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If you sell your car to a dealership, do they give you the trade in value or do they try to really low ball your car?
I need to sell my car fairly quick, I owe 23,500. Private party value is 28-30,000 Trade in is 24,000-26,000 depending on if they rate it: fair, good, or excellent. Do you think I could feasibly get 25,000 selling it to a dealership. I think the car is in good condition-low miles, good paint, and tires-I'm sure going this route the dealer is going to nit pick every speck of dust
PS I am doing this to lower my debt to income ratio to refinance my house, I don't want to sell the car until I know for sure the loan is going through. The car dealerships offer is only good for a week so that is why I haven't just taken the car to car max and found out for sure
It's tough to say. Your car is worth whatever the dealership says it's worth. KBB and other resources aren't necessarily accurate with their numbers. What it comes down to is two scenarios:
1. You have an in demand/popular car in good shape that the dealer feels would be an easy sell. They will generally give you a decent price as it is easy to flip and earn them a profit. In this scenario, you are generally looking at a price that is $4k or so less than retail, or similar to the trade in value.
2. The car is not something the dealer feels they could easily sell, so they would be passing it through to a wholesaler. The wholesaler is going to sell it at auction, so the current auction prices are what sets the value. Say a car is selling at auction for $20k. The dealer may offer you $19k flip it to the wholesaler marked up a couple hundred bucks and then the wholesaler takes it to auction where they make their money. You will generally get the lowest offer through this method.
The best thing to do is simply shop the car to a couple dealers, preferably ones who sell that brand of car as they would most likely want it as used inventory. See what they offer you and go from there.
Another option is to go on to Autotrader.com and use their guaranteed trade in program. Basically you go on their site and enter all the information regarding your vehicle and they generate a guaranteed dollar amount that a dealer will pay you for the vehicle and give you a list of participating dealers. The only issue here is that many of them are trade in only, you would need to find a buying center near you. If you go this route you have 72 hours from generating the offer to completing the deal. The purchasing dealer will inspect the car and can adjust the price based on condition, just answer the questions honestly and it won't be a problem.
Try CarMax...If you go to their website, you will know exactly what they will give you for it. If you don't use them, at least you have a base figure.
(one thing is..try to see the car through the dealers eyes and not yours as the owner. What you consider perfect, maybe less in their eyes)
You didn't mention what your vehicle is, mileage, or it's condition, which is important ...
But sight unseen, IMO, a vehicle booking at $24-26K "trade in" value is unlikely to get a cash offer of much more than $20K (if even that much) unless a dealer has a known client lined up to buy your car "if they get one in trade" at a price around the retail level.
You will find that the dealers will "low ball" you on this transaction, and you owe on this car more than it's wholesale value at this time. A very tough spot for you to be in. The most likely way you'll get out of this car will be to sell it direct to a private party ... and, if you just need to be out of it ... at a price point very close to what you owe on it. Trying to sell it at the full retail book value as a private seller puts you directly in competition with the dealers, and private buyers aren't interested in buying at dealer price points from a private party, with all the risks of the transaction ... they want a "deal".
I just did the Auto Trader Instant Trade In offer. The cash offer came out to $24,556! Now lets see if the dealers stick to that price (keeping my fingers crossed)
But for me, I prefer that route over haggling over a few hundred dollars, and sending 'pics' of photos of the car of every angle over e-mail, and having to be home at odd hours just to sell the car.
I like that at the dealer, inspection, price offer, done that's that.
But then if you've followed my postings, you know I value time and convenience as much as I do money
I just did the Auto Trader Instant Trade In offer. The cash offer came out to $24,556! Now lets see if the dealers stick to that price (keeping my fingers crossed)
Just make sure that the dealer you go to is a "purchasing center". If they are only a "trade in" center, they won't honor the price unless you are buying another car.
Generally as long as you answered all the questions honestly they won't move from the quoted price. I've had a couple friends use it and they liked the service and were given exactly what was quoted. It was a big relief for many of them to be going in knowing what their trade was worth.
Always remember the dealer is like your worse neighbor. They want to buy low and sell high. They have more experience wheeling and dealing to lower your defenses. Remember if they have one on the lot they really do not need yours. To maximize your selling price research, detail and be firm.
The dealer knowing you are in somewhat of a financial bind will exploit that fact and probably offer you a disappointing amount for your car, probably something in the $15-$20K range .which would leave you holding the bag for several thousand $$ still owing on the car,,thats if they even want your car
Selling it privately would get you the best price.Yeah its a bit more of a pain in the butt but it could command an extra $5K on the sale of the car.
Does refinancing the house mean the same as taking out another mortgage on the house?
Last edited by jambo101; 12-03-2011 at 02:13 AM..
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