How do i get the best price on trading in my car?
March 11th, 2008 | by Adam |
aritolla asked:
I’m trading in my VW Passat GLX 4motion. What can i do to get the best trade in price?
I’m trading in my VW Passat GLX 4motion. What can i do to get the best trade in price?
11 Responses to “How do i get the best price on trading in my car?”
By cwb63ss on Mar 13, 2008 | Reply
sell it out right you’ll get more money.If you take it to a dealer they give you less than blue book value on it.
By Ms.Capulet on Mar 14, 2008 | Reply
Check blue book listings..Usually you get better deals selling it out right…
By R1volta on Mar 14, 2008 | Reply
Go to all sites . You could probably get almost retail book for your car on a trade for a new VW.
By missmo on Mar 14, 2008 | Reply
Detail it really good, and sale it yourself. You’ll never get what it’s worth at a dealership, because they leave room for repairs and so they make money. If you still want to deal with the dealership. Get you high an low blue book on it. You can’t expect to high for yours and pay low for there’s. It’s either high-high, or low-low.
By J P on Mar 15, 2008 | Reply
Be welll informed before you go to the dealer, get the blue book price and take the book with you to prove the right price to the dealer.
By kyle.keyes on Mar 18, 2008 | Reply
You can check “bluebook” online.
Regardless, you’ll still get the price
selling car outright.
By mp3_matt on Mar 19, 2008 | Reply
just sell it your self you can get up to twice the dealer’s offer
By susieq on Mar 22, 2008 | Reply
By selling it out of your yard. Car lots will **** you over. They’ll add the amount they gave you for your car to the price of the one you want to buy.
By ChrisC on Mar 23, 2008 | Reply
First of all, you have to be realistic about the value of your car. Before you go into the dealership, you should have done some research on what the transaction prices are for the car you want to purchase. I have found that has the most accurate True Market Values when it comes to what the purchase price should be. You can also use that site to see what your trade vehicle should be worth. You can also go to for your trade value. You’ll find discrepancies between the two sites, but remember, neither of them will buy your old car. There is an auto industry book called Galves that dealers here in NJ use. It is very accurate based on cars that have gone through the auctions the prior week. You can have access to that site too, it costs a lot of money, BUT it is accurate. Even so, it’s not worth buying a subscription for one car.
What a lot of people do is go to a website to do their research and negotiate a sale price on the new vehicle, then pop the trade after that price has been set and try to get what kbb.com or edunds say is retail for their car. Remember, if you don’t want to pay retail for your new car, the dealer won’t pay you retail for your trade.
What I do, is figure out a fair price on the new car, based on my research, figure out a fair number for my trade, and look at my bottom line. I don’t care how the dealer gets to that number, or below, but that’s my comfort zone. I don’t get into heated negotiations, I just know what I present to the salesman and if he can meet it, then we have a deal, if not, I can walk. I’m not married to any car or deal.
I do see some answers here saying that you should sell it yourself, and that is an option. I have very little patience when I decide to get a new car and can not wait for the “right” person to pay me that pie-in-the-sky number I may think I can get buy retailing it myself. I also don’t want to waste my time with tirekickers. So for me, the fact that I could get more selling myself has no appeal because the value of having the dealer give a price he is willing to pay that day is worth it. (A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush). This is especially helpful if you need the money from the trade to purchase the new car. I’ve known plenty of people that didn’t like their trade value, decided to sell it on their own, and months pass, no sale, and wind up trading it in anyway(for less, since the car depreciated). There are those that have sold it on their own and are happy, but since I’m not in car sales/finance any more, I don’t like spending my off time selling cars, even my own, I have better things to do with my time!
By umdenstock on Mar 26, 2008 | Reply
sell it outright if you want more money
if you cant or dont want to - detail it before you go to the dealership
By lolapug99 on Mar 27, 2008 | Reply
id suggest getting a ballpark figure from kbb.com its respected and the most used, u cant argue with it, my problem with edmunds, is they test bone stock vehicles, with no options, so say your car was estimated, by edmunds to be 7,000, add a disc changer ,moon roof, alloy wheels, premium sound, leather, privacy glass, etc.. (if your vw has options like that) kbb takes into consideration the options and increases your value too 9,500. dealers charges you for things like that when u bought your car, so dont forget that when u sell it.
P.S. i might be spreading a rumor but i heard, edmunds low balls the price to increase dealers profits (didnt hear that from me),
P.S.S. ifi were you id try to privately sell your vw, u can get much more that way u never get full value from trade-ins