2003 Toyota Matrix XR, 52,000 miles original owner

Marketplace
1

Silver 2003 Toyota Matrix,most of the bells and whistles, including power steering, power doors, AC, power moon/sun roof, automatic transmission.

No accidents, I’m the original owner. It’s not in perfect cosmetic condition, having a few little scrapes and light dents- I assume from parking lots since I have never hit or been hit.

I bought it with the package that forced the bottom spoilers on me, but the front one came off. It’s whole and can be put back on, but for the record it makes the bottom WAY too low, which is why it came off.

I rarely drive because I work at home and have for the entire time I’ve owned it, so it’s only got 52,000 miles on it. I’ve kept up wiht the basic maintenance.

Once I give it a good scrub I’ll take pictures and post.

KBB says $9500. I’m open to offers but I’m definitely trying to make the most possible, obviously.

I’m in Los Angeles, the San Fernando Valley.

2

Love them Matrixes!
Gave my 03 to my eldest when she graduated, and currently drive a 10.
W/ 52 K this baby’s barely broken in.
A good deal to someone who can see past the minor cosmetics.
Good luck on your sale.

3

I was looking for a used wagon in 2002, at the exact moment the Matrix was hitting the streets. I think SUVs are Satan’s vehicle, but I do like having room, so it was all that. And at the time the shape was very fresh, people were constantly asking me about it.

I drove it from Los Angeles to Farmington, New Mexico, to visit family a few months after I bought it. I took my Golden retriever with me, and she just hung out in the back. Great trip.

I’m gonna miss her, but my life has taken a very large turn in a different direction. so it’s time to say goodbye. Besides, it’s such a great, solid car, seems a shame to waste it on someone like me who really can make my life work via B&B (Bike and Bus). Time for it to go to someone who needs a good deal on a great car in great shape.

4

I envy your commute.
I have goldens as well.

In the “Why did they do THAT?” category - the remodel of the wayback side windows sometime between the 03 and my 10.
They took a fine design and created sizeable blindspots.
I even think the older style LOOKED better!
Can’t imagine what someone was thinking.

(Sorry to hijack your ad!)

5

No problem on the hijack, glad someone noticed at all!

Here’s a bunch of pictures.

6

Nice!

I have a 2003 Matrix, but just went over 160,000 km (100,000 miles). I agree that the older style was better - I think they feel that they have to “change” every few years just for the sake of change.

I’ve not had any problems thus far with the car, and plan to drive it for a while yet.

Good car. Buy it someone!

7

Price officially reduced to $8900.

8

Are you sure kbb puts it at $9500? When I looked it up it says $6900 for excellent condition. From your description of dings and scuffs it’s probably hard to rate it better than “very good”, which I see listed as $6600. So unless I’m missing something, you might have a tough time unloading it at that price.

9

You’re missing something, because I’ve priced it multiple times and it’s actually over 10K, which I don’t expect to get.

I’ve had two offers, one for $8000 and one for $7000. $8000 and below in a Matrix, no matter what year, means 100K plus miles.Below 50K miles in a Matrix list for $8999 and up, including same model year.

Just did it again, it’s dropped a little:

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And the actual mileage is 51,126, and I meant to say below 60K miles - that’s just from memory of looking at local ads.

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Does it have leather? Is it really 4wd? Rims? I can’t seem to find an option for both a power, sliding sunroof AND a moonroof, do you know what the deal is?

I have a lawyer friend in LA who is looking around.

12

No, not leather, leather is much higher end.

A sliding sunroof includes a moonroof: there is an interior cover that can be manually pulled back, revealing a moonroof. Then you press the magic button and Presto! The moonroof slides back, making it a sunroof.

As for rims, I certainly didn’t ask for anything non-standard, but since I got some kind of package that slapped a whole bunch of stupid shit on the car originally (I think I wanted the sunroof and AC and a bunch of stupid shit came with) maybe that’s different wheels. No idea about that stuff.

The drive is front wheel, as far as I know.

Unless your lawyer friend is a very new lawyer in a crap job, most LA Lawyers can afford better than my Matrix and would certainly desire something more “LA Lawyer-y”

13

Just ran another check of Matrixes (Matrices?) in a 200 mile radius. Filtered as follows:

Price between 5,000 and 12,000
any year
mileage between 10,000 and 200,000
automatic transmission

That’s all, didn’t get more detailed than that. Total number of vehicles that came back was 18. the ones that match my year and/or price point are in green. None of the vehicles matched my mileage:

Year Miles Price
2004 73K 11999
2005 80K 10500
2006 93k 10495
2004 95K 9988
2003 95K 8995
2005 96K 9598
2007 96K 11891
2006 96K 11999
2007 100K 9495
2005 100K 8988
2005 102K 9242
2003 108K 8995
2005 107K 9950
2004 118K 7990
2003 122K 8995
2007 125K 9383
2005 132K 7995
2005 136K 8990

Then I changed the mileage restriction to 20-65K with the same dollar restriction and it said it couldn’t find any cars at all (I guess it isn’t picking up where I advertise…I did the same kind of search somewhere else that picks up private party and it was a little looser, but not by much)

Sorting again by lowest to highest mileage, the lowest mileage in the price range was 73K on a 2004 and it is priced at 11999. then
05 80k 10500
08 87K 11999
06 93K 10495
04 94K 9988
03 95K 8995

etc…pretty much the same list of cars.

So unless there’s something that I am missing, I think I’m completely right on to be looking to get $8900 for my sweet little 1-owner, no-accident, 51K car. Even with a few minor cosmetic issues (look at the photos, so minor they aren’t readily visible) and some minor maintenance needed that’s a solid deal.

The guy that offered me $8000 (which was his budget, period, he told me that in the first 3 minutes of our phone call before he came to see it) spent twenty minutes going on about how he would “have to” spend $1000 to get the bodywork done, which I didn’t believe for 10 seconds. He asked me if I would buy a new car with those dings and scrapes, and I said of course not: I’d demand a discount for them. But I’d never bother to get them fixed, they’d just be a great bargaining tool to lower the price because I dont’ give a damn about minor cosmetic problems.

After all, if he DID buy the car for 8K and spend 1K perfecting the appearance, he’d end up with an $11,000 car for $9,000. No thanks. He can take his $8,000 and go buy one of those pretty cars with 115,000 miles on it.

I’ll wait for the person who sees the deal, I’m not in that much of a rush.

14

Well, apparently the used sales market is up lately, because more people are holding onto their cars. So I’m sure you’ll get good money for it. But still, regarding kbb, even when I put on almost all the options except leather seats ( I felt sure you’d disapprove :wink: ) I got an “Excellent” condition price of $9,013 and a “Very Good” of $8,688.

But maybe I got the model wrong or something. Get what you can get. :slight_smile:

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That is weird…but following your link to the selected options, it somehow picked up a 110k mileage, when ichanged that the price jumped 2k.

16

To get the best price you should make it clear that that’s not typical.

17

Extremely pleased to report that patience pays. A lovely young woman brought her mechanic father with her to check it out and they offered me exactly what I had decided was my rock bottom: $8500. Her dad called it a diamond in the rough. Which I knew it was. And he agreed with me: a car’s age is determined by miles, not years.

Yay!