Low value on used Bronco

[zoober]

Yes, you are correct……along with a slew of added fees to the cost of registration. I just paid $577 to renew my 2021 Bronco registration and $227 to renew my 2013 Honda Pilot registration. Just another revenue source to be misappropriated into nowhere’s land!

That's (one of hundreds of reasons) why we left to TN.
Here in Tn, sales tax is the net difference of sales price and trade. My tags brand new were $119. Renewal will be $51 ($26 to state, and $25 to county).
Leavers beware! If you leave Ca, make sure you file a change of address with DMV, or they will auto renew your tags and bill you. Even if you have registered in another state. This has happened to a number of friends. I filed the change.

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[SmallCrawler]

So I haven’t taken the time to read through all the pages here but I work in Ford sales and here’s my humble input and I apologize if some or all has been covered.

Trade values are market area values. KBB is a data collection service so it takes time to gather data to create a trade in “range”. If you use KBB to get an idea of your trade use the instant cash offer tool it is more in line with what your vehicle with similar mileage is worth in your market area.

Carvana and Carmax can come in higher due to them having a further reach. Meaning they can buy your car and send it to another market area/region to make their money on the vehicle. Our dealership will match Carmax if you have the paperwork not an online we will offer you X amount but the physical paperwork they give after they see and value the car then we will match and take the car to them following the deal to save you/the customer on taxes.

Our offers come from what your vehicle with similar mileage is selling for not listed at in the market area. Some locations will be stronger and some less depending on demand of the vehicle. But that’s why you’ll see some of our members here say I was offered X for mine which is a great offer and some say I was offered X and feel the value was not what they were anticipating or hoping for.

Along with the offer you receive there’s some holdback on the offer. This can range depending on condition of the vehicle between 500 to 2,000 dollars. I in sales would get 10% of the holdback if I got you to take that offer as part of my front side commission. So if you were offered 43,000 the actual value they’d be willing to do could be 44 to 45,000. It’s another negotiating tool for us the ole if I can get you another 1,000 for your trade can we put you in this today. Sometimes there is no holdback though from start depending on vehicle age/mileage/condition.

Hope this helps and it is articulated well enough as I am typing from my phone.

Holding back on the trade offer (by the dealer) is referred to as "boxing the trade." After getting this offer, ask the dealer if they are boxing you. Then ask them what the ACV of your vehicle is -- the "actual cash value." Always shop your trade to a few different dealers and you'll soon get a good idea of what it's really worth, and a value that you can possibly live with.

If buying a new Bronco, check the build date, and if it's been sitting around for some time, ask the dealer to show you an "Oasis." This is the service record for the Ford vehicle and will outline any warranty/recall/tsb/lot adventure work that was performed by any Ford dealer.

Definitely ask for an Oasis if buying a used Bronco from a Ford lot, and if buying used from a non Ford dealer, get it inspected by a Ford dealer, and ask them to pull an Oasis.

The last tip I have for everyone is try not to get offended when shopping for a car or getting trade values. Remember your Econ 101. Neither the buyer nor the seller is a price maker. They are both price takers.

 

[broncorik]

Lucky I escaped!

We thought that "escaping" CA was a solution...moved from San Diego to Sequim, WA years ago. Sequim is an anomaly for WA because it gets "only" about 19" of rain a year...and even a slight distance away, in Forks, they get 100". We had RVed there for years, in summer, and loved the place. We moved one July, and it was a balmy 90 degrees...and we immediately noticed the no income tax, low registration fees, Walmarts with AR-15s, etc. All was good for the most part until about September...when the evenings got cold, and the dampness crept in. Shortly thereafter, it became tough to wake up because it was always damp (and a damp cold is FAR worse than a dry cold). Also, by early winter, it was dark when I left for work and dark on my way home from work. It didn't hit over 60 degrees again until July (and it took about that long for us to dry out). We also had some crackheads steal a bunch of stuff from our separate garage, and when we walked our dogs on the DNR land we often ending up having to avoid gutted deer that someone had more than likely poached. Shortly thereafter, they clear cut the forest that was surrounding our house and that won't grow back for decades...the logging company left it looking like a war zone. One afternoon, after one too many dreary cold dark days, my wife texted me when I was at work and told me she was on a plane back to California to visit her sisters and to dry out. Shortly thereafter, we packed our bags and moved back to California. As I'm typing this, I'm at a beach just south of Santa Barbara enjoying the waves crashing with a long sleeve t-shirt even though it's January. I'll take the higher registration costs and eating it on taxes when and if I trade in a vehicle. Plenty of places to wheel (and surf/snowboard/ski/kayak/etc.). High taxes suck, but so does having to shovel myself out of a snowy front door to get to the mailbox...or layering up and still freezing...or having a car rust out from underneath me (I grew up in Buffalo, NY). Being a mechanic is already challenging at times, but try wrenching on something like brake bleeders or exhaust components on any car from the rust belt! Desirable things/places often come at a higher cost. There are certainly many other very desirable places all over the world, and many that cost much less than California to live in, but it is tough to find any single state that has as many things to offer...it took living in many other places and then in CA for me to realize that. Hopefully wherever folks on this forum live they genuinely enjoy it! For those who live in CA and don't love it, hopefully they are able to one day move someplace that ticks all their boxes. For those who hate CA and don't live here, that's ok too.

 

[Dougpaw57]

We thought that "escaping" CA was a solution...moved from San Diego to Sequim, WA years ago. Sequim is an anomaly for WA because it gets "only" about 19" of rain a year...and even a slight distance away, in Forks, they get 100". We had RVed there for years, in summer, and loved the place. We moved one July, and it was a balmy 90 degrees...and we immediately noticed the no income tax, low registration fees, Walmarts with AR-15s, etc. All was good for the most part until about September...when the evenings got cold, and the dampness crept in. Shortly thereafter, it became tough to wake up because it was always damp (and a damp cold is FAR worse than a dry cold). Also, by early winter, it was dark when I left for work and dark on my way home from work. It didn't hit over 60 degrees again until July (and it took about that long for us to dry out). We also had some crackheads steal a bunch of stuff from our separate garage, and when we walked our dogs on the DNR land we often ending up having to avoid gutted deer that someone had more than likely poached. Shortly thereafter, they clear cut the forest that was surrounding our house and that won't grow back for decades...the logging company left it looking like a war zone. One afternoon, after one too many dreary cold dark days, my wife texted me when I was at work and told me she was on a plane back to California to visit her sisters and to dry out. Shortly thereafter, we packed our bags and moved back to California. As I'm typing this, I'm at a beach just south of Santa Barbara enjoying the waves crashing with a long sleeve t-shirt even though it's January. I'll take the higher registration costs and eating it on taxes when and if I trade in a vehicle. Plenty of places to wheel (and surf/snowboard/ski/kayak/etc.). High taxes suck, but so does having to shovel myself out of a snowy front door to get to the mailbox...or layering up and still freezing...or having a car rust out from underneath me (I grew up in Buffalo, NY). Being a mechanic is already challenging at times, but try wrenching on something like brake bleeders or exhaust components on any car from the rust belt! Desirable things/places often come at a higher cost. There are certainly many other very desirable places all over the world, and many that cost much less than California to live in, but it is tough to find any single state that has as many things to offer...it took living in many other places and then in CA for me to realize that. Hopefully wherever folks on this forum live they genuinely enjoy it! For those who live in CA and don't love it, hopefully they are able to one day move someplace that ticks all their boxes. For those who hate CA and don't live here, that's ok too.

Different strokes. I HATE the sun, lived in the desert (New Mexico, Mojave, Saudi Arabia) for 40 years. I am so done with California, I'll never even go back to California for a visit.

 

[broncorik]

Tha

Different strokes. I HATE the sun, lived in the desert (New Mexico, Mojave, Saudi Arabia) for 40 years. I am so done with California, I'll never even go back to California for a visit.

I was stationed loads of places...I don't particularly love the sun (or desert) either. What I do love about CA is that one can easily find a place that is foggy most of the day (or year)...or sunny...or rainy...or hot...or cold...or any combination of the above. San Diego, for example, is foggy much of the morning...but it is never miserably cold or hot. By the time the fog dissipates, the sun comes out (but it is usually 70 degrees...not 115 like Palm Springs or Phoenix or Saudi Arabia). Many people live their entire lives in only one part of CA and hate it without ever having experienced life outside their immediate area. Hopefully you are completely satisfied where you are and life is good! I, OTOH, have only a fleeting interest in WA (or Oregon) after having lived there for years except for maybe Leavenworth/Bend in the summer...or maybe a few other coastal or high desert places for RVing from June to August. Zero interest in shivering/trying to stay dry and contemplating antidepressants the other 9 months. For those who like it, I imagine it is a wonderful life. Ideally, more people who don't like wherever they live will eventually be able to end up someplace they like better. For those who have never spent much time out of CA and think it is so much better everywhere else, it is all relative. If you live anywhere that is universally sought after, like the foothills or mountain areas of Colorado, the outskirts of Phoenix (Scottsdale), Taos, Bend, loads of places in Montana, Idaho, etc. etc., newsflash: a "nice" house in a nice neighborhood is still expensive, and traffic can suck anyplace (you might end up stuck in a traffic jam for an hour in 3 lanes versus 6, but an hour is still an hour). For comparison, I once was offered a job in Colorado. I didn't want to live on the flatland, so I scoped out houses in the hills (Evergreen, Estes Park, Golden, etc.). Not only were they just as expensive as those in CA, but the pay scale for the same job was far less. Had I have moved, I would have been stepping backwards financially. I know my situation isn't reflective of those of others, but my hope is that before people make the decision to simply move to someplace they think is "better," they should at least talk to people who have done it and later moved right back.

 

[zoober]

Born and raised in Huntington Beach. Had intramural surfing in Jr.HS. in the ‘80s, I would argue it was easily the best place to live. Bonfires and camping on the beaches, wheelers allowed on most, within limits. Then came the crowds. And the regulations. Good luck being on a beach at nite, let alone bonfires or camping.
Off road areas closed.
We left for Oklahoma to be with family (first gen born off tribal land). Went back 20 years later, and it was not a shadow of what it was. $12k property taxes, $6 gas, and lord, the regulations!
We sold a modest house for 780k, left for Tennessee, and could not be happier. Rural acreage property close to town that would be more than a million in Ca and hours from town.
A $10.5k/year savings in property taxes alone for double the house and 20x more land is pretty cool.
would never go back

 

[mpeugeot]

Whatever you do, don't move to Texas...

It's closed.

 

[broncorik]

Whatever you do, don't move to Texas...

It's closed.

Lots of places are very tolerable/ideal IF someone moves from California and cashed out after making a lot of money on a home that shot up in value...and that is also the reason many people in other states hate Californians, because they drive up the house prices for natives of those places. My entire family tree on one side is from Tennessee, and I get the appeal...but for me I'm not a fan of the humidity the bugs or the rainy winters. When I lived in the Pacific northwest, it was very much like this:



For comparison, this is January (yesterday...and pretty much all winter) here (not a fraction of the crowds of Huntington or anywhere else near LA):

My buddy just built a house in Tennessee, for a fraction of the amount a house would cost here, but he spends the majority of winter inside it. If you're into the outdoors, and being able to enjoy being out and about more often than not without having to layer up or wear rain gear, there are certain places that are ideal for that. For most people California means a postage stamp size lot and a shoe box of a house, but the trade-off is amazing weather and access to things that can't be found anywhere else.

 

[zoober]

Lots of places are very tolerable/ideal IF someone moves from California and cashed out after making a lot of money on a home that shot up in value...and that is also the reason many people in other states hate Californians, because they drive up the house prices for natives of those places. My entire family tree on one side is from Tennessee, and I get the appeal...but for me I'm not a fan of the humidity the bugs or the rainy winters. When I lived in the Pacific northwest, it was very much like this:



For comparison, this is January (yesterday...and pretty much all winter) here (not a fraction of the crowds of Huntington or anywhere else near LA):

My buddy just built a house in Tennessee, for a fraction of the amount a house would cost here, but he spends the majority of winter inside it. If you're into the outdoors, and being able to enjoy being out and about more often than not without having to layer up or wear rain gear, there are certain places that are ideal for that. For most people California means a postage stamp size lot and a shoe box of a house, but the trade-off is amazing weather and access to things that can't be found anywhere else.

I get it. The weather is fantastic.
I’m in western Tn, not the hills. So our winters are not bad. I’ll be out on the John Deer later on in a sweatshirt.
As a Medical device ME, the work is more plentiful here as well, with near Ca wages.
One of the biggies for us tho, is my wife is a competitive IDPA shooter. Ca made it near impossible to get 1,000 rounds at a time and inexpensively online, not to mention mag and other raced out restrictions for USPSA. We even have a small setup to practice, which would be impractical at best back in Ca.
As a life long surfer, I miss the beach the most.
Enjoy.

 

[AKBronc49]

First off, man I'm glad I bought my '21 for 500 over invoice in 2021 and walked out a little over $56k (today would be 68k) and since there's no sales taxes here the price was the price without doing mathematical gymnastics.

Secondly, the beach photo is beautiful. I had to chuckle at the terrible weather referenced. I sort of remember what the sun looks like. It came out yesterday around noon, I noticed while I walked to my Bronco that it had warmed up to -2f. Any of these places sound "better" weather wise than here in Alaska, but "better" is a very relative term, I do have Hawaii and Phoenix vacations already booked. It's only 6 months of snow after all ....

 

[broncorik]

I get it. The weather is fantastic.
I’m in western Tn, not the hills. So our winters are not bad. I’ll be out on the John Deer later on in a sweatshirt.
As a Medical device ME, the work is more plentiful here as well, with near Ca wages.
One of the biggies for us tho, is my wife is a competitive IDPA shooter. Ca made it near impossible to get 1,000 rounds at a time and inexpensively online, not to mention mag and other raced out restrictions for USPSA. We even have a small setup to practice, which would be impractical at best back in Ca.
As a life long surfer, I miss the beach the most.
Enjoy.

I must admit having been former military and a shooter myself California does make it a hassle to get ammo...but oddly enough it's no longer tough (at least in my county) to get a concealed carry (and even without one to transport whatever you need to a range). A lot of folks dislike California because they can't own an AR in certain configurations, or some of the weapons that are useful for long distance work, but I have no need for either these days. About 15 minutes away is the range where Keanu Reeves practiced for John Wick (he is actually pretty solid at three gun), ...your wife would probably dig that place. A lot of spec ops guys (current or former military) as well as LEOs frequent it. Here's one from this morning to appeal to your surfing side (local competition):

 

[broncorik]

First off, man I'm glad I bought my '21 for 500 over invoice in 2021 and walked out a little over $56k (today would be 68k) and since there's no sales taxes here the price was the price without doing mathematical gymnastics.

Secondly, the beach photo is beautiful. I had to chuckle at the terrible weather referenced. I sort of remember what the sun looks like. It came out yesterday around noon, I noticed while I walked to my Bronco that it had warmed up to -2f. Any of these places sound "better" weather wise than here in Alaska, but "better" is a very relative term, I do have Hawaii and Phoenix vacations already booked. It's only 6 months of snow after all ....

Let me know if you ever come out to Southern California and you want to wheel... I lived in Phoenix for almost 10 years and hopefully your vacation is booked for the winter months there? It was also interesting that when I lived in Sequim Washington that even though I thought the weather sucked many of the folks who lived there had moved from Alaska because they had assured me that the weather was far less brutal than they had in Alaska. You Alaskans are definitely a hardy bunch!

 

[AKBronc49]

Let me know if you ever come out to Southern California and you want to wheel... I lived in Phoenix for almost 10 years and hopefully your vacation is booked for the winter months there? It was also interesting that when I lived in Sequim Washington that even though I thought the weather sucked many of the folks who lived there had moved from Alaska because they had assured me that the weather was far less brutal than they had in Alaska. You Alaskans are definitely a hardy bunch!

Haven't been to CA for 10 years, but always enjoy the trip, thanks for the invite!

I'm born and raised, so consider it Stockholm syndrome or something close haha but at almost 36 the winters are getting harder and harder to handle. Last two winters were 200" plus of snow and it was on the ground from October to May. This year almost no snow and "milder" temps thankfully. I know a lot of people who move to WA/OR/ID for milder warmer weather. We have friends who left Palmer,AK for Phoenix (Gilbert) we typically go visit late September/early October, this last year it hit 118f while we were there. Honestly 109f wasn't bad when you're just vacationing and hanging by the pool. Trying to actually live in it seems terrible, but the body does acclimate.

 

[broncorik]

Haven't been to CA for 10 years, but always enjoy the trip, thanks for the invite!

I'm born and raised, so consider it Stockholm syndrome or something close haha but at almost 36 the winters are getting harder and harder to handle. Last two winters were 200" plus of snow and it was on the ground from October to May. This year almost no snow and "milder" temps thankfully. I know a lot of people who move to WA/OR/ID for milder warmer weather. We have friends who left Palmer,AK for Phoenix (Gilbert) we typically go visit late September/early October, this last year it hit 118f while we were there. Honestly 109f wasn't bad when you're just vacationing and hanging by the pool. Trying to actually live in it seems terrible, but the body does acclimate.

Yikes...I'd think that if AZ is the goal Flagstaff or Prescott Valley or Sedona would be more your thing...much milder winters than AK and loads of sunshine. When I lived in Phoenix and Tucson, I quickly realized that brutal heat is worse than bitter cold (because at least one can dress warmer for the cold). With the heat, many people just live indoors and deal with 500 dollar AC bills and can't even walk their dogs during the day. One summer, at 122 degrees, aircraft were grounded...and my car puked ATF all over from expansion. Additionally, it looked like a murder scene inside my car...I had left a berry smoothie inside and when it blew it covered the interior/windows. Fun times.

 

[zoober]

I must admit having been former military and a shooter myself California does make it a hassle to get ammo...but oddly enough it's no longer tough (at least in my county) to get a concealed carry (and even without one to transport whatever you need to a range). A lot of folks dislike California because they can't own an AR in certain configurations, or some of the weapons that are useful for long distance work, but I have no need for either these days. About 15 minutes away is the range where Keanu Reeves practiced for John Wick (he is actually pretty solid at three gun), ...your wife would probably dig that place. A lot of spec ops guys (current or former military) as well as LEOs frequent it. Here's one from this morning to appeal to your surfing side (local competition):

She actually has a TTI Canik Combat. She’s kinda an SFx fangirl.
I lived in Simi for a few years. Been there a few times.

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