Monday, November 3, 2014

Tips on selling vs. trading your old car

     The very thought of shopping for a new can can be rather exciting for some, and totally panic-inducing for others. However, making a bad financial choice with your old car can be a real killjoy. Typically, you get more money for your old ride by selling it yourself. The thought behind this is that the dealer has to buy it low enough for them to make a profit off of it. After all, a car dealer is a business, and they aren't in the losing money business.

     With all of this being said, here are some pros and cons to selling your old steed yourself, and trading it in. I will start off with trading it in:

Pros and cons of trading in your car:

It's an easy way to dispose, or get rid of your old car. All you have to do is give it to the dealer, turn around, and never look back.

Typically, you will get much less than if you took the time to sell it yourself. You can look up the price on websites like www.kbb.com, but you will be hard pressed to get more than wholesale as a trade-in value.

You can use the trade-in amount as a down payment and that nice, new or newer car that you just test drove.

To get the best price, you will more than likely spend a good deal of time haggling with an experienced salesperson.

There can be a tax advantage to trading in. Most states only charge sales tax on the difference between the trade-in value and the new car price.

Pros and cons of selling your old car yourself:

This requires serious time and effort on things like placing ads, taking phone calls, dealing with strangers, and giving test drives.

You could get perhaps hundreds, maybe even thousands more by taking the time to do it on your own.

You might not be able to sell your old car until after you buy your new one. If so, you wouldn't be able to use that money as a down payment. Additionally, if you are still paying on the old car, you will have to still make payments on it until you sell it.

You will have to negotiate with the buyer, however, most aren't as experienced as a professional salesperson will be.

More than likely, you will have to pay more sales tax on the new car, but if you get more money for your old car, you could still end up ahead at the end of the day.

     As you can see, they both have their ups and downs, it all just truly depends on how much effort you feel like you can put into the deal. To find out more tips about selling your old car, go to www.consumerreports.org, or other car buying websites like www.kbb.com, www.autotrader.com, and www.cars.com.




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