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How to Trade in Your Old Car
for the Highest Value
You can trade in your old
car for it's highest value if you're willing to do a bit
of quick research. First, try to discuss the possibility of a trade-in
only after you’ve negotiated the best possible price for
your new car and after you’ve researched the value of
your old car.
Check online resources and/or the library for reference books or
magazines that can tell you how much it is worth. This
information may help you get a better price from the
dealer. Though it may take longer to sell your car
yourself, you generally will get more money than if you
trade it in.
What's my trade really
worth?
This question is asked daily by thousands of people.
Just what is your car worth as a trade in towards
another new or used car. This really isn't as big
a mystery as it may first appear. The simple
answer is that your trade is only worth what someone
else is willing to pay for it on the day you decide to
trade it. I'll try to help clear up this simple
answer with an example.
 Let's
assume you have a 2002 Honda Accord LX sedan with 41,000
miles showing on the odometer. It also has a V-6
engine with automatic transmission. For this
example there are no added options above the standard LX
equipment package.
Using this information I
can research the estimated trade in value at Kelley Blue
Book (www.kbb.com) and
Edmunds (www.edmunds.com).
Kelley Blue Book shows this vehicle in "excellent"
condition valued at $11,750*. Edmunds shows a
"trade in" value of $11,702*.
To get a real feel for
what the true value of this car is I did a little more
research. Going to Autotrader (www.Autotrader.com)
I searched for other similar 2002 Honda Accord LX
models. The average retail asking price is
$15,500*. This is an almost $4000 difference
between trade in value and the average retail price.
Wondering why you would ever trade this car into a
dealer and give away almost $4000 instead of selling it
yourself? Obviously you shouldn't. But
consumers often do give away their equity every day.
This short example shows
that taking just 15 minutes to research your trade's
value online before going into any dealership can save
you thousands. Now you have a choice. Try
selling your car yourself or trading it to a dealer with
the knowledge that you're not going to just give it
away.
Realize that all vehicles
sold through dealerships have to be reconditioned.
After all, the next person buying your car wants it in
the very best condition possible. The dealership,
like any other small business, also needs to have room
to earn a profit on any sale. With your new
knowledge you can now negotiate your trade in value more
fairly.
While you won't get the
full $4000 difference shown in this example by trading
it in, you can negotiate for much more than the $11,700
"blue book value". We used this same method to
determine the trade price on a 2002 Ford Explorer XLT.
The difference between the "blue book value" and the
average retail asking price on Autotrader was only
$1600*. With gas prices staying high, the used Honda
sedan is currently more valuable than the used Ford
Explorer. It pays to do a little research to get
to know the market for your used vehicle before going
into any dealership.
* Values stated were
researched on 1/10/06 |
