer accept it, you are being shafted. NADA and KBB are published as guidelines to set fair prices for these vehicles for the consumer, new car dealer, used car dealer, auctioneers and buyers at the auctions. If the fair trade in price of MonkPDX's CV35 was $14K I'd expect to see prices in these guides close to this, not $5500 higher!

No matter what the slimy sales guy says at the negotiating table, you should get a fair deal on your trade. Car dealers make FAR more selling used cars than new ones.

As an example, if MonkPDX pays $500 over invoice for a G37, which is a commonly available deal today, the selling dealer will make approximately $2183 on the sale (the actual amount depends on how long the dealer had to floorplan the car). This is 5.93% profit, almost a percent higher than you are recommended to give a dealer, FWIW. This calc based on one with MSRP=$42315 (only used to calc holdback) and Invoice=$37884. Holdback for Infiniti products is 1% of base MSRP and floorplan assistance is 2% of base invoice.

I went to KBB to get a ballpark price on MonkPDX's CV35. I found values of $19250 trade, $21960 Private Party and $26145 retail (in good condition). His dealer will have to put some money into reconditioning it and will probably slap a price of $26500 on the window. He won't get that, but lets say he is able to sell it for $23K. Lets also say he has to put in $1000 for wax/polish, ozone treatment for the smoke and the paperwork. If he paid MonkPDX $14K, he makes $8000! This is a 53% profit over the $15K he put into it! If he paid what is fair, say $19K he will still make $3000 on the sale of the used car, a 15% profit. Not only did he make more selling the used car in absolute dollar terms vs the new car, but that is 77% more profit at the fair trade in price and 266% more profit at the screw-the-consumer price than he did on the new car!

This dealer might whine about sending the car to an auction, but come on. MonkPDX's car is a cherry coupe with low miles. This car will be reconditioned by the dealer and placed at the front of his used car line. When a customer whines about not being able to afford the "$46000" G37 he is going to point to "this similar 3.5 liter coupe with only 30000 miles for only $26500!" knowing that he'll make a lot more selling that car!

MonkPDX, my G37 is the first car that I have purchased outside of CA, so I'm pretty used to the "CA Emissions" upcharge. This vehicle is 50-state certified, with the VECI decal under the hood states that the car meets CARB LEV2-ULEV 2008 regs along with US EPA Tier 2 Bin 5 pax car regs, so you will get the same emissions system in CA as you would on one sold in OR or WA on this model.

The1andOnly

iTrader: (2)

Actually, the fact that his coupe is red is a negative. Dealer's actually pay higher for more common colors that people look for, such as white, black , silver, and grey. The few dealers I went to didn't even carry that many red G37. The color is a negative because many people don't look for that color and everyone knows for a fact that it's the color that attracts the most tickets.

Another reason why it was priced so low is because it's an '03. That alone almost offset's what everyone would think is a major positive of having low milage. We have to remember that even though the G35 coupe is a really nice car that we all love, but reality is that they're a dime a dozen now. Another factor in the low price, is because of the fact that Infiniti was leasing out 06 & 07 coupes for the 24 month special and some I know were leased even for 12 months. They did that as a stradegy for the release of the G37. Many of those coupes that are coming back as a lease return will go back on there used car lot, and most with low milage. Those 06 & 07 models will be the ones that will most likely sell. Honsetly, what would you rather buy: an 03 Laser red coupe with low miles, or an 07 Ivory Pearl with low miles?

And like I said in my earlier post, the price really depends on the dealer you got to. The price they give you depends on how they're used car sales are and what used cars they have on lot.

RPF

The1andOnly brings up an interesting point, KBB doesn't take into account color with it's values. I don't remember if the NADA guides do but Edmunds does, so I ran a value there with condition=clean (except for dealer retail which I did condition=excellent) and ZIP=97005. Their prices are lower than KBB but still nowhere near as crappy as MonkPDX's dealer offer.

(Red) Trade=$17960 Retail=$22282

The color adjustment is interesting (trade,retail)

Silver: $73, $86
Gold: $58, $68
Red: $54, $64
Grey: $54, $64
White: $39, $46
Lt Blue: -$48, -$57
Black: -$50, -$58
Dk Blue: -$70, -$82

So they say that red is more desirable than blue, black, white or dark grey but less desirable than tan/gold or silver. I certainly don't agree on this opinion but they know what the public wants and what it will pay extra for!

Does someone here have access to the NADA guide? I think seeing what is in that book would be very interesting!

I gues the desirability of the lease-return '07 model will depend on how they price it. If they slap a $32K price on it, I see no reason to jump on that if you can negotiate a $38.5K price on a new G37. But a loaded '07 6MT Black/Black for $24K would certainly be tempting! Furthermore, the difference between a $32K used car and a $22K used car is huge for many buyers, so I'd imagine a dealer would want both on the lot.

Littlejoe

I don't know about everyone here but I have never paid KBB or NADA for a used car. I always offer them a couple of thow less. If they take it great... if they dont I move on. Maybe thats why they offer so much off those trade-in prices....nobody will buy them for KBB either.

MonkPDX

Thanks Guys,

NADA shows clean trade-in @ $20,800 / clean retail $23,850

If I count the aero pkg as sport pkg it adds $550/$625

Anyway you slice it, I would get hosed at $14K.

The straw that broke the Camel's Back was that I was spending $239.95 for
a complete detail job at the same time he said $14K!!

I e-mailed my buyer with $22-22,500, but I may cave to $19,500 if I can
do the deal before the end of the month. That would be subject to negotiating $500 over invoice and getting the $1,000 loyalty rebate as well.

I'd much rather have back to back Root Canals then to negotiate with these
Land Sharks!

RPF

One more interesting note about popular colors...white is now more popular than silver

Link

The1andOnly

iTrader: (2)

I can tell that just by looking outside my window at work. I swear, I walked out to my car one day, on the left were 4 white cars in a row, and on the oppostie side of the lot 3 white cars in a row and another few cars down were 2 more next to each other.

It's great to have a different color because of the attention it gets. When I had my Caribbean blue G35, I was able to pick out my car in the lot a mile away. It just sucks how much it takes off though on the trade/resale.