Dan_K

Hi guys, I'm trying to get a feel for the used truck market as I have no idea what to expect out of this.

Scenario.
My father has just purchased a new 5th wheel. He currently has an 05 1500 ram with the hemi.
I've offered to let him use my 3500 to tow it with, in fact he just purchased a slider hitch for it today.
He has now expressed that he'd like to sell/trade his truck for a 3/4-1ton. He doesn't want to spend any money and will accept an older higher mileage truck.

So where's the market? Is it bluebook, low bluebook, throw the bluebook out the window and pray somebody will want it? Hows the trade in market right now?

His truck bluebooks at high $18800, low $17100.

johnnyboy_10138

I just got a 2500, bluebooking for 17400 at 110000 miles. I got it from a private seller for 14300. I was looking at the same truck with the same milleage and the dealer wouldnt go bellow 17000

So i guess anything is possible,

Dodgezilla

Last I heard, dealers were only giving the "Wholesale" price on trade-ins. That's much lower than bluebook. They are still trying to get market value for them but they are much more flexible than they were before. Your Dad's best bet is to find one he wants and lowball his offer and see what they say.

FunFinder5

In Texas the truck market has held out pretty strong. However, on the flip side we have trucks for sell everywhere here so getting a good deal is still possible if you look at more than one place.

Last month I sold my '06 DC Tundra for $17,100 (private sell)... turned around and picked up this '05 2500 w/208k for $7,500.

The trick is to sell your truck privately because dealers are only giving a few hundred less than trade-in values. Also, it helps if the truck your selling is not from a company that's having financial troubles. I had my Tundra sold (locally) by the end of the first week I posted it for sell in Craigslist. I was rather shocked at how many potential buys called and came and looked at my truck, just because it was a Toyota. Many were making comments like they normal buy new, but due to the economy they thought they should save some money and buy a used car from a manufacture they felt was stable.

Obviously I'm not bothered by the media reports, because I turned around and bought this Dodge, but I did so because I new I could capitalize on the current ideology and get a really good price. All this said... It's going to be easier for your Dad to pick up a good deal on another Dodge than it is going to be for him to sell his 1/2 ton Dodge for the price he wants for it.

Dan_K

Thanks for the replys.
I put an add on craigslist looking to trade, and have gotten 2 people with interest, however there trades were both 3/4 ton gassers.
I also have an add posted at low bluebook so I'll see how that pans out.

Dan_K

What a fiasco.

We finally sold his truck, $2000 under low bluebook, it took the buyer 3 days to get a loan on it, and when the loan company finally contaced me it was a last minute rush to get everything sent over to them so they could fund it.

It took 3 weeks to sell, and I had many many offers much lower than I accepted.

Now the purchase. We looked at 20 different trucks as a trade in option, and found 2 that were acceptable, 1 of which was really a great deal, but when we went to finalize the deal the next day, somebody else was buying the truck, and the other which was a very nice truck but we were getting reared by the dealer.
After selling we looked at 6 private party trucks, of which 5 were JUNK, and 1 was in new condition but the lady wanted high bluebook and wouldn't budge (good luck in this market, when I get to the finance part you'll understand why)

Finally found a nice used truck on a dealer lot and made the purchase. Truck is an 06 Ford F350 4x4 daully lariat, it was over $50k new, and retail on it today was $34k low blue is $27k, we paid $24k for it.

The tricky part was the finance. It took over 3 hrs to approve and the rate was ridiculous.
A man (my father) who has a 750 fico, makes $7k month self employed, owns 1 home worth $400k with no mortgage, and has a second home with a $1500 month mortgage and maybe $20k in misc unsecured debt, qualified for a 9% rate. He told the dealer that he's not doing that, deals off, and the dealer went back and made some more phone calls getting him a 7.5% rate (mind you he's putting a large chunk of money down from his previous truck sale). The credit union where he sold his truck told him that they'd give him a loan at 5%, so the dealer gave him several days to put his own loan into the truck before they instate the already approved loan through the dealer.

So, the used truck market is tough right now, the approach of selling below bluebook is the only way to get rid of a vehicle privately, and finding a vehicle below bluebook is even harder. Financing is a chore, and if you don't have flawless credit, it's not going to happen.

STate

Sorry to hear about your fiasco. I just sold the 04 in my sig a couple months ago, Colorado is slow on sales but the prices are still decent. I wonder if your situation was exagerated by the fact youre in Nevada. I know the economy in Vegas is one of the worst in the country.

That said...sounds like your dad got a KILLER deal on the Ford! I hope he never runs into any problems with the 6.0L P/S!!!

If the economy stays the way it is, my next vehicle will be used and I will find one I can pay cash for...what a terrible way to treat someone with such great credit and low debt to income ratio!!!! Why do we strive so hard to raise our credit scores if it does nothing for us????

FunFinder5

That's the ticket. If you have cash you can pick up awesome deals right now. That's how I got my '05 for only $7,500. I'm never going to finance a $30k truck again. There's so many other options out there for a lot less. At the end of the day all I need out of my truck is to get me home, besides I'd rather see the $20k in my bank than out in the driveway getting hailed on.

Dan_K

He didn't have to finance, but thought it would be better to pay it off over 5years as opposed to all cash up front.

Another scenario: Parents just bought a 5th wheel, paid cash saved 10k buying a used one in new condition.
Mother went to refi it, has a 720 fico 1-30 day late macy mark, 2-collections from 3 years ago when she co-signed a utility bill for my sister under $100 each these both paid, 35 years of flawless credit besides this and they denied her.
Cash is always king, but either of these people should have access to monies within 30 minutes. Wasn't it this time last year when the first installment of BILLIONS of dollars went out at taxpayers expense to bailout bad loans. 2 people work hard their entire life, and it means nothing to most lenders. Hell, I am young and dumb, have 2 car payments, a house payment, and big credit card debt, struggle to pay it all and yes I'm falling behind as I spent when things were good, (could if I wanted to) file for bk and in a few years be on the same level as these folks who did it the right way. HMMM????