What's it worth? '06 with 24k miles

[bondojamesbondo]

Hello, I need a little input if some of you would be kind enough to help me out. I haven't posted in a while but I always enjoy reading the threads I get in the Aveo Update.

I posted before about my Mom's 2006 Aveo LS. She bought it new after my Dad passed in 2005, he always drove bigger cars and she wanted something more suited to her 4' 10" height. Dad retired from GM so she got it at a discount, I have the window sticker and invoice somewhere; IIRC she paid right at 10k for it including TT&L.

She went into assisted living 3 years ago and had quit driving before that as her dementia worsened. She passed away in March.

The car had less than 9 thousand miles on it in early 2015. I have used it in the past 3 years and put another 15K on it, a 20-mile round trip to check on her house a few days a week and a 200-mile round trip as often as I could to visit her. She mostly drove it on 60+ mile round trips to her out of town Dr. and to shop until she had to stop driving. It's never been a short-trip car.

I am the executor of her estate.
I am either going to sell the car or else buy it for myself but I need a good, realistic value for the car as I have 2 siblings to settle with. Neither of them want the car and we're not feuding over money (there isn't much left after 3 years in assisted living) but I want to be fair to them. I've looked at similar cars for sale (never any with the low miles this one has, though) and the prices are all over the place. Dealerships all ask about 1K over the Kelley retail price but I doubt that they actually get that. Kelley Blue Book puts it at $1361 trade-in value and the average private party value at $2628. I know that these aren't high-end cars, it's 12 years old so it's unlikely a bank would loan much so I imagine it will be a cash buyer that gets it... but I thought it was surely worth more than 2600 bucks. What do you guys think? This forum has to have the most combined Aveo experience so I'm asking for an opinion based on the real world.

About the car: 2006 LS 4-door sedan. Silver. 24,000-ish miles. No rust. No accidents. Clean interior with little wear except for a 4" split seam in the passenger seat that looks like it wasn't stitched well at the factory but it shouldn't take much to fix. I might get that done before I list it.

The dealer changed the oil the first time and I've changed it 4 or 5 times using Mobil1 and a Wix filter. Yokohama tires have about 8k on them (the originals flat-spotted and I couldn't stand to drive it like that anymore). I replaced the timing belt and water pump last summer as a precaution since it had a lot of years on it. I used an OEM Daewoo belt and water pump. I didn't do the cam and crank seals because they weren't leaking. I put Zerex Asian formula coolant back in it. Replaced the serpentine belt too.

The body has a few scratches here and there but they will touch-up. One small dent in the roof from a Walnut, I moved it to mow, parked it under the wrong tree, and had a dent an hour later. I suspect squirrel involvement. No rust. It still shines up, I've kept it waxed, and the clearcoat is solid.
I had the DRL recall done.

I'm hearing a squeak from a control arm on slow bumps and that's the only issue that I know of; I simply haven't had time to investigate that yet.

Sorry for the long post. But I wanted to give an overall description of the condition.

What would you folks ask for the car if it was yours and you wanted to sell it? I've attached 2 pictures, they are all I have at the moment. I took them last fall.

Thank you!

[Newborn]

that is a beautiful aveo my man. i have the exact same model.

if you looked at KBB then i would expect to get that much for the car. most of the aveos i see locally are either wrecked or there is something really wrong with them. I've been thinking about getting a parts aveo specially one with a young engine. If i had the money this aveo would be my pick.

but yeah, the market value is on KBB. in the condition mines in and with the mileage i put on (116k) i can get $1.5 - $2k.

[gclark8]

Guide books are not an indicator of real market value. We have Red Book here in Australia, however the GM Dealer network has a web site giving the real selling price of the cars. I was offering my car (9,000km) recently and $2000 would have been a realistic selling price with a book value of $6,000. Insurance value is different again, its insured for an agreed value of $10,000, although I will reduce that considerably when I renew the policy next month.

Edit: Link to Red Book Valuation: https://www.redbook.com.au/cars/deta...OT-ITM-230448/

Edit 2. 7 June: I just re-insured it through my local GM Dealer. The 'computer' valuation was $7,100, with windscreen cover and a $500 excess, the premium was $400. However, here in Perth, the current political situation seems to have an effect on the actual prices paid for Korean built cars . Locals are quite sceptical, its like selling a VW in 1938!

[bondojamesbondo]

Thank you for your reply, Newborn. I'm sorry it took me so long to acknowledge it, but I read it right after you posted. Thank you for the compliment on the condition of the car. I felt sorry for it just sitting there being unused for years and tried to keep it up. Mom didn't have a garage but the car was only in full sunlight a few hours a day (I took the above pictures late in the afternoon, and they show about the most sunlight it ever got). The top of the back seat is a little faded, I just noticed that yesterday. The car is in probate limbo for now and I can't insure it but I'm starting it occasionally and letting it come up to temp.

I guess I'll put it on Craigslist at $3000 and see what the response is. If it won't (and likely not) sell for that I'll offer the sibs $1000 each for their shares anyway and give it to my wife. She is still mad over what I refer to as "the weedeater incident" (for her birthday, I told her to choose between the big, long box or the smaller box; she chose "big" and I was like "oooh, sucks to be you, the other box has the new iphone you wanted". Yeah, I'm romantic like that).

Thank you every one and all that took the time to read my post.

[bondojamesbondo]

Thanks for the response, gclark8. That's a big disparity between book and actual market value, I assumed that the Blue Book (or Red Book) Gods used some actual sales data to arrive at their numbers. The problem with the old car I have is that it's a not-very-used car but it's 12 years old; too old to finance and most people around here that have 2 or 3 grand cash will put it down on something a little higher-end. Every time I've needed a cheap car fast (teenaged drivers in the house, thankfully now out of the nest) I've never found anything like this one. Well, not until the day after I bought some POS and started putting time and money into it like pounding sand down a rathole to make it safe...

[OG-Lou]

I just sold a 2009 Aveo5, manual transmission, no air conditioning, 29K miles for $4,200. I was asking $4,500 but most people wanted A/C so it took a while to find a buyer with the cash. One guy wanted to make payments, no way.

Other local advertised cars:
2004 Aveo 5 112K automatic $2,500
2007 Aveo 5 119K, 5 speed
2009 Aveo 5 33K, A/C automatic $5,500
2010 Aveo 5 89K cruise, 5 speed $4,100

There a few Aveo's on car lots but they are much higher priced.