Vehicle trade in

Most people vastly over-estimate the value of their trade in. They are much more likely to gloss over flaws and over-value options. That's why you hear things like "they are highway miles".
Combine that with the fact that dealers must make money to pay their employees and overhead and you get a situation where their offer for a trade is usually less than people expect. They are in not charities.

I once brought in an 26 year old car that was at the end of its life, literally. It was leaking all of its coolant right on the dealer's lot. I had looked up the kbb value before I went there and in its condition (poor) it was worth $150. I was shocked when the dealer offered $350. They said they based the value off of the auction price and it would probably be headed to a scrap yard after auction. I guess scrap prices were high that year.

I'm not sure what they based their offer on with my last truck. The truck had a private party value of $10,000 or $8,000 on a trade, but they offered $5,000. That was right at the beginning of the recession so they were probably just trying to get as much as they could because of all the uncertainty. Everyone was unloading their trucks so I would've never found a private person to take it at 10k. I eventually got them up to $6,000. The truth is I was so done with the truck and would've given it to them for free to get rid of the money pit.

Fast Mopar wrote:

ACZL wrote:
Question for those in the know. When trading in a vehicle towards a new one, does the dealer go by auction price of vehicle being traded in or by NADA/KBB?

From what I have been told, the answer is auction price which is updated almost continuously.

The auction prices drive the values. Any dealer that does not sell your trade, will take it to auction to dump it. So they are going to use auction prices to make sure that they don't over value your trade in a worse case scenario.

bucky wrote:
All salespeople want your last buck right now. Dealers want your lifetime business. They are working at odds with each other and it all starts with the pay plans. Same way for techs. Fix the pay plans and you fix the industry. The CarMax model seems to work pretty well, at least at their used locations.

Have you been in "retail sales" of any kind, ever ?


All salespeople want your last buck right now. I don't believe that for a minute.


Dealers want your lifetime business. Nice in theory.


Makes me wonder ???? Who owns CarMax & True Car. :h

If you go into a dealer with a 12 year old used up clapped out old truck they will either "give" you about 3 times what it books at off retail on the new truck, OR they will tell you outright that they won't take it in on trade.

I've only ever bought two new vehicles and in both cases the dealer "gave" me way more on the trade in value than the vehicle was worth, but off RETAIL. They weren't fooling me, and I knew it penciled out to them giving me roughly book value on the trade off their best cash deal. I chose to suspend disbelief and let them think I thought they were giving me $5000 trade value on a $1800 truck.

With truck #3 pushing 12 years and 216,000 miles and booking at $1300 trade in value, I'm hoping to see the same treatment when I eventually start shopping.

There would be no dealer in my area that would have a 2003 truck on their lot, unless they were a small used car dealership. The regular new car dealers would take a trade-in like that directly to auction. Remember, no matter how many miles that truck has on it, the 2015 models are out so it is 12 years old.

Since the difference in values of what you are purchasing and what you are trying to trade is so great, I would sell your truck and then start working cash deals for your new vehicle.

One of the few advantages of trading, at least in my state, is that you only pay sales tax on the difference.

catfishmontana wrote:
I always go in with this attitude.......I don't care what they give me for a trade in, nor what the price of the new vehicle is; as long as the final numbers are where I want to be. So if you are not feeling good about your trade in quote, make them work the other end of the deal on the price of the new vehicle. I always know where I need to be at, tell them up front where I stand and that I don't care which way they twist their numbers to make it fit.

me to. I used the Kelly book for trade in value and also what to expect to pay for the new vehicle in my area. I you trade keep in mind that you do not have to pay sales tax on the value of the trade.

So I did the above on a new toyo highlander. Forgot to say that I only deal in out the door pricing (OTD). the first peep out of the salesman's mouth was in the ozone layer. Within 5 minutes after he dropped 2200 and was within 300 of my figure. We settled at that and he threw in factory floor mats and a cargo net. I am OK with that one.

All salespeople want your last buck right now. Dealers want your lifetime business. They are working at odds with each other and it all starts with the pay plans. Same way for techs. Fix the pay plans and you fix the industry. The CarMax model seems to work pretty well, at least at their used locations.

We went to buy a new SUV, trade-in a older car, but had it appraised first.

Salesman offered half -- we started leaving immediately. Salesman then ran out into the parking lot and doubled the offer ... said his trade-in guy made a mistake -- but we left anyway, because he tried to low-ball the trade, so we then don't trust him.

Drove tot he next dealer -- he also offer half value. We walked again, and he ran out into the parking lot, told us his trade-in guy made a mistake, and he doubled his offer. This was an instant replay - bizarre.

We went to a third dealer -- walked in and said: Before we do anything, we want a value on our trade first. We told him - ONE CHANCE - he came back nearly at our appraised value, so, we then negotiated a good price for the SUV and drove it home. In both other cases, the SUV we rejected due to the low-ball trade were HIGHER priced than the actuall price we paid with the real value of our trade ... when we compared the difference between our trade and the SUV we bought, we saved almost $5000 less total than on the first two that tried the 'low-ball trade. We drove the SUV home -- and are very happy with it and the price, and the trade.

Some dealers want your business for years and years, some want you last buck right now and don't care about anything else !

I go to a dealer that knows my vehicles,I tell him several units that interest me and have coffee then leave.What he does next is find a buyer for my trade,and he works with several different make dealers to see what they would pay or if they are interested.Also checks the auto auctions for dealers in the two closest provinces.He then gives me a yodel to come for coffee and we go over each vehicle I want to look at and resale projections in several years.Usually we are done in an hour and I never finance.I buy what I can pay for,haven't bought new for years to avoid high depreciation and taxes.Works for me.Not brand loyal either as they all make good vehicles,except I was a Cummins man after a new 1999 Ford diesel,traded it even up for a 1997 Dodge Cummins after 2 years.