Trade-in vehicle question?

mtofell1 wrote:
It's really two separate transactions - dealers build empires off of confusing consumers and blurring this fact. The amount they give you for a trade-in they should be willing to just cut you a check and leave out the fact that you are buying a vehicle from them. Again though, it's all smoke, mirrors and deception to confuse people.

As mentioned numerous times on the thread, try to sell private party. As a general rule you should be able to instantly sell a vehicle on Craigslist for 10% more than the dealer will offer you as a trade.

You're a little misguided here. While there is some shenanigans on paper, why would a dealer leave out the fact that you are buying a vehicle from them?

Your general rule of being able to instantly sell a vehicle privately for 10% more than trade in offer is somewhat far fetched as well. How fast your vehicle sells all depends on who is looking and what there situation is. The greater the dollar value of the vehicle, the greater the chance interested parties will be financing and also looking to trade in.

When looking at trade numbers, one needs to consider the sales tax credit as well. As an example, I recently sold my 2007 Chevy, Dealer had offered $21k on trade. With a sales tax rate of 8.25% the sales tax credit would be $1732.50, making my trade worth $22732.50


Trading in something that's worth more than what you are buying is just like any other dealer, you just gotta squeeze them until your happy or check out another dealer. I did this for my grandfather on a 2 year old buick and 6 month old tahoe shortly after my grandmother died and gramps wanted to downsize. The bath on the tahoe was inevitable, but I beat on them, went back and forth between 2 dealers and got what we wanted.

Don't forget to charge the dealer tax on what they will owe you!

Thanks for the info. I'm trying the CL route for now. I'm in no hurry to start dealing with dealers on another smaller truck.

I know someone who did this. You will take a bath on the trade as always, but the dealer will cut you check for the difference.

mtofell1 wrote:
It's really two separate transactions - dealers build empires off of confusing consumers and blurring this fact. The amount they give you for a trade-in they should be willing to just cut you a check and leave out the fact that you are buying a vehicle from them. Again though, it's all smoke, mirrors and deception to confuse people.

As mentioned numerous times on the thread, try to sell private party. As a general rule you should be able to instantly sell a vehicle on Craigslist for 10% more than the dealer will offer you as a trade.

Agree totally! Dd not think I could be confused, but was. Lost 4K,

There is now mystery here....they give you a check for it.

The dealer can give you cash. I traded in a vehicle on our Suburban and only wanted about half of the old car's value as a down payment. I get the new Suburban and a check when I closed.

It's really two separate transactions - dealers build empires off of confusing consumers and blurring this fact. The amount they give you for a trade-in they should be willing to just cut you a check and leave out the fact that you are buying a vehicle from them. Again though, it's all smoke, mirrors and deception to confuse people.

As mentioned numerous times on the thread, try to sell private party. As a general rule you should be able to instantly sell a vehicle on Craigslist for 10% more than the dealer will offer you as a trade.

You could get 2 of the Chevy's for the Ram...

I would think you'd take a bath on your trade, but a quick check on kbb.com says that the trade in book on the Laramie version of your truck is worth close to $52K. If you did trade your truck in and the dealer were to value it that high I would imagine you'd get a 2016 Colorado and a check for however much you could negotiate. I'm not sure about your state, but in Washington you only pay sales tax on the difference, so you'd be buying the Colorado with no sales tax.