this goes for all motor vehicles.

the other day, i was looking into upgrading my vehicles. keepin in mind, i want the 211(when it comes out), i figure i could get rid of my RC and free up some cash. My other vehicles are a 1998 vw jetta vr6 and a 1991 mercedes 4-matic wagon. Iwent to a few dealerships looking at a few cars, a ls 400, an MDX, an 01 tahoe. anyways, when dudes start talking about trade in values, even though kbb, edmunds, and nada said the vw was around 10,500 retail, and about 7200 trade, dealers were opnly offering around 4g's. and believe me, my jetta looks cleaner than 70% of the cars in the market. and it has about 2k in suspension and oz wheels AND all the stock bits. Seems that dealers have another book called GALVES and apparently the numbers in the book are lower than we think. you have to be a member and have a monthly subscription to get acces to galves. Oh yea, when i told them i might consider selling my bike, they offered 3750 with the mods and stock parts. i ended up taking 7500 in a personal sale

the moral? its nice to think what your vehicles are worth, but they are only worth what someone is willing to give you for it.

Thats true...

It sucks you don't get much money, if any, for the mods you have done.... that's probably because most dealerships don't support their cars being turned into street racers...

yea i understand. but i intentionall did NOT do any motor mods knowing that it would kill the value. all i did was suspension and brake work and a few euro mods. bilstiens, eibachs, neuspeeds, brembos, oz's and like i said i HAD ALL the stock parts. I mean this cars is clean and nice. the same went for my bike: 1200 pipes, 400 pcIIIr, 229 corbin, 180 2nd look, 100 frame sliders,80 db, 250 map, 225 undertail, 125 hugger, that about 2500+ in mods. and they offered 3750 with the stocks included?????

i will never pay retail again. I wont even pay wholesale.

because mods really don't mean that much to a dealership...

it's dumb... but that's the way it works... they sell so many cars that they could care less about what mods are done... it's just more of a pain in the ass for them to sell... cause they don't deal with aftermarket, so they can't explain the mods, therefore, it's a hard sell.

I work for a auto dealer out here in queens,ny and i know exactly what u r talking bout 51. All dealers in the US use Galves as their guideline to give pricing on trade-ins. it gives an exact quote on how much miles a car should have at time of trade-in and also the trade-in value of the car. Unfortunately, any car passing the 80000 mile mark isnt really worth to us as retailers,cuz of the mileage,we cant warranty it and if anything goes wrong,more headaches for the consumer and more headaches for the dealer. Any aftermarket goodies installed on bikes and cars really wont do us any good also,cuz of warranty issues,i.e. what if something goes wrong after the person buys it-stuff like that.
Its always good,to try to sell it privately,it takes a little bit more patience,but you'll get more money if anything. GOOD LUCK