Trading In Your Old Car When Getting Your Elio

[Steve McKenney]

I would like to know, and I think I heard, but will Elio be taking trades on our current cars? I have a 2011 Ford Focus with some really good equity in it that I would obviously, no longer need. A trade-in is the obvious solution but I didn't know if Elio was taking trades on their cars or not.

 

[Grumpy Cat]

99% of cars don't have equity and a Focus certainly does not. Cars depreciate.

As far as I know, there has been no talk of trade ins.

 

[Steve McKenney]

What I meant is that the car is mostly paid off, Protias. Hence there is equity in the car meaning I owe far less than the trade-in value of the car according the KBB. I know cars depreciate. Thanks for the information though. I suppose I could just sell it outright but sometimes it's just easier to trade it in and be done with it.

 

[goofyone]

Steve, Welcome to our group of future Elio owners. I hope you have a great time on this forum!

I have heard from a reliable source that Elio was working on a solution for trading in used cars. I wouldn't really expect to hear much about this either way until we are close to production. As you said you always have the option of selling it yourself if Elio does not have a good solution to this issue.

If you ever have any issues on here please be sure to contact a staff member as we are here to help.

 

[lafrisbee]

it would really limit the sale of EE's if they did not accept trades. That being said they could just have a "carmax" business agreement. At least I think it is car max? Where they will buy your car out right. I do not know if it will help or hurt the person with the car but that would be a fairly seamless/normal way to buy a "new car/EE".

 

[zelio]

What I meant is that the car is mostly paid off, Protias. Hence there is equity in the car meaning I owe far less than the trade-in value of the car according the KBB. I know cars depreciate. Thanks for the information though. I suppose I could just sell it outright but sometimes it's just easier to trade it in and be done with it.

I'm with you, Steve. I would rather trade in than try to sell my car myself. Not only am I a woman, but also a lolly (little old lady), and I don't like to dicker over price. I highly offended one gentleman in San Francisco because I asked the price I felt was a very fair value. He would have been happier if I had asked more so he could "talk me down" to what I wanted. Definitely not my idea of fun. LOL :-) Z

 

[H2odog]

I cannot imagine that Elio would accept trades. Primarily because they are a store and not a dealership, and have said on their website that the $6800 was a "No haggle" price. I can only believe that if they were to accept trades it would be at the very lowest sub-wholesale pricing since their most likely outlet would be the dealers auto auction. You might get a ;ittle but for the most part you'd be giving tour car away.

 

[Jim H]

I hope Elio focuses on sales and lets a third party arrangement handle the trades. A CarMax type arrangement would be a good start. However reading the forum posts many are driving beaters until the Elio arrives. Not much value in most of them.

 

[Elynde]

However reading the forum posts many are driving beaters until the Elio arrives. Not much value in most of them.

As though it would take "much value" to make a dent in the price of an Elio. Even $1000 is just under a seventh of the Elio's price.

 

[Steve McKenney]

I was reading through the new blog that was posted today they linked to several articles about the Elio. I got to reading one at at gadgetreview.com and noticed this in one of the paragraphs:

Low Cost Travel
The main reason the Elio might just take off is the fact that it’s surprisingly cheap. It’s light and uses fewer materials than even subcompact cars, bringing it in at a sticker price of just $6800. And as it gets 84 miles to the gallon, it’s also going to save you some cash on the gas end of things. In fact, the price is so low that the manufacturer has a plan in place where you just buy it with a gas card and make your monthly payments off of that. The company claims that if you trade-in a car that gets 27 miles or less to the gallon, you’re saving money.

I am assuming that "the company" it is insinuating that the company is Elio. I interpret that to mean that they will accept trade-ins.