My wife recently traded her car for a Tesla Model 3. Her car, a BMW "GT" was a good traveling car with a hatchback and seats that folded flat for storage of a large amount of "stuff." In fact, BMW classifies it as a station wagon. This left us with two cars that are functionally identical, her Model 3 and my Jetta GLI. So I started scouring around AutoTrader to see if I could find a tasty small SUV.
As all good Internet Geniuses do, I started by getting a quote from Carvana for the Jetta. They quickly offered me $19,600, which is a fair price. Retail is low 20's for that car. I found a loaded, low mileage '19 Dodge Journey GT being sold by a Honda dealer for $18,999. In a world without sales tax, I would just take the offer from Carvana (I've done that twice before with no hassles whatsoever), and buy the Dodge for cash. I gave them all my information, including a forwarded copy of the offer from Carvana.
After juking and jiving for two days, they come back with an offer to give me $17,000 for my Jetta. To the price of the Dodge they add $1,495 for "lojack" (which i gather is an anti-theft device), and $800 for paperwork - not including any sales tax. All told, they want $4,300 plus my car for the Dodge. And I still have to pay a couple hundred in fees to the state of Pennsylvania.
Would ANYBODY be stupid enough to take this deal?
I later contacted another dealer with the same Dodge, different color, and have arranged a straight trade with $400 paperwork fees. Done. This is why people hate to buy cars.
As all good Internet Geniuses do, I started by getting a quote from Carvana for the Jetta. They quickly offered me $19,600, which is a fair price. Retail is low 20's for that car. I found a loaded, low mileage '19 Dodge Journey GT being sold by a Honda dealer for $18,999. In a world without sales tax, I would just take the offer from Carvana (I've done that twice before with no hassles whatsoever), and buy the Dodge for cash. I gave them all my information, including a forwarded copy of the offer from Carvana.
After juking and jiving for two days, they come back with an offer to give me $17,000 for my Jetta. To the price of the Dodge they add $1,495 for "lojack" (which i gather is an anti-theft device), and $800 for paperwork - not including any sales tax. All told, they want $4,300 plus my car for the Dodge. And I still have to pay a couple hundred in fees to the state of Pennsylvania.
Would ANYBODY be stupid enough to take this deal?
I later contacted another dealer with the same Dodge, different color, and have arranged a straight trade with $400 paperwork fees. Done. This is why people hate to buy cars.