Koon’s Trade-in Experience

[rugbym8t]

Hi! I have my truck in bound to Koon’s now. It should be on the ground in a week or so. So it’s time to get some trade numbers. If you traded a vehicle to Koon’s how was your experience? Any call outs or watch outs?

 

[93ls1rx7TRX]

I will be honest with you, my Koons buying experience on two different brand new vehicles in the last few months were amazing....BUT the trade in experience was terrible.

They ask for a TON of information, then after you provide it they give you a ridiculously lowball offer for the trade.

My personal example:
I was trading in a 2011 Chevrolet Silverado with 104,000 miles. Nothing special but also nothing wrong with the truck. Koons offered my $9K on the trade and said it "might go up a little if it is in exceptional shape when I bring it in". So no kidding I do the whole KBB trade in (offered $13k), GIVEMETHEVIN (Offered $14k) and Carvana (Offered me $16,694). (NADA said $13,000 trade for good condition)

I obviously took the Carvana trade. They came to my house and literally after 2 minutes of paperwork and 10 minutes of BSing with the driver, the truck was gone and I had a check in my hand.

Koons is great for the below MSRP pricing for buying new but their trade in numbers, in my case, were awful.

 

[ALJ]

Hi! I have my truck in bound to Koon’s now. It should be on the ground in a week or so. So it’s time to get some trade numbers. If you traded a vehicle to Koon’s how was your experience? Any call outs or watch outs?

You should do exactly what @93ls1rx7TRX did - Price what those online dealers will give you, then call Koons and tell them XYZ dealer offered you $X, can you match or come close to what they are offering? If not then you have your answer.

 

[fletchnighthawk]

Good to know. I’ll be picking up here soon from Koons. Didn’t know if I should sell before I make the drive from FL or just trade in while I’m up there.

 

[Boosted]

You should do exactly what @93ls1rx7TRX did - Price what those online dealers will give you, then call Koons and tell them XYZ dealer offered you $X, can you match or come close to what they are offering? If not then you have your answer.

I think the response from Koons would be “but will carvana sell you a TRX @ 11k off msrp?”

 

[TRX.1TONTACO]

You are better off selling it to someone that wants it GIVEMETHEVIN, Carvana, KBB, Carmax or a local dealer to you that wants it etc. You never know who is going to offer the most until you go try all of them. I stopped selling to private party's 10 years ago due to all the tire kickers and my wasted time. Often times I only have lost $2,000 at most selling to a dealer vs private party, but no tire kickers, no wasted time, No smog, no waiting for the money and to top it off I can get rid of the vehicle the same day in most cases.

 

[@JC]

Don't forget about the sales tax difference on the TRX between trading in and selling yourself.

 

[No_LU-G]

My trade-in experience was awesome! I went to a local Carmax in NH and got an in-person appraisal. At the time Carmax came in higher than all other online buyers as well as local dealers.

Sent Koons a bunch of pictures of my truck and showed them my appraisal from Carmax and they matched it. Drove down in my Raptor and drove back to NH in my TRX with VA temp plates. Couldn’t have been easier. No surprises.

I was very pleased with the price too considering the Carfax of my trade showed an accident from the 1st owner.

 

[rugbym8t]

My trade-in experience was awesome! I went to a local Carmax in NH and got an in-person appraisal. At the time Carmax came in higher than all other online buyers as well as local dealers.

Sent Koons a bunch of pictures of my truck and showed them my appraisal from Carmax and they matched it. Drove down in my Raptor and drove back to NH in my TRX with VA temp plates. Couldn’t have been easier. No surprises.

I was very pleased with the price too considering the Carfax of my trade showed an accident from the 1st owner.

This is awesome to hear. I was curious to get first hand accounts of the experience. I am going to work on getting all the counter appraisals this weekend, as well. But it's good to hear that you had a solid experience.

 

[ExT]

I was always up front with the dealer that I purchased my vehicles about the trade in. Do your own due diligence to get the best offer. Then come back to your dealer. Eventually having the trade in tax difference split and call it a day.

 

[beerformeplz]

Don't forget about the sales tax difference on the TRX between trading in and selling yourself.

Doesnt work in Va. No tax breaks

 

[beerformeplz]

I traded in a 2020 scatpack challenger and they matched carmax and carvana.

 

[@JC]

Doesnt work in Va. No tax breaks

Well here in SD the sales tax on my 392 went from $3000ish to $500ish after trading in my PW so around a $2500 difference that I would have had to sell my PW for if I'd have sold it outright instead of trading. SD vehicle sales tax is 4%, the difference could be a lot higher than that if you live in a high tax state like MN (6.5% so my tax difference would have been around $4,000) that also offsets purchase price by trade in value for taxes. It's just another data point to consider.

 

[Joey D]

Getting 392 for wife in the next month when it lands. This is their response abt a trade. Seems fine minus the lowball they are going to give for abt 500 miles and 30 more days of ownership

"Joe,

As far as the trade, I can work up a sight unseen for you. A "sight unseen" is a rough number until we see/touch/drive the trade. Which most likely won't be until the ordered vehicle arrives. So it is a rough number until then. Because this is a factory order and I am currently not sure of the time frame, we will be looking at a future figure instead of a today figure. So for example if KKB has a number of 25k today, we would most likely put 22k on it because by the time the vehicle gets in, you will have more miles on it and the books on it will have changed. So the initial number that I get you for the sight unseen will be a low number, but that is because we are looking towards the future."

 

[RageWhite]

Getting 382 for wife in the next month when it lands. This is their response abt a trade. Seems fine minus the lowball they are going to give for abt 500 miles and 30 more days of ownership

"Joe,

As far as the trade, I can work up a sight unseen for you. A "sight unseen" is a rough number until we see/touch/drive the trade. Which most likely won't be until the ordered vehicle arrives. So it is a rough number until then. Because this is a factory order and I am currently not sure of the time frame, we will be looking at a future figure instead of a today figure. So for example if KKB has a number of 25k today, we would most likely put 22k on it because by the time the vehicle gets in, you will have more miles on it and the books on it will have changed. So the initial number that I get you for the sight unseen will be a low number, but that is because we are looking towards the future."

I'd ask for today's price...sounds like a CYA for when they lowball the sh*t out of you on take-home day.

 

[Joey D]

I'd ask for today's price...sounds like a CYA for when they lowball the sh*t out of you on take-home day.

I agree with both. Guess I can just factor in 15% less than normal. Shopping around now to get numbers from big players. Tax savings is abt $3,000 or so depending on trade price so we will see.

 

[ExT]

I agree with both. Guess I can just factor in 15% less than normal. Shopping around now to get numbers from big players. Tax savings is abt $3,000 or so depending on trade price so we will see.

Shop around and be up front with them that you will split 50/50 Tax saving if they can match your the best offer you've got. Most dealer would go with it.

 

[No_LU-G]

Getting 392 for wife in the next month when it lands. This is their response abt a trade. Seems fine minus the lowball they are going to give for abt 500 miles and 30 more days of ownership

"Joe,

As far as the trade, I can work up a sight unseen for you. A "sight unseen" is a rough number until we see/touch/drive the trade. Which most likely won't be until the ordered vehicle arrives. So it is a rough number until then. Because this is a factory order and I am currently not sure of the time frame, we will be looking at a future figure instead of a today figure. So for example if KKB has a number of 25k today, we would most likely put 22k on it because by the time the vehicle gets in, you will have more miles on it and the books on it will have changed. So the initial number that I get you for the sight unseen will be a low number, but that is because we are looking towards the future."

I received this same exact reply word-for-word. I knew it was a copy and paste answer because my TRX had just arrived at the dealer.

They still were competitive even though they said all that

 

[93ls1rx7TRX]

Also the more valuable your trade, the more valuable it is to trade to the dealer you are buying from. The tax offset for my truck was about $900 where if you were trading a $50k plus vehicle it would be a lot more

 

[Joey D]

I received this same exact reply word-for-word. I knew it was a copy and paste answer because my TRX had just arrived at the dealer.

They still were competitive even though they said all that

"Joe,

I got with my appraiser and he is figuring it out for a "sight unseen" at $37,500. Again that is a rough estimate until we see/touch/drive the vehicle which would not be until the factory order would come in.
Again, that is based on a few things;
1) "Sight Unseen" which is a rough estimate until we see/touch/drive your trade.
2) We are already 8,000 off of MSRP and have to appraise vehicles for the true value.
3) A factory order that takes several weeks to be built, shipped and delivered
4) The accident report on the vehicle hurts the value

Please note; If you have any offers from Carmax, Vroom, Carvana, ect... those figures are for you to sell the vehicle now, vs my figure is based off of a factory order that takes several weeks for it to arrive. So my figure is a future figure."

About $10,000 lower than trade in value