pretty nice '98 Ranger value?

[peglomaniac]

Hi everyone, I have a pretty sweet '98 Ranger XLT 4x4 with a topper. I get comments everywhere I go on how nice the condition is for the year. It has 156,107 miles on it. It has a 4L V6 with auto transmission.

I booked an appointment for a wheel alignment and the lady who booked my service said 'if you *ever* want to sell that truck, let me know, my son has been looking for one forever and he'll probably give you whatever you ask for it.' The closest he got is little Mazda pickup (which he currently drives), which is basically a Ranger in a Mazda wrapper.

I know pickup values are up right now, but it's been forever since I bought it. I got in in 2006 so am out of touch with prices, but he works at the same place she does so is going to take a look at it this morning when I take it in for the alignment.

Any thoughts on a reasonable value? I paid $16,500 for it, and got the original window sticker with it, that had a MSRP of $34K and change. It has a tow package, matching topper and pretty much all the goodies except leather seats.

TIA folks.

 

[franklin2]

Go here and find out. www.kbb.com.

And here. https://www.jdpower.com/cars

 

[Manscout]

Being in Canada, pricing might not be the same as U.S. Most pricing sites are going to top out around $5-6,000 USD. If the market bears it, I've found you can usually get a little bit more. However, used car prices are finally starting to regulate by coming down now in the U.S. If that were mine, I'd start around $6-7000 USD and negotiate down from there.
I get compliments all the time that I have the cleanest Ranger they have ever seen. Good condition Rangers are hard to find and are worth a bit more.

 

[James Morse]

$34k sure seems high as price new but if you have the sticker then I guess we can't argue with it. Sites I looked at, it appeared '98 would top out around US$20k loaded. 1998 Ford Ranger Specs, Trims & Colors | Cars.com
Anyway that aside, because it's history, you got it in '06 so you had it 17 years. Canadian dollars were worth maybe 10% less than US at that time so not a lot.
If it were me, I like to translate to today's dollars so allowing for inflation 16.5k equals about 25k today. So thinking of it in today's dollars, let's say for example it cost you 1k per year to own it. I'm just talking about the price of the truck itself not all the other stuff like insurance etc but you might want to run in repairs with that if you've kept it up. Looking at it that way, 1k/yr is like, nothing. So just following that reasoning, 25k less 17k would say you could sell it for 8k and not really be hurt. Obviously the guy isn't going to pay "what you ask" if it's super high like 25k (i.e. getting all your initial cost back, in today's dollars). So it's something in between, and, bottom line is you can play any games you want with numbers and what different places say it's "worth" but in the end it all comes down to what's the most a buyer will pay and the least you'll accept. Then you have to consider, what will replace it and how much does that cost? When you get done looking at that you might just decide to keep it. To me the older trucks are better and easier to work on. I really like my '97 at 127k miles and clean, had all the options I wanted, color I wanted, and yeah I had to fix a few things but not much and now 100% of everything works. I sunk 1k for new better tires of oem size and manual hubs and so far it's been just great for light to moderate offroad which is why I got it. I still have the Mazda 2wd it's also all sorted, I didn't pay much for it and I did have to do some work on it but it's also all sorted, just not as nice as the XLT but if I'd never had the Mazda-badged I'd never have looked at Rangers.
Canadian exchange rate is such right now that $100US is $135Canadian. That's big. So just spitballing this thing I'd say in the US you could probably get $9k for it, translated to Canadian dollars that's 12,250. Manscout says 7k which is 9,500 Canadian. So we're a bit far apart there, but speaking for myself if it was the truck I wanted I'd pay a bit of a premium. I'd leave myself a little room for negotiation in spite of the comment about 'he'll pay what you ask'. And prices are, I think, coming down so if you're decided to sell maybe this is the time plus if it's easy then there's no ads, people kicking the tires, etc. You have the advantage of, if it's what they buyer was looking for, chances are he'll pay a little more to get what he wants.
So to end this rant, I'd ask 11k (Canadian) and be willing to go to 9.5k if the buyer balks. I think that's about in the range where neither of you would feel ripped off. It's not particularly low miles but if it's really clean and everything working it seems fair and not far from what others are saying. Usually people like to 'talk down' the price a little to make them feel like they got a deal on it, so you do want to leave a little room for negotiation. That's my 2 cents.

 

[19Walt93]

I always use NADA for vehicle values, it's long been the industry standard. Whichever site you use, keep in mind that the values reflect "average" condition, whatever that is. Your truck doesn't look average to me.