ArabianKnight

I was looking up price ranges on a 2008 S8 and for the Black Book the trade in value was 18-25K and the Blue Book has it at at around 40k trade in value...WTF!!

What do you use as a guide for negotiation? I would figure the dealers go back and forth between the two guides to whichever benefits them more.

My search for the perfect S8 is not going well and I was browsing the MB forum and researching S-classes yesterday!!

TFT

Use NADA.
NADA Guide vs. Black Book vs. Kelley Blue Book

ltooz_a6_a8_q7

It doesn't matter what book you use, they're only guides. The price you'd actually pay or sell for is depend upon the negotiation, current demands and availability.
When I bought my car - bluebook 22.5k - owner asked 22k - 1 month later - sold for $18k.

Cheers,

Louis

SaltyIrishman

Are you trading in or buying? Lots of different things will go into the equation, including location. MMR values [dealer guidelines at auction] are not even super reliable here as the quantity of cars moving is not that huge.

I do like Edmunds a lot for ballpark values, but it all depends on condition, mileage, location, and what is out on the general marketplace today. If a dealer bought a car really well, they may hang on to it waiting to get a bigger dollar. Most of the time they just want to flip it over, make a few bucks and move on.

halik

The only real thing that matters is Mannheim auction price to get the wholesale value. Dealers will just mark up from that.

ArabianKnight

Too bad we don't have access to that stuff. Maybe I will get a dealers license to get better deals

SaltyIrishman

Even if you know MMR [Manheim price], it's not necessarily THAT important for a small volume car like an S8 as some dealers buy dumb and some buy really well...as mentioned the MMR values are thin for this car. You can always go to a dealer and tell him "I want X car for X" and let him go find it for you.

yangstein

There are ONLY 47 S8's are available on "Autotrader" for 2007 and 2008 S8's. That number is very low compare to other cars. You could find more Lambo's and Ferraris with the same search. It is a fun car to drive for sure. I was about to trade in for my next ride but thinking about holding on to it after what I discovered.

Some with low miles are selling for $40K+ and higher miles go for Upper $20K's...

It was intersting to find out about S8's after reading this thread.

SaltyIrishman

No, people are ASKING $40K+. I haven't actually heard of or seen a single S8 in the past 2 years going for that kind of coin. I 100% agree on it being a great car and it being fun and rare, but there are still plenty of people in Candyland about pricing out there, and there is still room for pricing to plunge further, so don't think they will be appreciating anytime soon

I haven't looked in a while but suspect that the high dollar culprits are still sitting from my earlier searches. Values are set to drop again slowly then more precipitously in a few years when the D5 comes out, and already the D4 [Non-S8/W12 versions] is getting to the "affordable" spectrum, though I don't think the D4 S8 has gotten it's "butt-pucker price shock" yet [30%-40% ish near-immediate drop in value is my guess]; that will happen soon after the D5 S8 is unveiled.

Looking at D4 S8s for sale, the cheapest right now is $70K and most are at or above $80K; they will be forced down to $50K range when the D5 S8 is released as there won't be many buyers willing to fork over $70K for a used flagship car when it's "the old one". There is a great thread about the historical depreciation of the big Audis somewhere by MP4.2+6.0 I believe...I will try to find it and link here.

These cars are big toys for serious punters and they always want the newest shiniest one. Good for the less well-heeled of us that can after a few years enjoy a lightly used supercar for the price of a Honda Accord / Camry / insert other toastermobile--buy it to drive and enjoy, not as an investment

2001 S8

+1