Hey all, I bought my G35 about a year and a half ago and I'm now thinking about trading it in for an 06 WRX.

I've got 36,000 miles on my 04 G35, and the 06 WRX has 52,000 miles. I live in Reno Nevada, where the winters can get kind of rough. I did make it through last winter pretty ok for the most part, but getting up steep grades and what not was a real challenge in the snow. Sometimes I was struggling with getting even over 5mph due to non-traction.

Also on the coupe, the driver side window will NOT roll down unless I force the damn thing with nearly all 185 lbs of me. It will roll up if I kinda hit the door with a bit of zealousness; this window problem is after we replaced the window motor for the exact same reason about 4 months ago. The door locks just started getting a little flakey on me too, driver's side door wouldn't lock for about 2 days with the remote, while passenger door worked fine.

There's also a damn gash in the bumper where someone at my college hit me, and was enough of an *** not to leave their insurance. It happens to be the exact spot we also got fixed about 5 months ago!

So with all those errors, plus a decent tear in the leather from some asshat co-worker, and another leather tear on the driver's side seat due to bad conditioning from previous owner, the dealership is offering me $16,670 as trade in value on a $19,000 WRX. I had to talk them up to that $16k for my car all the way from $12,000 due to the previously stated problems. When all is said and done, it's $3,000 dollars for the car swap, and $1,030.00 for a 6/yr 100,000 mile warranty on the WRX. Basically the warranty would be good for 6 years, and ~48,000 miles. Driving my average of about 8,000 miles a year, that works out wonderfully.

So what do you guys think? I'm about to sign the title over on my G tomorrow. What a damn waste of cash it will be, but I got *** raped when I bought the G so I suppose I can't complain too much. I learned a lot from that experience however, and really took it into consideration when bargaining with the dealership today.

Hypothetically after maintenance and repairs on the G35 to get it back up to snuff I'm looking at about $2,000 for the trade. Even less $ if I take into account snow tires for the G, probably around $1400.00 total. AWD on the Subaru is pretty appealing, as is the 5 speed stick. I love my G, and would dearly miss it, but it isn't really the most practical car for college and hard winters. Perhaps after graduation / moving to California I'll pick up a G38 if they're out!

Anyways, if you guys could give your opinions on whether I'm being a complete *** with this deal, or if you think I may actually be looking at a pretty decent bargain that'd be great.

Thanks, Tony.

 

Hate to say it but you are getting F'd. Go on NADA and check out the used car values for both vehicles. Given your problems on the car, this should be a straight trade. You never provided details on the WRX (STi, options????) so it is difficult to judge what is fair but based on a WRX 5M without leather/sunroof, the G is $3500 more for retail and $2500 more on trade in value.

 

I would try to sell your own car outright and go to the dealer with cash... Doesn't sound like you are getting such a great deal. Your problems with the G sound minor, but whether you fix them or not you'd still get more selling privately. Not to mention you'd probably pay less for the Sub if you walked in with cash...

Jonny