Update: Mr. Tortoise gets a truck

Question

I know I can tell long stories. I'll try to keep this short.  Q: What resources would you use to find out the trade in value of a 2015 car?  Car is too new to show on kbb. Only the base model is shown, but no detail on various models. I even emailed them and they said not enough data (or something like that). Someone posted a link somewhere here about black-something. I got a value there.  DH is frustrated with his several month old car for a couple reasons so we started to see how difficult it would be to get out of it into something new. He's looked at a couple places and the offer for his car has swung $4k. The first one was lower than what we thought (partially due to an error on my part reading the aforementioned site), but the next one was $4k lower than that. Really ridiculously low. I've suggested going to Car Max a couple times. We had good luck getting a price from them once before and then using that price as a bargaining chip and the dealer matched it. DH said it was a horrible experience. I don't remember it being bad, but it was his car, so that could change the perspective on the situation I suppose. I think it's Starting Over that said it's what he (or she) has used in the past or another place like it.  I'd love to take DH's car there just to see what they'd offer, but if it's near the lower value, it'd be quite the blow and I'd rather not endure that (I'd rather he not endure that). If it's near the other value we were offered, we might even pay to get out of it (assuming that's possible). We can't go back to the dealer where we were offered that as he's moved on to a totally different make for a new car. 

Answer 1

Lots of 'stuff' in the last 24 hours.  We both couldn't relax until we got this vehicle situation straightened out. With a $4k swing in value between two dealers, I finally convinced him to go to Car Max and see what they say. It was VERY interesting.  They offered exactly half way between the low and the high offer. But with their excellent, transparent process of showing you how they rated the car, we noticed that it was coming up as a Golf SE not a Golf SEL. We questioned the guy at the desk and he got his supervisor (not sure of her title, but the one who could explain more). We said that that was our problem online too. For us it was hard to check a value because it was so new that KBB only listed S. But when we put it into blackbook we got right around what the highest dealer offered us. She said that our VIN was for an SE, not an SEL. She said she'd had a similar issue with a Ram where it was sold as one particular thing but it was really the lower model with the extras added so it was equivalent. DH was about to go 2 blocks down to VW and give them an earful (easy since he's already not happy with them). I suggested we go home and check paperwork first (only about 4 miles away). The sticker is definitely an SEL. There was another piece of paperwork that listed SEL. The contract just says Golf.   On the other side of the equation, we looked all over Southern California to see if we could find what he wanted. We had zero affinity for either of the dealers we'd visited on Friday, so we didn't feel bad not asking them to locate one. We found one down by the beach that was exactly what he wanted (The only question was whether we should get long or short bed and we could make arguments both ways...this one is short bed so it'll just be more manueverable. There's only a foot difference.) I think we got a decent deal on the truck, given that we know it's the only one in existence within 150 mile radius.  We went down there figuring we wouldn't trade the Golf. We'd either pursue it with VW or just take Carmax up on their offer. We were just ready to be done. We talked to the manager at the dealer and explained the SE/SEL thing. Initially he said he'd match Carmax, but then said if we brought in the sticker etc. showing SEL (we didn't drive the car there) that he'd bump it up nearly to the Audi dealer's offer. Sold.  They were only able to get us 2.99 with GM financing. We've applied to DCU and are pending. We did it just under him and I'm thinking DTI could be an issue with just him. I also sent a message through the app system that wife could be added if necessary to get best rate. Dealer was using EX Auto V2 (pretty sure that's what it said). It was probably what the local CU used too, it was a couple points lower but that could be due to the previous inquiry. It would make more sense than Mortgage score.  Cap One was listed on their application. I asked if she'd gotten a rate from them. She said we got the same rate from them but they weren't willing to extend us enough credit, but she said it looked like she could 'recon' the amount and rate with them Monday if I want (my word, not hers). I said I will be checking with another CU and I'll let her know Monday. We're taking the Golf in and finishing the deal on Tuesday. Fingers crossed that we get best rate from DCU. If not, we'll survive.  The last spur of the moment car purchase was an expensive quick decision. Financially, definitely a mistake. But if he hadn't have gotten that car, I wouldn't have gotten my car (which I love) and he wouldn't have gotten the truck. Overall, I think it positions us well for years to come, so it was nice to get it all taken care of (nearly) all at once.  Since we'll be upside down from the start, I think we should get GAP (never have on a loan in the past). That's another plus for DCU. Theirs is $295, GM is $995. I know this is a topic with strong feelings on both sides, so I hesitate to put it here, but in case anyone has knowledge re: GM and this...We'll also probably look into getting the GM extended warranty, but not now. I'm a little uncomfortable getting a car in it's first model year (and an American car with lots of electronics). I've confirmed we can get it later and shop different dealers for it. It's my understanding that if we get it within the by 12k or 15k miles, it's still the cheapest it can be. You can get it up through the time the factory warranty ends, but it gets more expensive as you near the end of that. You can do 0% financing for up to two years through Ally. I hope we wouldn't need to, but that sounds preferable to financing it in now for the life of the loan. And the finance mgr of course quoted us a ridiculous figure on it.