Has anybody heard this?

[Marlow212]

I was recently shopping around for an SUV, using my 2011 Kizashi SLS as trade bait. I had a dealer tell me that the Kizashi is not desirable as banks are not loaning money for the purchase of a Suzuki due to the departure of Suzuki in the U.S. Has anyone heard of anything so ridiculous? I asked him if he was smoking crack!

[KuroNekko]

Sadly, I've heard this too however it was before the bail out. Suzuki cars don't have good reputations for resale value and many customers were thought to be sub-prime.

Really, if you want the most $ for your car, sell it privately, not trade in. This applies to just about any car. Trade ins are a rip-off designed to sucker the customer in the guise of convenience. They will often offer you a fraction of what the car is worth. They will then turn around and sell it themselves for way more than what they gave you for it.
This is especially true of unpopular cars or cars with accident histories.

[Juan]

Bs... They lend me money to buy mine, sounds like a cheap excuse to beat you down even more on what ever they are going to offer you for the car.

[bootymac]

I understand that the value has decreased due to the bail out, but banks denying loans? Sounds like bullshit to me

[WESHOOT2]

What you're actually hearing: "Your Kizashi has horrific trade and resale value".

I mean, I sell Hondas, and I talk to the wholesalers.......

[Ronzuki]

The wholesalers are the real thieves due to auction dynamics. An entire other world of middle men between the person that traded the car and the next owner that someone has to pay big bucks for...it ain't the dealers and it ain't and the auction houses. It's the person that trades the car in and the person that buys it second hand.

Follow Kuro's advice and sell it yourself. Suzuki bailing put a nail in the coffin for trade-ins.

[Marlow212]

Thanks for the advice guys. I just hate the thought of trying to sell it myself, trading is so much more convenient. The sad thing is, I think the Kizashi is 3 times nicer than any bland old Accord or Camry. Yet they command a higher resale value.

[KuroNekko]

Thanks for the advice guys. I just hate the thought of trying to sell it myself, trading is so much more convenient. The sad thing is, I think the Kizashi is 3 times nicer than any bland old Accord or Camry. Yet they command a higher resale value.

Selling it yourself is more work, but it is so much better in terms of the financial return.
Take my example:
I used to drive a Mazda3 before my Kizashi. The Subaru/Hyundai dealership where I bought my pre-owned Kizashi wanted my Mazda3 very badly for a trade-in but offered me a ridiculous trade-in value for the car. They gave me excuse after excuse on why they would not come near my minimum 5000 for the car I asked. They initially offered 2000. Yes, $2000 for a 2005 Mazda3 with leather and only 110,000 miles in very good condition. I politely told them to F themselves.
They even test drove it and slipped that it was the best maintained car they had ever driven with over 100,000 miles. I told them it's because I meticulously maintained it myself.
They even had two managers talk to me about why I should trade-in. They upped the trade-in value to 3750 for a final offer. I told them they were still way short and did not budge. As the last manager walked away, I heard him whisper to the other salesmen, "This guy knows what he's doing".

I ended buying my Kizashi without trading in my Mazda. It was inconvenient as I could not drive it home and had to travel back 2 weeks later from Maryland to New Jersey to pick it up.
However, I was able to sell the Mazda later for $6600 cash to a girl on craigslist. It was a good deal for her too and she came from Pennsylvania for the car.
I sold it for almost double what the final offer was at the dealership.

I'm telling you, for a car like the Kizashi, do not even consider a trade-in unless you try and just cannot sell the car yourself. First try craigslist (free), but for serious buyers, put it on autotrader.com (requires payment).

People buy Camrys and Accords because of the reputations. The cars sell themselves so the companies don't even try that hard. Even the ads talk more about the deals, not the car. These cars are boring and are resting on their laurels. Toyota is even seeing poor crash test results due to their lackluster R&D. Honda is the new Toyota and killed off all their exciting cars.
Anyone who does some research on the Kizashi knows that it's a good car for a great price, especially on the used market.

[Ronzuki]

I've sold three good used vehicles on Craigslist since the recession started and ended up walking away with at least what I wanted all three times. Put a fair price to it, don't try and hide anything, put four corner pics in the add along with one or two of the inside and it'll sell. I traded my Heep in on the Kizashi simply because it was going to have major, out of warranty, engine issues and I had been trying to trade it for three years prior to getting rid of it. The particular dealer I dealt with was over an hour away in an area I never frequent (fortunately). They wanted the last 2010 left-over Kizashi gone and they also wanted my pristine looking, well maintained bone-stock Rubicon for their lot. I got more for the POS than I was willing to settle for in the end. It all worked out well for me...dealer, maybe not so good. The last price they had on their web-site for it was only $500 more than they gave me for it on the trade before it vanished. Down $4k from where they started with it.

Trade junk and sell private what you know is good. I won't sell junk privately and the dealers usually send most of their trades to the auction mill anyway. Which, is one of the main sources of data for basing their offer to you on (rare occasions when they really want to keep what you're trading). At that point, it'll just fall in to the used car abyss with everyone in between jacking on to the price. If for some crazy reason I would want to get rid of the Kiz, I'd craigslist it. Unfortunately, your price point is going to have to be in line w/ what they are going for retail, but as Kuro pointed out, the money goes in your pocket and not the middle man's. Good Luck with it!

[SamirD]

The resale value is what I've been trying to tell dealers that have these cars and won't budge on the price. They're going to have to drop the price at least $1000 in the next three weeks once 2014 comes in, and yet they won't budge on their price. You can tell that they know I'm right because they get that 'thinking' look on their face.

So far, no dealer has been able to match my numbers, which is a fair price for what they have. Oh well, I can always come back next year when they still have it on their lot and tell them, 'I told you so'.

While these cars are really nice, that doesn't matter in the world of cars and financing. A poorly made brand new Honda Accord will command more resale value, financing options, and respect than a Kizashi. And as far as I'm concerned, good. I want to buy my car cheap, have it be cheap to maintain, and enjoy the heck out of it.