6 Used Cars That Cost More Than New Cars

by Gabrielle DeSantis

iSeeCars analyzed over 400,000 new and used vehicles from 2019 and 2020 listed for sale in June of 2021. Since the automotive market is in such turmoil right now, some of these new cars are now more expensive to buy used than if you were to purchase one new. As the list goes on, some of the cars are almost the same price new as used. Looking at you, Subaru WRX.

Used car madness with the Dodge Challenger

The Dodge Challenger is an expensive used car | Tristar Media/Getty Images

According to iSeeCars data, the Dodge Challenger is at the top of the list for a flip in price. 2019 and 2020 Dodge Challenger vehicles purchased for around $39,375 are now selling for $40,764. That’s a 3.5% increase or a $1,388 increase in price.

New Dodge Challenger price: $39,375

Used Dodge Challenger price: $40,764

Since the price of Tesla Model 3 EVs has been steadily rising in 2021, it is no surprise this used car has gone up in price. The cost of a new Model 3 is around $44,409. With a 2.9% increase, buyers can expect to pay about $45,677 for a used one.

New Tesla Model 3 price: $44,409

Used Tesla Model 3 price: $45,677

The Honda Civic always has a following of fans willing to pay a little more for certain specs. The Civic usually costs about $26,331 new, so it is such a popular option for buyers. However, iSeeCars saw an increase of around 2.8% for a used car. The price for a used Honda Civic was $27,058.

New Honda Civic price: $26,331

Used Honda Civic price: $27,058

A used Dodge Charger costs $897 more than a new one

The Dodge Charger is another vehicle that people are having trouble finding these days. As far as the price of a Charger new, buyers paid around $38,977. That has increased about 2.3% to $39,874 for a used Dodge Charger. While that is under $1,000, it is still a big increase considering all of the fees for purchasing a new car.

New Dodge Charger price: $38,977

Used Dodge Charger price: $39,874

The Kia Rio price difference is quite small

The Kia Rio will run you about $17,346 off the lot. Buyers looking for a used Rio might end up paying $17,472 for a used version. Since the Kia Rio isn’t a costly car to begin with, the cost for a used one is generally less expensive. The difference of $127 is merely an interesting piece of information.

New Kia Rio price: $17,346

Used Kia Rio price: $17,472

The price difference for the Subaru WRX is $81

At the end of the list is the Subaru WRX. It was included in the list from iSeeCars for a reason, but that reason is minimal. A new WRX costs around $34,487 new. A used Subaru WRX was estimated to cost around $34,568. That’s approximately $81 extra, which is almost funny. Don’t expect to get a good deal on a used WRX anytime soon!

New Subaru WRX price: $34,487

Used Subaru WRX price: $34,568

While the use car market is a scary place to navigate right now, the prices should start to level out soon enough. If you are looking to get a good deal on a car purchase right now, check out some of these tips.

RELATED: 4 Best Cars That Nobody Buys According to Consumer Reports

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Does ‘Shark Tank’ Star Robert Herjavec Have a Problem With Crashing Ferraris?

by Gabrielle DeSantis

Thanks to their exclusivity, hypercars often make headlines when they crash. And because of the high sticker price, only the wealthy can afford such high-performance vehicles. So combine fast cars, crashes, and a multimillionaire celebrity, and you have a sensational story. That appears to be the case with Shark Tank star Robert Herjavec, a car enthusiast who has crashed two Ferraris. Or is it three?

Robert Herjavec’s car passion has led to more than 1 Ferrari accident

Robert Herjavec is a Ferrari fan | Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic via Getty Images

You may have heard of Shark Tank, a TV show where entrepreneurs pitch their product ideas to investors. The host is businessman Robert Herjavac. He’s also a car enthusiast, a passion he shares with his Shark Tank co-star Mark Cuban. 

Herjavac’s love of cars began in the ’70s, when he slid behind the wheel of a Chevy Caprice station wagon and learned to drive. At 20 years old, he bought his first car, a Mazda RX-7 with a rotary engine and manual transmission, MotorTrend reports. 

A couple of decades ago, he began racing cars. In one contest, he was driving an open-wheel Ferrari Formula Vee. Something went awry on the track, and he slammed into a tree, totaling the car. “I didn’t get hurt,” he told MotorTrend, “but the car was basically a write-off.” He took that as a sign to walk away from racing.

But then, a few years ago, he took it back up again. 

In 2012, he was racing a 2011 Ferrari 458 against other rich guys in insanely expensive cars. Herjavec had a good lap with decent speed, but he thought he could go faster. So he gunned it.

Suddenly, he lost control and slammed into a wall. The whole front end of the Ferrari smashed like a tin can.

“I crashed in qualifying — bad and hard hit,” he told TMZ.

Despite losing the Ferrari, he borrowed a friend’s car and continued to race.

Did Herjavec really crash a Ferrari on the streets of Beverly Hills?

Photos posted on Instagram and published by media outlets show a wrecked Ferrari LaFerrari in Beverly Hills in October 2018. The rare hypercar had allegedly been racing on the streets, CarBuzz reported. A female passenger was reportedly ejected on impact.

Local police confirmed the accident happened and that no injuries occurred. They did not share who was involved, though. But unconfirmed reports claim Herjavec was the driver.

Herjavec’s PR rep did not respond to MotorBiscuit’s request to confirm whether he was the driver involved in that LaFerrari crash. So it remains a mystery.

What’s so special about the LaFerrari?

Though we can’t say Herjavec crashed his LaFerrari, we can say that the Ferrari LaFerrari is a true hypercar with insane speed and an even crazier price. According to Car and Driver, the LaFerrari can roar from 0 to 60 mph in only 2.5 seconds.

This hybrid beast packs a 6.3-liter 48-valve V12 engine and an electric motor. Together, they produce 950 hp. Paired with them is a seven-speed dual-clutch automatic transmission with a manual shifting mode. 

Fuel economy is what you might expect from a hypercar but not expect from a hybrid. The LaFerrari gets about 12 mpg in the city and 16 mpg on the highway. Interestingly, this model is known as one of the green hypercars of its day despite its EPA ratings.

It’s also known for its limited production. Ferrari made only 499 units from 2013 to 2018. Asking prices for pre-owned models range from about $3 million to over $5 million on the DuPont Registry.

And Robert Herjavec, worth an estimated $200 million, has enough money to afford a few of them.

RELATED: Jay Leno Reveals the Real Reason He Bought Himself a Tesla Years Ago

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Is It Illegal to Own a Street Sign?

by Gabrielle DeSantis

Found in homes, restaurants, and bars across the country, street signs aren’t just used for road safety. Many see street signs as the perfect decoration, speed limits or “Do Not Enter” signs adding a rugged aesthetic to the room. But is it illegal to own one? And if so, how much trouble could you get into?

Is it illegal to own a street sign

Stop Sign | Jose Carlos Fajardo/MediaNews Group/East Bay Times/Getty Images

The short answer is no, you are allowed to have a street sign in your house. What matters is how you obtained the sign in the first place. If you really like a street sign, pluck it off its post, and bring it home, you’ve just committed theft. Street signs are considered to be city property, and stealing one is treated like any other theft.

If caught, the punishments range from fines to actual jail time, though that all depends on the sign you swiped. Some signs only cost $50 to make, whereas others cost over $1,000.

According to Rosen Blum Law, if the value of the sign is less than $200, you could face 6 months in jail and fines of up to $1,000. Anything between $200 and $500 results in 18 months in jail and up to $10,000 in fines. And anything higher than $500 of stolen property could result in five years in prison and up to $15,000 in fines. In other words, stealing is no joke.

Not only is theft a crime, but removing the sign from where it stood can negatively alter traffic patterns. More often than not, it’s best to leave traffic signs where they are rather than removing them yourself.

What if the sign fell over?

Downed stop sign being collected by a worker
Downed Stop Sign | Paul Aiken/Digital First Media/Boulder Daily Camera/Getty Images)

It may seem like a victimless crime, snagging a sign that already fell down. In actuality, stealing a sign that fell over (either from extreme wind or an accident) is just as illegal as stealing an intact sign. That said, if the post is crooked and can be bent upright again, or the sign is off-kilter, you can orient them properly again, though you’re not obligated to.

The best course of action is to report the sign to your city offices directly or via your city website. In some states, it’s also possible to report damaged or missing signs to the DMV. Lastly, if the fallen or missing sign was a stop sign, it’s recommended to call 911, that way it will be repaired faster.

How to obtain a street sign legally

Traffic driving past a 40 mile-per-hour street sign
40 Mile-Per-Hour Speed Limit Sign | Ben Hasty/MediaNews Group/Reading Eagle/Getty Images

Chances are the signs you see indoors were purchased, not plucked off the streets. All of your popular options, such as one-way signs, stop signs, and speed limit markers can be purchased on the Parking and Traffic Supply website. Prices range from $10 to $50 dollars, but are manufactured to the same specifications/dimensions as the signs in public.

Whether it’s for your game room or your guest room, street sign decorations are excellent for bringing life into a room. But it’s important you get your sign through legal means. After all, it’s cheaper to buy a street sign for $50 online than a $1,000 fine for tampering with one.

RELATED: 6 Driving Rules That You Probably Break Every Day

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What Happens if the Dealership Doesn’t Pay off the Car You Traded In?

by Gabrielle DeSantis

When shopping for your next at the dealership, the salesperson may offer to discount the car that you’re buying if you trade in your current car. They may even strike up a good deal that you can’t refuse. But when it’s all said and done, you might want to make sure that your trade-in gets paid off if there’s still a loan attached to it. If the dealership doesn’t pay it off, then you could end up in deep water.

The dealer’s failure to pay can hurt your credit

A Hyundai dealership | Anindito Mukherjee via Getty Images

Whenever you trade in a car for another one at a dealership, it’s the dealership’s responsibility to pay off the existing loan of the car you traded in within a certain amount of time. The remaining balance will then get tacked onto the price of the newer car that you’re trading for. However, it can be a common mistake for a dealership to not pay off the existing auto loan in time, which could have negative repercussions on your credit.

A news story from ABC7 in Chicago tells a story of car buyer, Richard Williams, who traded in his 2007 Cadillac Escalade for a 2011 Range Rover at a local used car dealer. Williams noted that a month later, he started getting calls from his previous lender letting him know that the car wasn’t paid off. Unfortunately, months of back-and-forth conversations with the dealership ensued. During that time, William’s credit score dropped.

In the end, the dealership said that they paid off the loan a few months later, but blamed Williams’ credit score dropping on the fact that he was late on his payments when he traded the car in.

Waiting for the dealership to pay off your previous car loan could be a nail-biting experience. However, there are steps you can take to ensure that you don’t have to go through what Richard Williams went through.

What can you do to make sure the loan is paid off?

A salesman talks with a customer about a Toyota Motor 4Runner SUV.
A salesman talks with a customer about a Toyota Motor 4Runner SUV. | (Photo by Gary Gardiner/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

If you end up trading in your financed car, then you can always contact the lender afterward and let them know that the payoff amount should be coming to them. If you want to be proactive about it, then you can even call the lender before trading in the vehicle and let them know ahead of time. It also doesn’t hurt to get your car’s 10-day payoff amount from the lender while you’re at it. It’s good to know when you’re going over the sales figures with the dealer.

Paying the loan yourself can save you a lot

If you would rather prevent any potential headaches altogether, then you might want to consider paying off the existing loan yourself first. By doing so, you’ll save money on the interest of the loan and by not tacking on the remainder of the loan to a new one. Lastly, paying off the loan yourself will have you rest assured that you don’t need to cross your fingers and hope the dealer does it in time.

The one thing to remember when going this route, though, is that the car’s title could take a few weeks or a month to get to you. So, you’ll need to wait for that first before you’re able to trade in the car.

RELATED: Is Pre-Qualifying for an Auto Loan Before Going to a Dealership Important?

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