The Dealers Advertisment in the newspaper said, push, pull, tow - your car is worth $5000, but when you get there they won't even give you a $1000! Kelley Blue Book says it's retail is $3500, NADA says $2750, and every Internet website has a different opinion.What's a person to do?
Let's start by looking at each of these instances and what they really mean. We'll start with NADA Guides value.
In this case, NADA says your car has a "High Retail" worth $2750. If you are looking at High Retail value on NADA Guides, you are looking at your car as an Owner, not a potential Buyer.
Most people will use the "clean retail" value on NADA Guides to obtain a vehicle value. A High Retail value might be a car that has been stored inside a garage for the last 10 years, or has literally just rolled off the dealership lot.
Remember if you are selling your car, you are probably looking to buy a new one. If you were someone potentially looking to buy your car, would you really pay high retail?
Both Kelley Blue Book and NADA Guides are similar, but generally their are some differences.
Here's one: Typically NADA Guides shows LOWER values for vehicles. This isin't always the case, but generally speaking NADA Guide will lowball on price.
Kelley Blue Book is often much higher to NADA in comparision. The question is then, how do these websites and others get their appraisal information? Both of these guides use market data on sales as some of their primary ways to collect information on the market.
***So BE AWARE of a dealer that shows you NADA Guide values for your trade-in, then points to KBB value (or vice versa) on the car they are trying to sell you! ***
One important thing to remember:
Until the day arrives where you can goto KBB, NADA, or EDMUNDS and hit the "Print Check Key", an opinion is all you will ever get. KBB and NADA will give you a ballpark figure, use it as that and remember that "Retail" Prices given are likely starting points for what a Car Dealership will sell their car prior to negotiation.
Speaking of which, let's now get onto that Dealership:
They offered $5000 - push pull tow in the newspaper. They lied, or maybe they just used some really good fine print. Either way, you probably knew better going in but there was that "well maybe this time..." lingering in the back of your head.
Let me tell you how this "XXXX for your trade no matter what" deal works.
First the fine print will likely say something along the lines of "Offer not valid with vehicle discounts, all rebates assigned to dealer, trade must be evaluated prior to negotiation"
What the advertisment in effect does is allow the dealer to charge you full price for their car so they can give you more for your car. Any Discount you would have received previously on the new car is now shifted towards your trade-in to show you a higher value. Here's a numbers example:
Normal Deal:
New Car Price: $20,000 Discount: $1,500 Rebates: $2,500 Trade Value: $1,000 Final Price: $15,000
Newspaper Advertised Deal:
New Car Price: $20,000 Discount: $0 Rebates: - Assigned to Dealer - Trade Value: $5,000 Final Price: $15,000
Remember, the money has to come from somewhere. Most dealers will not stretch more then $500 over the Black Book Value of a trade-in.
(Black Book is the car dealers version of KBB or NADA, it is based on Raw Auction Data so is viewed by dealers as more accurate)
So what should you do? There are a few steps you can take ahead of time to increase what your trade is worth. 4 Quick & Easy Steps to Get MORE for your Trade-in, follow some of the advice there, and find a good online new car dealer that is honest like this one and they should give you more money for your trade.
Remember in the end there is no magic bullet. Use your head, get multiple opinions if you have time consider selling the car yourself but be prepared to answer the phone and some hard questions from a potential buyer.
