Trading in an old car???

[golfgal]

We are going car shopping today and we are for the first time, trading in an old car for a new one. I know not to tell them we are going to trade it in until we agree on the price. Once we do start talking about trading it in, do they take it to the service department and have it checked out? There is a brake issue, thus the reason for a new car. Do we tell them or is that the chance they take. I am not sure of the procedure. Any help?

 

[The Mystery Machine]

Of course you do not tell them or the deal will be off.

A trade in is lousy and basically you will be losing $$$. Unless you have a "hot" or newish car they are taking it off your hands at your loss. If you want money for it you have to sell it yourself, which you would have to do the repair in this first place. Vans are disposable and not worth anything. Sell those outright.

I am curious though....you said that the "fix" was more than the van was worth. Considering your circumstances I am at a loss as to why you wouldn't fix brakes?
If your van is worth less than a brake fix, it can't be a good trade in. In fact it may hurt you when you buy a new car. Keep that in mind.

 

[tar heel]

The last time we traded in a car, we did exactly like you are supposed to by not mentioning the trade until the deal had been made. We then mentioned the trade and they said we had to bring it in and let them check it out before they coud even consider a price. I then told them it had some transmission problems, and they said to just bring it on in. Since you were lucky if the van ran a mile and we were 30 miles away . . . we just donated it to charity. We almost for certain got more for it, too. Unfortunately, the tax laws have changed now and itsn't nearly as good financially to do that.

 

[Dan Murphy]

Give these sites a look........

www.kbb.com

www.edmunds.com

 

[Patty3]

We made out better selling our car to CarMax instead of trading it to the dealer where we were purchasing our new car. I am not sure if you have a CarMax in your area?

 

[hydster]

We just bought a new car 2 weeks ago and let me tell you it sucked! We did a trade in but we had a 2003 that we traded for a 2006 and we paid a lot more than the payment each month so we had a decent starting point. My advice when going to a dealership especially if you are going to trade in a vehicle is to go to the 3 blue book sites and PRINT OUT what your van is worth. We traded in our 2003 Chevy Tahoe LT which was in MINT condition. Only had 17000 miles on it and it was loaded. We did the kelly, nada and edmunds and printed them all out for trade in value. When we got around to talking trade they came up with about 3000 less value than what we had printed from the same website of kelly blue book. Thankfully we had proof or we would have had to walk and come back with the proof. They recanted and gave us the extra 3 grand but wouldn't have done so just with our word. Also I would do some serious online research on what the dealer pays for the car not what the msrp is. We went in armed with that research as well and told them that we knew what they paid for the car and there was no way we were going to pay them 8 grand above what they paid. We negotiated it down (after 4 hours) to 1500 over what they paid. I love my new car but I am sure glad we had amunition.

I would go to

www.kbb.com

www.edmunds.com

www.nadaguides.com

Print out the value of your trade from all 3 and keep it in your pocket or purse. It may prove to be worth it as it was for us!

Good luck!

 

[golfgal]

Thanks, our van isn't worth much. It is an 83 with 168,000 miles on it. We did check Edmunds and they gave us about $200 more then what the dealer trade in amount was and we were ok with that, we didn't want the hassle of trying to sell it on our own.