Trade value shock

[Pod]

Went to look at an upgrade for my XLT Lightning. Picked it up in January of this year, 12k miles. Local dealer offered $39k in trade. I was insulted. $24,000 drop seems a bit much on my truck.. Curious to see if other dealers have a better offer But who knows.

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[PA Lightning]

I punched in my 2022 Pro SR with 14.000 miles in the CarMax website on Nov 18 My MSRP was $45k . CarMax offered $44k.
I assume that price has decreased in the last five weeks, but I thought the price CarMax provided in November was reasonable.

 

[Pod]

Funny, Car Max says not enough info to give me a price. I have a SR XLT, kind of a unicorn.

 

[hls811]

I feel your pain, I'm going through the same with my Mach-E. Last month got a quote of $34k, now I'm getting offers of $28k. When I was pricing out my Lightning it was expecting that extra $6k to put down and keep my payments where they were. The EV used market just stinks.

 

[RickLightning]

Amazing these type of posts keep showing up.

 

[PA Lightning]

Funny, Car Max says not enough info to give me a price. I have a SR XLT, kind of a unicorn.

Funny, you are right. I went back and looked at the email. CarMax told me the same thing. The offer was from Carvana, $44,006. My mistake

 

[Oafy44]

I talked to my dealer at length the other day and these are his thoughts.

Now that ford has dropped the price / rebates of around $10k with federal tax incentives on top of that - there’s really no reason anyone would not want to just buy a new lightning vs a 1-1.5 lighting for $10k less. - has to be 20k less for people to bite.

He thinks most people looking for a lightning - are still a bit gun shy right now and will take another year or two before people feel fine buying a used Ev.

I think this is the same as Tesla back and the day. You rarely never saw used teslas for sale outside of a Tesla center and now you see used Tesla’s all over the place.


It’s just part of the transition but doubt our trucks will depreciate that much going forward like they have the past year.

 

[Henry Ford]

It sucks but this is how the used car market has historically worked. COVID turned the market on its head because new cars couldn't be built and used cars became a substitute for those who would ordinarily buy new. This contributed in no small part to the inflation of 2021 and 2022.

The used car market was bound to return to something close to it's historical norm. Manufacturers want to make as much money as possible but the Fed wants prices to stabilize and raised interest rates. Manufacturers are now building cars in large numbers but have lost pricing power because money isn't cheap anymore. People have returned to the new car market or put another way, left the used car market. Sellers of used cars have lost the pricing advantage.

 

[benderofbows]

Out of curiosity I got a Carvana quote for $45k on 23 Pro 10k miles; local dealer has a new ER Pro (fleet order that fell through so now available for retail) in work truck white and said they would match the $45k Carvana offer, but it would be another $15k to step up into the big battery so I'll most likely pass.

 

[MichaelCA]

most specs come with the federal $7.5K and local incentives. You guys dont expect to pick up MSRP and MAKE money right? Not sure about how the incentive works if you sell your vehicle though.

 

[Pod]

Definitely did not expect to make money but a trade in at 50% value inside a year seems not right. I would hope Ford values it own product a bit better. Especially early adopters.

 

[VAF84]

Agree with the posts about the incentives lowering trade-in on last years trucks. I got my Lariat ER a couple of weeks ago. $80k - $7.5k Ford incentive - $5k dealer Incentive - $7.5k Federal Tax credit.… essentially a $60k truck. The $45-55k trade in sort of makes sense when scenario’s like this are common. I wasn’t opposed to used LIghtning’s, but the ones I saw cost equal or more than a new one.

Having said that, trade-in values are being impacted across the board. Car buying is back to normal. The lots are packed. I traded in my one year old Sierra 1500 Denali 6.2L with 16k miles. Purchased new Dec 2022, traded this Dec 2023 and got $55k. The highest a dealer offered me was $58k. Not much different from the Lightning losses. Purchased a used C8 in July, lost nearly $10k when I sold it back this week, after six months and minimal miles. Aside from specific speciality vehicles, markups are a thing of the past.

 

[RickLightning]

Definitely did not expect to make money but a trade in at 50% value inside a year seems not right. I would hope Ford values it own product a bit better. Especially early adopters.

Ford is a company in Detroit. They don't take trades.

Ford dealers are independent. They are businesses that need to make profits. When they take a vehicle in trade, they either resell for a profit or take it to auction for a profit. They will only offer you more than your trade is worth when they are charging you too much on the new vehicle...

 

[3rdgenfan]

Amazing these type of posts keep showing up.

God forbid people talk about the value of their vehicles after a year of ownership. My 2009 Pontiac has a better value on the market than my 1 year old truck that had a $65k MSRP.

 

[RickLightning]

God forbid people talk about the value of their vehicles after a year of ownership. My 2009 Pontiac has a better value on the market than my 1 year old truck that had a $65k MSRP.

More whining than talking. People who were largely naive when buying, now surprised at reality. Over and over, and over again.

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