Trading In vs Selling Your Used Car
Many times, when you need a new car, it’s because you no longer want your old one. The easiest thing to do is to trade in your car and let use here at Glendale Nissan sort things out as you drive off in a fresh model. Then again, savvy motorists are likely aware that they can sometimes ask for top dollar if they try to sell their vehicles privately. In the great debate between trading in and selling your used car, you might find yourself struggling to decide.
Here at Glendale Nissan, you can trade in your vehicle regardless of the brand you are letting go of. We’ll provide an assessment of your model’s worth and make an offer. You’ll find that we look to Edmund’s and Black Book to determine your vehicle’s worth, and we provide you with the tools to check into it yourself before you even visit us. We also make it easy for you to schedule time with our staff so we can perform an appraisal in person and offer the most accurate pricing.
| Trade-in | vs | Private Sales |
| Drop by a dealership and wait for appraisal | Ease | Requires ads, phone or email communication, allowing test drives |
| Trade-in value can be applied as down payment | Value | Potential to receive more money |
| Tax advantage by lowering price of new car | Surprise Benefits | Private shoppers may not be expert hagglers |
| No risks, as trade-in values are transparent | Risk | Must allow strangers to test drive, avoid scammers, vehicle could take a long time to sell |
Are you better off selling your vehicle or trading it in?
When it comes to getting the best price for your vehicle, you may find the quotes you see online are quite a bit higher than what you can get from dealerships. Aside from better financial potential, there aren’t many benefits to privately selling your vehicle. If you are still currently making payments, you’ll find that that might be overlap between when you bring home a new car, and when you can find a buyer for your old model. This means you’d have two payments to make each month in the meantime.
Selling your vehicle can be a hassle not only because you may not find immediate interest, but there are plenty of people who scour online ads and try to scam potential sellers. Never accept checks, count cash before you hand over the keys, and make sure you mark bills with a counterfeit detector pen. In the meantime, you might have a few interested parties looking to add wear and tear through test drives, only to back out of a purchase. The whole process can be time consuming and stressful.
It's true that we can’t give you the benefit of private seller prices here at Glendale Nissan, but you will find that we follow standard protocol in offering dealership trade-in values. When you trade in your car, you can also apply that value to your new purchase, which lowers the overall cost of your new vehicle and thereby lowers your overall sales tax. In some cases, this savings alone can make up for the extra money you’d receive through a private sale. Not to mention, it takes much less time and will be the cause of fewer headaches.
