Serious resale problem with the Leaf

[smkettner]

20k for a used LEAF sounds about right. I paid $25,350 brand new all in. I would not pay more than 20K if it was used... probably closer to 15K. Dealers are currently going as low as $5,000 off msrp. That is right where the market stands today.

But yours was an '11 w/a lower MSRP and you got the $7.5K Federal tax credit and $5K CA CVRP, right?

But yeah, I've seen the $5K off MSRP pricing you're talking about now.

Yes. Unrealistic that the LEAF will hold anything near MSRP.
Lowest price vehicle will set the bar no matter if you got the rebate or not.
CA and other rebates may well hold the resale price down even for those that did not get it.

 

[kubel]

A dealer is certainly going to give you a low-ball offer. Keep trying to sell it to a private party.

 

[GaslessInSeattle]

+1 and consider shipping it to a cooler location and storing it till the dust settles over this peak heat bar loss, hopefully a solution will be offered and things will improve all around.

A dealer is certainly going to give you a low-ball offer. Keep trying to sell it to a private party.

 

[garsh]

If only the location were made mandatory, we would have to do a lot less sleuthing and guessing...

Or you could just read the OP, where he said "This is not an isolated problem in Phoenix apparently.".

 

[cwerdna]

If only the location were made mandatory, we would have to do a lot less sleuthing and guessing...

Or you could just read the OP, where he said "This is not an isolated problem in Phoenix apparently.".

I guessed Phoenix too but given the # of people that asked, I'm guessing they weren't sure either.

Still goes back to the original problem, the field should be mandatory since guessing isn't always right and it's a waste of time for people to have to dig thru posts to figure it out, sometimes w/no result.

 

[RegGuheert]

I do not have the battery bar problem.

Sure you do. While you may still have all of your battery capacity bars the real problem is that they disappear too quickly in Phoenix.

 

[cdub]

Any car will lose almost 10k in value as soon as you drive it off of the lot.

 

[GaslessInSeattle]

I received $25K trade in for my SL back in Feb with 12K miles, I know I could have done better in a private sale. here's an article that came out recently about very high resale for the Leaf: http://www.autoevolution.com/news/n...ain-95-of-its-value-after-one-year-45482.html

One other way to look at it, you might want to whether the storm. It would be surprising if Nissan doesn't come up with some kind of fix and, IMHO, you are almost better off having rapid decline that precipitates a fix than be seeing moderate but accelerated decline that is truly "normal" or close to it and take a big hit on selling it just because there is currently so much unknown about the situation.

 

[redLEAF]

Did the OP try Carmax as well? Looks like they have a few used LEAF's on their AZ lots so I would think they think its still a viable car to sell there ... I used them to establish a ballpark trade in value for the car my LEAF replaced and they turned out to be the highest offer so used that as leverage on the dealer who matched it (we save some sales tax here in IL by only paying the balance of the trade off the new car price); might at least worth a look if their mind is made up about it.

 

[gaswalla]

Did the OP try Carmax as well? Looks like they have a few used LEAF's on their AZ lots so I would think they think its still a viable car to sell there ... I used them to establish a ballpark trade in value for the car my LEAF replaced and they turned out to be the highest offer so used that as leverage on the dealer who matched it (we save some sales tax here in IL by only paying the balance of the trade off the new car price); might at least worth a look if their mind is made up about it.

Do you mind sharing how much you got for your LEAF? thanks!

 

[ztanos]

Did the OP try Carmax as well? Looks like they have a few used LEAF's on their AZ lots so I would think they think its still a viable car to sell there ... I used them to establish a ballpark trade in value for the car my LEAF replaced and they turned out to be the highest offer so used that as leverage on the dealer who matched it (we save some sales tax here in IL by only paying the balance of the trade off the new car price); might at least worth a look if their mind is made up about it.

Do you mind sharing how much you got for your LEAF? thanks!

He didn't sell the LEAF, he went to Carmax with his old car and got an estimate. Then we he bought the LEAF he used Carmaxs higher quote to negotiate a higher trade in value. Carmax is one of the highest values for used cars and is always worth a look. They have no commitment price quoting so it's rather simple.

redLEAF: please correct me if I'm wrong, but this is the way I read it.

 

[ravi100]

+1 on Carmax - see my post entitled "Said goodbye to my leaf yesterday" Carmax offered $23K which I'd jump
on if I were you.....

 

[DaveinOlyWA]

+1 on Carmax - see my post entitled "Said goodbye to my leaf yesterday" Carmax offered $23K which I'd jump
on if I were you.....

link?

 

[DaveEV]

+1 on Carmax - see my post entitled "Said goodbye to my leaf yesterday" Carmax offered $23K which I'd jump
on if I were you.....

link?

Said goodbye to my leaf yesterday

 

[DaveinOlyWA]

+1 on Carmax - see my post entitled "Said goodbye to my leaf yesterday" Carmax offered $23K which I'd jump
on if I were you.....

link?

Said goodbye to my leaf yesterday

cute link there. actually i already found it. the word "yesterday" threw me off

 

[redLEAF]

Did the OP try Carmax as well? Looks like they have a few used LEAF's on their AZ lots so I would think they think its still a viable car to sell there ... I used them to establish a ballpark trade in value for the car my LEAF replaced and they turned out to be the highest offer so used that as leverage on the dealer who matched it (we save some sales tax here in IL by only paying the balance of the trade off the new car price); might at least worth a look if their mind is made up about it.

Do you mind sharing how much you got for your LEAF? thanks!

He didn't sell the LEAF, he went to Carmax with his old car and got an estimate. Then we he bought the LEAF he used Carmaxs higher quote to negotiate a higher trade in value. Carmax is one of the highest values for used cars and is always worth a look. They have no commitment price quoting so it's rather simple.

redLEAF: please correct me if I'm wrong, but this is the way I read it.

Absolutely correct -- you won't get a private sale price from Carmax but in the majority of cases when compared to most new car dealers, you'll get a better offer by a few hundred or more ($600 in my case). Carmax gives you a print out and you're under no obligation to either sell it to them or buy one of theirs; offer is good for 7 days. The 'incentive' to still trade (remember the sales tax issue here in IL) as you'll be paying the full sales tax w/o the trade if you sell it yourself has to be 'worth' your time to post it on craigslist, deal with the bogus offshore offers, etc.; nowadays I don't think its worth it but years ago I always did fine selling myself --- with a LEAF being still such a new thing as well, it will still be a challenge as the used owner doesn't get the tax benefits, etc. as the original owner does. Over on the Chicagoland thread, we have one former LEAF owner who had problems with the cold weather range so he traded in his LEAF for a Volt which was a bit unusual but he made it work for him ... don't seem to recall what the OP would replace his LEAF with which could give an incentive to the dealer taking the trade as a possible 'conquest' sale (like the LEAF to Volt example).

Some people can't get past 'paying' (and don't get me wrong, you do unless you finance/lease it write a big check) a high price initially but you do need to subtract whatever incentives to determine what it 'cost' you --- in my case, I can easily look at as a $17K car because of the fed tax credit (already received), the IL EPA rebate (still waiting) and my 6 year old trade-in deducted --- perhaps add back in the after rebate home charger (again another dept. within IL government rebated 50% of the cost to me) and we're looking at $17.6K but with the gas savings, etc. we feel we did great to get into this car. We don't appear to have the same issues at AZ does with our 4 seasons so things are still good out this way. So, I don't agree that nationally, the LEAF has a serious resale issue, especially after taking into account the deduction of the incentives ...

 

[OrientExpress]

Here is a crosspost of thr July wholesale dealer auction figures on 2011 LEAF SLs:

Wholesale prices for 2011 cars continue to show great resiliency month to month but are starting to show a more normal depreciation decline for this time of the year, given that the majority of used 2011's on the market are a full year old and that 2013 cars will be starting to hit the market in a few months.

June 2012

May 2012

All in all, 2011 LEAFs on the market continue to show an above normal resale value.

One caveat is that if you walk into any dealer and try to trade in or sell them your car, you will almost always be given a lower offer than those posted above. The dealer knows that if they go to auction, that these are the prices these are they prices they are going to pay, so they will always low-ball you. If you want the maximum for your car, then selling it yourself is always going to give you the maximum return.

 

[DaveinOlyWA]

keep in mind; dealers are not non profit operations so they will only give you wholesale prices which tends to be at least $1500 ($2500-$3500 is typical) below true market value.

when a dealer sells a car the GM, Sales Manager, Salesman and probably a team leader all get a % of the profit on the deal. so any negotiation off sticker will have to go thru most of the people above. in most deals, only the GM is out of the day to day negotiations.

Private party sales will always get the most for the seller but also provides the most risk for the buyer.

 

[Herm]

The sales tax exemption for traded-in vehicles is another subsidy that should go away. All it does is penalize people that need to buy used cars, the 99%. Obama should do something before he gets fired this November.

 

[smkettner]

The sales tax exemption for traded-in vehicles is another subsidy that should go away. All it does is penalize people that need to buy used cars, the 99%. Obama should do something before he gets fired this November.

So it does not work for a used car traded in on another used car?
Otherwise come to CA where you pay tax on the full purchase value of every car.