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Buying Tips
10 Steps to Buying a New Car
Step 6: If you are trading in your old car...
From Edmunds.com
Video highlights of this article
If you are trading in your old car to a dealer, you will probably not get as much
money toward the price of a new car as you would have if you'd sold it yourself
to a private party. However, trading
in offers some advantages. You can solve all of your car-buying problems in
one visit to the dealer. You can unload a hard-to-sell car with no newspaper ads,
DMV lines or tire-kicking buyers involved. In some states, you will even pay less
sales tax on a deal that involves a trade-in.
Begin the process by looking up your car's trade-in value on Edmunds.com. True
Market Value (TMV) will also give you trade-in values. After you plug in all
of the vehicle's information (mileage, options, condition and colors) you will
get a specific trade-in price. This will often be slightly different from the
offers you get once you are on the car lot. At a dealership the value assigned
to your trade-in varies based on the time of the month, the dealer's specific
inventory and the used car manager's mood, but at least TMV will give you a rough
idea of what your trade-in is worth.
If it's important to you to get the maximum value for your trade-in, you should
visit several dealerships and solicit bids. Tell the salesperson that the sale
of a new car will be contingent on the amount he or she will give you for your
trade-in. Also, tell them you are visiting several dealerships. With a little
legwork, you may be able to boost the price you get for your old car by several
hundred dollars or more. Remember, the extra effort you spend in getting competitive
bids is far less than what it would take to advertise, show and sell the car yourself.
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