$500 car

Same $500 offer here. Mine is only 10 years old and 120,000 miles.

One dealer told me they offer $500 on ALL cars older than 5 years! He said that their policy was to have no used cars on their lot older than 4 years, preferably 3, and that any trade-in older than that was only $500 as they turned it over to a salvage/auction broker just to unload it and keep it off their lot. Said cars older than 4 years weren't worth the trouble as too many people came back complaining about broken items on a "as-is" sale as though they had a warranty. It was more of a discouragement on managements part not to let people dump their clunkers off. Most of their fairly used car stock were trade-ins from short-term lease owners and they knew the vehicle's service record. He said to sell the Saturn myself.

Kind'a puts a new wrinkle on depreciation values - rather steep after 4 years. Lease pricey cars. Own cheaper cars.

B~

Personally sounds like a car you can sell yourself, or keep at a backup. Insurance should be very cheap if you tell them it's a spare and you intend on not driving it.

later,

tom @

Resale values of all cars in general suck. Sounds like he should keep using it as his daily driver until the wheels fall off. Leaving it sit will do more harm than good. Another 120k-200k miles of use makes it worth WAY more than any 500 dollar trade-in.

Good point. If the car still works, he'll be saving from 200-400 bucks per month contining driving it.

Trade it in, you got a new car payment, and higher insurance costs. Geez, I'm cheap. ;)

later,

tom @

On the other hand, I couldn't stand the rough ride of my two SW2's by the time I traded them. My '97 had 42,000 and my '01 had 49,000 miles, and they were simply too uncomfortable on my 54-year old butt. I suppose the shocks were wearing out or something. But I got good good trade-in dollar amounts, so it was worth it. I'm driving a Vue now for payments a mere 17 dollars more than they were for either SW2.

It could also be tires. Some model tires become hard as rocks after a few years of use.

Good point. I've known people that would complain about how their cars road real rough, to find out their tire pressures were all over the place, one too much, the others way to low. So every time a crack or bump was driven over, the car felt like uneven.

I'm a little younger than 54, so trading in two cars for one, and end up paying more money, with probly a longer loan now, and have the one car consume gas like the two combine, too much for me. I'm frugal.

;)

later,

tom @

When I put Michelens on after 49k ... it was like getting in a new car ... it drive better than new ... I have heard others say that too ...