The old “there’s two kinds of people” thing is something I’ve never been nuts about. Still, I do think it’s appropriate when it comes to buying a new car and whether to sell the current car oneself or trade it in at the dealership (and we’re talking “normal” daily drivers here, not collector cars or creampuffs). Surprisingly, I used to be staunchly in one camp but have now crossed over to the other.
Years ago, trading a car in was absolutely never an option I’d choose. I knew I’d be getting ripped off by the dealer, and even if I made just an extra hundred bucks selling a car myself by putting an ad in a local paper (yes, I’m that old), it was worth the hassle. That way, I didn’t feel like I was leaving money on the table. Back in the day, it wasn’t a huge hassle. I’d get a few calls, a couple of people would take a look at that car, and one would pay close to what I wanted for it. Hell, I would have been embarrassed to even tell other car guys that I traded my old vehicle; that was for people with more money than sense in my book.
Today, that isn’t the case for me. I buy cars used and keep them forever – at least ten years, and only sell them when they have some kind of issue that I don’t feel like resolving. The value when I’m done with them is so low, and the amount I’m paying for the replacement car seems so astronomically high that any difference between trading in and selling myself won’t be much. Besides, I have Mercedes Streeter to pay trade-in value for my old ride and not complain when the cooling system blows up (it did).
Most other buyers would yell and scream that I sold them a rust bucket when they start to dig into the rockers (I had no idea it was that rotten), but Mercedes has never tried to get me blocked from Craigslist or sent threatening texts. You’d be surprised how many purchasers of a $1,500 example of what once was a $52,000 new car expect perfection, or else.
Worse than lousy buyers is the fact that the internet has turned the selling environment into a cesspool. Maybe our own Stephen Gossin or Ms. Streeter can deal with dozens of IS IT AVAILABLE replies, but the worst part is potential buyers who know from the web what I’ll get for my car in trade and think offering that amount or less IN CASH will make me want to hand them the title. Tell me why I’d do that and not just call Carvana.
I’ve also wasted Lord knows how many evenings waiting for no-shows or people who drive the car at wide open throttle and “will come back, but please hold it.” I don’t have the time, and the few hundred bucks (at best) I might make from a private sale isn’t worth it. The bigger issue is when trying to privately sell cars worth Actual Money. Most people do not have $15,000 or $20,000 in cash sitting around, so trying to privately sell some late-model car can be an even bigger exercise in frustration as prospects try to secure credit union loans or similar crap.
I must admit to feeling like a chump when I first traded in a car a few decades ago. Actually, it was sold to Carmax, a way to get rid of a car that didn’t even exist decades ago.
Still, what a liberating feeling; hand over the keys, walk away, and nobody is going to call or text me with YOU SOLD ME A LEMON I WANT A REFUND or subject me to the worse nightmares that Mercedes Streeter has had (hint: do not leave your plates on the car). I’ve never looked back; I’m simply paying for a service to avoid a task I don’t want to do myself, like painting my house. I still die inside a bit every time, though, and know that 22-year-old me would think I’m a loser. Still, 22-year-old me would think I’m a loser regardless; I probably do have more money than sense than I did then.
How about you? Are you still braving the interwebs of half-price lowballers and people asking IS 300ZX A FOUR DOOR, or will you battle it out in the sales cubicle for your next whip? Let me know and I WILL GIVE U $1000 CASH FOR UR CAR.
Top graphic images: Facebook; DepositPhotos.com
As I tend to buy a vehicle and then drive it for 12 or so years and by time I am looking for something new its because the current one I am driving has some issue that is very expensive to sort out, (transfer case on it’s way out), or just has become fairly unreliable.
So the $1000-2000 the dealer is going to give me for my 170,000 mile starting to rust out mechanically iffy vehicle is not going to be much less than what I am going to get trying to sell it, and dealing with all the bozos that one has to deal with when trying to sell anything nowadays.
Trade trade trade. I’m financially comfortable enough to consider it a tax on not being frustrated. Almost like paying to keep my blood pressure at a reasonable place, instead of the cortisol spikes you get dealing with gen pop.
Bikes add an extra element of scary, because you can’t be on the bike with them, and you basically have to hope they know how to ride and that they won’t drop it like an idiot.
Always trade in, when I’m ready to start looking for a new pick up its approaching 200,000 miles, I wouldn’t want anyone I know to have to deal with it or anyone that knows my info other than a dealer to be saddled with it
It all depends for me, the only time I traded in at the dealership was because the car had a loan (like 2 years left of payments) and the car started to get small issues that were going to cost me some coin to keep it longer but then it wasnt going to accomplish our needs, we needed a minivan instead of a SUV at that point because of 3 kids and road trips planned ahead.
Everything else for cheap on marketplace, I would meet the buyer at the local police station with the title on hand, usually its gone the first day. When they try to lower the price even more, I just delete the conversation. Next in line lol
I ask around the family if anyone is looking for a car and may want it. Other than that I’m trading it in.
I have sold cars with online listings and the last one will be my last one. People offering trades (I do no want a Bravada on 20s), lowballers, no-shows, test pilots and general jerks with no way to complete the transaction.
My favorite, and the one who made it clear that I’d be better off just posting a photocopied ad on a trailer park bulletin board, was a guy 90 minutes away. I drove to him, he was drunk when I got there. After a short ride he told me he was from out of state in town doing renovation work on a school. Told me about his car at home and that it was recently repossessed. Then wanted me to finance him.
This man was so goddamned broken that he thought I would be open to that arrangement. GTFO of my car, sir, we are done here.
Man, I kind of feel for that dude. Sounds like he got dealt a crappy hand and/or he has no life skills, possibly both.
I live in town on a state highway. 8,000 vehicles per day go by my home. Nowadays, if I need to sell a vehicle, I just put it out in front of the house with a For Sake sign on it and my land-line phone number.
Usually, I’ll either have someone knock on my front door or call our home phone to tell me they’re outside, I’ll go out to talk with them, and after a test-drive, they’ll usually come back later that day or the next day with the cash.
Why would they bring cash if you have it listed for sake?
oops.
I have never traded in a car. The reason is quite simple: Of the ten cars I have been involved in purchasing, only two were from dealers. One would have taken the old car, but I was too frugal to not sell myself. On the second occasion I would have traded it in, but the guy flat-out refused.
For a lot of people, you have to trade in and not sell because of tax credits. If you have a $50,000 car you’re selling private party, you get $50,000. If you are trading in, however, you get whatever you get AND reduce your tax liability on the new car by the corresponding amount. So in luxury cars, it’s a big deal. If I trade in my GX 550 and they give me $75,000, I would not have to pay sales tax on $75,000 worth of car on the next purchase, just anything beyond that. If I lived somewhere with a 10% sales tax, then the person buying my car private party would have to give me over $82,500 for me to net out more benefit than trading it in and getting $75k in this example. It’s not a credit per se but a reduction in liability. The only state I know of that will let you carry a reduction with you from a private sale to a separate purchase is Missouri.
America’s #1 Economy™️ California doesn’t do trade-in tax credits, so if you buy your cars and trade in all the time you’re insane and should lease instead. This is yet another reason California is a big lease state: high sales tax and no trade-in tax credits. On a lease you only pay sales tax on the monthly lease payment instead of the whole car.
Similarly, if I trade in a leased car even in a state that has a tax credit, I don’t get any credit whatsoever toward the new car because you were only paying tax on the payment.
More on taxes…
Now add in how these wealthy a**h**es are also getting the heavy large vehicles like my GX 550, Escalades, Tahoes, Navigators and Expeditions and writing off depreciation using IRS section 179. NEW for 2026: bonus depreciation! So if I qualify, I would normally get only a $32,000 deduction on a $90,000 SUV, but now it’s the whole $90,000! This doesn’t mean a free SUV, but someone with a large tax liability can reduce their income tax by a big amount. So if your tax rate was 35% you’d pay $31,500 less the year you bought a $90,000 SUV.
There is no such setup in MA. You pay sales tax on the value of the car when you register it – new, used, or private sale. You also pay annual excise tax based on the value of the car, even if it’s a lease.
NC is somewhat similar. There’s a ~2% highway use tax at time of sale, but I don’t know if the burden is reduced by trade-in.
Then they send you a bill for property tax that’s based on the value of the vehicle.
In any case, I’ve never/likely will never be trading in something worth $50k, so it’s kind of irrelevant to me. I remember the first time I was given this advice (trade in to save on sales tax) and did the math – it was a laughable difference.
It often doesn’t make sense to let the tax tail wag the purchase dog.
I know a lot of people who run over the NH border to shop for the tax savings, but major retailers just seem to increase the NH sales price (at least near the border) to compensate for the sales tax. I was just looking for something in stock at a Home Depot one day and noticed the slightly higher prices in the NH stores.
There is a local roofer who recently switched the plates on his trucks to Montana. I don’t know if that math works out for his operation, but I don’t think he can claim that income from a roof installation in MA is somehow generated out of state. He’s probably small enough to fly under the radar, but he would probably be better off spending the money for the out of state setup on a better local accountant.
That last bit about depreciation is NUTS. The congressperson who wrote that bill clearly likes big SUVs and/or owns and/or gets kickbacks from car dealerships.
What is this “sell a car” nonsense? Legitimate question. I don’t know.
Also, what if I had a fifth car? WTT: 1971 VW 411 feet pics* for a rallycrossable 944.
(*Tires. Not my feet. Not for butt.)
I give all my cars to family. I haven’t traded-in a car since the mid 90s and I refuse to sell anything to strangers (too many potential headaches).
We generally buy new, keep cars for 10-15 years, and then trade in. I’ll shop around and get a few offers then use the highest to haggle when I’ve settled on which car to get. We’re in a medium sized city with lots of small towns nearby (including in two other states), so we have pretty easy access to several dealers of most brands so it’s easy to get offers and easy to walk away from a crap deal.
Really depends on the trade in offer for me. When I traded in my 500 Abarth it was close enough, so I took it, but I got a really low offer on my RF Miata so I went private party and got a couple thousand more. I’m terrified to think what it will look like when I’m ready to part with my M2, I would really rather not have to manage a transaction for that much money. I like the idea below about watching them get the check from their bank teller. Chances are they will be doing a loan anyway so the bank will want the title.
Our family has been more of a trade-in type, usually because the trade-is is bound for the junk yard after spending its life in the rust belt. Both my dad and I purchased at the same year, which was conveniently timed to get rid of two clapped out commuters that had no business being on the road anymore. But that was a while ago and now that I have nicer rides, I am more conscious about rust prevention and regular winter washing.
The Astra, also a commuter that spent its life in the rust belt, went to OppoX and still begrudgingly lives despite losing a wheel twice and all of its exhaust after the flex pipe.
Also sold a car to Copart for as much as I paid for it because I wanted to cut my losses before it became a money pit…and I got tired of pushing it home. It was a hassle free process and luckily started up for the tow truck lol.
I traded one car and privately sold one. The one I traded was a fine-running deathtrap with a rotten unibody. I got more than scrap value with the structural issues disclosed. I hope that 3800 found a new home. The one I sold myself was stick shift with moon mileage on the original clutch. Trading would have netted scrap value. I came out well ahead on that one. So it depends for me.
We typically hold onto a vehicle until it wouldn’t get us much of anything in a dealer trade-in (as in over a decade old and to the moon mileage). Mostly sold for dirt cheap (with full disclosure of any issues) to a friend or a friend of a friend or donated or junked. But who knows, it may work to trade-in when we go from the current Sienna to a new minivan. But that’s not likely for several years, it’s only 15 years old and only 140K miles!. So I doubt a dealer would give us much of anything for it at that time, probably sell for cheap to a private party.
Last two Civics I let go of, one went to some grad students for $100 because they were a friend of a friend who had a Subaru that was dying. The other one was a hard starter (though it would eventually start) and a hard sell being a CNG car, so that went to Pick-n-Pull.
These “new” and “old” cars of which you speak. If I want to trade in a 2010 Prius for a a 1974 Jenson, which one is the new one?
I am most likely trading in. For all the above reasons.
Plus the trade-in, at least in VT will offset the taxable value. Thus, a $10K trade in is worth an extra $600 in tax savings. You lose that when you sell yourself.
I held on to my first car when I bought my second, because it was being repaired after an accident (not my fault). I kept for over a year. Tried selling it without pictures, no takers.
But it was a 1983 Starion, with the properly-aligned air dam (Cannonball Run II-style), and it looks great in pics. Got decent money for it. Next car was a trade-in. Last one as noted below, is junk.
I’ve traded 1 car to a dealer. That was a 2 year old truck when I couldn’t afford the gas bill from my wife driving a 15 mpg vehicle 100 miles per day. We traded it on a 2003 Jetta Wagon TDI with the 5 speed. At the time I simply did not have the credit to get a loan on the TDI while still carrying the loan on the truck.
The rest have been private sales and most have gone well. I don’t do meet ups, if you are going to buy my car you are going to come to me. The last vehicle I sold was a 2004 Astro Van I had converted to a camper. Sold it for $6,000 and we did the transaction at my work. That was about 10 months ago.
I also sold a car to Carvana but only because it was a lemon and they offered thousands more than I paid. I would have felt bad selling it to a private individual.
If the new vehicle is replacing an older one and I’m transferring the tag, that’s almost always gonna be a trade-in situation – especially if the old one is at the bottom of the depreciation curve. OTOH if there’s no clock ticking on the old one I may C-List it if I’m confident it runs and shows well. Or not.
I know for me – and probably most people – in my younger days I had a higher tolerance for aggravation in the pursuit of coming out with a few extra bucks. Not so much any more…
I will never again try to sell anything on Craigslist. I have even tried to give away free stuff and had it be a hassle.
To be fair I’ve sold a ton of stuff on CL and never had a problem – but then again I’m really good at saying no when someone tries to lowball me. Now FB marketplace – never was able to sell anything there, too many professional time-wasters
I was trying to give away a couch – 3 years old, no damage, no stains.
I just wanted to change the living room a bit. Was getting new furniture delivered on Saturday. Twenty minutes from a college and less than sixty minutes from two dozen colleges, figured I’d offer it up for free if someone could get it the night before the delivery. (What, I’m supposed to go couch-less for a night?) Very comfortable. I’ve slept through some of the best Patriots games ever on that couch.
I was in a townhouse at the time. Couch was too big to make it down the stairs so I would have to carry it around the building to put it in the garage. Well, guess what a-hole was walking the couch around the building in the middle of the night after the no-show. Multiple contacts including text / phone. I can’t remember if I gave it to someone else after that or spite-chopped it and threw it in the dumpster.
Was giving away some shutters. I figured I’d offer because craft people seem to love them for stuff they try to sell at flea markets. Stood up three times. Sent them the pic of the shutters in the dumpster.
Had an aquarium setup. Way oversized filter because I was traveling a lot and didn’t always have the time to maintain it weekly. Nice wooden stand and tank plus a ton of other related stuff. (I had given the fish to my brother-in-law.) I probably had well over $2000 into it and I’m not an idiot I know that hobby money is gone the second you spend it. Just saying for the relative bargain offered when I listed the stuff for $50. Filter setup alone was listing for $100 used on CL. Guy showed up and noticed a scratch on the wooden stand and said it would cost him $30 to fix it. I sent him away. Quickly and definitely without my customary politeness.
I literally have a 0% success rate on craigslist, and this was well before FB marketplace when CL really was the local classified ads.
If a friend or relative needs a car I will sell/give them the car. For a while we bought our cars from a place where our neighbor was the GM, and he gave us the auction value. In one case I sold a VW Jetta that was overmiles on its lease to a local VW dealer – not the one where we got it from – called around to a few places – this was the only car I have ever leased that had more value than the residual – must have gotten a shitty lease. I am currently sitting on my trade in that is an incentive for a relative’s kid to get her license – gosh I wish she figures it out, I just got this year’s insurance bill…
I wish my old car could get sold. Some junk yard is picking up for $100, because it does not run and will cost several grand to fix. The tires are worth more than that. The wheels are worth more than that. The transmission is worth more than that. The suspension is worth more than that. (The latter two replaced in the last 5 years.)
“In Philadelphia, it’s worth fifty bucks.”
Stolen??
My parents have been wanting to help them private-sale their ’06 Camry, but I have exactly 0 desire to deal with Craiglist or FB Marketplace BS, which, given the fact that they are asking me to do it, means that they know what it’s like
For me it 100 percent comes down to what I can get for the car. We got seriously lowballed on a 2002 Sentra when my wife traded it in against her current van back in 2013. She got $200- not worth doing when I could have sold it for $2000, but it wasn’t my call.
I sold her snow tires on rims for $250.
They’ll likely lowball on her trade when we get our next van next month, but we shall see. IIRC, the KBB is around $5k Canadian. If they try to, we can talk to other dealers or I can sell it myself.
I took FULL advantage of a manufacturer conquest trade-in credit on my last purchase. I couldn’t have sold my heap of a van without doing major work on the engine and cooling, plus cleaning it and dealing with people, but I technically drove it onto the dealer lot so it qualified for the manufacturer credit, which was also more than I would have gotten by selling as-is to a private party.