trade in question
 

So I already have a price quote I am happy with.

But I am curious if I trade in my existing vehicle what they will give me.
Is this the right stage to ask? Can they still rip me off on a trade in when I already established a purchase price? Beside lowballing me that is.


Thanks

Take it to CarMax for a baseline quote. If they're below that, then they're royally screwing you.

Sell your old car private party and make a few extra bucks? That is, if you have enough for a down on the new car without the trade-in...

-Charlie

I already posted it for sale so I have an idea what I want for it.
It's got minor mods so I havn't had a lot of buyers for it yet but hope the dealer will take it.

Had been kind of stressful with people e-mailing me will you take $22k etc, what's the lowest you will go? etc. Hmm why not see the car first.

My dealer gave me a real nice deal on my trade in. I only could have received about $500 more selling it to a private party, which wasn't worth it for me.

I think you just have to ask the dealer for an opinion... and maybe go to a different scion dealer and ask them as well? My car didn't have that much residual value, so I was happy to get the trade in value I received.

Agreed. Especially since I've always felt CarMax lowballs pretty bad as-is.

This is a trend when advertising a car, people wanting to low ball your price before seeing so they can low ball some more. Many people text or email you for your lowest price. I wouldn't respond to texts and certainly wouldn't give your email as it attracts trolls and make that clear in your ad as well. Also advertise for " serious inquiries only", which shows you are serious about decent buyers. Lots of dirtbags out there.

I hate these dirt bags. I tell them look at the car first to see if it is worth it.
I put that I will be giving rides (no drive) only unless a preapproval or proof of funds is provided. But then I took it off.

seriously I am thinking I rather lose $2k trading in than having these dirt bag get a deal or crash my car during a test drive. It's also RWD. I was asking $25k and dealer can easily sell it for $30k, easy. So if dealer give me $24k then I would be happy.

^ This.

At least you'll have an idea of a figure before coming in the dealership. Goodluck! :thumbsup:

They can't really rip you off without you knowing, unless you are just oblivious to what is going on and are only looking at the final numbers (meaning the monthly payment amounts) rather than looking at everything before it.

If you don't daydream while talking to the dealership employees, if they have "four-squares" (basically a piece of paper divided into four main boxes), it will talk about your trade-in and how much they're giving you for it along with the sale price of the vehicle. If the sale price of the vehicle is different, then obviously they've been messing with you. If it's the same, then you can focus on the trade-in value next. If that's what you want it to be, then look at everything else and don't let them include extras that you don't want (i.e. "Your monthly will be $400, but we've included an alarm and extended warranty with that") since when they are included, it's not because they're being generous, although they try to make it seem that way.

Some dealerships have moved away from the "four-square," as a dealership that I worked at before was a document that was printed out and very clearly showed all of the numbers. It looks cleaner and has everything stated clearly (since it breaks down all numbers taken into account and even says what the taxes and other fees are), from what I remember.

I look at the purchase price only, and finance rate. I do not go by monthly numbers, only to check that against the financed rate! I never understand why people go by I wanna pay $xxx a month what can I get, worse way to deal if you don't know what you are getting.

Do you just stop by carmax at business hours?
The nearest one seem to be modesto CA!

Yes, you can go to CarMax during business hours to get a quote. My wife took her Nissan Pathfinder there prior to us buying a 4-Runner. Be prepared to wait, I think we were there for almost two hours, mostly because it is a first come, first serve basis, no appointments. The process was really painless, they take the car/truck to their maintenance bay, take some photos, and take a brief test drive. We got a written report stating the condition of the car broken down by several categories. There final part listed a KBB value with their quote. They give you a certain number of days or miles to come back and accept the offer. No pressure at all to make a decision there or buy a car from them. In the end, she ended up getting about $1,000 more for the Pathfinder from them than trading it at the rip off dealership.

Hi, I have read another way to get an idea of trade in value.

Go to autotrader and use the trade in car function, give your contact info, and then alot of dealers will send you some numbers, someone even said a dealer just bought the car from him ?

What do you think of this, at least to get an idea.