I am looking to get a new car from a used car dealership that is a little diffrent than I am used to dealing with. I called to get the price on a car and he told me to come by drive it, see how you like it and make an offer, we are a wholesale dealer. Well my question is what should I offer him, I hae looked up the retail value and the trrade in so that I can get an idea but I have no clue where wholesale falls in this equation?? Please help!!!


Trade in 5800
Retail 9500


2003 Ford Taurus SE with 71000 miles

 

wholesale will be lower than trade in or equal at most. He is probably just using buzzwords to entice you. That is a lot of miles on an 03 and there is a good chance it may have been a fleet car (ridden hard). I bought an 02 Sable that was a rental car, it has been ok but it only had 10K on it.

 

Anyone else ???

 

I would have a real scan (not just a code reader) run on the vehicle, a compression test done, and plan on doing a transmission and putting that money aside. I doubt they gave more then $3k for it on trade in.

 

Run a Carfax report. It may be a salvage vehicle.

 

I have read on the internet to look up the Kelly Blue Book and use the private sale value which is also the "fair market value" what you should pay. Fair market value valve is between trade and retail. Retail value is what most dealer will list the cars at across the country. This i think is the asking price which is always way to much. You get a free copy of a Carfax report from the wholesale dealer ( used car dealer, you will never get whole sale or trade value. Have them fax it to you. Also, the dealer to fax you a free copy of the the orginal title to the car, if it had more then one owner, there might be a few titles. Find the owners name is on it, and call them, find the town and use the phone information number, 1-555- area code -1212. You can also call your loacal Ford dealer and ask for any open recalls and then ask for any information about repairs done on the car. They also have the number to which Ford dealer the car was serviced at after the warranty. You may have to try a few Ford service departments, look for 1-800 numbers. The title says which Ford dealer it was purchased at, this may help to call them to. This is maybe were the owner had it serviced upto the 71,000 miles. I had a quick inspection done for free on my fiirst test drive. Also go to ford and have them do a free test drive to check the transmission. See if they smell the fluid after the drive, they may have just changed the fluid, to hide something. When you shift it out of park you should not feel or hear anything. Then when you get a good price have it checked over better, like the post above said to do, you will need to pay this time. Take it over nite. I like to use the service manual in the car and go through each item listed in alphabetical order, that way you don't miss anything. It should take an hour. Make a list of repairs. You may want to go through a car wash to see if the windshield and windows leak. Maybe you can wash the engine and see if it starts. Have the battery load test done its free. You can get an extended warranty (not from the dealer) for about 1000.00 dallors to, its upto 100,000. good luck

 

mike L- be very careful about getting and using prior owners information. Disclosing that in some states could be a violation of various right-to-privacy regulations. You'll also find some dealers (in particular new car dealers) will be extremely hesitant to disclose that info. The reason many cars get traded in as opposed to sold privately is because the customer didn't want to talk to strangers, and took less so someone else could deal with the process.

 

ok thanks I didn't know that. I'm from a small town Like Jeff Foxworthy said " you might be a New Englander when someone calls you and you talk to them for an hour and it was a wrong number!!

 

I understand- at 4500 people, we're not exactly a teeming metropolis. Just give out 1 unlisted phone number though, and we'll be talking to the AG and the customers attorney if you hit the wrong person.

 

I would watch out for a 03 with 71K.

Good thing though is they almost have to be Highway miles.

Look in the glovebox and the previous owners name is probably in there somewhere.

Also make sure it has a Duratec 24VDOHC

Mike