Good Post Bob because... (archive)

Good post Bob because of the good info and logic it contains. It hurts to see some guy jump on a used BMW because it is only a fraction of the original price without understanding its true market value.

45K miles is nothing but 10 years is a long time for a BMW. Buying a 10 year old BMW mostly likely means you are going to be its last owner that sells it for over $1K if you keep it for a few years.

Today I sold a solid 733i with less than 200K miles for $500 with 2 new tires, a new radiator and a fairly new AM/FM Cass Radio after the guy had driven it as a loaner for a while.

My 88 735i which I gave $5.5K for about 2 years ago with 143K miles will be worth about the same in a few years.

My best buy in a BMW is the 85 528e my wife drives. It requires some upkeep but not like the 88 735i but I will get another 735i if my 88 dies. It was wounded by a Mazda 323 but it does not look that bad so I will put the $3.3K towards a 92 735i perhaps next year. Thanks again for your post.

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By giving you $8K the dealer will advertise the car for about $12K and take $10.5K.

A $2500 profit for the trouble of accepting your trade is completely reasonable.

They probably are making less than $6000 on your new 2001 car, so $8500 on the two deals is not a lot of money these days. Dealers really like to make at least $4000 on a used car, and that means often not wanting really old cars like yours. Yours MUST be clean or they would just wholesale it at the auction.

The e32 depreciates like a stone, and you obviously had it repainted, which hurts the value unless you spent at least $3000 just on the paint alone. Any cheaper job, and it reduces the value of the car.

Just figure you had a nice car to drive for 45,000 miles, and that it cost you less than a dollar a mile to own it.

You'd pay that to ride on the Concorde and you don't get to keep it in your garage!

Remember, too, that if you sell it privately for more, some of taht money will go to pay sales tax on the $8K you are not getting as trade-in on the new car.

Bob

Hello, I am new to this forum, but I was wondering: I have a 90 735il that I would like to trade (indirectly, probably) for a new(er?) Bimmer. I was sort of insulted by the dealer's quote of $8K, and I wanted to know if anyone thought that was reasonable. This car is in immaculate condition (believe me, just had it totally done over at the body shop, only 45K miles, beautiful). Any thoughts? I really appreciate it.

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