Quote:
Originally Posted by gajagfan
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.
|
Truth be told, in your example, that car probably wasn't worth more than $500 to the dealer. So, had you not traded in, there was probably $2000 in additional room he had to reduce his price on the car you bought.
Bottom line, you lose money on trades to avoid the hassle and time to sell, including the hassle of paperwork, title transfers, etc.