Brooklyn

Brought my 2004 S4 into CARMAX back in October '07 with approx 46k on the odometer for an appraisal. At the time they offered me $25k, which I would have taken but ran out of time preparing for my deployment. Returned to the same CARMAX while on R&R on Monday and the new appraisal is $19k with approx 47k on the odometer. I would rate the car as being "Good" on a scale of Poor, Fair, Good, Excellent. Guy doing the appraisal claims the market has bottomed out for my car and that my clutch "feels" funny. I'm back in Iraq, but am now thinking about holding on to the car until I return in January '09, or perhaps attempting a private sale on my next R&R which would be circa August. Is that price drop a fair representation of the market for our cars these days?

bd s4

(edit) I just did a kbb and it's saying 23,400 for a good condition 'trade'

sounds like the previous 25k offer was a fluke on their part as in my experience they tend to offer way low at carmax

I had my car appraised, which is same year and mileage to yours, two weeks ago, and they offered 21-22, and that likely due to their incentive to sell me something else...

holding out for a private sale is probably the way to go, but consider any expenses you may have on the car in the meantime (payments/storage/insurance/further depreciation)

good luck out there

bd

ESFO

you can get a 45K 2004 S4. Where was this deal when I was buying my car four years ago...?

S4iowa

I have a Cadillac CTS I'm trying to get rid of right now. Local dealer offered me 11k for it. Two weeks later they have two very similar units for 6-7K more than what they offered me for mine.

Screw them and sell it your self. Used dealers are responsible for the market bottoming out by low balling current owners.

Brooklyn

They told me my aftermarket parts didn't have a negative impact on the appraisal (full milltek, hyperflow, short shifter), and claimed that the $6k reduction was the result of the clutch (feels fine to me and my audi tech) and the market for the car. It was a no brainer for me to walk away, but I couldn't help but think to myself how insane it is that a car that stickered around $50k in January 2005 could now be worth only $19k, despite being well maintained and having relatively decent mileage.

S4iowa

has 82K miles

They are making a killing offering you 19K

S4iowa

2005's on their site are at a MIN of $29K

Brooklyn

Fortunately for me I don't have any storage expenses as the car is currently parked in a covered lot on a .gov compound. Good friend of mine is keeping an eye on it for me, with some light driving around town periodically to keep her fresh. You're right though, in that the car will only continue to depreciate. May look into CARMAX again come July/August, but would be inclined to sell it privately and do a little better given the mods on the car. I guess the only solace I take out of this is that by the time I get back I should be able to track down a CPO'd RS4 or S6 with relatively low mileage for a song...

Brooklyn

Good find - that's saying something about their offer...

Tal-Yvan

And they offered $23K.. with 46K Mi on the odometer. Checking at their website within the store, similar cars were going for $33K, so I told the guy that I did understand the market was low because of the miles, gas prices, and that pretty much any car is doing 300Hp right now. But that I could not understand how they intended to make $10K proffit out of it just like that.

Of course the guy didn;t have anything to do with market prices, and looked at me like... yeah you're right.