Buying a new car can be a stressful time. However, in recent years, the process of buying a new car by part exchanging your old car has become increasingly popular. In fact, a study in 2016 found that there were over 15 million car trade-in deals made in the United States.
Trading in your vehicle has benefits, but how can you reap the most from this process? In this post, you will learn the five best ways to ensure you receive the most when trading in your car.
Assess Your Car’s Current Market Value
The first step if you want to trade-in your car is to understand its current market value. This will enable you to choose the best deal when the time comes as you will have realistic expectations of the vehicle’s worth. There are multiple tools online that can calculate the value of your car.
Market value calculations usually require the car’s registration and mileage. Some websites will also require the vehicle’s make and model, condition, and any additional features.
Maintain Your Car’s Condition
A well-maintained car will achieve a better trade-in value than a poorly kept vehicle. This can include cleaning the exterior and interior regularly, servicing annually, changing the oil, and other upkeep tasks.
Additionally, one of the most common car care tips people often forget is the tires. The tire pressure and tread should be checked often to ensure the car is safe to drive. Each car will have a different ideal tire pressure, but this can often be found in the handbook, which most people store in the glove compartment.
If you can keep a record of any maintenance completed on the car, such as receipts, they can be used when bargaining the trade-in value with dealerships.
Fix Cosmetic Issues
Despite being small, dents and scratches can impact the trade-in value on your car. This is often due to the work the dealership will have to put in to repair these damages before reselling the car to another customer. To ensure you can get the best deal possible, you could fix any cosmetic issues prior to trading in.
Before you do this, look at the trade-in quote you have received and research the cost of repairing any minor dents and scratches. If the cost of these repairs is not cost-effective in comparison to the trade-in valuation, then you can move ahead with the part exchange.
Negotiate
Negotiating the trade-in value of your car is vital. Although the dealership might offer you a price they say cannot be improved, there are ways you can get the best deal. Shopping around with multiple dealerships to compare quotes is one of the best methods to find the best deal. This can then be used to bargain with the dealerships that offer less; they might increase their offer to beat the competitor.
You will also have the market value of your car to hand, which can be used to understand what is a good deal. With this information, you can negotiate the trade-in value and the price of the new car separately. This will allow you to get the best deal for each part of the exchange, which be the most cost-effective for you.
With the four tips in this article, you will be sure to receive the best possible trade-in value for your car.
