Used Cars: Nissan trade in value, nissan maxima se, kelly blue book

Question
I'm in the market for a used honda accord... i hear great things about their reliability and good gas mileage.

Here's my query: i have a 2001 nissan maxima se. 69000 miles, auto tranny, leather, sunroof, spolier, cd. it does have some dents and dings along the doors, the alignment is off and its tough going when its going from 1st gear to 2nd gear.

kelly blue book puts it around 5600 bucks. what sort of trade in value can i expect from a dealership? i hear you get cornholed with trade ins. whats your take? what can i expect them to offer me?

Answer
Well Nissans are in the same general arena as the hondas, they hold pretty good value, but looking at it from a car lots perspective, that is a low mileage car, so why does it have so many problems, and if it has this many problems that I can see, how many can I not see?  And they are just going to assume it needs a new transmission, which is not cheap on that type of car.
Just off the cuff, I figure you will get offered somewhere in the vicinity of $2000 to $2500.00.  Depending on how bad they need a car like that, and how much they have their vehicle marked up that you are looking at it may be lower than that or maybe even higher.  But I think $2000 to $2500 is a good median.  It is kinda one of those situations where if you could get all the little things fixed, and detailed up, and make it look like a low mileage car, you could get as much as $4000 to $5500 for it, I personally would love to have a car like that on my lot, in A-1 condition, but there just isnt any cheap ways to fix nissans.  When you have those type of problems with a car, you cant really rely on a book value.  And most of the time, you do get cornholed on trade ins..lol.  Good luck and I hope it goes well for you.