to trade up or not to trade up???

sineadgalway

hey guys...advice needed!

I'm driving a 04 Alfa 147 and my last car payment was this month. I went to two garages 2 weeks ago and was offered 5k in one and 6k in another as a trade in.

My dilemma is I either enjoy the extra cash in my pocket and drive the car into the ground and wait to change the car or I trade in now when i'll need less money to upgrade my car (2nd hand, not new)?

Pain now or more pain later when prices have risen again and I need a bigger loan to trade up?

Thanks!

sean1141

the way i look at is your use to not having the money in your pocket so you would be as well gettin a new one and stay paying it off or if you want to keep it just stay paying the same ammount into a savings account for when you do change

Mr Benevolent

sean1141 wrote: »

the way i look at is your use to not having the money in your pocket so you would be as well gettin a new one and stay paying it off or if you want to keep it just stay paying the same ammount into a savings account for when you do change

^^^^ Jesus H Christ.

OP,why do you want to start another loan just after your previous loan finished? Your Alfa is worth about €7k sold privately, why not just sell it and buy something for €7k? It's nonsensical to buy anything using exorbitant finance on a heavily depreciating asset in this economy, you may as well set fire to your money and try to buy something with the ashes.

EPM

Confab wrote: »

Why do you want to start another loan just after your previous loan finished? Your Alfa is worth about 7k sold privately, why not just sell it and buy something for 7k? It's pointless buying on exorbitant finance on a heavily depreciated asset in this economy, you might as well set fire to your money.

But it will be all shiny and you'll get that warm fuzzy feeling

OP, save for a while and try selling your own privately. You'll do better in the long run

galwaytt

Confab wrote: »

^^^^ Jesus H Christ.

OP,why do you want to start another loan just after your previous loan finished? Your Alfa is worth about €7k sold privately, why not just sell it and buy something for €7k? It's nonsensical to buy anything using exorbitant finance on a heavily depreciating asset in this economy, you may as well set fire to your money and try to buy something with the ashes.

Jeebus H Jehosaphat - take a pill .........

What are you on about........sell a car for 7k and buy another for......7k. What is the point of that ?

OP - it's easier than you think. Do you like your Alfa ? Does it give you grief? If it does the job, and you like it, save the cash for a while.

If, oth you just want something shiney and new, by all means, but the novelty of being debt free - even for a short while -might be something you like, and you can drive the Alfa for another few years...........

Marlow

There's a warm fuzzy feeling, when you can pay for a car .. cash .. and you actually own it .. especially when you like it.

Why would you bother taking a loan again and just throwing tons of money at the banks ?

If you want something else than your car, have a look around. If you like your car, keep it.

/M

I couldn't see anyone parting with €7000 for a 04 147 to be honest.

sean1141

the risk of owning an alfa is that they can give a lot of bother. even if you have it paid off and keep it it could end up costing you in the long run. im guessing its a 1.6 which would only have an asking price of about 5500euro and in this climate people wont spend money on a make of car that has a lot of reliability issues so id say you would be lucky to get 4750 for it. i know when you want to change its hard to stay with your old car! op you never said what you were trading it against or did you just ask the sales man what it would be worth as a general trade in?
personally i wouldn't bother with a brand new car i would rather own a higher spec model than have a newer number plate.

@ confab
the op asked for advice. i gave him my opinion. it seems to differ from yours but that doesn't give you the right to ''Jesus H Christ'' my opinion.

sean1141

sean1141 wrote: »

@ confab
the op asked for advice. i gave him my opinion. it seems to differ from yours but that doesn't give you the right to ''Jesus H Christ'' my opinion.

The €7000 grand privately is worth a JHC though The irony...

sean1141

RoverJames wrote: »

The €7000 grand privately is worth a JHC though The irony...

true lol

In fairness the presumption is that if garages are offering €5000 or €6000 for it in a trade in it has to be worth seven privately. In reality and dubing it down this is how it works. Car with windscreen price of €20000 in garage, person has car worth €6000 ish, they enquire about trade in, garage say €6000 ish, person happy out and thinks they have gotten great deal. If person had no trade in and were not relying on the garage for finance and were remotely savvy (many are not though) they would know the €20000 windscreen price is inflated to allow for the trade in, garage only needs €18000 for it, so essentially they are getting €4000 for the trade in. (that is a really simplistic view of it but it's more or less what goes on). Unless you have something that they really don't want and a car on the forecoart that is easy to shift, in which case low trade in will be offered as they simply don't want to deal with you, that still happens even in todays slow slow market.

Depressingly enough a work mate of my sisters bought a year or two old Golf a few years ago at the height of the boom when windscreen prices were failry high, he had the money in the bank and no trade in (and was a bit not savvy, even though he was an accountant by trade) and stumped up the windscreen price without even haggling for a tank of petrol to be included. No doubt the salesman was laughing his balls off.

bazz26

The important figure is the "cost to trade up" price not the trade in price. The garage allowing €6k for the 147 could have had the car that the op was looking at priced more expensive than the garage offering €5k.

People put too much focus on the trade in price of their car.

bazz26

bazz26 wrote: »

People put too much focus on the trade in price of their car.

Yep, and the garage knows it, makes folks all the more easier to shaft :mad:

Carstuck

Why bother trading it in for something 'shiney'. If you bought the car new or near enough its probable every bith as good as it was before. Why start off another loan when you'll be in the same situation in 2-3 years again. By then imagine how many newer models will be available

sineadgalway

thanks for all the advice folks, think the gut feeling is hold on until it starts to cost me, at the moment its running well and not giving any trouble. Its the non-sensible me thats saying 'something new and shiny'!!

i think i'd struggle to sell it privately to be honest and not get anywhere near 7k, so would probably take a trade in...

the prices i was quoted were against similarly priced cars, a 06 Mazda rx-8(6k) and a 08 volvo c30(5k) but i think he was trying to get rid of the rx8, its been in the garage for a while...

Absurdum

sineadgalway wrote: »

the prices i was quoted were against similarly priced cars, a 06 Mazda rx-8(6k) and a 08 volvo c30(5k) but i think he was trying to get rid of the rx8, its been in the garage for a while...

it all comes down to your own financial position and what you're after, RX8s are wonderful cars but will cost you an awful lot more to run than a 147

Try and save the cash every month that now that you're loan is paid. Don't be wasting the money on handbags and shoes :P
RX8 ownership requires constant peaking under the hood at oil levels too along with topping up, you could well find that a pain after a while.

sineadgalway

Alfa's drink oil too so i'm used to that! Made the mistake of taking the rx8 for a test drive...gorgeous car...hmmmmmm!!

sineadgalway

sineadgalway wrote: »

Alfa's drink oil too so i'm used to that! Made the mistake of taking the rx8 for a test drive...gorgeous car...hmmmmmm!!

Where's the thumbs up smiley I reckon you're a pretty cool lady Sinead.

sineadgalway

why yes...yes i am;)