What do ZHP's price at trade in?

[MiniD]

Is that just sales tax or does that count toward your motor vehicle tax every year? Not everyone has that tax, but we do in CT. It's really asinine, the amounts we have to pay...

Just sales tax.

[L0veZHP]

Well my mother just purchased a 2012 x5 and I went to pick it up with her and asked about how much I would get for my zhp with 105k miles on it and almost in perfect condition and the guy said he use to have a zhp and said for a trade in at the dealer the most you'll get is about 3k. So sad that theyd only give 3k for such a beauty of a car.

[slater]

Well my mother just purchased a 2012 x5 and I went to pick it up with her and asked about how much I would get for my zhp with 105k miles on it and almost in perfect condition and the guy said he use to have a zhp and said for a trade in at the dealer the most you'll get is about 3k. So sad that theyd only give 3k for such a beauty of a car.

they are a business, and they are in business to make money. no surprise there.

peter

[ecrabb]

they are a business, and they are in business to make money. no surprise there.

Yeah, except the bastards would put a spit and shine on it and put it back on the lot two days later for $9,999, then sell it for $9500. That kind of profit margin is obscene. They do it to make up for the commodity cars they sell and make much less on, but it doesn't make that particular transaction any less obscene.

SC

[ecrabb]

Is that just sales tax or does that count toward your motor vehicle tax every year? Not everyone has that tax, but we do in CT. It's really asinine, the amounts we have to pay...

It is asinine, and what really pisses me off is that the state double-, triple-, and quadruple-dips.

In my locale, sales tax is almost 7%. So, take a brand new $60,000 335. There's a $4200 tax bill on that sale. That guy drives it for a few years, then sell it to somebody for $44,000. $3100 tax bill. That guy drives it for three years, sells it to another enthusiast, and the new buyer pays $25,000, and now there's a $1750 tax bill. The car is five years old and is on its third owner, but it's generated $9000 in tax revenue!

In many places, if the owner trades it, he can at least deduct the value of the trade from the new one, which does reduce the owner's tax bill, but he usually more than pays for it in terms of bottom line due to the trade value. That little bit of law is of course designed to benefit car dealers, not the consumer.

Arrggghhhhhh...

SC

[ecrabb]

Tax purposes. In TN, if you're purchasing a $20k car from a dealer and you trade in a $5k car, you pay tax on $15k.

Yep. Tax credit. Sometimes it makes a lot of sense, especially if like Fred mentioned you have something mechanical to address.

I ran the numbers on trading vs. selling my wife's 2012 Altima when I bought her X3 in September, and I was pretty sure I'd come out well ahead by selling. This was roughly how I penciled the two scenarios out to decide which way to go:

TRADE
Purchase '07 X3...... $16,000
Less Altima trade..... $8,500
Net Purchase Price.....$7,500
Tax on Purchase..........$525
Net Cost...............$8,025

PURCHASE
Purchase '07 X3 ..... $16,000
Tax on Purchase........$1,120
Altima Cash Sale......$12,000
Net Cost...............$5,120

Who wouldn't put in the effort of selling the old car to put almost $3000 more in your pocket, right? Well, you have to look at everything to find the real bottom line.

First, I didn't sell the Altima for $12,000. I ended up listing it at $11,000, waiting 10 days, lowering the price to $10,500, and selling it for my asking price to a nice older couple from out of town. So, now the $2,900 advantage is $1400. I spent $600 on a master brake cylinder issue I would have let go if I'd traded the car, so that drops the advantage to $800. I also put eight or ten hours into cleaning, spiffing, taking photos, listing and writing description, etc. So, if you value your time, it probably wasn't a great deal. Depends on what you have more of though, time or money.

In the end, I'm thrilled, though. The wife's X3 is really nice and crazy low miles for the age. I used the cash from the Altima sale to pay off my ZHP note, so we have two cars we own outright. I got a three-year note from the credit union on the X3 that I'll pay off in two years, which will cost me about $750 in interest. Buying an older car will allow us to stash a bunch of cash, so the plan is to replace the X3 in a few years with a nice, newer used X3 or GLK that we can pay cash for.

SC

[slater]

It is asinine, and what really pisses me off is that the state double-, triple-, and quadruple-dips.

In my locale, sales tax is almost 7%. So, take a brand new $60,000 335. There's a $4200 tax bill on that sale. That guy drives it for a few years, then sell it to somebody for $44,000. $3100 tax bill. That guy drives it for three years, sells it to another enthusiast, and the new buyer pays $25,000, and now there's a $1750 tax bill. The car is five years old and is on its third owner, but it's generated $9000 in tax revenue!

yeah, it is nuts. imagine here in canada, with 13% sales tax! we even pay tax on services now - like, if i had a set of tires mounted on wheels, even though i'm not buying a product, i have to pay 13% on the labor now.

we pay ridiculous amounts of tax here. but it is an awesome place to live. worth the trade off.

peter

[L0veZHP]

I believe if you trade in your vehicle you'll get more for it than selling it to them.. My mom traded her 2004 x5 and they gave her a trade in value of 15k compared to what they were giving her just to buy it which was like 5-7k