Need a little Info, or Help with Ideas Options

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Hi, I Need a little Info, or Help with some Ideas for selling. I have the 2002 Prius and I love it. We Took Great care of it. Kept it in the Garage. Took it to car shows. It is a Wonderful car. My husband loves to show off cars at the various car shows, and we sold a 1967 Mustang Fastback to get our 2002 Prius back in 2001 (about 8 months before we took delivery on the new Prius.) It seems that there is always a wait to get the new Prius. Now we are next to get the New 2004... We've been called today and told it will be ready in about a week or so. For the last 6 months we have been trying to sell our 2002. But other then the Dealerships interest in our car (and they want to make money so they won't offer much) we've had no real bites at out Prius. We might be asking too much, but I think it's worth the price we've placed. So correct me if I'm wrong. We have the Aqua, with Leather Seats / interior (we paid Extra for that from the dealership $1,500), We still have 5 more years left on a transferable Bumper to Bumper Warranty, backup sensors (which I think all of the Prius should have because they run so quite you could run over children backing up in your drive way all too easily), Pin Stripping, Bra, Dash cover, CD player, engine detailing and only 35,000 miles. the Prius is Very well kept up with all its records by a Professional Paint and Body detailer. No damage, No Accidents, No Problems Period... But we were asking $19,500 Are we out of line in the Price? (I know the new ones are about that Price but we have been told there is over a year wait for them, Some say two years here in Southern California.) Also I'm really not sure our price is too high, since I've seen others like mine going for $17,000 without any of the "extras", more mileage and not taken as good of care as well. We definitely want the new car. And We are now being told the wait to get the new ones are well over a year, (Pervious Prius owners were asked 1st if they wanted the new model, which in why ours took 6 months) and thought that this info helps in keeping our "USED" vehicle Price high, along with the high price of gasoline now. What do you think? Do You have any suggestions for how I might generate more interest in this car or if I should try some other way to sell it other then AutoTrader magazine? Thanks, Chris

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Hi. I don't follow this group regularly (I prefer the toyota-prius group) and was asked to reply to your query since I have been collecting actual sales data from Ebay. In short, yes you are asking too much. Don't forget that what you think the car is worth is not necessarily the same as the value of the car to a potential buyer (the "beautiful baby" phenomenon. Every parent thinks their baby is beautiful). One would think that scarcity would add value, but because the most likely trade-in for an '04 Prius is a '01-'03 Prius, there appears to be a reasonable supply. Also, Toyota has depressed interest and demand for the Classic ('01-'03) by advertising the '04 as bigger and better in every way. Their advertising even indirectly reinforces the unfounded impression that the Classic is under-powered. I have actual Ebay motors sales data on about 20 cars in the fall/winter of 2003. Based on this data, a basic 2002 with 35,000 miles would sell for about 13,500. In your case, I would add $500 for the leather seats, and $500 for the extended warranty, so I would expect it to sell on Ebay for $14,500. A local private party sale would likely sell for a bit more, but you might have to wait longer for the right buyer to come along. Kelley Blue Book private sale for the base model is about $15,200. You say that you have seen others "going for $17,000". I'm guessing that this is an asking price, not an actual sales price. Asking prices are ubiquitous and unreliable, actual sales prices are more meaningful and also much harder to get. With your other extras, good records, garaging, immaculate condition, etc., you might get $16,000. Just my opinion. Sam '01, 44,000 miles.