Quote:
Originally Posted by HuJass
Still don't know why people trade cars or try to sell to dealers.
They HAVE to buy below market value. That's how they make money.
Some people say they do it for the taxes.
The money you save on taxes is far below what you gave up in profit. In other words, you're giving up $2K to $5K to save $500.
Doesn't make sense.
I will NEVER trade a car in.
It's not hard to sell a car on your own.
I love when salespeople ask if there's a trade and they seem shocked when you say there isn't one. That's because you just took away one shell from their shell game.
I always tell them they can't give me fair market value and why would I want to give that money to someone else.
Trading is a scam.
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Everything you said is basically true. We have both traded vehicles and sold vehicles outright. Our basic plan is to drive vehicles until there is not much value left in them. At that point, the price difference between selling vehicles outright and the price given at the dealer are not different by much. An example was the last vehicle we parted with. It was a 2003 Tahoe with about 230K miles on it and it had about $2500 worth of body damage from a rear tire that came apart (that was the final straw pushing us to get rid of the vehicle). It also had its share of mechanical and electrical issues. We were given $2500 for the vehicle. We had not put any money into the vehicle in the 11 years we owned it (except tires, brakes, etc) outside of a water pump I put on and a transfer case rebuild. Selling a vehicle takes time out of other things you need to get done. To make $500 to $1000 more but have spent money to make things right and arranging to meet people to show the vehicle are often just not worth it to folks depending on their lives.
There are times trading in makes sense, and times it does not. It all depends on the person and their situation at that time.