Traded the Mach E for a Camry

[DennisD]

Dennis, $26k for your car is a very good value. I had the same car and traded it in for a GT in Dec 2024 for $29.5k and my premium had 13k miles on it. Well done on the trade in and best of luck with the Camry.

Thanks! I actually started at CarMax. They offered me $26,000 outright, without requiring a trade, so I used that as my baseline when negotiating with the dealerships.

I ended up talking with four different dealers, and all of them matched the $26,000 trade value. From that point on, I negotiated only the price of the new vehicle.

What surprised me most was that two Toyota dealers were willing to discount the Camry $2,500 below MSRP. Around Omaha they're still pretty hard to find on dealer lots, and one dealer was actually asking over MSRP.

Whether it was timing, inventory levels, or simply finding the right dealers, I'm not sure. Either way, once the numbers came together, I couldn't sign the paperwork fast enough.

24,000 miles in 3-4 years and a WFH spouse? Why so many cars if I may ask? Aside from the Vette which needs no explanation.

I own a driving school, so most of those vehicles are part of my business fleet.

To put it in perspective, I've purchased four new vehicles over the last year and a half to replace older training cars.

I've been in the driver's education business since 1986, so over the years I've gotten to know many of the dealership owners and salespeople pretty well. In fact, I've taught quite a few of their kids how to drive.

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