Selling private or trading in can both be a losing proposition depending on your case. If you get a trade in tax credit for your state ( which are in the majority) you can save a decent amount of money. You would have to make sure when you sell your vehicle privately you take that tax break into account. Trading in has worked in my favor roughly 60% of the time.
Hi Tim. Yes, everyone must take their own situation into account. As the owner of the local Ford Dealership (who was a business associate of my father many years also) told me those many years ago...and since it has been many many years, I paraphrase...
"I need to make a profit on a trade-in, and can not offer you what your car is really worth. No Dealership will. So here is what you should always do...Get the trade-in offer from the Dealership, then calculate in the sales tax hit, in order to obtain a private-party sale price profit worth it to you. Then try to sell your used car privately. If you can't sell it privately, you can still trade it in when your new car arrives."
So that is what I have done...to the benefit of anywhere from $1,000 to ~$3,900 over the course of about a dozen used cars sales, new car buys.
In my state, we also get sales tax break for the trade-in on the new vehicle purchase. Despite that sales tax break, over the years I have been able to privately sell every single one of my used vehicles privately for a minimum profit (including the sales tax hit) of ~$1,000 over the Dealership trade-in offer, and a maximum profit of ~$3,900 (including the sales tax hit) over the Dealership trade-in offer. So in my case, selling privately has worked in my favor 100% of the time.
So for about a maximum of 1 hour time (put for-sale signs on, give a few test drives) for any of my used vehicles, I made a minimum of $1,000, and up to ~$3,900 an hour by privately selling them.
Again, everyone faces a different life situation, so we all need to make our own choices as to what is best for us. Another factor on my side...I take very good care of my cars, which makes them very attractive to private buyers. In fact, attractive enough that every one of those private buyers was willing to give me a deposit, in order to have me remove the for-sale signs and hold my old car for them, until my new car arrived.
In addition, I have factory ordered every one of my new vehicles, so I had a minimum of ~8 weeks to find a private buyer. In my case, the private buyers were always obtained when the buyer saw the "For Sale" signs on my car and either stopped me or called me. That method will not work for everyone.
Selling privately is not for everyone. For example, it will not work for those who are buying a new car off the lot in a spur of the moment manner. Or in other cases, some people do not want to deal with strangers. It can sometimes be a hassle. And I can understand that, especially for single women etc.
However, for those who want to maximize their profit and minimize their costs, try to sell privately first.
Get the Dealership trade-in offer, then try to sell the used car privately, If we can get enough to make it worth it...great, sell it privately. If not, trade it in.
Hope that longer explanation makes some sense to people. Good luck.
