Columbia Chrysler|5840 Minoru Blvd, Richmond

Why Trading in Your Car is the Best Option

Before you buy a new vehicle, you need to figure out what to do with your old one — unless of course, you’re a first-time buyer. Typically, people choose one of three ways to sell their old car;

  1. They sell it privately,
  2. They sell it for parts,
  3. Or they trade it in.

There are other ways, but these are the most common. This post will explain why a car trade in is the best option out of all three. (Hint: It’s faster, easier and saves you money.

The Dealer Does All the Work

Selling your car privately takes a lot of work. First, you need to get it ready for sale; that includes cleaning, detailing and fixing any major issues that would deter serious buyers.

Then you need to make an ad. Depending on where you decided to post, this can cost money. Once the ad’s been posted, you’ll need to sort through emails, texts and phone calls so you can decide who’s serious and who’s not.Then you need to arrange times to meet and show off the car. Depending on your situation, you might have to set up multiple meetings.

If someone is serious about buying the vehicle, they may ask for all the paperwork you have and receipts to prove any work you’ve had done on the vehicle. That means that unless you’re really organized, you’re going to have to do a bit of digging.

With a car trade-in, the dealer does it all for you.

You don’t have to deal with strangers. You don’t need to hunt down all the paperwork. You don’t need to make an ad or spend any time stressing. All you have to do is show up, agree to a trade-in price and the dealer takes care of the rest.

It Saves You Money on a New Car

When both you and the dealer agree to a price, it immediately comes off the cost of your new vehicle.

For instance, say you’re looking at a vehicle that’s $30,000 and the dealership offers you $7,000 for your trade-in. Now you only need a loan for $23,000. That means not only are you saving money on the original selling price, you’re saving money on the interest you’d be paying too.


There’s another financial benefit to trading in your vehicle, on top of reducing the cost of your new car and saving you money on interest. You’ll save on taxes, too. Instead of being taxed on $30,000, you’ll only be charged tax on the $23,000.
What Are the Benefits of a Car Lease?


You Skip the Clean Up Phase

If you plan on doing it yourself, cleaning your vehicle will take some time. You want to make sure the interiors clean and inviting, while the exterior looks appealing to potential buyers. It’s recommended you shampoo the seats, clean the windows, wash and wax the body, among a laundry list of other things.

If you decide to save yourself the time and get it professionally cleaned, it’ll cost some coin. Either way, you’re losing something. When you trade your vehicle in, dealerships have the ability to clean the vehicle themselves, in-house, so you don’t have to worry about making it pretty for the trade-in. You can save your time and money.

You Avoid Expensive Repairs

If your vehicle’s getting older and the kilometers are piling up, the time to trade it in is NOW. Not only will you avoid big, costly issues, you’ll get more money for your vehicle. Because eventually, vehicles begin to break down.

So if you can use your old vehicle to leverage yourself into a new one and avoid the headache that comes with expensive repairs? Well, you’d be crazy not too.

Thinking about trading in your vehicle? Get an estimate.