Ok.....here is what i am considering. I want to put money into my monte to make it awesome. I also love the new Montes. Do you think it would be a good investment to, in a couple months, sell my 02 LS and get an 06' or 07' used LT?? I looked up the suggested retail for my car and it is about 10,500. How much do you think, if patient, i could get out of an 02' monte with 65,000 miles???

Should I go for it??

 

Dale, I would check the prices on Kelly Blue Book & go to Auto Trader.com and check the prices. (It gives a good indication of what
your 02 is selling 4 statewide). There are some awesome deals on used 06 Monte's and on new 07's.

I've found it's better to own a car, instead of having the car own you : (
It does pay 2 do your homework : ) Something I should be doing now : )

To me, it all comes down to how much I am willing to give up to get the things I want in life. Good luck on your research.....I really love my 06LT3, but I've given up a lot to get it & keep it.

Wish U a Happy,]
`Space

 

i ran in to this same issue when i got mine.
her eis what ti can say for ya.
Do your home work. also if you have some cash for a down payment and can Handel the payments see about getting a new one.
here is the reasons i say this.
you can normally get a new one easier then you can a used.
you can get the warranty etc...
Also Whit a used one you have to take what you find and if you find it and it is what you want this is a great thing. But i have found that most of th time i could not find the one i wanted.

Also i ended up goign to the lot in the same place as you are now.
and i ended up leaving with my 03 SS.
wait till around November time frame and they are trying to get rid of the cars on the lot. or right NOW find a 06 out there that ya want.
when you go talk to them DO-NOT tell them you need th Car. Act like you are not worried if you get it or not.
you have a monte now you just like the way the new ones look and wouldn't mind getting a updated version. But if they dont come to the numbers you want them WALK!!! believe me if they are B.S. ing you before you hit your car they will get a hold of you.
the one i went to called me that tonight before i got home. another one called me the next morning as i was leaving for work. neither of them came to my terms.
the one that got the papers singed was the one that bent over back wards for me to make sure they could get the numbers where i wanted them. and i walked din with a crazy request.
I knew we were making payments on the van for around 450.00 a month we did this to pay it off faster.
but we could Handel those payments if we needed to do so.
i told them we wanted our payments under 300.00 and i wanted the SS version and if they could not do it dont waste my time.
This is when he pulled my car from their detail shop it had been there for three days on their lot it came in late it was a 03 i got it in Mid Nov. and it cost them on the price for it.

i was lucky to know our van had 2 payments left and it would be payed off. so they could not mare me up to much on it.
i detailed the hell out of it before i went and they gave me 1350.00 for a van that was paid off. they didn't know this till after they made me the offer on it.
i said it was close but could not remember the pay off and when it was i knew it was close.
they gave me the price on it and then got me to give them the info to get the actual pay off.

need less to say i walked out with the keys to the monte carlo and they were steamed over the fact they paid more for the van then what they needed to
LOL
But they were kool after the sale also.

Good luck

 

thanx guys.....im gonna save up some more money and then look into it more. i'll let you know when the time comes around.

 

It is always best to buy a car where someone else has taken the depreciation. You don't need gap insurance and if you get an 06 or 07 with under 36k miles, you can still buy the extended warranty. Rental return cars with 5 to 9k miles are great purchases and if you buy from a reputable dealership, they run their own check on the car before they sellit. My car had a few thousand and was a rental return. I only paid $17k for it. I am very happy with my purchase even though it does need about 6typical things worked on like ISS and a rattely door, etc.

 

Also check out Carmax if you have them in your area. They have great prices on 06-07 Montes. Most I believe are rental fleet cars but have extremely low miles and you still get the great warranty and you'll save thousands.

 

You sure about that? Not having gap insurance screwed me recently when my car got written off. I'm a big proponent for gap insurance. It's only about another $5 - $10 on the car note.

 

Can you elaborate a little more as to why you are in favor of gap?

 

Well...I guess it depends on the circumstances under which you have purchased your car, but I was in a serious car accident last year. I was only a year into paying on my car note on 100% loan, so we were not underneath it yet. I didn't have gap insurance (had no idea what it even was and it was not offered to us by the dealership), so when the report came back from my insurance company that the car was not repairable, I was to be paid out the value of the car. Which was about $5,000 less than we owed. So, when I bought the Monte new in '05, I had to eat that 5 Grand on the new loan. If I'd had gap insurance, I wouldn't have had to swallow that $5,000 lump in my throat.

Living in Las Vegas, drivers are the worst I have ever seen in my life. So with the Monte and the Saturn Vue we just got about a year ago for my wife...we got gap insurance because you just never know when the next IDIOT will clear you off the road. I'll never go without it on a new car out here. Too risky. Insurance is pretty high too because of the same reason.

I guess if you buy a used car that is valued close to what the purchase price is, gap is not necessary. But if you are upside down in your note and your car is totaled, gap insurance is a great idea!

 

Couldn't you have sued for the difference?