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The problem in selling a used car is that you are not a bank. Typically, the buyer of a reasonably priced car, e.g. $5K needs financing. If he had that much cash he would typically use it for a down payment on a new car.
Also if you try to sell it yourself you must accept the risk of him not returning from a test drive, crashing your car, giving you a fake check, etc, ad nauseum.
It's not worth it.
Why would you sell it to Carmax and not trade it in?
that's insanity. If the dealer matches Carmax's offer to buy your car then you're already $1,000 ahead (for a $15K car) trading it.
I am in the market for a new car right now and am finding it challenging to assess trade-in value of my current car. I, probably like many people, went to Kelly Blue Book to estimate a trade-in value range. It is giving me $13.5k-15.4k. I have contacted three dealers now to get a trade-in quote from them and they are coming back with anywhere between $10k and $11k.
I know this is a classic game that dealers play, but how on earth am I able to get anywhere near KBB trade in when they are all coming back with such low numbers? One salesperson tried to explain to me that KBB trade in was too optimistic and that there is a difference between dealer trade value and KBB trade value. I'm not sure I buy that excuse. I thought the whole point of a KBB trade-in value was that it is was a TRADE IN value, not private sale value.
Am I being unrealistic here? Are most people getting significantly less than KBB trade-in value for their trades?
The sales person even went so far as to try and sell me on the new car by mentioning how great its resale value was. I laughed pretty hard at that one!
Why don't you sell it to KBB? I always find it confusing when people want the same trade in price that KBB gives you, at the dealer, why not sell it to KBB?
Your going to get lowballed severely doing that for a lot of reasons. They don’t want to find out your “clean” trade in is a stinky turd.
I empathize with the long distance from the dealer but it’s bad business in a lot of ways to appraise something sight unseen at the top of the market.
I'm not asking for them to sign a contract with my trade sight-unseen. I'm asking for them to commit to a trade value BASED ON the car meeting some agreed upon standards. They can always back out of paying the agreed upon amount if the car does not meet the standards agreed upon prior to visiting the dealer. However, I also have the option of walking away.
The goal is to try and firm up a deal as best as possible before wasting my entire day driving to the dealer.
As for "top of the market", I beg to differ. I am pulling estimates from multiple reputable trade-in calculators..... notice I said trade-in, not private sale calculators. These values already factor in dealer costs/overhead and profit to re-sell the car.
I have a hard time believing they are giving you $500 over KBB (which is generally a range BTW, not a single number). I've worked with three dealerships in the past week and all but one has set their firm maximum at ~1.5-2k under the lowest number in the KBB value range. The one that didn't offered $300 under the lowest KBB number but settled at MSRP for the new vehicle. The car I'm trading has very low miles (4k/year) and is in great condition inside and out.
I even threatened to walk away from all of them, and they basically told me to let them know if I changed my mind.
KBB has something fairly new where they give you an offer price along with a range of what your trade-in is worth. It's super low pretty much all the time. I believe that's what the poster you quoted is talking about.
Have you entered your vehicle information into Carvana? We just went through a trade-in on my husbands Forester for a Tacoma. Carvana gave us a very good price for the Forester, and then the dealer matched it because they wanted the sale. Carvana will honor their price offer as long as the vehicle is as your presented it. I've sold them two vehicles and it was very simple and the offer prices were above KBB trade-in values. Then they came and picked up my vehicles and handed me a check.
I'm not asking for them to sign a contract with my trade sight-unseen. I'm asking for them to commit to a trade value BASED ON the car meeting some agreed upon standards. They can always back out of paying the agreed upon amount if the car does not meet the standards agreed upon prior to visiting the dealer. However, I also have the option of walking away.
The goal is to try and firm up a deal as best as possible before wasting my entire day driving to the dealer.
As for "top of the market", I beg to differ. I am pulling estimates from multiple reputable trade-in calculators..... notice I said trade-in, not private sale calculators. These values already factor in dealer costs/overhead and profit to re-sell the car.
My point with that phrase is "The top end of what a dealer would pay for it on trade."
The other concern they have is that you are serious about buying a car, but not serious about buying a car from them, and are simply trying to get data points for negotiation with another dealer, and don't want to spend much time with it.
The hard part is that a sizable percentage of people overestimate their car's condition. It's just Human nature.
You might do better if you take a video/pictures and talk to the used car manager.
The other thing to consider is that your car is one of those where current market demand has fallen significantly for one reason or another. Not sure what it would be right now but it does happen.
KBB has something fairly new where they give you an offer price along with a range of what your trade-in is worth. It's super low pretty much all the time. I believe that's what the poster you quoted is talking about.
Have you entered your vehicle information into Carvana? We just went through a trade-in on my husbands Forester for a Tacoma. Carvana gave us a very good price for the Forester, and then the dealer matched it because they wanted the sale. Carvana will honor their price offer as long as the vehicle is as your presented it. I've sold them two vehicles and it was very simple and the offer prices were above KBB trade-in values. Then they came and picked up my vehicles and handed me a check.
Wow I just checked out Carvana per your recommendation. They are offering $2k more than any of the dealers here, and the selling process looks insanely simple.
That made my decision a heck of a lot easier! Thank you for the tip!
I am in the market for a new car right now and am finding it challenging to assess trade-in value of my current car. I, probably like many people, went to Kelly Blue Book to estimate a trade-in value range. It is giving me $13.5k-15.4k. I have contacted three dealers now to get a trade-in quote from them and they are coming back with anywhere between $10k and $11k.
I know this is a classic game that dealers play, but how on earth am I able to get anywhere near KBB trade in when they are all coming back with such low numbers? One salesperson tried to explain to me that KBB trade in was too optimistic and that there is a difference between dealer trade value and KBB trade value. I'm not sure I buy that excuse. I thought the whole point of a KBB trade-in value was that it is was a TRADE IN value, not private sale value.
Am I being unrealistic here? Are most people getting significantly less than KBB trade-in value for their trades?
The sales person even went so far as to try and sell me on the new car by mentioning how great its resale value was. I laughed pretty hard at that one!
I have always gotten KBB PP retail on my trade-ins, and refuse to pay over invoice, when buying pedestrian vehicles. Buying something special, or limited edition, yeah, you're at the dealer's mercy. Otherwise? I have gotten KBB PP retail on trade, no problems, very little haggling. Your issue might be regional, or you may just have a super undesirable vehicle.
Wow I just checked out Carvana per your recommendation. They are offering $2k more than any of the dealers here, and the selling process looks insanely simple.
That made my decision a heck of a lot easier! Thank you for the tip!
I am a big Carvana advocate. They don't always have what you are looking for or offer the best trade-in (it depends on the demand on their inventory), but they are so easy to deal with and don't do any bait and switch crap.
I am in the market for a new car right now and am finding it challenging to assess trade-in value of my current car. I, probably like many people, went to Kelly Blue Book to estimate a trade-in value range. It is giving me $13.5k-15.4k. I have contacted three dealers now to get a trade-in quote from them and they are coming back with anywhere between $10k and $11k.
I know this is a classic game that dealers play, but how on earth am I able to get anywhere near KBB trade in when they are all coming back with such low numbers? One salesperson tried to explain to me that KBB trade in was too optimistic and that there is a difference between dealer trade value and KBB trade value. I'm not sure I buy that excuse. I thought the whole point of a KBB trade-in value was that it is was a TRADE IN value, not private sale value.
Am I being unrealistic here? Are most people getting significantly less than KBB trade-in value for their trades?
The sales person even went so far as to try and sell me on the new car by mentioning how great its resale value was. I laughed pretty hard at that one!
Go to CarMax and get a quote from them.
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