Need help with 2005 Avalon pricing

[dgsbikes]

I am thinking of t moving up from 1999 Camry XLE to an Avalon.

I am looking at a few 2005-2006 Avalon XLS and a couple of 2005 Limiteds, but I am very confused about the valuation.

There's the factory rebate, recall and overall economy that I believe has had an impact on the used car values. But for more or less the same condition/age/mileage car, I am seeing valuations and asking prices all over the board.

For Ex. 2005 Limiteds are $13500 through $15K mileage with 15K miles of each other. KBB on the other hand brings up a private party valuation of $12.5K for a good condition car a good $1K below the lowest asking price I have seen for similarly equipped Limited.

Could people here help set an expectation on how much should I be paying for:
* 2005 Avalon Limited. Good condition. Loaded. 70K to 90K miles.
* 2005 Avalon XLS. Good condition. Loaded. 70K to 90K miles.

Thanks in advance.

[billberry12]

When the numbers are just a few thousand apart for similar cars, I think it all boils down to this. How much you like the car, how bad you want it over the others, and how bad the seller wants to sell. It's all negotiable at this point. When I find the car I want, I am willing to pay asking price for it, if it's not too much out of line. You can spend a lot of time, and let a lot of great used cars go by, if you wait too long for the perfect deal.

Don't buy the car unless you really love it. You will regret it later.
If you do really love it, pay the seller what he wants, and enjoy your purchase.

And no, I am not a car saleman.

Just my 2 cents.

[TAZCOOLS]

http://www.edmunds.com

[Riick]

I've been looking at 2008s - XLS and Touring.
Just forget the asking prices - completely! They are meaningless.
Right now I have a dealer willing to sell a cherry 2008 XLS with 18k miles & everything but traction control
for roughly $1000 over Edmund's "private party" value (("Clean" value - not "Outstanding" BTW ))
These cars are NOT moving except at a good discount, due to the recall.
Average price today is down about 11-12% -vs- same car in mid-December.

The dealers are just lying sacks of ______. One guy said: "We can't sell the car at that price, it's below our cost... see?" "Well, at the "wholesale" prices you're showing me, you can't afford to sell it at your asking price... how about that?" He proceeded to drop $1,500

[grandpapa]

I just picked up a 06 Avalon Limited.

KBB.com and Edmunds.com give you the "general" price point and I think those numbers are only good for reference.
Depends on where you are and how many Avalon are available on your area. It is very difficult to say how much you should pay for a specific car.

Here is what I do.
I did check out the kbb and edmunds to get an idea about the year/miles/price
then I check out craigslist, autotrader, local dealer to see how much they listed their avalon for
I also check the carfax and service history

At the end, I ended up going to a Lexus dealer to pick up the 06 avalon, I know what they did on the car and I think the price is good. (sure it is not a rock bottom price but base on the history, the work they did, a few hundreds dollar higher, I don't think it is a deal breaker. )

Ask yourself if you are willing to pick up a car at a small auto broker lot or a nicer dealership? Do you trust private sale if they are the 1st owner with all service record?

I think 05 Limited/XLS with 70K miles are listed around $17K in my area.
But if you can pick, get the limited. Not much different in price but you get way more feature than the limited.

[dgsbikes]

Thanks everyone for the posts.

I had to walk away from a California SFO Bay Area private party $11.5 loaded 2005 limited 90K miles good kbb condition because the buyer on my Camry backed out.

One thing that kinda jumped out was that the KBB and Edmunds pricing is on the higher side. One can get a private party deal for much (10% to 15%) lower than that. It's probably because the KBB and Edmunds pricing models are limited in their ability to factor in the combination of
* recall impact
* secondary market inventory
* then current $3K rebate
* model year change,

the first and third being exception scenarios that seem to be throwing off their pricing models.

One thing that worked for me was to take the dealer trade-in price and private party price and make an offer to the seller somewhere half way (or lower) between those prices for a given condition of the car. I did get quite a bit of interest.

On camry's (Yes I priced a camry too just to get the beat of the market as the Avalon volume is not as much); many dealers were also open to accept dealer trade-in plus $300 (more so if they have had the car for 60+ days)

[FLiPinoy]

I picked up a 2006 XLS for the wife in excellent conditon, 63K miles, silver for 17K and they wanted 21K. I looked at 6 of them last week and couldn't find anything at my local auto mall that compared. I fell in love with the car and ended up picking it up at the last dealership after 12 hours and on my way home. I had my eye on Camry's between 15K-20K prices and couldn't stop looking at the Avalon. I have only driven it a few times cause the wife uses it but I'll tell you what, I am very happy with the decision. Payments are down to $242/month which is below my target of $250. I put 7K down from an acura I had that was stolen. You just gotta know your limits and stick to it. Too many options for you to settle, and they know that.

[grandpapa]

Originally Posted by FLiPinoy

I picked up a 2006 XLS for the wife in excellent conditon, 63K miles, silver for 17K and they wanted 21K. I looked at 6 of them last week and couldn't find anything at my local auto mall that compared. I fell in love with the car and ended up picking it up at the last dealership after 12 hours and on my way home. I had my eye on Camry's between 15K-20K prices and couldn't stop looking at the Avalon. I have only driven it a few times cause the wife uses it but I'll tell you what, I am very happy with the decision. Payments are down to $242/month which is below my target of $250. I put 7K down from an acura I had that was stolen. You just gotta know your limits and stick to it. Too many options for you to settle, and they know that.

that seems to be a fair price around my area.
there is no way you can find $12K 90K miles 05+ Avalon here.
The cheapest I saw listing is an 05 XLS 85K miles for $14999 with 2 accidents report on CarFax from a local Toyota dealer.

[dgsbikes]

Originally Posted by grandpapa

that seems to be a fair price around my area.
there is no way you can find $12K 90K miles 05+ Avalon here.
The cheapest I saw listing is an 05 XLS 85K miles for $14999 with 2 accidents report on CarFax from a local Toyota dealer.

Exactly....which is why I am really pissed off that I had to walk away from that deal!

[grandpapa]

you should have picked up the avalon 1st and sell the camry if you really think the deal is too good to pass on.
of course it would require more $ up front

In my case, my 97 Camry was sidelined due to tranny problem so I had to get some addtional fund from a family member to get things going.

I was thinking about selling my Camry and get something better. As soon as I listed, my tranny has problem and need a rebuild. I was hoping to get around $3500 from the sale from my Camry. No sale but still go shopping for a car. Finally got a 06 Avalon Limited. During that time, I also had my Camry fixed (yes, addtional fund )


Now I have my Carmy in working condition and will list it again in a month or so (just to make sure the tranny is working properly before the listing). The Avalon is a nice step up from the Camry (LE) bigger and nicer. We could have spent the money on a new barebone Corolla but luckily I didn't. NO WAY.

Just be careful about the "knocking" sound which I am having, today I dropped my car off at the dealer and see what they will say about it. I have a topic on this as well. GOOD LUCK