Trading in a brand new car and getting killed!

I bought a 2005 Honda CR-V LX 4WD for my mom as a replacement for her
Accord, which had 130k miles. The justification for getting into the
CR-V was that she lives on a long steep hill, and when it snows it is
tough, if not impossible to get home. Also she drives a lot to work on
a local highway, which is not always plowed.

So we took the base LX, added dealer installed fog-lights for better
bad weather/night visibility, and the vehicle ended up costing just a
few $$ short of $21,000 ($20,595 + $491). The dealership promptly
prepped and delivered the vehicle and took care of registration and
other paperwork.

After a few days of driving (100 miles round-trip), my mom is unhappy
with the car. The road noise is too much, the car is too jerky on the
road.... CR-V users, please take this with a grain of salt, I am not
bashing the car, I liked it

So she does not want an SUV (or a CUTE-UV, whatever the term is), she
wants a passenger car, otherwise she does not feel safe.

To make the long story longer, we go back to the dealership, say that
we are unhappy with the car -- too much road noise to tolerate, too
unstable, so we want to swap it (paying the difference, obviously!) for
the similarly equipped 2005 Accord LX-V6 (has traction and ABS).

Dealer says: it is now a trade-in, and is generously willing to give us
$17,500 for the car that was driven off the lot A WEEK ago, and has 600
miles on it. Pretty steep of a drop if you ask me -- $3,500 for a week
of driving....

What can we do in this situation? I do not want to go through the
trouble of selling the car through the newspaper (tax trade-in reasons
+ time)... Can anything be done?

I looked at Kelly Blue Book, they do not have the trade-in values for
2005 (obviously!), but the 2004 CR-V LX is $17,500. So 2005 has to be a
bit more, right???

We are fully prepared to pay some money -- it is a loss, so it is
perfectly understood, but not $3500!
Any suggestions?

Thank you in advance!

they are being generous. most of the time they knock off $5000 on a "used
"car. it does not matter if you drive it 1 mile or 1000. if it is titled in
your name, it is used.
"Alex" > wrote in message
oups.com...
> I bought a 2005 Honda CR-V LX 4WD for my mom as a replacement for her
> Accord, which had 130k miles. The justification for getting into the
> CR-V was that she lives on a long steep hill, and when it snows it is
> tough, if not impossible to get home. Also she drives a lot to work on
> a local highway, which is not always plowed.
>
> So we took the base LX, added dealer installed fog-lights for better
> bad weather/night visibility, and the vehicle ended up costing just a
> few $$ short of $21,000 ($20,595 + $491). The dealership promptly
> prepped and delivered the vehicle and took care of registration and
> other paperwork.
>
> After a few days of driving (100 miles round-trip), my mom is unhappy
> with the car. The road noise is too much, the car is too jerky on the
> road.... CR-V users, please take this with a grain of salt, I am not
> bashing the car, I liked it
>
> So she does not want an SUV (or a CUTE-UV, whatever the term is), she
> wants a passenger car, otherwise she does not feel safe.
>
> To make the long story longer, we go back to the dealership, say that
> we are unhappy with the car -- too much road noise to tolerate, too
> unstable, so we want to swap it (paying the difference, obviously!) for
> the similarly equipped 2005 Accord LX-V6 (has traction and ABS).
>
> Dealer says: it is now a trade-in, and is generously willing to give us
> $17,500 for the car that was driven off the lot A WEEK ago, and has 600
> miles on it. Pretty steep of a drop if you ask me -- $3,500 for a week
> of driving....
>
> What can we do in this situation? I do not want to go through the
> trouble of selling the car through the newspaper (tax trade-in reasons
> + time)... Can anything be done?
>
> I looked at Kelly Blue Book, they do not have the trade-in values for
> 2005 (obviously!), but the 2004 CR-V LX is $17,500. So 2005 has to be a
> bit more, right???
>
> We are fully prepared to pay some money -- it is a loss, so it is
> perfectly understood, but not $3500!
> Any suggestions?
>
> Thank you in advance!
>

On 24 Jan 2005 13:31:54 -0800, "Alex" > wrote:

>After a few days of driving (100 miles round-trip), my mom is unhappy
>with the car. The road noise is too much, the car is too jerky on the
>road.... CR-V users, please take this with a grain of salt, I am not
>bashing the car, I liked it

One suggestion would be to try different tires, they can make a HUGE
difference. They may solve the problem and certainly cost less than
swapping for a new car.

Before buying a new car, I always try and find the equivilent model at
a car rental place and take it out for the weekend. It's a good way
to get an extended test drive without any pressure...