How dealers value used Leafs

In preparation for possible purchase of 2013 Leaf, went to Carmax to see what they would give me for my 2011 Leaf with 32,000 miles. The answer is $13,000. I've always considered them to be fair, I've sold 3 cars to them before. KBB says $17,000. Do any of these numbers seem reasonable?

I got a quote of $14,000 for mine with under 11k miles. (back in December between xmas and new year) Seems they do not want to have any Leafs.

charlestonleafer said:

In preparation for possible purchase of 2013 Leaf, went to Carmax to see what they would give me for my 2011 Leaf with 32,000 miles. The answer is $13,000. I've always considered them to be fair, I've sold 3 cars to them before. KBB says $17,000. Do any of these numbers seem reasonable?

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Well, let's see, my LEAF that I sold to CarMax last summer is still in their inventory, after being moved from San Diego to Irvine to Las Vegas to Escondido.

They paid me $23k with 25,300 miles and are currently advertising the price at $22,998. They will never unload this now 2 year old car when I can get a new LEAF as low as $18,800.

http://www.carmax.com/enus/view-car/2011-nissan-leaf-sl-8743551.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

So, is $13k reasonable to CarMax? Yes, most definitely !!!

30% depreciation in two years seems like a lot (comparing to a 2013 S)

I think that KBB is high and that Carmax is about right these days...

charlestonleafer said:

In preparation for possible purchase of 2013 Leaf, went to Carmax to see what they would give me for my 2011 Leaf with 32,000 miles. The answer is $13,000. I've always considered them to be fair, I've sold 3 cars to them before. KBB says $17,000. Do any of these numbers seem reasonable?

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$4,000 buy vs sell seems right for CarMax. Maybe even generous.
On my $14k retail minivan CarMax offered about $4k, no thanks.

I've actually taken two cars to Carmax for appraisals but these were both ICE's with way more sales history and volume than our beloved LEAF's so that may be part of it. On car#1, I also took it to an independent wholesaler who came up with the EXACT same amount as the Carmax offer and I know that these folks actually compete with Carmax in buying used cars so it was weird. I used the Carmax appraisal to leverage my dealer trade of this particular car for the LEAF (it wasn't a Nissan but they did keep it and sell it used on their lot) .. dealer ended up matching the Carmax offer (they were low by about $800). In our 'burbs we see some dealer's bragging that they'll beat the Carmax amount by at least $500 but that's of course not the way to negotiate unless of course the new vehicle has a fixed price (like the early LEAF's or perhaps Scion's). I never mention trade until the deal is done on the new car so you know where you're starting at ... still sorry to hear it was this low

I'd try taking it to a couple Nissan dealers. Maybe one might give you more.

I sold my former 350Z to a Nissan dealer and they gave me a surprisingly high amount. It was better than what I'd advertised for in Craigslist (they didn't know about the ad) and better than what a used car dealer and another Nissan dealer offered me.

But, geez, if it were $13K and I knew I could still buy a decent Nissan extended warranty for it (mainly worried about the OBC and power windows), I'd consider buying it myself!

Just this week, I helped my father sell his low mileage Honda CR-V, as his doctor ordered him to stop driving.

KBB says trade-in value was about $9k. NADA said more like $7000. Edmunds was even more pessimistic at $6k.

CarMax offered $9k. It sounded great, so we tried our luck with a nearby Honda dealer. They were only willing to offer $8500, but after showing them CarMax's written offer, and what other car dealers wanted for a similar vehicle* we finally got them to $9500 and finalized the deal.

So in this case, KBB was actually the closest, and slightly undervalued the car.

*Used car dealers in the area were selling the same vehicle for $10k with far greater miles on them. CarMax wanted $12-13k for vehicles with double or triple the mileage in some cases. So I knew that we could get a decent amount for my father's low mileage car.

RonDawg said:

Just this week, I helped my father sell his low mileage Honda CR-V, as his doctor ordered him to stop driving.

KBB says trade-in value was about $9k. NADA said more like $7000. Edmunds was even more pessimistic at $6k.

CarMax offered $9k. It sounded great, so we tried our luck with a nearby Honda dealer. They were only willing to offer $8500, but after showing them CarMax's written offer, and what other car dealers wanted for a similar vehicle* we finally got them to $9500 and finalized the deal.

So in this case, KBB was actually the closest, and slightly undervalued the car.

*Used car dealers in the area were selling the same vehicle for $10k with far greater miles on them. CarMax wanted $12-13k for vehicles with double or triple the mileage in some cases. So I knew that we could get a decent amount for my father's low mileage car.

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The difference between the trade and retail values on used cars would surprise you ... the dealer typically will make much more money versus what they paid as well as (if) they do much reconditioning and/or decide to offer some kind of warranty (like Carmax does in most cases) versus new cars. I had a VW Routan with low miles on it that I traded for another VW and Carmax offered $16K, VW dealer offered $17K, edmunds had it pegged at about $16.5K --- dealer added a CPO warranty and sold it for $19K but had an asking price of $23.5K at first and of course no takers.