can't say i'm not at all surprised. i got reamed on my trade-in last fall ($8k, 98.5 E1 w/ 55k). after getting a few insultingly low offers (first one was $7k from the dealer i bought the car from - and that offer came pre-9/11), i vowed to keep the car, pay it off, and have it as a 2nd car till i felt like selling it for $4k. unfortunately, it suddenly needed over $1k in maintenance - new pads and rotors front and rear; the w/p replacement was looming; a new battery was probably imminent...and later i found that the new owner found a leaking main seal (i had noticed a couple of drops of oil on my garage but thought it was from an oil change - the stain didn't appear to grow, and i never saw the source of the leak). so, i decided that it just wasn't worth pouring that much $$ into a car that i was thinking about getting rid of - so i swallowed my pride and traded it in.
in all honesty, i wouldn't mind taking advantage of the "soft market", the hard-to-sell 5-speed mentality, and the CDW-27 depreciation issues and find myself an inexpensive E0 as a 2nd car. but, right now, i'd rather have a jeep wrangler, so that's what i'm looking for as a 2nd car instead.
