The Business Of 'Fair' Trade-in (Car Version)

I'm currently on the hunt for a new car, but when I say 'new' I mean new to me, not brand new. It's widely known that buying a new car is one of the worst investments a person can make because the vehicle loses value the minute you drive away from the dealership. Go buy a new car and then try to sell it for what you paid. Good luck, fella, you're going to need it.

You should buy a new car if you're rich, stupid, or both. I have bought a new car before, but I wasn't rich so you know what that made me! I've since come out of the fog and now I only buy used vehicles.

I've been thinking lately that my car is getting long in the tooth so the idea of finding a 'new-to-me' car is starting to have some appeal. Ideally I'd like to get one more year out of my Ford Focus wagon because, quite frankly, I like the car. Last week I happened to notice a 2007 Ford Focus wagon for sale at a dealership in Fredericton. My Focus is a 2005 with 226 000 km on it. The Focus for sale was a 2007 with 78 000 km. In general I don't want to buy a car that old but there were three factors that took me to the dealership:

1) 2007 was the last year that Ford made the Focus wagon, so if I wanted another one then 2007 was my best bet and this particular car had very low mileage.

2) my car needed some work, so it was questionable whether I should pump more money into it.

3) the dealership in Fredericton offered, in print, to buy my car from me (even if I didn't trade it!).

Another appeal to this particular used Focus wagon was that we could afford to pay cash for it. I'm not a fan of owing money. With the exception of a big ticket item like a condo, I'm not much inclined to set myself up for monthly payments. So Wendy and I went into the dealership and test drove the Focus. We liked it and we agreed that we'd buy it. There was just one little issue still hanging....the trade-in value of our car.

The used car manager took our car for two loops around the dealership, then he met with the salesman, with whom we were dealing, privately. After about fifteen minutes, our sales guy came back and offered us $200 for our car. That's not a typo. Two hundred. Now, I'll be the first to admit that our car needed some love, but $200?? Wendy and I told the salesman that $200 'wasn't going to work for us'. He left the office to talk to the used car manager to see if he could get us more for our trade. Wendy and I were left sitting in the salesman's office, so what did we do? We burst out laughing. The idea of $200 for the car that gets us from Cambridge-Narrows to Fredericton three times a week was hilarious.

I know someone who once spent $250 for a haircut and dye job (not Wendy, thankfully). I know someone who sells a pair of jeans for $300. For god's sake, yesterday I saw a lawnmower for sale for $200 at Sears! That lawnmower was just like my car...four wheels and a motor. Well, I suppose there were some differences between my car and the mower. My car, for example, has heated leather seating, a sun roof, a CD player and a rear view mirror! The mower had none of this, though it did have a lovely mulch bag.

The salesman came back to us with a much more reasonable offer the second time....$400. Four hundred dollars can get you a lawnmower with racing stripes AND a mulch bag, or our car, I suppose. Wendy and I looked at each other with that expression that said 'we're outta here'. We thanked the salesman for his time as he was very pleasant and professional, then we hopped into our decrepit Ford Focus wagon, crossed ourselves, and laughed the whole way home.

As an addendum to this story, we took our car to our local mechanic, spent $850 on our car and now it drives like a dream. Sure, it has some rusty spots that I'll have to beautify, but it gets us from point A to point B in relative safety and comfort. Certainly better than any $200 lawnmower ever could!