Surprise! Two diesel orders are on their way to me

[Geotrash]

@DuraYuk. I agree. From what I've seen over the years is that the more expensive the vehicle is up front, the more of a beating people take. Use an Escalade Platinum for example. In the short term you will get a better return.

Once the next "new" body style comes our, then the depreciation really starts to kick in and the spread becomes much less. Once you get to the age where your average Joe wants a used car, the Denali badge is a nice addition, not as much of a dictation.

There are certain years where the drive train warrants better resale, but in your case both being diesel should help. In my opinion, the badges and a few little electronics isn't worth 6k to me.

Agreed. These trucks may be the greatest used car value on the planet - especially the higher trims. They'll run 300K miles and hard parts are cheap. No reason to think that will change.

The main thing I suspect most people care about with the Denali is the 6.2 engine. For me it's the only real pass/fail criteria. I'd buy an SLT or even an SLE if it had the 6.2 (or the Duramax), so I would wager that an SLE with the Duramax will fetch a higher resale than a nicely equipped SLT with the 5.3.

My wife and I are hoping to retire early. While we can afford a new one, we are content to let someone else who doesn't enjoy working on their cars like I do to take the depreciation hit. I paid $10K for our 2007 XL Denali 4 years ago and have put 35K relatively trouble-free miles on it. It's a rust-free Arizona truck, has never let us down, and I've gradually been replacing things on it as time allows to help it last us a long time more. I have put about $3K in parts into it accordingly and only have one more investment I plan to make for a while (replace the TC). With any luck, we'll be taking our daughter to college in it in 6 years.

Our 2012 is a dedicated towing rig and stays warm and dry in the garage between camping trips. I'd love to still be driving it in 10 years as retirement nears.

Sorry to the OP for my diversion here. Congrats on your purchase. If you still have whichever one you choose in 10 years, PM me and we'll talk a cash purchase.

 

[B-train]

Agreed. These trucks may be the greatest used car value on the planet - especially the higher trims. They'll run 300K miles and hard parts are cheap. No reason to think that will change.

The main thing I suspect most people care about with the Denali is the 6.2 engine. For me it's the only real pass/fail criteria. I'd buy an SLT or even an SLE if it had the 6.2 (or the Duramax), so I would wager that an SLE with the Duramax will fetch a higher resale than a nicely equipped SLT with the 5.3.

My wife and I are hoping to retire early. While we can afford a new one, we are content to let someone else who doesn't enjoy working on their cars like I do to take the depreciation hit. I paid $10K for our 2007 XL Denali 4 years ago and have put 35K relatively trouble-free miles on it. It's a rust-free Arizona truck, has never let us down, and I've gradually been replacing things on it as time allows to help it last us a long time more. I have put about $3K in parts into it accordingly and only have one more investment I plan to make for a while (replace the TC). With any luck, we'll be taking our daughter to college in it in 6 years.

Our 2012 is a dedicated towing rig and stays warm and dry in the garage between camping trips. I'd love to still be driving it in 10 years as retirement nears.

Sorry to the OP for my diversion here. Congrats on your purchase. If you still have whichever one you choose in 10 years, PM me and we'll talk a cash purchase.

I love what you just stated broseph.....I have been running a similar plan. Ive bought 5 Denalis from down south and west over the years and wkll do it again when needed.

We also want to retire early and to be able to enjoy our early 50's as semi retired or maybe fully retired. Why work like a dog for the govt only to die shortly after you can 'supposedly' retire at 70???? I want to actually be able to ENJOY trips, etc without using a walker. LOL. Debt free is the way to be!

My wife likes the newer vehicles with all the features of our 2017, so as much as I'd like to stay in the 07-14 body for good value and ease of service, I'll just have to go that Era on my own. The 2017 still has another 5 or 6 years in her by my estimate, but the wife may have other plans. But, I've learned that buying new can be nice, I just choose to not take the beating. I like gently used, rust free, vehicles I can pay cash for that don't drop in value like a boat anchor after I put 10k on them.

No offense to OP either. If you are happy, then that's what matters.

 

[bunky319]

Update on my situation. Got an email late last Wednesday that my Denali just arrived. So I thought in my head a day for prep work and I should be able to pick it up Friday (yesterday). Well I didn't hear anything all day Thursday so I called Friday late morning and was told there was some minor body damage found upon inspection and the vehicle was currently in their body shop to get fixed. I thought "What??". At that point I was thinking I'm definitely not interested in a vehicle that had to be repainted in some places.

So I drove to look at the vehicle and they had the rear bumper completely off and ready to re-paint it. There were two very tiny nicks in the bumper so they were going to repaint the entire bumper. Then they showed me a couple tiny hairline scratches in the left front passenger door. And of course they were planning on repainting the door as well. Since I'm of the belief that a body-shop paint job is never as good as factory baked-on paint, I told them not to do anything until we can see if we can make the numbers work. If we can, then just try to buff out the scratches in the door (one will probably come out, the other might be slightly there). And as for the bumper, they said they can probably try to fill those tiny nicks and they will be very hard to see. I guess I could have had the bumper repainted but again, just seemed like such as waste for such a small imperfection.

After some brutal negotiations I finally got them to agree to Supplier price and only $1K in dealer adds (their cost) versus the $2K. But the worst part was my trade valuation. As anyone who has tried to trade something in knows, used car values are crashing now. I knew this going in but was still amazed on how little they wanted to offer me. In the end I think we worked out a pretty good value. I had hoped to use the damage of the new vehicle as a negotiation tool but they simply said "We offered to fix it for you but you don't want that"....which is true. They showed me the estimated auction value of my used vehicle from Manheim and it showed they could buy the same thing for about $3K less than what I wanted. They said "Why should we pay $3K more for your vehicle?". I said "Don't you want to sell a new vehicle?"

So hopefully unless more surprises come up I should be picking up the Denali next Tuesday afternoon. Last I checked on the SLT, it is still in transit.

 

[GoNoGo]

I wholeheartedly agree with your approach to not painting the door and probably the bumper too.. 2 months from now you prolly won't care about them

Congrats on hammering out a deal that may not be great but at least one you can live with.. considering these are strange times we're living

 

[WalleyeMikeIII]

I’d probably have let them fix the body work; since GM would be paying and would require them to fix before delivery. Based on my findings, the factory paint is super thin…body shop is probably better…but, hey, this way you don’t have to put the first scratch on it. Good job negotiating! Seems like you did pretty well.

 

[Larry07Yukon]

Thanks guys...At this point I'll probably be focusing more on the Denali. The wife likes it a little more and I'm hoping having that other vehicle available will help in my final negotiations. For example, the Denali dealer agreed to Supplier pricing, but then wanted me to pay $2K in dealer adds like window tint, blah blah. With this SLT available hopefully I can tell them to take a hike on money grab.

Denali! Ehhh, just re-read the $2K…that’s crap
Window tint is worth a few hundred and something I’d do, but depending on the other stuff, I might walk

 

[Larry07Yukon]

Sorry to hear about the damage
Tough to say which would be better, but my guess is with the dealer’s choice of body shop, it is most likely a bunch of hacks that would process it as fast as possible

If they paid for your choice of body shop, I would think differently

 

[bunky319]

I’d probably have let them fix the body work; since GM would be paying and would require them to fix before delivery. Based on my findings, the factory paint is super thin…body shop is probably better…but, hey, this way you don’t have to put the first scratch on it. Good job negotiating! Seems like you did pretty well.

Yeah I actually started second-guessing myself over the weekend. Maybe I should have. I think I'll take a look at the job they did and worst case insist they re-paint it at that point. Honestly I'm not as concerned about bumper and a couple tiny fill spots. But the scratch in the door might bother me, depending on how well they could buff it out.

Yeah I think it's the best deal I could get. Used car values are crashing now and dealers know they will keep going down.

 

[bunky319]

Denali! Ehhh, just re-read the $2K…that’s crap
Window tint is worth a few hundred and something I’d do, but depending on the other stuff, I might walk

Well they wanted $2K and that's what they normally charge. They tell me their cost is $1K, which is what I paid. I don't have a full list yet but I agree the lifetime window tint is probably something I would do and maybe worth $300 - $400. The other stuff like paint sealant, leather protection, etc might be worth a couple hundred more. I'm not sure how they get up to $1K in cost but maybe there is more on the list than I can remember. But bottom line, they insisted this stuff had to go on the vehicle, even though when I looked at it none of those things were done yet.

 

[Z71Burban]

Hey! Congrats on the new diesel! I’m jealous! As someone else said on here, it’s illegal to hold your money if the purchase isn’t completed. I used to work in new GMC sales here in IL. They might have said “non refundable deposit” but they say that to hope you don’t do your research. If you’re stuck on the SLT - that would be my first approach.