Feels like I've been here before

[BahnBaum]

Wait, why are you trying to negotiate a trade and a purchase? Why not take the Carvana deal and then drive your best price on the new car. I wonder if the trade part of the balloon has them hesitant to negotiate by email?

Why not act like a cash buyer?

Alex

[clyde]

Originally Posted by BahnBaum

Wait, why are you trying to negotiate a trade and a purchase? Why not take the Carvana deal and then drive your best price on the new car. I wonder if the trade part of the balloon has them hesitant to negotiate by email?

Why not act like a cash buyer?

Alex

As a whole, used car inventories are tiny and shrinking, retail demand is beyond sky high, and the wholesale auction market is fucked. Dealers need late model used cars and taking them in trade or buying outright themselves is nearly the only way they can replenish their inventory.

Most dealers are more interested in getting your late model trade than they are in selling you their new car. Most dealers I've spoken with lately have no reluctance to matching the Carvana offer of the day.

Before COVID, most were usually, like, "Woah. I'm not going to be able to get anywhere close to that. We can probably still work out a deal where you can drive my car home tonight with a promise to bring in the money from your sale to Carvana once that check clears."

So, why not take the Carvana money and go? Because that means giving the state of Maryland up to about $1150 more than I have to in extra tax. Because it means added hassle transferring my tags (and increased likelihood I'll lose them). Because I don't know that Carvana's offer won't be more tomorrow and I have a week to see where things go when I can still punch today's ticket.

This issue was with a single dealer. A single employee at that single dealer. It's an outlier. What makes it a little different is that 1) they're reasonably close by and 2) they have more cars incoming.

On that second part, I found another pretty accurate list (on Chevy's webiste, go figure) showing cars in transit. My tracker has expanded considerably and I don't think it's going to be much longer for the car I want to show up in the neighborhood. Hopefully, I'll be able to use my car as trade for it, but if that window's closed, I'll use the proceeds from its prior sale.

My outlook on this is pretty positive. Especially if I don't have to deal with that one dealer.

[BahnBaum]

The tax thing crossed my mind but too fast to actually think about it.

Alex

[Alan]

Quick question ... one concern of mine when buying my sports cars am I am worried about driving on the highway and the nose and hood getting chipped up from dump trucks on the road ...

They do sell a plastic you can put on the front to temporarily protect it but is this a concern for you ?

I don't know what is going on lately, maybe due to covid and the hold up of construction for many months but anytime I get on the expressway it seems to be there are a lot of dump trucks and it drives me crazy when I'm in the Porsches ...

In 100 miles a lot of damage can happen to a new vehicle ...

[Jeff_DML]

Originally Posted by Alan

Quick question ... one concern of mine when buying my sports cars am I am worried about driving on the highway and the nose and hood getting chipped up from dump trucks on the road ...

They do sell a plastic you can put on the front to temporarily protect it but is this a concern for you ?

I don't know what is going on lately, maybe due to covid and the hold up of construction for many months but anytime I get on the expressway it seems to be there are a lot of dump trucks and it drives me crazy when I'm in the Porsches ...

In 100 miles a lot of damage can happen to a new vehicle ...

people use painter tape for that reason

https://www.audizine.com/forum/showt...-for-road-trip

[clyde]

Originally Posted by BahnBaum

The tax thing crossed my mind but too fast to actually think about it.

Alex

My current expectation is that I will sell to Carvana in the next week or two at close to what they're offering today, and buy something in the following 4-8 weeks. Can't say I have a high level of confidence in either of those, butI don't have anything better.

Originally Posted by Alan

Quick question ... one concern of mine when buying my sports cars am I am worried about driving on the highway and the nose and hood getting chipped up from dump trucks on the road ...

They do sell a plastic you can put on the front to temporarily protect it but is this a concern for you ?

I don't know what is going on lately, maybe due to covid and the hold up of construction for many months but anytime I get on the expressway it seems to be there are a lot of dump trucks and it drives me crazy when I'm in the Porsches ...

In 100 miles a lot of damage can happen to a new vehicle ...

Yes and no. Concerned? Yeah. Enough to do something?...

I've never put clear bra on a car. Every car I've had since that was an option has picked up some decently annoying chips/gouges on the hood and/or bumper that PPF probably would have prevented. OTOH, none of them have looked bad when I've gone to sell. Like, "I can see some chips if I'm looking, but if I don't, meh."

Those cars have been gray, silver, and blue. Silver and gray really help minimize the visual impact of chips when the primer under it is also gray. A little more noticeable on the deep metallic blue of the Focus ST, but at 70k when I sold it, it still looked pretty good. (I was much more annoyed with the paint fade on the front clip compared to the hood and fenders despite always being garaged.)

I put a ton of highway miles on all those cars and a fair amount of around town driving and they were fine. I also try to drive in a way to minimize my exposure when possible, but dunno if that's helped or been wishful thinking.

I haven't had a black car in a long time and with gray primer underneath, I'd probably be more concerned about chips. Some of the other colors I'm most interested in for the Camaro (Crush and Shock) don't get along very well with chips.

Also, where it's worst on my turbo Camaro is just in front of the rear wheel wells. Things get flung back from the front tires and mark up the slight flaring in the rear. The cars come from with a little piece of PPF from the factory, but it's too small and doesn't hold up very well. It sounds like it's a bigger issue with the fat tired 1LEs with their wider, stickier tires.

I've been thinking about what to do about this. If I get something gray, silver, or blue I may do PPF just on the area in front of the rear wheel wells and I'm pretty sure I can do that myself. If I get black, or another color, I may also have someone install PPF on the front bumper clip. I'm not sure, though. The hood on the 1LE Camaros comes with a black wrap, so there's nothing to do there (except replace the wrap with something of better quality according to some people).

If I expect to get PPF and have to drive any distance home, I'll probably pull a Nick and cover the front end with painters tape for the drive home.

[clyde]

Originally Posted by clyde

My current expectation is that I will sell to Carvana in the next week or two at close to what they're offering today,

Offer dropped by $800 today. First drop of more than $300 in a one week period since the crazy day I tried to sell it in March. If it drops again overnight, I'll probably pull trigger on yesterday's peak offer (good until 7/28). If it holds steadyish or increases slightly...I don't know if I'll give it another day. If it fully or almost fully rebounds, I'll reset or hold out a another day or two.

Vroom offer today was $17.4, which is where it's been for a couple weeks after hanging out in the mid 15s since mid-May.

Also got a KBB instant cash offer today at $17.3. A couple people I know have used them satisfactorily in the past year, but don't really know how much it's real and how much gimmick.

and buy something in the following 4-8 weeks.

This part is still possible. Maybe sooner. Maybe later.

[clyde]

Originally Posted by clyde

Today may be the day the bottom drops. Carvana offers:

3/18/20 $17002
3/19/20 $16718
3/20/20 $16408
3/21/20 $16384
3/22/20 $16431
3/23/20am $16431
3/23/20pm $12969

7/20/20pm $19012

The above for context.

Originally Posted by clyde

So...

and eventually seemed to save an offer from earlier today for $17015.

But I get it sorted and upload my docs.

They say it takes 1-2 business days for them to verify things after which, they'll contact me and I can schedule a pick up time.

As we know, that did not work out in March.

Maybe it will work out in July. Trigger pulled. Let's see what's next...

[Josh (PA)]

did you lock that $19012 offer? that's awesome for you if so... talk about low cost of ownership for a fun car for a couple of years + no hassle doing a private party sale.

[clyde]

Originally Posted by Josh (PA)

did you lock that $19012 offer? that's awesome for you if so... talk about low cost of ownership for a fun car for a couple of years + no hassle doing a private party sale.

After it closes, I will post about how it worked and a retrospective on the car, its costs, etc.

The super short version is that $19012 is the agreed price. According to "Sebastian," Carvana's chatbot in response to the question "Will the value of my car change?"

Originally Posted by Carvana chatbot

Our trade-in offers are non-negotiable and guaranteed as long as you described your vehicle accurately in the appraisal form, with a few exceptions:
1) You add or update the VIN/License Plate. 2) Your vehicle's actual mileage is 1k+ miles higher than reported on the appraisal. 3) The condition of your vehicle at time of pick-up does not match the reported condition.

1 and 2 are simple objective facts. 3 has some subjectivity in it and the potential for things to be missed, but I'm as confident as I can be.

Did your buddy with the Boxster wind up keeping his car, selling it to someone else, or did he start over with Carvana after they started buying again?