>
> ANYWAY, a slight correction on the current value. $15.5k is the
> *trade-in* value; $17.5k is retail. I was so shocked by this whole
> thing, I posted the wrong number. And I don't owe $20k on it like I
> thought. Still sucks, though. $25,000 --> $17,500 in one year is an
> outrageous depreciation, even for a new vehicle. Trucks usually hold
> their value MUCH better than that.
>
> When I bought the last of the old-style Dakotas, I banked on the fact
> that there'd be enough people who *didn't* like the new style, the '96
> would still be worth something. Alas ... Dodge must've done too good a
> job with the new style. :-/
Even Dodge is taking a bit of a hit to sell the remaining '96 models.
If you bought your truck new today, you'd probably save another 1-2K.
Edmunds and Kelly ignore the little extras when coming up with resale
value, so a basic SLT would be listed the same as one with some of the
extra options. You'll alway take a beating on trade value if you want
to sell a car within 3 years of new. You are better off trying to sell
it yourself during this time. Dakotas will drop dramatically the first
year, but hold steady after that. For example, you can sell/buy a 91-94
truck with same options and similar mileage for nearly the same price.
I'm one of the ones who changes vehicles every 1-2 years, so I always
buy used. Next year I plan to bite the bullet and buy a new truck, but
this time I plan to hang on to it for 5+ years. If you swap cars often,
lease or 'smartbuy' programs are the only way to avoid the big loss.
You have to really know what you are doing to get a good lease, though
(I don't!. A friend of mine who used to be a car salesman gets 2-3 year
leases with no money down, and payments less than $400 on 25K cars.
Most of us aren't annoying enough to swing such good deals.).
-- -Chris Smith mopar@tough.com (not related to Mopar or Dodge, just love their products)
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Fri Jun 20 2003 - 12:07:34 EDT