Actually Car Max usually pays more than they probably should. You have to be careful somewhat since Car Max may offer more for the trade-in but with tax savings the dealer might still be offering a better deal. In my situation Car Max offered much more than the dealer and I just took the cash from Car Max and bought a Maxima from the Nissan dealer. If your dealer tries to screw you I would just go to Car Max.

 

Just be sure to do your research first. Collect ads from you local paper/auto trader to see what the retail asking price is for equivilant cars. Remember, the asking price is not the selling price, and your dealer will give you wholesale, not retail for your trade.

Kelly BB online quotes wholesale prices, so have that as well.

Your best bargining tool is to be able to remove the trade-in at the time of the sale and replace it with cash/credit. I have a home equity line that will be used for this if my dealer trys to get cute.

I have also been thinking of selling my Max ahead of time and renting a car till my Z gets here. It would cost at most a couple of hundred bucks for a few weeks rental, but I would have the cash from the sale in hand and wouldn't have to fart around with the trade.

A dealer will make more money if you trade-in a car. Profit on the new car sale and profit on the trade-in sale. If you are willing to pull the trade-in, you have some power.

Any dealers want to give us some insght regarding the best way to negociate trade-in value?

 

You can bet the dealer's going to lowball his offer for trade in's and tack on windowetching, paintsealant, scotch guarding, etc.
You can refuse the last garbage but trade in will be "take it or leave it" I'd arrage to sell the car first if you can or buy the Z THEN sell your old car. At the very least get an honest idea as to what your trade in is worth.

 

Dealers tend not to use Kelley Blue Book, but rather use NADA guides. Check our their site.

 

Actually, no. My dealer will give NADA prices. That isn't absolute, but has alwas been the case for previous trade-ins.

While this differs per state, trading in for me is better than selling outright. There is a $2500 dollar difference between my trade-in's trade-in value and resale value. Take into account the fact that in my state, the taxable value on the Z is the difference between the sale price and the trade-in price. I will save about $2000 in taxes because I have a trade-in. Also, That originally mentioned $2500 difference is based on NADA prices. People are selling my trade-in vehicle at only a $1000-$1500 difference from trade-in value.

For me, it is far better to trade my vehicle than to sell to the public. Also, don't have to deal with the mess of selling a car.

My .02,
Todd

 

Maybe I'm being thick here, but what kind of tax savings are you referring to?

 

Read my post just a few posts before this one. I explain the tax break.

Todd

 

I'm not sure how the tax is determined here in Va. It's only 3.5%, so the total tax is about $1,225 for mine, but I would save at least half that if I trade in if that's how it works here. I frankly don't remember.

 

Wow....15%! Yikes! I thought 3.5% was bad enough. At least it's less than our regular 4.5% sales tax. BTW, do you all have to pay personal property taxes on cars up there?

 

I trade in a car when I preordered. I paid MSRP, so the negotiations involved how much they were giving me for the trade. They called around and got me a little over NADA. I only had to pay sales tax on the difference between the trade in value and the cost of the Z. Illinois let's you hold that tax credit for 9 months, so as long as the Z comes before December (better be Sept!), I'll be fine.

In Illinois we pay county sales tax in addition to state. In Cook County it's 7.75% on cars and 8.25% on general goods.

 

In Colorado, we pay around 8.5% for state and city tax.

I am envyous of your 3.5% rate!

$600+ savings would be great!

 

a little help from your neighborhood car dealer...
1. Virginia sales tax on an automobile is 3 percent...
2. Gross receipts tax is .2 percent bring grand tax total to 3.2 percent...
3. Dealers do not give you NADA trade on your vehicle or Kelly blue book trade in.. We go by what is called black book and gives a range of values based on what specific cars are selling for at auction. You will get that...the reason people think they are getting NADA is really a neat trick...Most people dont know the real mark up in a car (trust me you don't) so we can say we're giving you say 5000 for your car, when we're actually valuing it at 2500. We then take the remainder and either tack it on to the price in add ons...stock in fees, prep fees ect...or we hide it in the enormous gross we're holding. If you are getting NADA for your trade they have at LEAST a 4 thousand dollars of gross profit.
4. Now since they have no reason to give you 1 cent off their profit you can expect to get waaaayy below what you want for your trade in...Kelly blue book trade is usually about 500-1000 dollars higher than what we actually value cars at. God help you if you owe money on your trade because then they can give you whatever they want and tack the rest on top and if you dont like it they will sell your car to the first schmoe that walks up for 5000 over retail...

 

3.2%? That's even better!

 

Zonedogg...I concure

 

I'm not sure how anything was "tacked on" when I traded in my car. I got $1000 more than the value I looked up on KBB.com. I paid MSRP for the Z and the only "add ons" were tax (kind of mandated by the state) and title/licence (again with that state thing). If there was anything else built into the price, it was paid by everyone who preordered a Z, regardless of whether they had a trade or not.

 

Zonedog: I'm buying fromElizabeth City NC but 'live in Va. - How does the tax thingy work in this case?