Kbb

[TIEfighter]

So was bored today and for fun I entered in a 2012 Sonic 4 door sedan 1.8L with 15K and supposedly our car is worth about $12,000 in very good condition. This was according to Kelly Blue Book. Don't know why everybody goes by KBB and Carfax for everything but supposedly that is what my car is worth. Do you believe the Sonic is worth that much or is the Sonic keeping its value according to KBB?

 

[rdss]

I have always had to fight to get even close to what kbb says my vehicles have been worth. They whip out a little out dated black book and claim prices off of that. I think kbb, nada and the others are better for private sales/purchases vs dealer trade in. Dealers will try and ring every penny out of you for their profit.

 

[TIEfighter]

I have always had to fight to get even close to what kbb says my vehicles have been worth. They whip out a little out dated black book and claim prices off of that. I think kbb, nada and the others are better for private sales/purchases vs dealer trade in. Dealers will try and ring every penny out of you for their profit.

I have a saying about car dealers. Only trust them as far as you can throw them. I can't lift any buildings so I don't trust them...lol

 

[GMW]

Unfortunately our cars don't hold their value well...similarly to the aveo our cars are viewed as entry level "econobox" cars. A segment in which the domestic cars haven't been able to build value on. I bought my 12 turbo sedan used with 12k miles for 13k. That was almost a 17k car when new. So right there you can see how much value it lost. Even worse I looked at a 12 sonic sedan but it was an ls model with 14k miles. I could have bought it for 11k a car that was 15 k when new. In both examples the cars lost about 4k in a year. Now compare that to a Honda civic of fit and you will be quite insulted....especially since I think our cars are built just as high quality as the Hondas. However we do fair better than luxury cars such as BMW etc...however they hold better value after five years than one year. But if you use a percentage (which you should) I would estimate our cars falling close to the top of the list of percentage of value lost over a 1 year 12k period of time.

 

[Gsrdude]

Kbb is about 2k-3k higher then you'll get for your car on trade. Dealers use auction pricing when valuing trades.

 

[ColonelPanic]

Subcompacts don't hold their value worth squat, so I don't buy them with resale in mind. These types of cars are viewed as disposable transportation appliances by many, use them up and throw them away. If you look around at the horrid condition of many Yarisssess/Fits/Accents/Rios/Versas/Aveos/whatever on the street after just a couple years it's more than obvious. The Sonic will be no exception. Maybe a few fans like we have here would take care of them, but mostly they'll end up in lives such as pizza delivery abuse or a car for kids to not give two craps about and run into the ground. I don't think this helps our resale value any.

My last car was also a subcompact, and over the course of 7+ years, despite being immaculate it still depreciated about $11,000. If you hold on to a subcompact long enough, running the thing out of gas can make it grounds for a write-off. :banana:

 

[TIEfighter]

Unfortunately our cars don't hold their value well...similarly to the aveo our cars are viewed as entry level "econobox" cars. A segment in which the domestic cars haven't been able to build value on. I bought my 12 turbo sedan used with 12k miles for 13k. That was almost a 17k car when new. So right there you can see how much value it lost. Even worse I looked at a 12 sonic sedan but it was an ls model with 14k miles. I could have bought it for 11k a car that was 15 k when new. In both examples the cars lost about 4k in a year. Now compare that to a Honda civic of fit and you will be quite insulted....especially since I think our cars are built just as high quality as the Hondas. However we do fair better than luxury cars such as BMW etc...however they hold better value after five years than one year. But if you use a percentage (which you should) I would estimate our cars falling close to the top of the list of percentage of value lost over a 1 year 12k period of time.

Yeah I remember when I was looking at cars before buying my Sonic a used Honda Civic (4 door 8th Gen) was worth MORE then a new Honda Civic (4 door 9th Gen). So according to KBB used Hondas appreciate. When I saw that on KBB I was just thinking 'Man everybody is drinking the Honda and Toyota Kool-Aid.'

 

[Isambard]

Fits actually hold their value extremely well.

 

[JohnT]

Depreciation is the most expensive part of owning a car. The largest depreciation will hit the first year, and keep in mind that very few pay sticker price, especially with GM who seems to be willing to go even below "invoice". Basing used price on sticker is a bad idea, it needs to be on what are people actually paying for the cars. If the dealer made larger profit over the average amount spent then thats all part of the loss of buying. When I enter in my car to KBB, with 6k on the clock the private party value in excellent condition is roughly what I paid for the car new....In reality I still expect about a 10-20% loss the first year. Don't forget the money spent on taxes.....

Honda doesn't (have to) discount as heavily...this actually helps keep the price stable.

Nobody really knows yet, but the projected resale of the Sonic is not bad, (although still not as good as the Fit). If the Sonic ends up aging well that will help to increase the resale, but GM subcompacts are not going to be top of the "want to buy" used list for a while. However, affordable cars with good utility and good gas mileage will not depreciate as fast as others due to high demand in that market.

 

[CalMark]

Actually, the Sonic is rated four stars out of five on ALG's depreciation ratings, which is quite good for a small American car. Only the Cadillac ATS and Chevy Camaro rank this well among the cars from GM.

https://www.alg.com/insights/depreciation-ratings/

 

[stoopid]

According to the black book used when I traded in my car, a 2LT 2012 Sonic 1.8L 15k was worth $13,000. If you have premium sound and traction control make sure to select that.

Used Car Trade-In Value from Black Book

2012 CHEVROLET SONIC
$10,860 - $13,060

They offered $12,000 and I got them up to $12,750. They'll roll it out front the next day with $13,995 on the window and sell it in a few weeks.

 

[$ub$onic]

I noticed black book does not have a orange color option

 

[stoopid]

I noticed black book does not have a orange color option

That because no dealer wants to buy back a car that color.

 

[$ub$onic]

Probably wise of them