Fellows!

I’m in the business for a new-er car and are trying to determine what would be a fair trade-in value for my car. I know, good luck with that.

It’s a 2004 Mercedes E320 4 Matic wagon, 150k mls, formally purchased as a CPO, no repaint, ALL services done no issues, good to very good condition.

- Outside appearance is a 7out of 10, body and head-lights look great (just cleaned with 3M and they look NEW). Wheels are scratched-up, w/o the scratches it would be at least a 8-9.
- Interior, very clean a solid 8 out of 10.
- I just put new shocks, tires, pad & disk in the past 9 months.

It’s a very decent look car. Perhaps I’m a bit emotional attached to “her” and I know that I will not get any $$$ back for half used tires, brakes and shocks.

The BIG questions is, what is a fair trade-in value?

I checked Kelly’s Blue Book, and they came-up between $8-10k. I checked cars.com, they comparable cars I found are mostly offered by dealers for around $9.5k.
And my MB dealer offered my $5,000 as a trade-in towards a used 2010 ML350. They use some other kind of "book" and he told me that KBB is not accurate.

Let me hear it! How much can I really expect from a dealer, respectively , should I try to list and sell the car by myself on i.e. cars.com?
My take is that for $5k trade-in, I will/should drive the car for at least another 1-2 years or 30k mls and the unload it for one of those “we will offer you a minimum of $3,000 for your trade-in” specials, which they run at MB at least twice a year.

Thanks,
Dragan

Put it on craigslist...you will find the real value very quickly. List it for $8K and see what happens

Wonderful cars. We're on our 3rd.

Trade in seems about right. That said, as a fairly rare car in the E lineup, there can be quite a demand for a well placed ad on eBay. You could easily make $3-4k more by selling it yourself.

Thanks guys!

Eric, is your comment i.r. to the dealer trade-in or KBB?

Pretty sure he means dealer trade

I'd put it on ebay. A wagon with the right ad will bring better than tradin all day. Just put a 5K reserve on it and you won't do worse that what the dealer offered. You alway do worse with a trade.

Look it up on Edmunds.com yourself. Accurate site. .

It would be fair to say that the dealer will always low ball any car. . my experience is they will offer 50% to 70 % of the actual resale price that you could get yourself. . . they will give you more for ones that are an easy cleanup and resell . . . worse ones, they just run through the dealers auction for a quick sell.

Thanks for the Edmunds-tip! Those numbers look right on.

I'm no friend of the dealer but they need to make money on your trade in as well is making the money that they will on the new car your buying from them. They will price the new car accordingly and may not give you the same price if you're not making a trade-in. They're going to wholesale your old car since they cannot sell it on their lot. You've got to decide if it's worth the $ 2k to go through the hassle of an ebay transaction--sometimes an iffy process. I would put it up on craigslist for one week cash only face to face then move ahead....be ready for some entertaining offers from a guy out in the "sea area".....

The trade in sounds good to me if he's offering the ML at 50% of book. That way you pay less sales tax. For some reason, I'd like to have your wagon. Always thought they were nice.

$5500 trade-in did the deal and I got the ML at 45% of the new list price. afterall i think it was a good deal.
stearing wheel heating - nice!!

If you walk away feeling you got a good deal that is all that matters. Don't look back.

Best words of wisdom when buying anything!

...and this is valid not only for buying stuff