I want to share with you a few tactics I used over the years and some that I saw my fellow associates use as well in regards to devaluing someone's trade-in. I have already mentioned the used car trade-in in various entries so far but I want to go over a few situations you may be presented with in regards to your trade-in value.
Dealers usually do a damn fine job of emphazing why their car is the best one you will find like it and your trade-in, well just isn't worth quite what you thought it was. This is done for obvious reasons, profit. The less they can convince you your trade is worth, the more money they will make whether it is on the deal where they take it in on trade or whether it's the deal where they resell your trade. They want to own your vehicle for as much as possible, put as little money in it as possible, and sell it for as much as possible. That is the nature of the beast, and a hungry beast it is.
I am not proud of any of this by any means but here are some things to watch for. Frequently, before I would even approach a customer about their trade-in value. I would build myself a little arsenal of information to back my numbers up. I would sneak off to another office and use the computer to compare book values. I would use KBB.com or NADA.com, and sometimes even Edmunds appraisal tool. The object was to find one if not more that were in my favor or at least close enough for me to use. Generally actual trade-in values were probably closer to NADA or Edmunds figure. KBB is usually inflated so I liked using those for the car I was selling. I would then print of some relevant help from one of these valid sources and head over to my customer with a deal worksheet with some figures. After I would knock them out of their chair with what I thought their trade was worth, I would simply act surpised and pull out my printouts and go on about how I thought we were being more than fair. I would show my printouts and go on about how often the values were updated and how NADA was the preferred source of financial institutions so it has to be right. Even after all of this it still was not uncommon for me to get resistance. We would then get into the actual condition of their vehicle and perhaps how strong the market was on their vehicle. I would sometimes tell them their particular car was not selling well, even though it was a flat out lie. If their vehicle needed some things I would begin itemizing it and putting a dollar amount on them just to make things sound worse than they were. Terrible, I know. I would even ask a bunch of questions to get them to second guess their trade. Such as. If it had been rustproofed? Had it been smoked in? Were they the only owner? Did it have factory warranty left? Anything to convince them I might have a hard time reselling their car and I didn't want it that bad. The fact is none of these really have an impact on your trade-in value. With the exception maybe of the smoking if it's really nasty. These are just things to make you feel like your trade could be worth less. Miles, make, model, equipment, condition, and year about cover it.
Know the condition of your vehicle. Most used vehicles fall into the average category if everything works as it should and there is no signifiigant issues anywhere on the car. The excellent category is based closely on "mint" and most cars won't fit this criteria. Then there is usually fair and poor which is when you are getting into issues such as rust and features not working properly or not at all. With that said as long as you are reasonable with yourself about the actual condition of your car don't let someone tell you otherwise. They list the criteria that has to be met for each category for both you and your salesman to see. This means to also not let your salesman tell you his car is in excellent condition when it isn't.
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| They're all worth something |
Make sure your salesman is always comparing apple to apples. All to often I would choose the sources which favored the trade and the selling vehicle whether they were the same or not. I would just wait to see if they called me out on it and worry about it then. In which case I would usually just play dumb and go from there. What I mean is if your salesman is using KBB to justfy trade, be sure he uses KBB to justify his car too. Double check any equipment he may have "forgotten" to select when getting his online bid for your car too.
They will ding you for cars that are out of season too so expect that. My best advise for this is to trade it at the best time of year for that particular type of vehicle. Cleanliness shouldn't be a big factor either. I didn't ever play that card much though myself. Lot's of people worry they don't get as much if their car is filthy or not. The fact is that if an hourly kid washing cars out back has to spend an extra two hours to prepare your car for the lot, is peanuts to them. They know how well a car will clean up by looking at it so don't think this would ever impact a number by even hundreds of dollars.
Tires are a big deal though.We could quickly devalue a trade if it needed tires. They cost lots of money, even to a dealer. So if you need tires you can expect this. Most car dealers can put new tires on most cars for less than $300-$400 if they have a good source. Upwards of $500- $600 if its an SUV. Just don't let them tell you they need to spend $800-$1000 on tires to get your vehicle road ready because they will most likely try.
They may tell you they think something catostophic may be getting ready to happen to scare you out of it. Just remember, they're salesman, not mechanics. If they did get a mechanic to look at something on it, remember, that mechanic is a form of salesman. If they take that car in on trade, he want's that job. If you run into any of these situations then you may want to have someone you know and trust look at your car to verify this. Just make sure you tell your mechanic you are planning to trade it in so he doesn't work up a bill of shit you don't really need. Wrenching on cars is where they make their money, not on advise. So you need to let them know what your intentions are.
The main thing is to watch out for anything done to devalue your trade-in. They are going to be very biased so just make sure they are playing fair. If they are giving you a song and a dance, chances are that is all that it is.
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