I'm selling my car I bought in 2017 and wanted to get your thoughts on the best way to sell it, should I trade in?
Have you had any experiences trading in your car? If so where gives the best value?
Selling My Car, Should I Trade in?
LemonShapedRock on 06/01/2021 - 15:28
Last edited 06/01/2021 - 18:04 by 1 other user
Last edited 06/01/2021 - 18:04 by 1 other user
Comments
The convenience is very appealing.
Average asking price on CarSales for my car is $25,000 and whilst CarSales trade in offer is $20,500
It's now a question of "how much effort is $4,500 worth to me"
then sell it for 22,500 private and it will be gone in a day
A few weeks salary wage?
"how much effort is $4,500 worth to me"
Not only that - the price of the car you trade yours in for is unlikely to be as negotiable too (compared to if you went in and negotiated without trade-in). Hence when you go in with a trade-in, the important figure to talk about is the "changeover price" - not just the price you pay for the car you're purchasing and not just the price of the car you're trading in - it's the difference between the two. The aim is to get that figure to be as small as possible (assuming you're upgrading).
What’s the car? How much was it new?
trade in always less money afaik
You'll never get a decent trade from a dealer, as they have to make a margin upon re-selling your car, and they have to put a warranty (usually at least 90 days) on it also - meaning they have to carry some financial risk in the event something goes bad, so they have to lowball you to make it worth their while.
Best financial return will be to tolerate the tyre-kickers Fergy1987 noted above, and hold your nerve in any negotiation with a potential buyer.
Check out redbook.com.au to get an idea on what you might expect for your car - both private sale and dealer trade.
It's definitely worth at least trying to sell it privately first.
Can always have the trade in as a plan B
Get some trade in quotes from dealers.
List car at bottom end of average on carsales if at least $2k greater than trade in offers. A RWC for a maintained 2017 car should be no more than new tyres and or windscreen. You can get a RWC quote for about $150
It's a sellers market.
Stick firm to your price and mention that in your ad.
If you care to share what make/model? Is it a desirable car or some euro fart machine?
I have heard it said that car dealers make their money when buying - not selling.
You’ll get much less trading your car in versus selling it yourself, unless you can find someone who is really wanting to get rid of a vehicle, at which point they might increase the trade-in price/reduce cost of their car in order to just move it.
But as a general rule, when you look at used car dealers (not knocking them, I think it would be a pretty cut-throat, and thankless job) you have to consider that they’re making money from buying low, and selling high. So naturally trade in figures are going to be much lower than selling privately.
That’s about the size of it. Effectively it’s just money over convenience.
From memory, but obviously it’s like a piece of string, I was quoted around 3K less for a trade-in versus selling privately. In that instance I just sold it privately, but I had the time to dick around with people who were just sniffing around.
If the trade in offer was 20k, list it for 23-24k. Probably be gone in a day and more than likely get car yard dealers coming to buy it anyway.
Seller's market for sure, I sold 2 cars around the same value not long ago rather than trading in. One took 4 hours to sell, the other about 2.
$4k or $5k is not a small amount of money. Think about all the eneloops you can buy with that! I say sell privately.
if you can get RWC without nothing, then private sale
what's the experience with CarSales trade in offers like are there strings attached?
Yes, read the fine print. Their offer is based on a heap of rego, full service history, all books, keys etc, perfect condition.
I posted up a 2016 Suzuki Swift back in May for about $10k privately and had no luck whatsoever. Kept the car for a bit and then decided to have a go selling again in November. Put it up for $11k with a fresh rego and still got a bunch of tyre kickers wanting it for $8k. I tried the instant Carsales trade in thing and got an estimate of $12k. Went into the dealer listed and they checked it over for about half an hour and I had $12k in my account by the next day. Honestly was willing to take $8k by that point from all that frustration so must say I was pretty happy with the result.
just curious with dealers checking your car - how thorough are they + their knowledge of mechanicals etc?
worth a shot going into multiple dealers for comparison? thanks
From my experience of trading a car in I never got what I wanted but that was pre covid good luck.
All depends on whether or not you want to go through the hassle of selling it yourself (and how much hassle you actually end up getting).
In broad terms, you'll get 20-25% higher price on a private sale than a trade in.
Get a sale in a week or so? You beauty!
Have any number of weirdos calling, texting, turning up (or not) to your house for weeks and weeks on end? Not to mention those who may be trying to perpetrate a scam? Maybe take the trade in money and run.
Depends whether you care more about getting less money, or dealing with less idiots.
If you have the time to do it, selling privately is better $-wise. But, you need to either sell it before or after you get a new vehicle, it will rarely happen at the same time. To do that you ether need to live without the car after you sell it, or have enough cash in the bank to buy first and sell later.
FWIW I traded our last two ‘family’ cars. One because it had some minor panel damage I didn’t want to bother repairing, the second because it was a Captiva and I figured it wouldn’t sell due to reliability issues. Both of these were worth above the amount we had in spare cash to allow us to buy first and sell later as well. The lower value ‘second cars’ I’ve bought the new(er) car first then sold privately, but one was worth $1k, the second $3k - easily covered for a few weeks using the rainy day savings.
quick question - if you had cash/insurance claim to fix your panel damage, would you have done so and try to sell at a slightly higher advertised price?
or don't even bother with the trouble of repairing and bring your price down accordingly? thanks
At the time we were time poor with one car so having the car off the road wasn’t practical. Trade in was most appropriate
The damage was below an insurance job value. For private sale I would have wanted to repair to make the car easier to sell and at a better price.
I’ll buy it for trade in price 😂😂
Ozbargain style.Dealers also use carsales as a guide to their "price offer" , last time i went into the dealership i asked them how much they would offer for my trade-in.
Bloke called me around to his computer and he found my Ad i had up on Carsales prior to asking him what he would buy my car for and he said i had it at a decent pricepoint but needed to do some more "research" so he could give me an offer , he later offered me 10k less then what i had it up for , sold it privately as you can imagine.
Dealers are scum but at the end of the day they need to make money too.
I have used Carsales alot and even going with going that extra-mile (great photo's , shiny car , full service history , rego , no real outstanding mechanical issues) , i still get (profanity) all the time like clockwork "what is the lowest you will go?" even after i have said "price is firm". people don't care , if you thing dealers are bad , people in general are worse.
having sold ( or try to put an ad in carsales) i don't even know why anyone would make an offer an a car they haven't seen or driven.
I mean if you they're accept their lowball offer and they turn up and not like it. Are they going to withdraw the offer?
If you cant be bothered with all the tyre kickers coming to your house to look at your car in a private sale…..I'd just trade it in. You'll probably get a pretty crappy price compared to private, but convenience is king.