This is wild… I recently took my 2018 Toyota Camry for its annual safety check at the local Toyota dealership. A few days later, I get an estimated e-mail offer from their buying center to purchase it for $18.5K. There are the usual scrape marks on the lower front bumper (the car is just a tad low enough to scrape a lot of concrete parking stall stoppers).
The car brand new back in early 2019 cost $24K (that includes fees and taxes). I paid cash as well so there is no interest to tack on to that. Once they get the 2025 Camry’s in their inventory, I might look at trading it in. I remembered back during COVID, how the demand for used vehicles skyrocketed (plus there was that whole semi-conductor chip shortage which put pressure on the supply chain). Before, anything past the 5-year point was so severely depreciated where you would be lucky to get high 4-digits for your average sedan (and it would need to be free of dents, scrapes, and scratches).
My previous plan with this car was that it would be my last gasoline powered vehicle (then switch to EV). However, the entire physical infrastructure part of EV’s is still lacking whereas Toyota’s hybrid approach, has been a much better way to transition (IMHO). And with the 2025 Camry being all hybrid, it is even more tempting since I was already considering upgrading during COVID (having this estimated offer, this is looking more like a good idea).