I'm looking to find out how much was paid for this car at auction? I want to pay a fair price that allows the dealer to turn a profit, I don't expect to get it for free, but i don't want to overpay.

http://www.cars.com/go/search/detail...4&aff=national

 

what difference does it make what they paid for the car? go on Autotrader and see what other LS430's are listed at, with about the same miles and equipment. Whats a good deal? Its all between the ears. If you feel you are getting a good deal you are!!!

 

There are a lot of people that come into my store and feel they are getting a good deal........

 

http://www.nadaguides.com/usedcars.a...&z=77901&da=-1

This should link you to NADA's trade in value for the vehicle you are looking for. I'm no longer in the car business, but I was for a long time and my dad had a used car dealership for several years. I have been to several different auto auctions. Most of them were in Texas, Oklahoma, and Florida but there wasn't much difference between them other than what kind of vehicle was popular. I'm not sure what "guide" is popular in your part of the states but we use the NADA exclusively. There is also Kelly and Black Book, as well as Mannheim Auctions. I recently bought a 2004 LS430 for $4500 below trade in and the ESV I own (I bought it a year ago) I paid $8750 below trade in. In my opinion, I would tell you that if you can get at least 12% - 15% below the trade in price you are getting a great deal. FWIW I would make a ridiculous offer of about $24000 and be prepared to leave a down payment of about $1000 to let them know you are serious and see what they say. If you can agree on a final price of about $27900 - $28900 you have made yourself a heck of deal and the dealership still made money. Good luck with the purchase. Let me know how it turns out.

 

how is $27,900-$28,900; 12%-15% below trade-in value??? This sounds more like trade-in value price to me... However, I know that once they advertise price on internet, they have very little room. I think if you get 1-1.5k off, it a good deal, but buying cars under trade-in value is super tough...

http://www.kbb.com/KBB/UsedCars/Pric...itions=#survey

2005 LS430
"trade-in"
Good
$27,990

 

If you want it below trade in value I'd suggest seeking it out from a private seller, you do the driving all over to see the cars available, one at a time. The three price tiers are Trade in, Private party, and Retail. Why would you expect to get a dealer selling a car at trade in even if the car was given to them? They bought the car and it's up to them to sell it for what the market will bear. Imagine how it came to get there, someone trades it in or it's a repo sold at auction....if it was a trade in it stands to reason that they paid near the trade in value unless there was a horribly uninformed owner that let it go for a song. If it was a repo at auction, they'll generally let it go on a no reserve basis. Either way, it's nice to wish for a trade in price at a dealer that is going to be assisting you with various issues. I've always preferred to seek out private sales just to escape the sales tax.

 

2005 LS430 8G 4DSN A PS PB AC SR 4X2 40,793 SILVER 26,500


Bought at Bay Cities Manheim Auction on May 28, 2008. Remember they paid a buyer's fee (385), draft fee(150), and transport fee (45) as well above the sale price, nevermind any prep they may have had to do to make the vehicle right.

Good luck!

Randy B

 

No i didn't access to a cars auction pain price.
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sujith

Car Auctions

 

Pricing and "turning a profit" are just weird numbers to come by. There are rules of thumb places like Edmunds, Cars.com, and Autotraders.com which are good sources, but Edmunds and Nada doesn't even reflect correct numbers given the volatile market situation. Because of higher fuel prices, the price of V8's dropped big time, but now that fuel prices are starting to level back down, the prices of LS430 are rising a little again.

Take this with a grain of salt... someone here had traded in their almost mint 2003 LS430 ultra luxury 30K miles or so, to a dealer in south Jersey for $23K or so. The dealer turned around and asked $32K for it. Market value for that CPO UL was about $33K, so I would say asking is right, but there was NO WAY that the dealer was going to say go down to $25K, even though they got for $23K. I figured best deal would have been $28K, which is $5K above what they got, which I don't think for anyone would be a "good deal."

Anyway, good or bad is only in the mind of the beholder. I think it's human nature to always think "darn, if they sold for $23K, then they could have sold for $22K" but if you had gotten for $22K, you would have though it could have gone for $21K..etc.

For me, 2005 LS430 CL with smartaccess and less than 35K for $28K and I'll pull the trigger even if not CPO.