Offered 7k trade-in, car sold for 12.5k

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I had a Subaru Impreza trade-in for my car purchase earlier this month. The local dealer offered 7k trade-in and used every excuse in the book for the low ball offer.
I was offered 9k trade-in at a dealership a few hours away. The 9k was at the very top of KBB trade in value while 7k was below minimum.

The car was listed for sale at 12.5 on the dealer website and was gone in one week which l presume indicates it was sold. I'm glad that l rejected the 7k offer and moved on as l also received a lower price on the car elsewhere.

My first trade in experience in buying a new car was eye opening and a learning experience.
 
And a good dealer should explain that in reality there is no such thing as a "trade-in", they may (or may not) make you a wholesale offer to purchase your vehicle. However you will likely do better selling the vehicle on your own to a private party, but if they make you an offer and you accept that offer the price of the sale will be deducted from the purchase price of the new vehicle. This is what the Toyota dealership did when we bought our Toyotas and it was a good learning experience.

All of which is also to say that one dealership may offer you more or less than another. All of this should happen in a discussion that is separate from the discussion over the price of the new vehicle as they are different transactions.
 
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I had a Subaru Impreza trade-in for my car purchase earlier this month. The local dealer offered 7k trade-in and used every excuse in the book for the low ball offer.
I was offered 9k trade-in at a dealership a few hours away. The 9k was at the very top of KBB trade in value while 7k was below minimum.

The car was listed for sale at 12.5 on the dealer website and was gone in one week which l presume indicates it was sold. I'm glad that l rejected the 7k offer and moved on as l also received a lower price on the car elsewhere.

My first trade in experience in buying a new car was eye opening and a learning experience.
It was listed at 12.5K but what did it actually sell for? They gave or showed you 9K for it, had to recon the thing do any repairs and warranty it.
Decent used car sale for them but nothing earth shaking.

Edit: I am guessing the first dealer was probably protecting himself figuring this may be a HG job either now or shortly after it was sold.
 
It depends on where you are, here if anything happens that cost more than X% of the selling price within 30 day they can give it back to you and get their money back. This means they can take it beat the crap out of it, blow the engine and get a refund. There is also no such thing as sold as is or sold as shown here, you can sell it with defects that are in writing such as bad transmission, blown motor, no AC, etc.
There are some advantages to trading it in.
 
The margins for a dealer are a lot better in a used car than a new car.

People talk about “ depreciation” as a cost of owning a car, but this spread between selling wholesale, which is what we are doing on a trade-in and buying retail is really a separate expense.
 
That Tajh Mahal opulent showroom is not free.

Rod
Funny thing is the 7k dealer was ultra modern and had a huge showroom with marble floors, a coffee bar with free coffee etc. The dealership with the better offer was an old school building in need of serious renovation.
 
Try selling a car yourself on Craigslist or Facebook Marketplace and you'll jump at effectively losing 20-25% to not have to deal with selling it yourself again.
I once sold a used 15 year old Honda Accord on ebay. Never again. It was not an easy transaction. I explicitly listed all known defects and made it clear that it was "as is". Yet the buyer expected me to fix the rust spots on a $1200 15 year old car. They tried counteroffering the winning bid price.
 
Try selling a car yourself on Craigslist or Facebook Marketplace and you'll jump at effectively losing 20-25% to not have to deal with selling it yourself again.

Yeah. Not to mention in most places when you trade in you also get the taxes from that amount applied to a new purchase. So if your sales tax is 6%, on a 9k trade you would have to sell the car for $9540 privately... Plus deal with all the test pilots and no-shows.
 
And a good dealer should explain that in reality there is no such thing as a "trade-in", they may (or may not) make you a wholesale offer to purchase your vehicle. However you will likely do better selling the vehicle on your own to a private party, but if they make you an offer and you accept that offer the price of the sale will be deducted from the purchase price of the new vehicle. This is what the Toyota dealership did when we bought our Toyotas and it was a good learning experience.

All of which is also to say that one dealership may offer you more or less than another. All of this should happen in a discussion that is separate from the discussion over the price of the new vehicle as they are different transactions.
It all about the numbers. You do your homework-and you know what the difference should be on your new car once the trade is subtracted. The dealer knows you will trade it in. Very, very few leave with their trade. Making the new car/used cars separate transactions really has no benefit and just adds time to an already time intensive experience. With the Internet, one may or may not be able to cut some time off of the process. In my area there are not enough dealers where any dealer has to "try harder".
 
When I purchased my 2017 3500HD in 2019, I traded in a 2002 2500HD, gasser, crew cab, long bed, 2WD, W/T with only A/C and Cruise, it had 56,000 miles on it. They gave me 6800 for it. Which I though was good because with no options and 2WD I thought I would have to sit on it awhile. They sold it for 11,900 one week later. I was happy as I didn't have to deal with a bunch of questions and tire kickers.
 
We recently brought back a leased 2018 Lexus RX450h to Putnam Lexus in Redwood City, CA.
They matched the Carvana offer ($35,400) netting me $2,000 towards our purchase of a 2021 RX.
I was hoping for something and was very happy with their offer. They did not even ask for proof of Carvana's offer.

You want a good dealership to make fair profit. You just may deal with them again in the future.
 
It all about the numbers. You do your homework-and you know what the difference should be on your new car once the trade is subtracted. The dealer knows you will trade it in. Very, very few leave with their trade. Making the new car/used cars separate transactions really has no benefit and just adds time to an already time intensive experience. With the Internet, one may or may not be able to cut some time off of the process. In my area there are not enough dealers where any dealer has to "try harder".
Well I bought the Sienna and left that dealership with both my old cars per their recommendation, but after several months of nonsense trying to sell them I ended up bringing them both back when we bought the ECHO.
 
I once sold a used 15 year old Honda Accord on ebay. Never again. It was not an easy transaction. I explicitly listed all known defects and made it clear that it was "as is". Yet the buyer expected me to fix the rust spots on a $1200 15 year old car. They tried counteroffering the winning bid price.
I have a friend that sells cars on eBay for a living. He buys them at auction and sells them on eBay.
 
I have a friend that sells cars on eBay for a living. He buys them at auction and sells them on eBay.
Nice. He probably knows the ropes well and how to deal with curve balls the buyers and bidders send his way.
 
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