Since this is in the Auto News all over the place, I figure this is relevant...

I keep reading and hearing how people are trading in trucks and SUVs and basically getting nothing for them just to get a car that gets better mileage... I haven't purchased a used vehicle in years, but am giving this some thought.

If I can get a 2007 or 2008 Avalanche, or Tahoe, or Silverado, etc... for a RIDICULOUSLY low price, I may consider going low mile used.

So, just how much of a discount should I expect to be able to get these days? Let's use a 2007 Avalanche as an example... what WOULD have I paid for a nice low mile example before the SUV purge? And how much MORE should I save NOW?

 

Talk to Jason E

If we get that $5 July 4th spike people are going to panic, you should be able to get something for wholesale (or less) very easy.

 

Where I used to work there is a 2007 black Ford Expedition for $14k. Its sitting next to an 06 Corolla for $16k...

 

Where dat Expy? Capital Ford?
I could upgrade my Eddie Bauer for a price like that...

My family has revamped the way we view and use our SUVs completely.
Wife and I are both commuting in 4 and 6 cyl Mustangs and getting 30-40 mpg during the week. We also use them for soccer camp, errands, and grocery-grabbing.
The V8 cars are weekend toys and occasional commute cars now - even thinking about dropping insurance and tags on a couple of them right now.
Yesterday is the first time in over 2 weeks I drove the 5.0 LX.

When we take the family (us'ns and her folks or my folks, etc) out for dinner, a trip to the beach or mountains, etc, we upgrade to the SUV for the added room and comfort. Since we are using the SUV for only 10-15% of our travel now, it is more easy to swallow the gas prices. It's also keeping the miles off the SUV and maintenance costs down too. So I have considered moving from the Explorer to a newer but used Expedition for the added comforts and room. I mean, if we are using the SUV for room, we may as well maximize that process, right? It will cost me 3-5 mpg or so, but that cost becomes marginal given the total distance we travel in an SUV now. We were slamming 30-40k/year on 2 Explorers just a couple years ago, now I have an Eddie Bauer that had 4200 put on it last year.

I don't think we are the only ones looking at such either. I think we will see many families having two cars - one for the daily duty and another for special trips. It's kinda like a beach house or mountain villa... the second car is becoming a "luxury" item for the middle class.

 

I've heard of dealers up here in the PNW no longer taking SUV's on trade in and the ones that do are only offering 50% of trade in value. if this is true i am actually seriously considering buying another H2 to replace the one I traded in 6 months ago. A year from now I may be able to pick up an 04 or 05 with 60k-90k miles for less than $15k.

I think the price of gas will go down again to around $2.50 - $3.00 a gallon inside of the next two years. Wouldn't be surprised to see a small spike in the sale of SUV's when that happens. Might be a good time to stockpile a few now for sale later and make a tidy little profit. There's one guy in the Midwest buying SUV's today for less than $10k and selling them south of the border for double since the price of gas is considerably cheaper in Mexico.

 

yeah... I wouldn't count on that, the oil companies, government, speculators (and who every else banks off gas...) know we are willing to pay $4+ without rioting, they're not gonna change that anytime soon, if anything expect to be paying $4.50-$5.00 inside of the next two years...

 

I think people are realizing that spending $500/month on gas is silly, when they can pay $250/month (and this will only get worse). And keeping an SUV (paying for insurance and tags) just to drive it occasionally doesn't make much sense either.

If my wife drove the liberty 50-60 miles per day (instead of 15 miles) i'd be getting rid of it for sure.

 

Traded the wife's 99 Jeep Grand Cherokee Limited AWd with magnumV8, leather, sunroof, tow package, "in the wrapper" The dealer showed $4400 on paper but his true ACV was $2200. A wholesaler buddy of mine sold a 1999 Eddie Bauer Expedition at the sale the other day and it brought $2600.

 

There has been a decline in the amount of gas being purchased and the higher the price goes the more the decline will increase. I could be wrong and we could be in for ever increasing gas prices but if demand drops due to price and cost forces us to either pump our own crude (offshore, Alaska) or finally invest in shale oil, tar sand, alternative energy sources etc...flooding the market with non-foreign oil prices could come down again. Investing and physically extracting our domestic sources of oil won't happen inside of two years but a decline in demand from the largest consumer of oil (US) could drive prices down if only in the short term.

The thinking here may very well be flawed and is over simplified so let's here some different ideas.

 

I see what your saying and understand that point of view, but here is how I see it:

1. Offshore oil if anything might help stablize prices, but even if we start now it would take years before new rigs are up and running, plus the likely hood of discovering large scale oil fields is slim
2. Oil shale, Tar fields etc., could be a source of oil in the future, but you need energy to extract it, mainly energy from oil, so it really isn't the most cost effective way to obtain oil
3. Eastern economies are not slowing down, China and India's economies are growing by about 10% every year, their need for oil is only going to grow
4. There is only so much oil, some geophysicists say that we are already past peak production, meaning the areas that do supply oil are going to have to slowly reduce production

So the way I see it, and I'll admit anything could happen, I can't picture oil ever "reducing" in price, maybe stabilizing for time periods but I'm pretty sure $4 gas is here to stay, and $5 to $6 dollar gas doesn't seem out of question

 

Guess it all comes down to how much is there and how efficiently, and how quickly it can be had and these answers vary from person to person. I look forward to seeing alternative forms of energy really take off. In the mean time build Nuclear power plants. Not quick and easy but long term it reduces our oil consumption. Isn't 80% of France's energy Nuclear? My concern is being held hostage by foreign oil and the sooner we get away from it the better off we will all be.

 

How so?
If I'm not making payments on it, and using it only when needed, how is it not making sense? My insurance rates are not bad at all - I'm not paying any premiums at all and have no points. My tags are $20/year. My inspection is $9.75/year.

Is the better opton to try to seat 7 people in a Mustang or try to pack a weeks-worth of beach trip goodies for a whole family into a 2+2 small coupe and pull a decent-sized boat behind it?

To me it makes much more sense to maximize your use of an efficient car when you are travelling alone (like commuting to work or errands) and use the MPV/SUV when you need the extra capacity.

Now granted - my personal business case assumes that you are a multi-car owner. If you absolutely must own only one car, then it needs to be an "everything to everyone" vehicle, and you will most certainly be making sacrifices in some areas to accomodate others - like fuel mileage in exchange for extra cargo space.

Maybe it depends on your lifestyle and needs as to whether it makes sense or not?

 

^ I suppose if you have an older vehicle...I should have specified that I was referring to peopelw ith 0-3 year old SUVs that cost $30-45k. The payment on these vehicles, plus insurance (not cheap on a new vehicle with a lien on it as you need full coverage) plus tags (where I live tags for a 1 year old Tahoe are like $800)...it all adds up. So you're paying like $700/month for a vehicle you barely drive. Might as well rent an truck/SUV when you need it.

 

I sold my Tahoe last November, thank god. After paying off the note, I still walked away with $1,500 which isn't bad considering I only had it for a year and a half and didn't put anything down on it. I'm sure that would be a completely different scenario if I tried to sell it today.

 

I'm with cmg06s on this. Theres no way prices will come back down for all the reasons he posted.

Nuclear power would be great but they havn't built a new nuclear power plant in over 20 years. They are very expensive and take forever to build. They're trying to build one here in Missouri at a projected cost of $6-11 billion with no help from the government.