Dealer says I'd be better off selling my car myself

[Jardine8]

I can't imagine a scenario where selling your car to a dealer or trading it in to a dealer is actually a good idea. You can basically always get more just by selling it yourself. I would never try to trade in a car or sell a car to a dealer.

[LoriBee62]

Originally Posted by mkaresh

Dealers want to be able to mark a car up $2,000 over what they pay for it, to cover their costs and still turn a a reasonable profit after knocking some off the price to close the deal. They can't do this with your car even if it's actually worth $1,000.

^^ This. One of the reasons dealers buy low is because they have to pay their shop to go over the car and fix any problems. And even after they fix the problems, they can still only charge what the car books for. Add in a salesman's commission and overhead and padding a little since every customer never ever expects to pay the price they ask.

It's like anything you're trying to sell. You don't get retail prices when selling something wholesale. I thought the show Pawn Stars would have done a good job educating the public on this, but it's surprising the number of people who still don't get it.

[Tourian]

Originally Posted by bxlefty23

not sure where you live but in ny you can get 500-600 for scrapping a car

Whatever. That just proves my point. Beater or not you are always better off selling it yourself.