Less and less happy with "deal" - can I sell trade-in first?

[ShadowsPapa]

The dealerships around here unless I drive a distance - hours - are owned by the same corporation - and they are all the old-fashioned type where a sales person has to go talk with his manager to see if they can do any better - and the sales manager is always a strange duck and says no, sorry, and then wants to chat and be really friendly to distract you, etc.
Anyway, the one I normally go to knew almost nothing about the Gladiator - not even the basics other than how to remove the "freedom panels" in the hard top. So I went to another (different name dealership but same mothership corporately)
They knew their stuff. But it's like the others here, firm on price - this is the list, this is what you'll pay. Fine, but I thought they'd at least be fair about my trade - a 2011 Silverado 1500 LTZ with Z71 pacakge, towing, Access tonneau cover, laser blue metallic (a special package in itself), 5.3 LS aluminum engine, leather, heated seats, etc. and only 47,000 miles. Average trade, 17,700, top trade, almost 19000 and mine is nice with two very minor scratches and one dent where it looks like someone bumped into it with their body, it's weird but most folks don't even see it as a dent where it's at. No rust, no damage other than that. Needs tires, that's it. Been kept under cover out of the sun, etc.
They would only allow 16,200 for the trade. I tried but they gave some excuse of all the work they'd have to do fixing the scratches, the dent, put new tires on it and all sorts of other stuff. Folks, I've towed my car hauler all over the place with that truck and other than tires, it's ready to go another 50,000 with no trouble, forget the scratches and that small dent no one even knew was there until they looked at it.
Really? List price on the Gladiator, no discounts, and only 16,200 for my truck worth 17,700 average and mine is better than average?
Sell it outright price is 20-21K! I know they'd throw tires on it and polish it up and sell it for 21 so they'd get the full 56 out of the Jeep and then another 5 out of my truck and make money.
The more I think about it and read and hear how other dealers will actually DEAL, the more upset I get with these clowns. But driving 3 hours somewhere else seems silly - you drive over there, spend hours, and then if they don't do better you do it all over again? That could take days in the end.
We did give them a $100 "earnest deposit" to get the thing ordered. They said that "locked in the price as things seem to be going up" but I wonder- would it kill any deal if I sold my Silverado for 20 and then just walked in with CASH and said let's talk again?
One person here said walk away, let them keep the $100 and go elsewhere and order from someone else - that means weeks more - and that means countless hours on the road.
Or - is this just how it goes?
I hate this sort of thing - my wife later said we should have held out for more on my Chevy - but they were done, they were ready to walk away - like they don't give a rip. And frankly, I don't think they cared whether they sold it or not. There really aren't other Jeep dealers close that aren't owned by this corporation. And to start all over again? Reset the clock on a new order? Drive to other places hours away and then still not do better?

Stew Hansen and Dewey - they won't give you any deals - we've found that out now. They don't discount anything, and they low-ball your trade-in.

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[Oscar Indy]

CarMax, KBB and Carvana will buy it outright.

 

[ShadowsPapa]

CarMax, KBB and Carvana will buy it outright.

I'd wondered about going to the local Chevy dealership and seeing if they'd be interested - they actually seem nice when I have them do alignments of my other vehicles and buy tires from them (at less $ than the tire shops charge! And they get me hard to find RWL 14" tires to boot)
Didn't know the other places you mentioned did that.
It's honestly a nice truck and my wife keeps saying "I can't believe we're getting rid of that truck"

But - if I sell my truck for say 20k (or whatever, doesn't matter, I guess) how would that impact the Jeep? Will that dealership say - oops, you backed out by selling that truck, now no deal?
Paying list price, MSRP, for the Jeep is one thing, but getting 2 grand - OR MORE - less for my trade than it's worth - even KBB trade price is higher than that, just hurts even more.
Of course I have to figure TAX - if I sell my truck and pay money for the full jeep price then it's 5% Iowa tax I have to pay on the 16 trade.
In other words, if the Jeep is 56 and they allowed 16 on my Chevy, I pay the 5% only on the 40. If I sell the Chevy and pay the dealership the full price, then I pay 5% on the whole 56k. So I need to do that math, but still......
OK, I did the math - it's a bit over $800 tax I'd save by trading. But if I sold my truck for 18,000 I'd still be ahead by a grand. If I sold my Chevy for 19,000 I'd be ahead by 2 grand - rough numbers.
I had no idea - I know where there's a CarMax not far away........ how do the others work? All done over the internet?

 

[fourlow78]

Reach out to @spenchey. He's pretty active on this board, a forum sponsor and located in Iowa. You can work a no BS deal through PM or just call the dealership and ask for Spencer. Motor Inn of Spirit Lake.

 

[Oscar Indy]

I'd wondered about going to the local Chevy dealership and seeing if they'd be interested - they actually seem nice when I have them do alignments of my other vehicles and buy tires from them (at less $ than the tire shops charge! And they get me hard to find RWL 14" tires to boot)
Didn't know the other places you mentioned did that.
It's honestly a nice truck and my wife keeps saying "I can't believe we're getting rid of that truck"

But - if I sell my truck for say 20k (or whatever, doesn't matter, I guess) how would that impact the Jeep? Will that dealership say - oops, you backed out by selling that truck, now no deal?
Paying list price, MSRP, for the Jeep is one thing, but getting 2 grand - OR MORE - less for my trade than it's worth - even KBB trade price is higher than that, just hurts even more.
Of course I have to figure TAX - if I sell my truck and pay money for the full jeep price then it's 5% Iowa tax I have to pay on the 16 trade.
In other words, if the Jeep is 56 and they allowed 16 on my Chevy, I pay the 5% only on the 40. If I sell the Chevy and pay the dealership the full price, then I pay 5% on the whole 56k. So I need to do that math, but still......
OK, I did the math - it's a bit over $800 tax I'd save by trading. But if I sold my truck for 18,000 I'd still be ahead by a grand. If I sold my Chevy for 19,000 I'd be ahead by 2 grand - rough numbers.
I had no idea - I know where there's a CarMax not far away........ how do the others work? All done over the internet?

Won't change anything. I did it. I initially had a trade in and ended up selling it for more than they offered me on trade while waiting on the Jeep to be built

 

[K enny]

That is what the internet is for. I bought my last two vehicles on line. I called the sales man on the first one twice I think but on the second I never did even though I offered for the financing or something but never had to. Everything was done through email. I drove up, signed the papers and drove home. It may take a couple tries to find one that will do that but you can if you try and you never know until you do.

 

[ShadowsPapa]

HAHAHA - what a joke KBB is - their offer?? I though the DEALER was cheap and low-balling me - KBB offers a whopping 13K for that Silverado with only 47,000 miles and pretty well loaded up - Z71 off-road package, towing package, LTZ, appearance package (Laser blue metallic with chrome mirrors and grill, etc.) perfect leather interior......... forget KBB - silly because they are the ones that said my truck was worth 4K more than that (or more) trade-in value.

 

[ShadowsPapa]

Won't change anything. I did it. I initially had a trade in and ended up selling it for more than they offered me on trade while waiting on the Jeep to be built

So if I ended up selling the thing, it wouldn't matter as far as things go with Stew Hansen then........
I would figure I'd have to get at least 800 over their offer - I'll just say if I got a grand over their offer I'd be even, anything over 17250 I'd be money ahead. KBB says my truck is worth 18,600-21,600 "private party sale". So even if I showed someone my KBB printout I could show it worth a minimum of 18,600 private sale. That would put me money ahead.

 

[ShadowsPapa]

Here's the thing - the Jeep will be paid for "Self-financed" - in other words, I've sold my 1970 Javelin - the cash from that plus some other cash plus my trade-in (unless I sell it) so it's a no-hassle thing, no financing - give me the Jeep, here's the cash. No banks, no monthly payments, no interest rates, none of that. Maybe that's why they wanted to low-ball it - no kickback from a finance company??
(I'd love to blow them away and walk in with the money I got from the car.......... in 1 dollar bills)

 

[Gobi Wan K]

So, it is going to really be up to you as far as what your time is worth. You can save yourself THOUSANDS by spending some time driving home from one of the dealers on here. No need to drive there as they will do everything over the phone/email. The closest to you is probably Motor inn of Spirit lake. But there are several dealers on here that will get you around 5% under invoice. So your 56k Gladiator will become a 49k Gladiator.
The other side of this is if you made a deal for full price then there is nothing for you to lose selling you truck yourself or finding another dealer that will offer more. If you had negotiated a price on the Jeep in conjunction with a trade in price I could see the dealer backing out if you sold the truck as they were playing with numbers.
In the end it is all up to you. If your time is precious and you don't mind paying full price stick with your deal, but I would sell the truck to someone else.

 

[surge101]

So if I ended up selling the thing, it wouldn't matter as far as things go with Stew Hansen then........
I would figure I'd have to get at least 800 over their offer - I'll just say if I got a grand over their offer I'd be even, anything over 17250 I'd be money ahead. KBB says my truck is worth 18,600-21,600 "private party sale". So even if I showed someone my KBB printout I could show it worth a minimum of 18,600 private sale. That would put me money ahead.

That's an expensive truck for something almost 9 years old. Private sale value is the most it will sell for. They probably anticipate its going to sit for a while (and depreciate more) before the sell it and account for that. That's even if they intend to sell it. They might just do the trade so they can sell you the gladiator and then auction the trade in off to a used car dealer, in the case they have to be sure they're buying it for less than it will go for at auction, and remember the people buying it at auction are only buying at a price they can make a profit off of. If you want top value, you sell it yourself.

 

[AKDrifter]

I was in the same boat. MSRP only dealer unless I wanted to drive 1800 miles through another country to get one under MSRP. So I was ok with MSRP. I had a trade in that I needed to keep until the dealer had my Gladiator. Harley season had ended. I sold my K5 to help get funds for the Gladiator. So I needed to get the most out of my trade when the Jeep did arrive. I took my trade-in, a Charger, to every dealer in town. Got offers in writing. Went to Jeep they offered me 4500 less than what the highest written offer was.So I said ok let's stop for a day I'll sell my car elsewhere and that's what I did. They seemed upset I even brought them a trade in and they said the same thing to me. Man it's got all these scratches it's going to cost a lot to fix etc. It wasn't scratched up at all. I had brought it in to get the paint cleaned up before I shopped it around. I showed them the offer in writing from the other dealer for the $4500 more and they got very defensive. They seemed like they didn't want the trade-in but were very upset I was going to stop the deal for another day. I almost walked away from it all. But I sold the Charger elsewhere and they held on for a day. It seemed very shady to me the whole trade in process with them.

 

[Elwenil]

KBB is typically better for the seller to get a better price while dealers usually go by NADA, which has lower prices for most values, at least that is my experience. Dealers here won't even discuss KBB prices most of the time and rarely ever come close to them. I ran a '11 1500 Crew 4WD with NADA and came up with a 16,600 average trade in my area. Keep in mind most dealers will not care a bit about special packages, options or accessories unless it is a separate model from the factory like a Rubicon, Raptor or similar. Bottom line, dealers do not want to give a lot for a truck that old, regardless of how "clean" it is because they know they will have to put some money into it to put it on the lot. Frequently trades getting up around the 10 year old mark will need brakes, sometimes tires, possibly some paint work, a few odds and ends in the interior may not work like they did when new, etc. This sort of thing can mushroom quickly and they know that. Just brakes and tires all around can easily eat up $2k of the potential profit or "wiggle room" on that trade. Remember that dealers have to "deal" on both ends of it, when they get the trade in and when they try to sell it. Some dealers in my area won't even deal on a trade over 8 years old. They make their trade offer and if it gets traded in, it gets shipped off to auction. Just my .02

 

[OL1970]

Put it on AutoTrader, ask a fair price and it will sell in less than 3 weeks. If it doesn’t your price is too high. Your vehicles value is what someone is willing to pay for it, not what KBB or some other service says. I know this first hand, I have a fun vehicle that I’m selling to make room for another fun one, book value says $110k, I’ve been asking $95k for 3 months with only a few people interested, reality is my price is too high. A truck like yours will go fast, maybe less than a week and it only cost $75 to list it and it will save you thousands.

 

[Gatorized]

Here's the thing - the Jeep will be paid for "Self-financed" - in other words, I've sold my 1970 Javelin - the cash from that plus some other cash plus my trade-in (unless I sell it) so it's a no-hassle thing, no financing - give me the Jeep, here's the cash. No banks, no monthly payments, no interest rates, none of that. Maybe that's why they wanted to low-ball it - no kickback from a finance company??
(I'd love to blow them away and walk in with the money I got from the car.......... in 1 dollar bills)

It's noted on this forum that Motor Inn will give you below invoice- https://www.jeepgladiatorforum.com/...below-invoice-motor-inn-of-spirit-lake.15177/ - so already a savings from your MSRP deal. Worth $100 just to learn that lesson. Look at the Motor Inn thread and read for yourself. You can let him know about your trade and I believe others have commented in that thread that they got a good quote sight unseen by providing pictures. Consider doing the financing for the extra % off, then do the minimum payments and pay off in cash. Do the math to determine if that still puts you out ahead.

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