Trade my car in now? Covid Car Insanity

[rothwem]

We bought our current family car two years ago as a CPO and paid $30,000 for it with 50,000 miles.  I entered the current details of it into vroom's instant buy website and found that they were willing to give me $29700 for my car two years later with an additional 40k miles.  It almost seems irresponsible NOT to take advantage of this, right?  I'd have to buy new at MSRP to take advantage of this silly "arbitrage", which I've never done before, but the new hybrid Sienna seems appealing. 

So, am I crazy or not?  I've got 7 days to respond to the offer. 

[yachi]

I would have expected MSRP to be higher on the Sienna than they're listing.  I'm surprised.  I've had one eye on plug in Chrysler Pacificas but they are more like 35K to 45K used.  You put a lot of miles on your old car in 2 years, the higher fuel efficiency of the hybrid could be quite useful to you.  The mustachian choice though is to craft a life where you don't need to drive so much.

[Dave1442397]

YouTuber Rob Feretti just sold his Subaru...I forget which online service offered the most, but it's in this video - https://youtu.be/ruqssnYfEl0?t=80

I think selling your car and buying a new Sienna hybrid is the way to go right now if you really need a car. We bought a new Toyota Venza a couple of months ago, and it's the first new car we've bought since 2003. I just couldn't see paying crazy prices for a used car. The Toyota dealer had a $10k markup on the Venza, but we just laughed at that and spent 20-30 mins getting back to MSRP with 1.9% financing, which is what I was willing to pay.

[reeshau]

I've had one eye on plug in Chrysler Pacificas but they are more like 35K to 45K used.  You put a lot of miles on your old car in 2 years, the higher fuel efficiency of the hybrid could be quite useful to you.  The mustachian choice though is to craft a life where you don't need to drive so much.

New Pacificas are still eligible for the $7,500 tax credit.  And even now, you can get $1,000 from Chrysler, too.

In April, that was $6,500 from Chrysler, meaning a new hybrid was cheaper than a 2-year old with 60k miles.  If you could get them, of course.  I flew to Ohio (for $250, same day) to get mine.

[SomedayStache]

Following because I'm interested to see how feasible buying a new Sienna may be for you. I've been stalking the Sienna chat forums and see stories of people waiting 6+ months for a delivery (but sometimes they want a certain set of features or trims)

I know none of the dealerships in my area have any on their lots (I haven't reached out to inquire about the possibility of getting on a list or putting down a deposit to be on the waiting list for one because I'm not ready to pull the trigger if one DID happen to be available)

[rothwem]

Following because I'm interested to see how feasible buying a new Sienna may be for you. I've been stalking the Sienna chat forums and see stories of people waiting 6+ months for a delivery (but sometimes they want a certain set of features or trims)

I know none of the dealerships in my area have any on their lots (I haven't reached out to inquire about the possibility of getting on a list or putting down a deposit to be on the waiting list for one because I'm not ready to pull the trigger if one DID happen to be available)

Hmm, I didn't realize it would be so difficult to get one, I see them all over where I am.  That might put a wrinkle into my plans. 

I would have expected MSRP to be higher on the Sienna than they're listing.  I'm surprised.  I've had one eye on plug in Chrysler Pacificas but they are more like 35K to 45K used.  You put a lot of miles on your old car in 2 years, the higher fuel efficiency of the hybrid could be quite useful to you.  The mustachian choice though is to craft a life where you don't need to drive so much.

Yeah, I'm really not interested in a current Stellantis product.  As for driving less, I'm not sure that's an enormous concern right now.  We've done a lot of trips in the car over the past two years that we probably would've flown pre-Covid.  My family is 500 miles away and my wife's is 900, so just visiting them a couple times a year racks up the miles. 

[Glenstache]

I got on a list at my local dealer with the intent of seeing how hood a deal I would be offered having perused kbb values. I was offered over 4k more than I had bought my car for 2 years ago. The car I wanted hadn't even been built yet  and was 6 weeks or so from delivery, which was fine by me. Ghis will allow me to move from a crosstrek (which I quite like) to a rav4 hybrid that will get about 25 to 30% better mog and be a better fit for lifestyle changes as I shift into coast mode in 2022.

[Dave1442397]

I got on a list at my local dealer with the intent of seeing how hood a deal I would be offered having perused kbb values. I was offered over 4k more than I had bought my car for 2 years ago. The car I wanted hadn't even been built yet  and was 6 weeks or so from delivery, which was fine by me. Ghis will allow me to move from a crosstrek (which I quite like) to a rav4 hybrid that will get about 25 to 30% better mog and be a better fit for lifestyle changes as I shift into coast mode in 2022.

Did you look at the Venza? It may not be what you need in terms of cargo capacity, but the interior is nicer than the RAV4's, and the gas mileage is about the same.

[Glenstache]

The venza looked to be almost the same vehicle but costs more. I prefer the simpler feel of the rav4 over the "nice" interiors of more expensive cars. The only upgrade I like is better audio, but that is far more cost effectively attained by just buying hood aftermarket speakers. About $250 worth of speakers and a couple of hours either a screwdriver will make the basic audio system sound better than the thousand dollar audio upgrade. I actually found a really good deal on a matched speaker set (combo of black Friday and open box returns) a month ago and have them in my garage now just waiting to go.

[sonofsven]

It's interesting to see this in cars, since it's been the norm for trucks for quite awhile (in my humble experience).
By "this" I mean the scenario of the used car being almost as expensive as the new car, and so it makes less sense to go used.
A lot of it is because dealer's make more money selling near new cars to people with crap credit than they do selling new cars.

[Glenstache]

It's interesting to see this in cars, since it's been the norm for trucks for quite awhile (in my humble experience).
By "this" I mean the scenario of the used car being almost as expensive as the new car, and so it makes less sense to go used.
A lot of it is because dealer's make more money selling near new cars to people with crap credit than they do selling new cars.

This is true. The economics (and sometimes dirty tricks) of car dealerships are kind of weird. I was actually hoping there was some sort of cash back incentive to go with financing that I could use and pay off a month later.