Okay guys, I could use a lot of your guys' input on a thought I've been juggling with for about the past few weeks...

At the moment, my truck is a 2005 with 35,000 miles on it. Everything is in excellent condition and the truck has a 7 year/100,000 mile extended warranty with it. However, I know that I will want to sell it before it reaches 100,000 miles because I don't want to keep it past the warranty expiring.

Anyways, I've test driven a 2009 Dodge Ram 1500 a couple of times within the last three days. I thought the truck was OKAY, but dodge has a lot of incentives right now that have really made me think about this. Not only do the '09's come with a lifetime powertrain warranty, they offer a lifetime bumper to bumper warranty as well; something I would more than likely purchase. They also are offering 25% off their '09's which puts them below the $30,000 mark.

As far as my trade in, they are trying to screw me (no surprise)...they were willing to give me $13,400. Kelly Blue Book values my trade in at $16,095. So it looks like I will have to try and sell my truck privately to totally avoid losing money on the purchase. Thankfully, my extended warranty is completely refundable unless somebody buys my truck with the warranty. I currently am selling my truck on craigslist for $20,500 which seems to be a pretty good deal considering it books at $19,995 and my truck has over three thousand dollars worth of accessories and brand new toyo open country a/t tires. Anyways, what do you guys thinks? If I want a new truck, would now be the time to sell it while it still has extremely low miles? Thanks!

 

05 is getting old to the dealers, they only want 3 year old vehicles. maybe that's why they are so low. also you have to look at the original price of the truck minus the 13,400, to see what you get if the truck wasn't on sale. they may be low but they have to make a living. selling privately will be more conducive to a low mileage truck.

 

Private sale sounds like a better deal, an 05' with only 35,000 miles? People would jump over that. I know some 08's on craigslist with 100,000+ on them.

 

My 08 already has 21K on it. 72 miles a day to work and back ads up pretty quick. Mostly highway miles though.

 

a dealer will never give you the KBB or NADA book price. they have to cover inspections, advertising. blah blah. look around on cars.com or autotrader and see what some comparables are. would you be losing money on the deal? is your truck a 1500 or 2500? your post say 2500 but your sig says 1500. anyway it comes down to what you want if the incentives make it worth it and you wont be screwed upside down on the 09 i say go for it. i got 14000 trade in on my 05 1500 slt hemi 2 years ago and made the mistake of being blinded by a new shiny 08, my bad.

 

goodluck man i remember when i tried to get rid of mine when i had 20k miles on it. they offered 8500 for a trade...

 

What did you mean you got blinded? Just curious.

So should I be happy they were going to give me $13,400 for my trade in?

I definitely will loose a little money on this deal because I still owe $13,000 on my loan for my current 2005 and I paid $20,000 for it in April out the door. If they gave me $13,400, I would only have $400 plus the $1900 from my warranty being refunded to put towards a new truck which wouldn't make the cut at all. So I will need to sell it privatelty. Even if I sold it for a measeley $18,000 it would still be substantially better than a trade in. Then I would have about $6,900 to put towards a new Ram. Any money I would loose from this whole ordeal would be worth it though due to the much higher resale value of the new Ram. Right?

 

Actually, I think the $13,400 is outstanding. I shopped my '04 1500 at three dealers last year when diesel fuel was up around $6 a gallon and they were discounting new 2500 CTD's by $10k.

I had about 38k on my truck at the time, about $8k in mods on it, is in near mint condition and the best I was offered was $14,200. I actually had the dealer where I bought it slap me in the face by offering me $8800 for it!

I'd still shop it around privately for a bit, you never know. Look at Ramhunter, he sold his '04 RC for a good $3k over book privately when he bought his MegaCab.

Personally, I NEVER trade in a vehicle I still owe money on. I have always made it a point to take out 3 year loans as this was the length of time I usually kept my vehicles.

 

yup as hammer said i sold my 04 RCSB for 3k over book privetly if i rember correctly i got 17k for it it was paid off and i just slapped that money down on my mega cab and only have a note of 3k witch is almost paid off. it helped the sale because of the mods i did to her . dealers dont want mods they say but people privetly do thats one less thing they have to do.

 

Well guys, today my salesman called me back and told me they would grant me $15,000 for my trade in. They told me that my payment on a 2009 Dodge Ram would be $520 a month for 72 months with no money down. If I did the trade in, I would only have about $3,200 to put towards the new truck. However, if I can even sell my truck privately for $18,000, this will give me an extra $3,000 to put towards the new truck or for a buffer zone on the new bigger payments. I'm also guessing it will be more than $520 a month if I purhcase the "lifetime wrap" which would be a lifetime bumper to bumper. Anyways, I'm going to go test drive the crew cab today because my dad wants to see how big the backseat is; he may be interested as well. I love my 2005, but dodge is the only company offering a lifetime bumper to bumper; that is incredible. I could use this new truck years without having to worry about selling it before I exceeded my warranty. As far as the trade in, I'm pretty happy about what they are giving me after hearing your guys' stories...this is why I'm happy I have you guys.

Here is my craigslist link:
http://maine.craigslist.org/cto/1420232555.html