WAVE 3 TV Louisville, KY | Selling your SUV is getting harder
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By Mark Schnyder
LOUISVILLE (WAVE) - When gas hit $3.00 a gallon, some experts proclaimed it "The end of the SUV" era. Now that gas costs more than $4.00 a gallon, more people are trying to trade out of their SUV's, but WAVE 3's Mark Schnyder explains there is a major problem with that.
They just are not worth anything anymore. Even if your SUV is in great shape with low mileage, you can expect to get a shockingly low offer. That makes trading that gas guzzling SUV a bad idea right now.
"I love the vehicle and if gas wasn't as high as it was, I'd keep it forever," says Leila Burch who owns a 2003 Dodge Durango she is ready to ditch.
Burch may have it forever if gas prices keep climbing and trade values on SUVs keep dropping.
"Mine gets about 13 miles to the gallon," says Burch.
Burch was looking to trade for a sedan before reality hit her like a punch in the face - a $2,000 offer from a Louisville car dealer for her Durango.
"I was expecting between $7,000 and $8,000. I mean, I was kind of dumb-founded and the salesman even made the statement, ‘well you're taking it well compared to others who've been here,'" says Burch.
None of the car dealers I called agreed to talk to me on camera for this story. However one manager told me on the phone customers are getting about 50 cents on the dollar for their SUV trades. You'd have to drive your next car a long time to even begin to make up the difference in gas savings.
One WAVE 3 employee owes $16,000 on his 2004 Ford Explorer Sport Trac. Ken Conklin says he would be happy to get $10,000 for it. But when he went to try to do a deal, the dealership wouldn't come close to that.
"The sad thing is my truck's all tricked out," says Conklin. "It's got leather, sunroof, hard top and all the bells and whistles and to get $5,500 for it, that's a joke."
And check out this punch line -- if oil reaches $200 a barrel, as some analysts have said it could, forget $4.00 per-gallon gasoline. Think $6.60 according to a Rice University study that analyzed the link between prices of crude and gasoline.
Online Reporter: Mark Schnyder
Online Producer: Charles Gazaway
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