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Yes....Agreed. If you have been offered 22 large, I'd take it for certain. You are now in the territory of selling it for a strong price to someone who is easy or trying to get more from someone who might be way more particular. Once in that price range, I'd go with the easiest sale.....Who want's grief? That's a great price. $22,000. Take it and run.....If that person is still interested.
It's very tempting! I know how a lot of people like to blow smoke, so I'm definitely not holding my breath!
Thanks for the info, I emailed them to see if it would even be eligible, but they still want me to go through the submission process before they decide. So I'm going to take some time this weekend and get some better quality pictures and hopefully that will help!
I don't believe this person to be like the other person, as they have been forthright. And you've got to admit, this Ultra Luxury 2005 would command more than the base 2004 that the other seller had. How much more, who knows?
As always, any buyer should run the VIN and do their own investigative work to see if the story checks out. As this is a private seller, they could ask to see the titles to see the original title and the date of transfer/signage.
How refreshing!
Someone coming to CL with solely an interest in asking for help in valuing a low mileage LS 430, but not trying to generate buying interest for it, as every other person who has used this same method before has seemingly done.
Others before you have described similar scenarios, but they were actually hawking for a buyer as CL has many LS 430 enthusiast members who may like such merchandise very much. Those others, before you, usually posted under the guise that the car was always in the family. Even in instances where they recently purchased it from a stranger e.g. a few months ago someone bought a 27,000 mile Lexus LS 430 from a seller who had advertised it for sale at $8500. That person then posted on the CL forum that he had a, always family owned, 27,000 LS 430 and wanted some idea of its value and asked for help from CL LS 430 enthusiasts. (One may think he may have had some idea of its value, since he just paid $8500 or less from a ready seller for it.) Nevertheless that person went through various gyrations, posting how he did not really wish to part with that car and that people had offered him $25,000 for it. A few posts later wrote he would reluctantly let it go, but only to the proper caring home, far the amount of $30,000. He then posted someone had paid it. However, the very same car was offered on the internet, by the very same owner who previously falsely posted on a CL thread that it was sold. Later, that same LS 430 was offered by the same poster for several weeks on the internet with no sale taking place.
The person who made up a story and posted it here, merely as an attempt generate buying interest, perhaps could have listed it in the marketplace. Surely, you may find such behavior hard to believe.
However, he chose to spin some fairy tale here.
But, nice to know some people are really just being completely honest when they post they are simply trying to come up with a value for an unusual low mileage LS 430 and they are not really posting on an enthusiast site to generate buying interest for it. And, very refreshing that the person would share with CL forum members that many private messages were received offering $20,000 to $22,000 for the car, when that person thought the price at which it may fetch if sold would be several thousands of dollars less. How curious though, that someone gets an offer, several thousand dollars higher than ever expected, but no action is taken on any of those generous offers.
Now, if it was one of those insincere past posters who actually made up stories of offers, actually never received, in an attempt to lure an LS 430 enthusiast here to offer an even higher price then the claimed, but actually non-existent offers, that would be very dishonest.
But, would never accuse such a fine upstanding person such as yourself to stoop to such a low less-than-honest scheme.
However, should any one of those many offers actually be bona fide, you may wish to quickly accept it rather then be in a similar position as the dishonest poster who could not sell his LS 430. Of course, there is a difference between you two, as the other person was being a dishonest scoundrel when posting his fairy tale here attempting to hawk potential buyers of his car and you being completely honest here, simply to get pricing information from LS 430 enthusiasts. (Should it be mentioned that anyone may be able to get a fairly accurate pricing information for any car, free, from any dealer. But, dealers usually are not enthusiasts who may possibly be willing to pay a huge premium for the right car, especially if that enthusiast is lead to possibly believe many other offers have been made at huge premiums and the enthusiast may become the lucky new owner, only if willing to pay more than those other offers. Even if no such offers ever existed.)
Not "hawking" as you put it. I just joined this forum for information. I have an 2005 LS430 that I no very little about. I thought the purpose of a forum was for enthusiast to discuss anything and everything about the subject in matter. So too me, that seems like the perfect place to start! Ask the people that no more about these cars than anyone! Sure I could call a Lexus dealer near me and try to ask them questions regarding this car's value, but does anyone actually trust a dealer? I sure in the hell don't. They'd offer me kbb trade in prices. lol And I guess you've come across all kinds of stories, just like mine as you put it... so I must be lying through me teeth just like everyone else. This car hasn't been in the family forever. It was purchased from Lexus in Fife about 6-7 years ago for approximately 33K I have receipts to prove this. At the time I'm pretty sure the dealer took advantage of an 80 year old man, but honestly now I don't know, maybe it was well worth that? So in retrospect, we're the third owner, the church go getter that drove it only to church and to the grocery store(per the dealer), my husbands grandfather, and now us. I guess if this post is in violation, then the mods can delete it... that's fine. I can't control people sending me messages with offers, so that's out of my control.
Last edited by aussies206; 02-19-20 at 10:41 AM.
Reason: typo
Not "hawking" as you put it. I just joined this forum for information. I have an 2005 LS430 that I no very little about. I thought the purpose of a forum was for enthusiast to discuss anything and everything about the subject in matter. So too me, that seems like the perfect place to start! Ask the people that no more about these cars than anyone! Sure I could call a Lexus dealer near me and try to ask them questions regarding this car's value, but does anyone actually trust a dealer? I sure in the hell don't. They'd offer me kbb trade in prices. lol And I guess you've come across all kinds of stories, just like mine as you put it... so I must be lying through me teeth just like everyone else. This car hasn't been in the family forever. It was purchased from Lexus in Fife about 6-7 years ago for approximately 33K I have receipts to prove this. At the time I'm pretty sure the dealer took advantage of an 80 year old man, but honestly now I don't know, maybe it was well worth that? So in retrospect, we're the third owner, the church go getter that drove it only to church and to the grocery store(per the dealer), my husbands grandfather, and now us. I guess if this post is in violation, then the mods can delete it... that's fine. I can't control people sending me messages with offers, so that's out of my control.
You may wish to consider visiting your nearest Lexus dealer and ask the used car manager at what highest price the used manager thinks someone may pay for such a car. The used car manager will likely be interested in at least seeing such an example as your low mileage LS 430. And, your politeness, combined with the Lexus used car manager's low expectation that you may be willing to sell at a price the Lexus used car manager may be willing to pay, may get you some very sound pricing information. Such information may even prompt you to very quickly accept one of the several more-than-very-generous offers of which you were so kind to report you have received during the short period of time since you first posted....
We are talking about what I paid for 2004 LS430 with 48K miles 11 years ago.
This is a mass produced car, not a collector's car. Ton of them were produced. It makes no sense to me why someone would pay way more than kbb value for such a car. If I was in the market for LS430, I would rather buy a high mileage well maintained one.
You may wish to consider visiting your nearest Lexus dealer and ask the used car manager at what highest price the used manager thinks someone may pay for such a car. The used car manager will likely be interested in at least seeing such an example as your low mileage LS 430. And, your politeness, combined with the Lexus used car manager's low expectation that you may be willing to sell at a price the Lexus used car manager may be willing to pay, may get you some very sound pricing information. Such information may even prompt you to very quickly accept one of the several more-than-very-generous offers of which you were so kind to report you have received during the short period of time since you first posted....
That was actually the first thing I did... granite I didn't actually visit, I called them instead. They were more interested in trying to sell me a 2020 Lexus then focus on the main reason I called. A trade in would really be more ideal in my situation than selling out right. We're looking for a truck and would have a decent tax right off if we traded it in.... depending on what the dealer offers... but if the dealer is only going to offer me 13k at KBB and if I didn't ask this question just out of my own curiosity I would have never known the car was worth 20 or more. So my bad.
That was actually the first thing I did... granite I didn't actually visit, I called them instead. They were more interested in trying to sell me a 2020 Lexus then focus on the main reason I called. A trade in would really be more ideal in my situation than selling out right. We're looking for a truck and would have a decent tax right off if we traded it in.... depending on what the dealer offers... but if the dealer is only going to offer me 13k at KBB and if I didn't ask this question just out of my own curiosity I would have never known the car was worth 20 or more. So my bad.
Unlikely any dealer anywhere would offer you much more than about half of that amount in a straight sell deal. (Dealers cannot pay the same retail price they may hope to receive when selling a car, or they will be quickly out of business due to high dealer overhead costs. Dealers can only offer a wholesale price to be able to afford to stay in business. The price you wrote is approximately a retail price a dealer may hope to get if selling your vehicle.) If you really want to know what price a dealer will pay, it is easy to find out. You may drive the car to the Lexus dealer and tell the used car manager you wish to sell your car outright for cash and have no interest in buying another vehicle. That will get you the price. Perhaps consider also driving it to a CarMax store and tell the buyer of cars there the same thing. This would give you 2 prices to compare. (It would be very nice if you may share these prices with us by posting the information of actual prices offered.) If you trade in the car, you will not get any more for it than what you would get selling it outright in reality, but a higher price may show in your paperwork. The difference from what one actually receives in a trade versus what the paperwork reads is called "water". You may know someone who traded a car worth very little saying he got, say $5000 for a trade in while the dealer would only pay him $1000 if sold it outright to the dealership with no purchase of another car. When it is a trade-in, the $4000 of "water" simply gets tacked on to the purchase of the new car. This is why every car salesperson always asks if there is a trade-in before negotiating any prices for any car any dealer is hoping to sell to a customer. If the customer negotiates the lowest price from a dealer first, then tries to trade in a vehicle as part of the purchase, it is to late to hide any "water" and the true market cash price will be the allowance. (If one listens to car salespeople discuss transactions, often one may hear after a dollar amount answer to the question "what was the allowance" is "how much water".) https://www.edmunds.com/tmv.html may be helpful to you, so you may know the approximate price to expect to be offered. Edmunds's pricing algorithm uses actual transactions to determine prices. You may read more about how Edmunds arrives at prices on its website. KBB and NADA uses advertised asking prices in its algorithm to determine prices. You may verify that quickly by doing a google search asking how does KBB and NADA determine prices. Other posters here have given you very sound advice to quickly accept one of the more-than-very-generous offers you reported you received before the person changes his or her mind. You may get the most from your car selling it outright to someone who may pay a premium for it. You will get much less, perhaps quite less than half, you trade it in versus if you sell it yourself to a member of the public. (Move quickly if any of those offers you reported are bona fide as they are at least at a 50% premium over dealer retail book and at least 3x the wholesale book price.) Then use the cash you receive to buy your truck. You are selling a 16 year old used car. Grab the deal you reported you were offered before it is gone.
Awesome advice, if someone for some reason offered me $12k (about the same ratio you have going on) for my car I would literally throw the title at them and take the money and not even think about it.
I didn’t realize that this was not a one owner car. That can influence going on Bring A Trailer and getting those very tall numbers. Most people paying top top dollar for a car might want a one owner car. I’d consider your initial offer and don’t let the car get stale by being on the market too long. As mentioned above they made a lot of these cars and not everyone wants to pay over 20 grand for a 14-15 year old 4 dr sedan. They have many choices. Good luck. Sometimes a first offer can be the best offer.
Awesome advice, if someone for some reason offered me $12k (about the same ratio you have going on) for my car I would literally throw the title at them and take the money and not even think about it.
I probably wouldn't, even though that's likely a solid 5k more than it's worth retail. The reason is all the so-called above average care goes out the window with the 5k "profit," and what do we replace it with?
What I do find interesting about forums is so many people got a steal when they bought this car (in reality very few did they paid full retail--I paid over $14k in 2016 @ 81k miles--that is some heavy depreciation to get to 123k--reality check at Lexus dealers and Carmax there were cars over 17k all day long). Ever meet people at work, etc., who get a new car ever 3-6 mos., and the reason is because they made so much money driving it for free (I don't believe it) and flipping it? It's no different than houses, stocks etc., people have a tendency to exaggerate or omit. I know a guy at work who sells cars on the side to keep his DE license. He said it's very tough to make a profit, he sells them to keep his license. Per him, it was much easier pre-eBay.
You may be good at stock trading--unemotional people tend to do well, meaning you're offering me way more than it's worth, I take it and don't even look back. Look at how people here even analyze a tire purchase lol they can't simply get the tires and live with the decison!
That was actually the first thing I did... granite I didn't actually visit, I called them instead. They were more interested in trying to sell me a 2020 Lexus then focus on the main reason I called. A trade in would really be more ideal in my situation than selling out right. We're looking for a truck and would have a decent tax right off if we traded it in.... depending on what the dealer offers... but if the dealer is only going to offer me 13k at KBB and if I didn't ask this question just out of my own curiosity I would have never known the car was worth 20 or more. So my bad.
Originally Posted by 430SLOwner
Unlikely any dealer anywhere would offer you much more than about half of that amount in a straight sell deal. (Dealers cannot pay the same retail price they may hope to receive when selling a car, or they will be quickly out of business due to high dealer overhead costs. Dealers can only offer a wholesale price to be able to afford to stay in business. The price you wrote is approximately a retail price a dealer may hope to get if selling your vehicle.) If you really want to know what price a dealer will pay, it is easy to find out. You may drive the car to the Lexus dealer and tell the used car manager you wish to sell your car outright for cash and have no interest in buying another vehicle. That will get you the price. Perhaps consider also driving it to a CarMax store and tell the buyer of cars there the same thing. This would give you 2 prices to compare. (It would be very nice if you may share these prices with us by posting the information of actual prices offered.) If you trade in the car, you will not get any more for it than what you would get selling it outright in reality, but a higher price may show in your paperwork. The difference from what one actually receives in a trade versus what the paperwork reads is called "water". You may know someone who traded a car worth very little saying he got, say $5000 for a trade in while the dealer would only pay him $1000 if sold it outright to the dealership with no purchase of another car. When it is a trade-in, the $4000 of "water" simply gets tacked on to the purchase of the new car. This is why every car salesperson always asks if there is a trade-in before negotiating any prices for any car any dealer is hoping to sell to a customer. If the customer negotiates the lowest price from a dealer first, then tries to trade in a vehicle as part of the purchase, it is to late to hide any "water" and the true market cash price will be the allowance. (If one listens to car salespeople discuss transactions, often one may hear after a dollar amount answer to the question "what was the allowance" is "how much water".) https://www.edmunds.com/tmv.html may be helpful to you, so you may know the approximate price to expect to be offered. Edmunds's pricing algorithm uses actual transactions to determine prices. You may read more about how Edmunds arrives at prices on its website. KBB and NADA uses advertised asking prices in its algorithm to determine prices. You may verify that quickly by doing a google search asking how does KBB and NADA determine prices. Other posters here have given you very sound advice to quickly accept one of the more-than-very-generous offers you reported you received before the person changes his or her mind. You may get the most from your car selling it outright to someone who may pay a premium for it. You will get much less, perhaps quite less than half, you trade it in versus if you sell it yourself to a member of the public. (Move quickly if any of those offers you reported are bona fide as they are at least at a 50% premium over dealer retail book and at least 3x the wholesale book price.) Then use the cash you receive to buy your truck. You are selling a 16 year old used car. Grab the deal you reported you were offered before it is gone.
For clarification, was referencing the lower price you mentioned in the above post as as full dealer retail (your lower number is actually about a grand higher than full dealer retail, but there may be a buyer who may be willing to reach, and likely a dealer may ask a premium for some period of time and see if any buyer inquires.) And, wholesale is about maybe 1/2 of the lower price you mentioned. The higher price mentioned, which you say you now know it is "worth," is a spectacularly rich price. But, as you have reported that you already have offers at that price and higher, strongly recommend you do not hesitate to immoderately make a deal.
I didn’t realize that this was not a one owner car. That can influence going on Bring A Trailer and getting those very tall numbers. Most people paying top top dollar for a car might want a one owner car. I’d consider your initial offer and don’t let the car get stale by being on the market too long. As mentioned above they made a lot of these cars and not everyone wants to pay over 20 grand for a 14-15 year old 4 dr sedan. They have many choices. Good luck. Sometimes a first offer can be the best offer.
That's how it is in the real estate business. 90% of the time your first offer is the best one.
Also, the OP has some shocking writing errors. No vs know. Granite vs granted. Make sure if you do write a listing that the spelling and grammar are checked. Seems sketchy as heck.
02-19-20, 09:49 AM
I have receipts to prove this. At the time I'm pretty sure the dealer took advantage of an 80 year old man, but honestly now I don't know, maybe it was well worth that? So in retrospect, we're the third owner, the church go getter that drove it only to church and to the grocery store(per the dealer), my husbands grandfather, and now us. I guess if this post is in violation, then the mods can delete it... that's fine. I can't control people sending me messages with offers, so that's out of my control.
A trade in would really be more ideal in my situation than selling out right. We're looking for a truck and would have a decent tax right off if we traded it in.... depending on what the dealer offers... but if the dealer is only going to offer me 13k at KBB and if I didn't ask this question just out of my own curiosity I would have never known the car was worth 20 or more. So my bad.
