Trade or sell? SOLD!

Another thing to consider is that when you trade in a vehicle and buy a new one you get a sales tax break. So for example, say you traded in your truck for $8200 and buy another truck for $30,000, you will only pay sales tax on $21,800 of the new truck purchase price. You might already realize that, but it can be easy to forget. It can also be a significant amount of money in a sales tax heavy state like WA. When I traded in my Tacoma on my F150, I figured out that I effectively was adding another $2,000 to the trade in value they were giving me due to that savings. I figured I might be able to milk a bit more out in a private sale but decided it wasn't worth the aggravation selling it private party.