Just a quick question for everyone: My new car is on the way to my dealer where I bought my 97 A4 1.8TQM. The new car is way ahead of schedule and I'm having a hard time selling my area, so I may have to trade it in. So here's my question. I got my 1.8T loaded (everything except phone and automatic transmission) in Cactus Green and all they want to give me on trade is $19,000. The car is immacualte! It's been waxed every month and only has 23,000 miles on it. <p>I've read all the Kelly Blue Book values and everything like it and there trade in prices are much higher (around $22,500). My dealer claims that it costs them LOTS of money to do a certification to resell it. So are they jerking me around or should I just accept their price and take a blood bath? Thanks in advance!<p>Sean

Sean:<br>you should be well aware that dealers will try to rip you off any way they can. I've went to several dealers to try to trade in my old car before I purchased my a4. I had about one week of time to try various dealers. I tried many new car dealers and tried to get the resale value of my car by actually trying to sell to them.. When I asked how much they would give me for the trade in of the car if I was to purchase a new car from them they still offered me the same price. So guess what I did... I went to a strip of block with a bunch of used car dealers. The first two did not offer me anything close to the resale value of my car. But on the third one, the guy was impressed how well my car drove after I took him out ofr a test drive and guess what? He bought it for $200 over the resale value of my car. Maybe you should try to bring your a4 to some used dealers.. you might have some better luck like I did. Hope this helps.<p>Chris K<br>98.5 1.8TQTS Tap Stage II

DON'T DON'T DON'T TRADE IT IN!!!!!!!!THEY WILL RAPE YOU.....just step up your efforts to sell yours. place more ads on the net and in local papers, on your local cable swap shop etc...even put up a sign at the local grocery food store.i hope you get it done......good luck with the new car

The Blue Book numbers are a guide, but that's all. The car (or any other comodity for that matter) is worth as much as someone else is willing to pay for it. If you can find someone who'll give you $30,000, well then that's what it's worth, if you can only get $15,000 that's still all it's worth. I would redouble your efforts to sell on your own you'll surely do better than trading it in. At the same time try to get the dealer's price up. Maybe try asking how much the recertification process costs (response will probably be pretty vague), at least a ballpark figure and try to get them to give you the KBB trade in price minus their alleged "expenses". Good luck.<p>Regards,<br>Rodney<p>'99 A4 1.8tqms

I tried trading and selling to used car dealers. Either way, they would only give me a low wholesale price of 19K - 21K on my '95 Volvo 850T. I ended up selling privately for $26k.<p>If you drop your asking price a bit, you may get more interested buyers. <p>Dave<p><br>

I recently sold my '92 4x4 to Carmax in order to buy an A4 from another new car dealer. They offered me a price very close to the Kelly Blue Book. If there is a Carmax dealership in your area, give them a visit. It only takes them less than 1/2 hr. to go over the car and then they give you an "Offer Certificate" that's good for seven days. Good Luck!

Sold my Bimmer Z3 on classifieds2000.com, for midway between wholesale & retail Blue Book (jussssst enough to pay off the loan, not bad for a one year old car). The listing was FREE and I sold the car just about one month after my posting. ALWAYS put a picture of your car in the ad (duh, but it really helped to sell).<p> Also try the online newspapers of several metropolitan areas. Even ones that are a plane ride away. I'd spring for someone's airfare, taxi, etc in a minute to get another $3-4K out of the car. <br>Good luck, I have a feeling there will be many many many 96-98 owners trying to get out of their A4's for the new S4's....<p>Christine S<br>99.5 2.8 QMS, and NOT getting an S4......<br>:)<br>

They even took our POS Jetta (an '89) with no working Odometer, bad AC and dings (from where a tree fell on it!) and gave us a little more than half of what a pristine one would go for. The insurance comapany would have given us less to total it! They are pretty fair...<p>Jon<br>'96 A4q

<br>They are trying to rip you off, as most car dealers will if given the chance. I would not trade for that price, over $2K less than blue book trade-in value for a low-mileage, cherry car? No way. Keep trying to sell it yourself. Advertise that you will sell your car for X amount under it's used (not trade-in) blue book value, and try to sell it for about the blue book trade-in value. <p>The amazing thing is, here you have bought two cars from these people and MAYBE would continue buying cars from them if they treated you right, but they are trying to nail you on both ends.<p>One thing: Just wondering why you are taking such a serious hit to acquire basically the same car? Just more options in this one? I don't turn cars over that fast, but if I did, I would sure be leasing. Leasing has it's own headaches but at least getting screwed at trade-in time isn't one of them.<p>Good luck ....<p>BDW '99 1.8Tqms

On the issue of considering a trade-in vs. selling elsewhere, there is one thing I never see mentioned anywhere. If you purchased the car, outright or financed doesn't matter, the point is the that you paid the tax on the full amount of the car at the time of purchase, then when you do a trade-in the dealer gives you a "tax" credit on the amount they are paying for it. For example, take what they want to give you for your car $19000, if your sales tax is 6% then you would get a credit for $1140. If you look at it that way then you would have to sell it to someone else for more than $20140 to make it worth your time. I do not know if this applies if you are leasing the new car, or if this varies between different state tax laws. In any case it wouldn't hurt to ask the dealer if this applies to you or not.<br>

Ken,<p>I am aware of the tax credit. My dealer is going to conduct the transaction for me with the yet unfound new buyer so that I get the tax break. So I just hope that I can find a buyer within the next few weeks. Thanks for your input!

Gotta love getting ripped off. I think this time I learned that if I was going to keep if for just a few years, I would have definately leased. At the time though, I figured that I'd have this car for a while.<p>As for why I'm trading it in, I'm unfortunately going to leave A4 family (I'll really miss my A4). I had the misfortune of test driving the first BMW 328i manual my dealer got in last year and it really persuaded me to switch (I'm sure that I'm going to get flamed now). My goal this time is to keep if for at least 5 years, but I also said that last time.

nt

<br>Sorry, I misread your post. Thought you were going from '97 1.8T to '99.5. Best of luck with your BMW. I tested the 323i manual and was not very impressed, but I've heard the 328 is a different animal. Happy driving.<p>BDW

I think you may be too hard on the dealer. The fact that you haven't found a buyer yet indicates that the car may not be as easy to sell as you think. That means that you have to take less for the car, regardless of what the Blue Book says. Remember, Kelly is not buying the car!

I talked to my local sales guy last month and he mentioned two 97 1.8's he took on trade in the last month. He will give the seller around ~$21,000 for it and sell it for ~$24,000 on their Porsche/Audi lot within a week (one was even Bamboo). And, this is of course if you are buying another car from them. $19,000 is a rip! The A6's will take a big depreciation hit but certainly not the A4 1.8. Looks like they want to make a quick $5,000+ on your trade. Certification!? Your car is still under the Audi Advantage, everything is covered. I'm sure they figure they have you cornered. Make some calls to other Audi dealers and ask the used car guy if he is interested in a loaded 1.8 for $21,000, can't hurt. If they don't bite then leave them your number with a description of the car and maybe the dealer will come across an interested person in the next day or two. You could even fax the dealer a write-up without talking to them. These cars are still hot don't give in at $19K!<p>Best regards,<br>George<br>97 laser red 1.8TqAS TAPII<br>94 911 Carrera 4 wide-body