New Jersey Subaru shopper offered $10K for VW Atlas — then he gets a $24K surprise

A New Jersey car shopper says a frustrating dealership trade-in experience took an unexpected turn after a Carvana offer valued the same vehicle at more than double the price.

Reddit user InternationalHermit shared the story about a visit to a Subaru car dealership in Ramsey, New Jersey, in a Reddit post. Things began smoothly, but quickly became tense as the buyer and dealer negotiated the trade-in of the buyer’s VW Atlas.

Dealer not “in the business to value cars”

According to the post, the shopper had scheduled the appointment in advance and arrived ready to test-drive two vehicles: the 2026 Subaru Forester Wilderness and the 2026 Subaru Outback Wilderness.

The poster wrote,

[M]ade the appointment ahead of time, all was great. Sales person was super nice, test drove a 26 forester wilderness and the 26 outback wilderness. gave my keys to evaluate my trade in (super low mileage 19 vw atlas sel).”

via InternationalHermit, Reddit

The problem began when the buyer asked the salesperson for a trade-in valuation on their Atlas SEL. Instead of presenting a number, the salesperson allegedly pushed the customer to name a price first. Instead, the dealer “insisted that I come up with a number. I told him I don’t want to play the game — give me a fair value/book value for the car,” the post said.

Then the back-and-forth escalated. According to the post, the dealer said, “he isn’t in the business to value cars, and that I wasn’t there to buy a car if I didn’t have a number in mind. finally offered me 10k.”

The offer stunned the shopper, who said the SUV had very low mileage and a significantly higher estimated value. “I said this doesn’t work for me. I want 20k for the trade-in, this is what [Kelly Blue Book] says it’s worth,” the poster wrote.

The negotiations didn’t stop there. The salesperson offered the Forester Wilderness at the full MSRP of $40,000, even though the dealership’s own website advertised the same model for roughly $4,000 less.

When the shopper mentioned the online price, the salesperson reportedly countered with a higher trade-in value.

The post continued,

[A]fter a while, he offered 17.5k if this is what it will take for me to buy the car tonight.”

via InternationalHermit, Reddit

According to the post, even after discussing the dealer’s invoice price and various fees, the buyer said the price was still about $40,000 out the door.

At that point, the shopper walked away, but before he left, “he told me I should check on Carvana to know how much my car is truly worth.”

When the Redditor entered the vehicle’s details into the online car-buying platform later that day, the result was dramatically different. “Carvana offers me 24200,” the post said.

“I like the neatness of separate transactions”

One commenter said, because of situations like these, they prefer keeping transactions separate: “i find it much easier to sell to Carvana [than] haggle a trade with a dealer. i like the neatness of separate transactions vs one conditional on the other,” the user wrote.

Another suggested securing a written offer as leverage before negotiating with a dealer. “You should have gotten a written offer from Carvana; usually they’re good for a week and you at least have a backup plan. I’ve also had good luck with CarShop; I know they are in NJ but maybe not near you,” the commenter added. Others recommended a straightforward solution: “Sell to Carvana, pay cash.”