Trade ins

[randomthoughts1875]

Is it smarter to trade your vehicle in when purchasing a new one or sell it privately? It seems you don't always recieve what the car is worth as a trade in.

[mamab]

You can check on the Kelley Blue Book website, New Car Prices | Used Car Values - Official Kelley Blue Book Site, to get a rough idea what your car is worth before going to trade it in. That way, if they only offer you $500 and you know it's worth at least $1000, you can dicker with them. However, that being said, you usually do get more from an individual than by trading it in. I guess it just depends on how long you want to wait.

[SageMother]

Quote:

Originally Posted by randomthoughts1875

Is it smarter to trade your vehicle in when purchasing a new one or sell it privately? It seems you don't always recieve what the car is worth as a trade in.

I agree with the other poster on selling it outright. There are plenty of people around who need a vehicle, have saved some money, but cannot purchase from dealers due to credit issues.

You can probably sell your car for cash to someone with these complications and get more, and they will probably end up paying you less than what a dealership would try to gouge out of them.

[Calypso]

I usually just trade my car in with the dealer because it's easier--don't need to worry about title hassles, the check bouncing, etc. But I agree you could probably get more trading it in with an individual.

[randomthoughts1875]

Thank you both for the information! My gut was telling me to sell privately but I needed some reassurance!

[Melizzy]

I've always thought you just get screwed in a trade-in situation.

[moonmagick]

You always get more by selling privately. If you check the Kelley Blue Book website, they show you what the trade in value is, and then what the private market value is, and typically that is quite a bit higher. That being said, I almost always trade, simply because as someone else stated, that way the title work is taken care of and no worrying about bounced checks and the like.

[nangel78]

I would also check out Nada as well. They are helpful on car values.