A wholesale car dealer called today about my FEH. He said they are "breaking the bank", value-wise. Apparently there is aggressive bidding if they show up at auction. Today he got a $23K bid for a 2006 4WD FEH with leather but no nav, 30K miles. That's at least $1000 ABOVE book value.

From a market perspective, that is a lot of money for any 2006 car with 30K miles that retailed for about $29K new.

I suppose this is good news for selling. But I hear you can't get a new one for three months so I suppose I'll file it under "nice to know". Like when someone says your house has increased $100K in value. Nice to know but what are you going to do? Sell it and move?

Between the huge price jump on new ones and the supply/demand situation, an impact on the used market was bound to happen eventually.

 

They are pretty scarace here in the Louisville, KY area too. When I bought mine Oct 20, it was actually listed in the paper. Went there that evening, expecting it to be gone, and was headed to the Toyota dealter after that if the FEH was gone. The car actually being there was great, but then not balking too much about X-plan was the icing on the cake. Now to see exactly how the $2200 rebate really works out

 

I work in the IT dept of a local car deaership.

I just checked one of our auction sites & here is what 06 4WD Hybrid's are selling for:

perfect condition:$22,966 average condition: $20,827 poor condition: $18,688

These are for a vehicle with under 30,000 miles.

I drive an 06 4WD FEH myself, it has every factory option. I bought it a year ago with 3900 miles on it for $20,000.00

~John

 

What is auction price in WA for an 06?? My local dealer has 7 2008 models in stock.

 

Market is tighter in Texas but still afew around but no killer deals and NO individuals for sale all dealers

 

You can always tell cars that are in high demand. For one thing you just don't see them on the lot. At the dealer where I got my 08 FEH, they had exactly one used one for sale -- I think an 06 model. People are just not trading them in. (yet?)

Back in 1999 when I bought my Jeep, I first looked at Mercedes M-class. First thing I couldn't get anyone to pay attention to me at the dealership. Turns out that reason for this is that I was the only white guy there -- surrounded by Asians. Mercedes dealers know that the affluent Chinese and Indian customers absolutely have to buy a prestigious logo (Mercedes, Lexus, whatever) -- almost like they don't have the option not to. For whatever reason I don't have that cultural imperative and a) they sensed it and b) I proved it by going to buy the Jeep.

Anyway, at that point the three USED M-class they had on the lot were selling higher than retail. A new one would take months to get. I thought the car itself was OK, but the prices were a ripoff.

I read somewhere that Ford is going to restrict their fleet sales to improve the resale value ratings of their product line which has been a problem for them. I guess that doesn't include the FEH.