Car Buying Tips (6) Buy A Car: Should You Trade In Your Old Car?

Trading in your old car often knocks quite a bit off the purchase price of your new car, and can be a convenient way to get rid of your old car at the same time, without having to go the hassle of finding someone to buy it.

Trading in a car, however, tends to give the most advantage to the dealership, as they will pay you the wholesale price or less for your used car and will sell the used car for retail price or more. Their profit margin is often higher on the traded in car than on the new cars they sell.

A trade-in can still be to your advantage, as many states calculate the sales tax on the new car as the price of the new car minus the trade-in value, so you would be paying less tax.

Not all states do this, so you should check – any dealership in your state will know what your state’s tax policy on trade-ins is. Another option you may wish to look into if you don’t want to privately sell your car is to sell your car back to its own dealership.

If your car is a Volkswagen, and you’re buying a Toyota, sell your car back to the Volkswagen dealership. You may be able to get more for it than you could from the Toyota dealership, because a Volkswagen is worth more to a Volkswagen dealership than it is to a Toyota dealership.

To find out the value of your car, you can ask your insurance agency. They have access to the Kelly Blue Book, which you may also be able to get a hold of, which tells the values of each car based on its model and year.

You can also look online to find cars of similar makes and compare prices and mileage. Make sure you know all of this information before you go to trade-in or sell your used car. A small but important detail when looking to trade-in or sell your used car is cleanliness.

Before you take the car in, spend a bit of time removing all of your personal belongings, vacuuming the car, and airing it out. As a bonus, you may find some coins in the cushions. A professional detail job may also increase the perceived value of your car.

A clean car can sell for a couple of hundred dollars more than a messy car, and dealers are people too. They too are affected by the appearance of a car, even if they will detail the car again before they put it out onto their lot.

Trade-ins can make your new car buying experience easier. You won’t have to worry about what to do with your old car, and it definitely feels better to have a lower price on your new car.

But don’t forget that you paid money for your old car, too, and you deserve some of the value. Also, don’t let a trade-in damage your negotiating power – try to keep the negotiating about the trade-in separate from your negotiations about the purchase price of the new car.

Buy A Car: Make A Visual Inspection

When shopping for a used car, it is important to be able to recognize the signs of a potential lemon. A visual inspection can be enough to steer you away from a bad deal.

It should not replace a proper inspection by a qualified mechanic, but the visual inspection can tell you if you should continue to that point. The first thing to consider is whether the odometer is reasonable.

The average car is driven about 15,000 miles each year. Now the world may be filled with little old ladies who only used their car to drive to church on Sundays, but there are also those who will roll back the odometer to try to get a higher price.

If the mileage seems low, check to see if the dashboard shows any sign of tampering, like scratches or missing or mismatched screws. Check the wear of the driver’s seat and floor mat as well as the steering wheel and pedals.

Does the amount of wear seem to match the reported mileage? Try to find an oil change sticker and see if the information on it matches the odometer. Every vehicle has a unique VIN, or vehicle identification number. You can use this number to obtain a vehicle history report.

This report will be able to tell you the vehicle’s complete history, including its place of assembly, accident, repair, and odometer history, whether the vehicle has been leased or used as a rental car or taxi and whether there is a lien paced against it.

Before purchasing the report, however, it is a good idea to check to see if you have the correct VIN. The VIN can be found in three places, on the vehicle registration card, on the bottom of the windshield on the driver’s side and on the manufacturer’s label, which is usually found on the driver’s side door or door jam.

Check that the VIN is in all three places and is the same. Also, check to see if any of the labels show signs of tampering. A missing or altered VIN is a sign that the vehicle may be stolen. Next you should look for signs that the vehicle has had bodywork done.

These signs include paint splatter or over spray in the seams between panels, areas where the paint doesn’t match or feels rough to the touch, and bumps, dents, or ripples in the paint. Recent bodywork is evidence that the car has been in an accident.

Other things you should look for in a visual inspection include signs of rust, leaking fluids and excessive tire wear (tires may be expensive to replace, especially immediately after purchasing a vehicle).

Also check the condition of the interior. Make sure that the lights and signals have not burned out, and that all the switches and fittings work as they are supposed to. Your goal in doing a visual inspection should be to find that the vehicle appears to have been properly maintained. If everything looks good at this point, you can ask to take the vehicle to a mechanic for a proper inspection.

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