The thing is some states you can still get the tax credit if you sell privately. I remember doing it when I lived in NY.
Taking a bath on a dealer trade in.
- Thread starter Serpent
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As said the only reason it would make sense is for the tax savings. The rest of the time its because people are foolish with their money and prefer to lose out on thousands rather than invest a little effort and time to sell the car out right.
What's the old saying? Time is money, and perspective is everything. To the OP, that guy that lost $18K on trading the Viper, may be a surgeon or some other high paying job where the time spent showing a vehicle/dealing with tire kickers may have cost them that much.
Private sale of a car that expensive can be difficult. Not everyone knows how to obtain financing
A friend worked at carmax and saw it all the time. I think the worst he told me about, and this was several years ago was a guy in his 50s, who just picked up a loaded C6. He drove it all of 3K miles in like 6 months and determined he hated it. He walked in saying he just wanted a check for the car. I have zero knowledge of C6 prices new/used but lets say it was 45K fully loaded, trade in was 38K, they offered him 32K and he gladly took it. They sold it the next day for 37. I remember my friend saying dude lost close to 15K, and then made like 5K on the car.
BlueBomber
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I recently traded in a cammed C5 towards my 17 GT simply because the tire kickers, stupidity, and lowballers were driving me nuts. Towards the end of my patience (few months of reposting on CL & FB groups) I ended up taking about 2k from the dealer less than what I was asking for the car private party. Living in FL the taxed price was reduced by my trade's value as well. Ultimately it was just easier to give them the keys and make that money pit their problem and avoid dealing with further flakes and idiots. With the car being a total PITA I also don't have to worry about some dude getting pissed at it later on and wanting to make it my problem. Long story short, sometimes it's worth it. My net loss versus private party was about 1500 bucks.
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Like a few have mentioned, its all perspective and the situation of the particular individual. I have bought/sold/traded many vehicles over the years and have learned much in doing so. Living in NY, as mentioned the tax savings are real and have to be weighed in against the total for a private sale.
With the amount of hours I work and other obligations, most of the time, the time it would take to do my own sale would actually be a deficit for me. Time=$....Its all relevant.
There isn't any 1 way that is going to be the best way for every transaction....all variables have to be considered and explored.
With the amount of hours I work and other obligations, most of the time, the time it would take to do my own sale would actually be a deficit for me. Time=$....Its all relevant.
There isn't any 1 way that is going to be the best way for every transaction....all variables have to be considered and explored.
thats a reasonable number though, thats not taking a bath. I did the same on my Lightning. The dearler offer + trade in allowance was close to 17k, thats around 18k with tax benefit. I would have had to get basically top dollar private party value to make any money, I figure it was 1500 difference max and the whole process took maybe 20 minutes.
Trade in was not 38k if they sold for 37k.
Trade in would be between 32k/34k and retail from 37k to 40k. Based on the numbers you gave.
This. I trade cars in to the dealer knowing they are going to make some money when they sell it. I'm always buying another car, so I get the tax credit, I don't have to deal with scammers or tire kickers, and I use my trade to leverage a little off the new car. I have zero time to take off work for selling a car. And when I mean zero time, I mean less than zero, actually. One day off work to deal with asshole on Craigslist who flakes, far outweighs the cost difference to trade in. Not to be a dick about it, that's just how it is at this point in my life.
While you CAN make more $ during a private sale there are a lot of factors I take into consideration - time frame: if the car is paid off and I'm asking under $5k no biggy. But for higher priced vehicles it seems the lowballers, tirekickers, and sketchy people come out of the wood work. "Will you hold it for X amt of time while I get a bank loan - or my friend pays me back - or my taxes get here 2 months from now etc etc etc" - how long do you want to wait while the miles go up or you're still paying insurance, or the car note etc. Sometimes it's more of a PITA than it's worth so I definitely understand why people sell to stealerships or trade.
It's a convenience thing for most people, and sometimes you can get almost as much on trade as a private sale.
Some scenarios to consider in selling a car on craigslist, provided you avoid the obvious dangers such as nigerian scammers and having people come to your house. This is after you go through the effort of taking a bunch of pictures and making an ad, fielding phone calls, scheduling test drives, etc. so we are talking about the step where you actually have somebody who agrees to meet
- Person test drives car, causes mechanical damage and/or wrecks the car
- Person test drives it, kidnaps you and/or robs you (very real danger especially for females)
- Person pays with fake cashiers check, or counterfeit cash
- Person simple is just there to kick tires or doesn't even show up and wastes your time, the most common scenario of course
- Person buys the car, gets in wreck before title is transferred or anything is submitted to DMV. Or worse yet gets injured and then sues YOU
- Person buys the car, experiences mechanical failure later on down the road and tries to blame you for not telling them or accuses you of improperly maintain the vehicle
If you trade it in to a dealer you get:
- Guaranteed money or value for your vehicle
- The convenience of selling your old car and buying your new car in a single transaction in one place without having to go to the DMV to transfer ownership (at most dealers)
- Being completely absolved of any responsibility the minute you sign that contract
- Not having to do a smog check (in CA anyways, not sure about other states)
- Extra rebates in rare cases with some manufacturers
You CAN negotiate the trade-in value at a dealer. Usually there isn't a $10k difference in value between the MOST a dealer will pay and what you will get private party, unless it's an expensive vehicle. Expensive vehicles are much harder to sell on craigslist too, so there's that.
Yes, I sell cars for a living, so I take in trades all the time and I'm a little biased. But it's really just common sense. There are many times where I'll tell a customer not to trade their car and sell it on their own (old cars that I can only pay a couple hundred bucks for when it's worth $2000 or more on the street) and they will come right out and tell me I can have it for FREE because they don't want to deal with the hassle of selling it or even donating it
Some scenarios to consider in selling a car on craigslist, provided you avoid the obvious dangers such as nigerian scammers and having people come to your house. This is after you go through the effort of taking a bunch of pictures and making an ad, fielding phone calls, scheduling test drives, etc. so we are talking about the step where you actually have somebody who agrees to meet
- Person test drives car, causes mechanical damage and/or wrecks the car
- Person test drives it, kidnaps you and/or robs you (very real danger especially for females)
- Person pays with fake cashiers check, or counterfeit cash
- Person simple is just there to kick tires or doesn't even show up and wastes your time, the most common scenario of course
- Person buys the car, gets in wreck before title is transferred or anything is submitted to DMV. Or worse yet gets injured and then sues YOU
- Person buys the car, experiences mechanical failure later on down the road and tries to blame you for not telling them or accuses you of improperly maintain the vehicle
If you trade it in to a dealer you get:
- Guaranteed money or value for your vehicle
- The convenience of selling your old car and buying your new car in a single transaction in one place without having to go to the DMV to transfer ownership (at most dealers)
- Being completely absolved of any responsibility the minute you sign that contract
- Not having to do a smog check (in CA anyways, not sure about other states)
- Extra rebates in rare cases with some manufacturers
You CAN negotiate the trade-in value at a dealer. Usually there isn't a $10k difference in value between the MOST a dealer will pay and what you will get private party, unless it's an expensive vehicle. Expensive vehicles are much harder to sell on craigslist too, so there's that.
Yes, I sell cars for a living, so I take in trades all the time and I'm a little biased. But it's really just common sense. There are many times where I'll tell a customer not to trade their car and sell it on their own (old cars that I can only pay a couple hundred bucks for when it's worth $2000 or more on the street) and they will come right out and tell me I can have it for FREE because they don't want to deal with the hassle of selling it or even donating it
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