Last year when I bought the Maxima I bought it right at KBB Private in Good condition. I paid 6 grand for it. Retail on the car was 8. Now, one year later, KBB is showing a private party value of just over 4 grand with a retail of 6... I absolutely cannot fathom that KBB values have dropped so drastically on the 5th Gen's. Cars do not lose 35% of their value in 1 year. It's making it difficult to sell my car and I am truly mystified. I mean we have a Japanese-built sedan with a ton of features and good overall reliability and they're basically saying it's no better than a Kia of the same vintage. I call BS!! BTW, mine is an AE with 113K, 5-spd and every single option.

 

did KBB show 6 grand for it in good condition last year?

I know KBB doesn't like mileage...so if you bought it under 100K and now it's got over that...that could explain.


I typically use kbb only for ballpark range, if I use 'em at all.

 

are you sure you were not looking at the black value?

 

Yes and Yes. I bought the car with 102K and it showed Kelly Blue Book at 6K in Good condition, 8K Retail. Now it has 113K and KBB is a touch over 4K. Something doesn't compute with these numbers. And it's completely screwing me even trying to sell my car!! You suck KBB!

 

whats your asking price on the car now? as new models keep popping out the manufacturers plants the value of our cars will continue to decline drastically... with that being said you have a very rare maxima so I would hold up on the higher end of the range... someone will bite... is Black Betty yours?

 

Your missing the economy factor which is also part of it's declining value.
It effects everybody.

 

Yes she's mine. It's in the For sale section right now. I guess we'll just have to see how it goes. I expect values to drop as time goes on, but 35% in one year is ridiculous. I can see how the economy would affect values, but the economy is supposedly better now than it was 1 year ago...

 

Improving economy = increased finances and credit to purchase NEW cars therefore increasing the depreciation of used?

 

Having worked at a car dealership for almost 12 years, I can say that car values can drop quite a bit, especially as a car ages. Certain cars drop more than others, but it's just one of those things if life we got to suck up and deal with.

 

I recently bought a 2000 se 5 speed and kbb had the value at 3500-4000. Now 3 months later, I'm helping a friend buy the same exact car. Now kbb's value is at 2600. I don't understand how it can drop that much in 3 months.

Crazy thing is that his 2000 Grand Cherokee with 10,000 miles less is worth almost 5 grand. Doesn't seem logical.

 

This is what I'm saying. Generally book values on a 10+ year old car do not fluctuate very much and have a predictable downward trend as age increases and mileage goes up. I would not have expected my Maxima to be worth 4 grand for at least another 2-3 years and 30 thousand miles. Even then I'd still have a relatively low mileage Maxima at less than 150K. It is possible that the increased buying power from an improving economy is driving values down because people are buying new, but we're not in that 10 grand and up range where the number of potential buyers dwindles. In the 5K range, you're anymore looking at high school students, college students, and professionals looking for a cheap commuter, on top of enthusiasts who love the marque, and even a lot of people who are just looking for a good, reliable car for not much money. I don't know, I still have a lot of interest in the car, but no one yet willing to go to where I would like to be. You may be right T_Behr, I may end up having to bite the bullet and take a loss here. Not a big fan of KBB though. They are flat WRONG with the values of our 5th Gens....

 

You can only get the price someone is willing to pay regardless of KBB value...

You can't do much to affect the market.

 

Exactly! OP needs to do some research, the used car market is like any other market, it has ups and downs depending on many factors. And right now there are several big factors working against used cars so that a 30% yearly drop makes sense.

1) unemployment rate peaked in 2009 at ~10%, but today is down to ~8%. What that means is more people have jobs = more money = more people can buy new cars. And when more people buy new cars, less people buy used cars. And less demand for used cars means lower prices.

2) the average age of used cars today is 10.8 years. What that means is people are being forced to buy new cars cause old ones are just getting too old and require too much money to keep going. And every new car sale means one less customer for used car sales = lower demand = lower prices.

3) there's a graph on truecar.com showing a strong correlation between new car sales rates and the stock market, and the stock market just broke a record high last week, so you can figure out the rest!

So just like the housing market peaked and then crashed, the used car market peaked and is crashing (really crashing back to a more normal values after bubbling just like housing did)

 

It is messed up. The Audi that I bought last year has appreciated almost $1500?! Not that I'm mad about it, just seems odd. I guess that will offset the losses on my 5.5.

 

I've done my research, buddy. Your truecar.com website has absolutely NOTHING to do with used cars at all OR the stock market. Do you really mean comparative graphs to the NYSE or S&P?? The graphs are showing averages and a mean price of what people across the country are paying for a new maxima and showing you how much you should expect to pay for one as well. And cars are no comparison to real estate. Cars (except for some rare instances) do not appreciate by any discernible amount like housing can be predicted to. Values on cars will fluctuate, but not like this generally. There are also location factors that determine value. Cars are generally worth more in my area because they don't tend to rust like they do back east. Demographics show that Japanese cars and old Mercedes diesels really hold their value in the PNW. Maybe a Maxima like mine can be had for 4 grand in Florida, but not here, not unless it has over 150K-200K and most of those are not AE's. If and when I sell my Maxima, I'll let you know how much someone was willing to pay for it. I'm trying to help the Maxima world out anyway by keeping values up. One shouldn't have trouble paying 5 grand for a nice 4th Gen. It's a lot of reliable car.

 

Nissans in general do not hold their resale value very well, plain and simple.

That's why I still have my 95 with 245k on it, let them pay themselves off.

 

Pfftt..now you are smoking something.

 

You may see as a 33% price reduction, but I see it (and KBB too probably) as a 6.66% reduction.. Assuming the Max cost 30k new back in the day, I took 2k/30k=6.66% change in price.

 

That's true with most cars. 9/10, when someone finances a new car, it loses value faster than you can pay it down, and that's why many people get in trouble with having a car that they can be thousands of dollars upside down. My mom found this out the hard way when she tried to trade in her Chevy Malibu she had a few years back. She was so upside down that they wouldn't even take it for trade. They told her to keep it and pay it down more and try again later, basically.

 

OK maybe I'm exaggerating a little bit, but seriously a mint 99 SE 5-spd with leather and 113K has got to be worth in the 4's anyhow...

 

I just bought a mint '03 SE from a dealer my friend works as a mechanic at. They had it listed at 5 and I paid 4000. The only thing wrong with it is the cup holder lid is broken and the leather steering wheel is worn. It does have 150k miles but I don't think that matters if the car is well maintained. kbb is more picky about miles but we all know nissans will live forever if you take care of them. I sold an altima with 370,000 miles and always wondered how many more it lasted.

 

Bought my 2000 SE fully loaded for $3600. The week I bought it, KKB valued the car at $4300. Week after, $4800. This week, $2700.

Long story short, KBB is full of bullcrap.

 

Well, I'm glad you found something man. Watch that oil consumption like a hawk on those early VQ35's. Check the rear valve cover. Did you get an auto SE? Put up some pics in a new thread if you haven't already. Let's see it!

 

No, not in the 4's either..keep dreaming. Anyone who pays more than 4k for a 4th gen is a sucker...no matter the condition of the 4th gen.

 

I'm glad I don't have a 4th Gen then....I'm not selling my AE in the 4K range though. I don't care what it takes. It's too rare and it's worth 5 if it's worth a penny. And I'm frankly surprised that there is anyone here arguing with me about how worthless our cars are. They are not worthless, even the 5.5 Gen oilburners...

 

Yes I read about the oil consumption and have been watching it very closely since I got it. I've put just over a thousand miles on it so far and it hasn't moved. Also, I ordered the '04+ rear valve cover and will be replacing it when I do the plugs.

 

I would only pay $3000 for that ^...maybe $3,300 if it was a 97-98.

 

You really don't understand the value of things. They only have the value that someone is willing to pay for it. Pawn Stars show is a good example. You have people that come in asking for insane amounts of money on items. Pawn Stars staff offers half or less than half of the person's asking price.

The point is...you can personally assign whatever value you feel like to your Maxima, but it doesn't matter if you can't sell it at that price. The true value is the price you sell it.

Don't get me wrong...good luck with your sale, but you might consider separating out the "rare" and "being worth every penny"aspect because that doesn't mean **** to a buyer if they won't pay that price.

 

We don't use KBB at the insurance company that I work at anymore. Because we've found that their values are incorrect, so now when were trying to figure out the value of a customer's car, we use NADA.

 

Thanks man. Clean trade-in on NADA puts the AE at $5075 with a retail of $7400. Much more realistic numbers, IMHO. Nice to know the big boys are thinking more like me. And while I totally agree that pretty much anything is worth only what someone is willing to pay for it, my whole beef stems from the influence that KBB is having on people believing what they think they should be willing to pay for it. Case in point, I'll be getting more money for my 91 Ford than I will be for my 01 Maxima. KBB has no bearing on my 91 anymore because its too old. It simply comes down to what someone is willing to pay and they dont have much outside influence anymore.

 

Glad I could help!

 

Valid point.

 

KBB has always been optimistic on their pricing.

 

Funny T-Bitty...