When it comes to vehicle trade in value, certain sites provide a big help to buyers. These are practical ways which you can effortlessly access online and right there, consumers can visit at any time of the day. You can enter some of the basic information about your car and then receive an appraised trade in value of the car based on the estimated condition. This judgment is going to be higher than what you will find in other resources and with that, the internet is among the most user-friendly resources when it comes to trade in value issues on vehicles as it provides the user with a high trade in value for their car.

Should you have already considered vehicle trade in value for your car before at your local dealership, you experienced a moment when after the sales representative looked at your car and answered some basic questions and then they leave you for a short moment as they go back to their manager to establish the trade in value. This cautious process is where the dealership will research your car against unreliable data which they subscribe to obtain fair value for your car. The dealership uses a highly reliable source as it provides present pricing trends for your used car based on actual sales from recent auctions.

Vehicle trade in value is a very important aspect in buying a car without considering the resource used and instead highly considers the ultimate value which must be established between you and your local dealership in the same way that the final value should be placed after a physical check up of a car.

The basic reason that these areas are so important and are certainly worth mentioning to you again is that they all represent an opportunity for the dealership to realize additional profit on the transaction…

But, for the savy buyer such as your self, they also represent an opportunity for you to save yourself even more money when buying a car.

So, just as a quick reminder…

Remember when you are out buying a new car, there are basically three separate areas that you will need to research and subsequently negotiate. And they are:

• Selling price of the new car.
• Trade in value of your car.
• Interest rates and length of financing term.

The key word and very important aspect here is ‘separate’.

Always negotiate and work the deal on the car you are buying first.

Don’t allow any conversation about your trade in. As far as you are concerned there is no trade in involved. And as we have previously discussed, always negotiate the price on the new car from the invoice price up. Never, never, the MSRP (sticker) down.

Salespeople make their living off the MSRP selling price, so don’t expect this to be easy. But be stubborn on this point.

When it comes to your trade in, if you are not comfortable with this then leave your trade in at home and tell the salesperson there is no trade in involved in this deal.

You have a much better chance of getting your best car deal if you work the components of the deal separately. It may seem a lot easier and less time consuming to just lump the trade in negotiations in with the new car negotiations, but trust me, if you do, you will probably come away spending more than you wanted to.

Also, allowing the salesperson to mix all of the components together during the negotiating in effect has you playing on their home field.

Sales people are heavily trained on how to maximize the profit for the dealer using various sales tactics including a car sales lynch pin know as the four square close.

When you mix your trade in negotiating with the new car negotiating it is hard to keep track of all the number shuffling that you will be subjected to and easy to get confused. When you keep the various components of the car deal separate, you can focus on exactly what the pertinent numbers are.

Don’t get lazy! Laziness will cost you money.

Once you have agreed on the selling price of your new car, then and only then, do you introduce your trade in into the deal. And now here is the crucial point…

Go to My Car Value or Trade In Values or even pick yourself up a copy of the Kelley Blue Book Used Car Guide. If you don’t know the market value of your trade, how will you know whether you’re being offered a good price or not?

And a quick note while I’m on the subject of your trade-in.

Before you go out in your potential trade-in car shopping, take the time to clean and shine up your trade in. Remember, every dollar counts and you do want to get the best value for your trade.

If you take your trade in all dirty and nasty and then try to tell the dealer how great of car it is and what great care you have taken of it, you’ll not garner much credibility during the trade negotiations.

Be confident in your research, negotiate your trade in value separate of the other components of the car deal (don’t get lazy), and stay persistent.

Next Mistake Negotiating Car Prices

As a sales manager this was always an interesting conundrum.

In a off beat kind of way for the buyer; now the shoe is on the other foot for this moment in time.

When discussing the trade value of their car the owner would undoubtedly be wanting a near retail price for their car. Of course, that’s what you should want, but you really can’t expect the dealer to give you a retail price for the trade-in car.

Now keep in mind, when I say ‘give you’ I want to keep that in the context of ACV (actual cash value). Dealers can and do shuffle numbers on paper all over the place as part of the shell game, just get you to ‘feel good’ about what you are getting for your trade.

I will discuss things such as ACV, and more of the specifics of trading in your car in other articles but for now I just want to set your expectations and get you started in this area. Just know that the world of used cars, trade-ins, automobile auctions, and such is pretty nebulous subject matter that we’ll discuss a bit later.

For now, suffice it to say that you will probably not get as much for your old car in trade as you would if you’d sold it yourself. All the number shuffling aside, a dealer can’t pay you a retail price (or too close to it) and then try to turn that car around and sell it for what?

Retail plus a bit of profit?

Would you buy your car now at a price above the retail market? Of course not, so let’s be a bit fair here. Having said that, I can assure you, even with all the number shuffling taking place, after the dust settles, that dealer knows exactly IN CASH, what they put into your trade-in.

Trading your car in will offer you some advantages though. Certainly the cost of running an advertisement in the local papers won’t be incurred. And you won’t have to deal with tire kickers calling you up and coming by your residence only to insult you with what they offer… hey the dealer can do that! And as part of the car buying process you can unload what might be a difficult car to sell right there at the dealership.

The first step you should take is to look up your car’s trade-in value on Edmunds.com. Edmunds you can plug in all the necessary information about your old car such as year, make, model, mileage, etc and Edmunds True Market Value® (TMV®) Used Vehicle Appraiser will give you trade-in values.

Now keep in mind at this point this is just an estimate, but it does give you a good place to start. At the dealership there are other factors that come into play specific to the dealer like the state of the dealer’s used car inventory, do they already have many cars similar to yours, the time of year it is,… what kind of day the used car manager is having. Even what make and model of new car your looking at will affect the amount of trade-in allowance you may get.

Since the idea here is for you to get the maximum trade allowance (note that I said allowance and not ACV) for your car, you should visit other dealerships and shop your car around.

The time spent doing this may surprise you as to the numbers put on your car in trade value. Just remember that the legwork and time you spend doing this will very likely pay off for you and may ultimately be a better deal than actually selling your old car yourself.

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