I have a 2014 Ford Fiesta loan with 25k miles, but a cracked rear bumper (Good/great condition otherwise). KBB(good cond): $6192, Nada(Average): $7,225, Black Book: $5,655 - $7,510. 10-day payoff is $8100.
My original plan was to keep the car until I had a little bit of equity (4 years?). My problem is that the warranty is up next month and this car has been nothing but a problem. It is constantly in the shop for warranty work (I’m pretty sure the entire car has been replaced at this point LOL). I’m really afraid to own it after the warranty runs out. Chances are, it will not make it another year without major work needing to be done.
I took it into a dealership to enquire about a Civic Hatchback EX lease. I eventually got them up to $6500 for my car, but it seems that Honda’s MF is just really high and I wound up walking. I really wasn’t prepared enough, either. He got down to $360, but that felt too high. I wound up walking. Now I’ve done some research and I feel better prepared.
If I try this again, any advice on how I should open negotiations, based on the fact that I will have to roll up a bit of money into the lease? Start with the trade-in value? Demand the full pay off for my trade in but add in the $1500 to my goal for purchase price? (For most cars, this looks like it brings it up to around MSRP if using Edmunds True Value).
Or should I start with purchase price and MF first?
This is a local northeast Ohio dealer ad for civic ex hatch. I would try to get even lower, but with your negative equity you will have to roll over, your payment will go up.
Negotiate your best deal on the lease, and then your best deal on your trade. Anything negative you could pay over the course of the lease or even up front if you choose.
Go into dealers with the attitude that you don’t NEED a new car right away, and are just shopping around while you try to find a private buyer for your Ford. Leave your trade out of the equation completely. If you do find a good deal, tell them you are interested but they would have to buy your car for the payoff amount, otherwise you will wait until you sell it before signing for a new car.
I used that tactic when I was trying to sell my last car and get into a lease, and while it took a few weeks and caused me to walk away from negotiations a few times, it paid off in the end and I got everything I wanted.
Set a goal and stick to it, even if it means walking away. The dealer I ended up going with was one of the first ones I went to and they called me at the end of the month and said they would do it if I came in to sign that day.
in general, you’d negotiate on a lease first and not mention the trade-in, when you’re happy with the payment then you bring up the trade-in. If you tell them about the trade-in upfront, they’ll just make up the profit on either new car or on the trade in. This way the price on the new car is already settled and then it just becomes a question of how much you can get for your old car.
Have you taken it to carmax to see what they’d offer? Might be a good start.
My advice as a pervious life car salesman is to only talk about the lease first. Do not mention anything about the trade to the salesman. When they ask you about the car your driving now tell them you are selling privately. Now I just got myself a 2017 Hyundai Elantra sport for a pretty good deal, I could have gotten a better one but I had some credit issues. If your willling Hyundai is having good lease deals on the car and they come pretty equipped. They also have a better engine then the civic. If you do a deal like mine and get another 1000 off the selling price(about 21600) the deal should be in the high 180-190 range. Then you can talk about the trade and add the negative equity of about 2000(based off your post) back in to the price and should be somewhere around 250ish a month. You have to go in with all the info, so for the Hyundai it’s residual is 54%, money factor of .00055%, rebates of 3250, and get the selling price down to about $21,640.
Thanks for the advice everyone, I took it to heart. I’m heading to a dealership in a few minutes that I’ve been communicating with online. We’ve agreed on purchase price (about $1000 under invoice), and MF (based on edmunds forum research) 0.0006
Now the only thing left is my trade in. Either they can give me enough for it or not. I don’t expect to get the payoff but if they can’t come up with a fair price, I’ll walk and consider my options after that.
It’s been hard to figure out what a fair price is, because KBB is about $1500 less than NADA and black book ranges from $4000 to almost $8000. From looking at what my car is reselling at other dealers with similar mileage, my guess is they would try to sell it for about $10k of hey don’t auction it. Not sure how I can reverse engineer that to figure out the most they would pay.
Anyway, I’m off… I’ll update later with how it went. Thanks everyone, you people rock!
