Your Used Car Trade In Value Can Vary

Don’t fall into the trap of focusing on the purchase price of your new vehicle. There are other important aspects of the deal, especially if you have a trade in. Getting the best used car trade in value is essential if you want to save money. We recommend taking three steps.

First Step: Negotiate the Purchase Price of Your New Vehicle

When the dealer asks if you will be trading a vehicle, say you’d rather leave that out of the process for the time being. This way, you take a potential negotiating advantage out of the salesperson’s hands. Negotiate the purchase price of the new vehicle and leave other things out.

This purchase price needs to be in writing and signed by the dealership manager. Make sure any rebates are deducted at this point. Trading your vehicle should not be discussed until you have this number on paper.

There is an easy way to bring the sale price of your new vehicle down. It’s by getting quotes from all of the dealerships you can. You can then use the quotes to negotiate at competing dealerships. Smart, eh? Click here to get your quotes for free, online.

Second Step: Fix Up Your Trade-in

Get new tires
Clean your vehicle
Repair/replace any broken parts
Make it smell good

Third Step: Trade-In

The dealers may pretend they aren’t interested in your vehicle and act like they are doing you a favor by taking it off your hands. But used cars are the gravy that goes on the meat and potatoes of a new car dealer’s balance sheet.

Estimate the market value of your used car, with all of the repairs done, using a tool like KBB’s pricing tool. This will help you avoid getting low-balled. Your target price, the wholesale value, should be somewhere near this figure.

If you just can’t get the price you want for your trade in, you might want to sell your vehicle yourself and show up at the new car dealership with cash in hand.

Now You’re Ready

If you follow our three steps, you should be able to get a decent trade-in value for you old vehicle. Before you do, get quotes for the vehicle that will replace it. Click here to get quotes from any local dealers for any car you choose. Then choose the dealer you want to work with!


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