Monday, December 06, 2010

Marginalizing Kelly "Bull" Book

On Saturday morning we bought this ride:


...for 15k.

It has just under 16,000 miles on it and is somewhat pimped up: black, with a sun-roof, and tinted windows!

Some Moron kid paid $28,000 for it 3+ years ago. He told me he used his bar mitzvah money to demonstrate new-car, drive-off-the-lot, instant depreciation. Whatever, he was 19, going off to college,....and incorrigibly short.

And that same day we also, finally unloaded our clunker:


...but for only $1,900.

Let me tell y'all, it was a real struggle to sell this one.

Originally, being a '97 Suburban with 155k miles on it, I thought it was worth only $900. Heck when my MIL gave it to us 4.5 years ago, with 100k miles, the book value was only $6,000. My wife and I have recently been more concerned about the gas in the 43 gallon tank and the GPS being stolen than we were about the car!

But I punched up the Suburban a couple months ago on Kelly Blue Book and was shocked to discover the private party value around $4,000.

Great! Even if I sell it for 3k I figured I'll be way ahead psychologically anyway.

But alas, Kelly Blue Book is out of its tree if they think my POS worth 4k.

We didn't get a lick of interest in it until I dropped the price to $2,000. One guy came Saturday afternoon, a car vulture type, and bid me $1,500. He was sharp, noticing every little detail - good and bad.

I was itching to give it to him but my wife insisted on $1,650. I nearly cried when the guy *walked away* over $150. I went inside and sort of cussed out my first wife who relented and told me I could call the guy back and hit his $1,500 bid. I mean with our new car already in hand, we now have six cars piled into our driveway; buying interest in our Suburban was almost nil; and gas is tipping $3.30 a gallon around here at the moment. Do any of y'all want an old clunker that only gets 12 mpg???

For 20 minutes I tried calling the vulture back - except his *pre-paid* cheap-a$$ phone wasn't connecting us as he started his 1 hour trek back to the middle of Long Island.

Anyways, one other guy came by about an hour later, our only other lead at the time, and mercifully relieved us of this albatross for $1,900.

My wife went to the DMV today to register our new car.

She had to pay $1,293 in sales tax (8.625%)....and another couple hundred to register it - $1,500 total.

What a total freakin' jam job!

Do you *new car people* pay these rump-ripping transactional costs all the time?

This $15,000 on the Volvo is the most I've ever spent on anything that wasn't a *derivative*. I think my wife's engagement ring only cost 11k (Blue Nile, round, 1.6 carats).

6 comments:

Paul Mitchell said...

Buy cars in Mississippi, and drive them wherever you live. Our state car sales tax is 3% for a car under 10k pounds.

Justin Time said...

They're on to that trick, Mitchell. You have to pay the sales tax when you register it, so it doesn't matter where you buy it...

Paul Mitchell said...

I have not bought a new car in about four years, but then, the sales tax was paid at the dealership in Mississippi. Luckily, they jacked the used car tax up in our state, too. Now, the poor people have to take buses and stuff. I hate buses and poor people.

CaptiousNut said...

The only thing you can do is lie about the transaction price - not too hard to do either.

We had two checks made out - one for 10k and one for 5k - and were going to write the bill of sale up at $10,000 to save $431.

But at the last minute we wimped out on the deception.

Paul Mitchell said...

In The 'Sip, that doesn't work, either. They go by Kelly Blue Book value on a used car.

Only buy new in Mississippi...

CaptiousNut said...

But the gov't can't tell whether or not the car is damaged or anything. There's a wide range of possible values so one could easily do what I pondered doing to save at least some taxes.