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Better value on trade-in from dealer or CarMax?
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Anonymous
| What have your experiences been -- are we more likely to get closer to blue book value from CarMax or by trading in at the dealership? We are looking to purchase a new Toyota Sienna and are trading in a 2007 Saturn Vue, if it matters. |
Anonymous
| We did Carmax (and they gave us a better deal - couple years ago)- but Carmax is great - you can get an offer and it's good for seven days. So back pocket the offer and take your car to the dealership and see how much you can trade it in for - if it's not enough - take it back to Carmax. I know several people recently who have been floored by how much Carmax is offering for their cars. |
Anonymous
| For CarMax, it depends on the make/model and condition of the car -- and its potential resale value. Best thing you can do is take it to CarMax and get a quote, then take it to the dealer and see if they can match it. |
Aimee4
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| We did as PP. Got a quote from CarMax (only takes 20-30 minutes), and then tried to negotiate with the dealer on trade in allowance. Before negotiating on trade in allownace, get the *final* number on actual cost of the new car. If you don't, then any more money they give you for trade in will be tacked on to the price of the car. For our last 3 vehicle trade-ins CarMax gave us the best deal. |
Anonymous
| Oh, and getting a quote at CarMax is easy. |
Anonymous
|
Carmax will give you the wholesale value -- the amount that they expect they can sell or buy the same car on the market, leaving a reasonable profit for whoever does sell it (them or someone else). They have no incentive to try to lowball you because you can take it someplace else, nor do they have any incentive to give you a fake high offer that they're shaving off their profit, because both your sale and theirs are non negotiable.
A dealership typically will have higher priced cars with some price flexibility built in, so they might seem to offer you a higher price to make you feel better but behind the scenes they are shifting the numbers around and will be less willing to move on the price of the car. Bottom line, it's possible to get a better deal from a dealership becasue they negotiate, but it's not that likely because they're way better at it than you are. |
Anonymous
|
Get a written quote from carmax. Negotiate the new car price.
Then negotiate your trade in. The dealer will lowball you. At that point tell them you have a carmax quote for X. Don't fib because they will ask to see it. Then tell them they have to beat it by 1000 or 500 or whatever because otherwise you feel obligated to sell to carmax since they gave you a firm quote. |
Anonymous
| I've only done it once, but we got a better deal from our dealer. In our case, though, it was a highly desirable car (long waitlists for new ones) that was less than two years old. I was pregnant so we were trading from a two-seater to a station wagon, or I would havve kept the car. I've since sold a car to CarMax without getting another quote, and it was pretty smooth. I think their prices are within a range of fairness, and it wasn't worth the time to me to shop it. |
Anonymous
|
A dealer will often give you a better trade-in but try to make it up elsewhere on the sale (higher final price, add-ons, doc preparation fee, or some other bs cost).
If you feel you have the power to get into hand to hand negotiating with a dealer over everything, you may make it out $100-$200 better, simply because the dealer's margin on used is smaller due to their profit potential on new. But if you don't feel like the hassle, Carmax isn't taking you to the cleaners. |
Anonymous
| Definitely try Carmax. We just sold a car to them and we weren't looking to buy another care, so it wasn't a "trade-in" but they handle trade-ins as separate sales transactions anyway. They offered us more than we were hoping for (we looked up values in Kelley Blue Book). When I've been to a dealer I never thought I was being treated fairly with the amount offered on a trade-in. I don't think they consider it as a separate thing from your purchase. No having said all that, I think when you are buying something you can get a lower price from the dealer. So you might want to sell your car to Carmax, then buy from a dealer. |
Anonymous
| Neither! I sell my cars on my own and get a LOT more money than any dealer or Carmax would ever give me. I then use this money as a down payment on the new car. It is really not that difficult. |
Anonymous
Selling your own can be a pain if you don't have a lot of free time. Being available for multiple strangers to come take a test drive is not always easy or comfortable for some. |
Anonymous
same here...A LOT more money... |
Anonymous
| I've sold all of the cars that I previously owned and it was never really that much of a pain. There is a such a demand for used cars that it only really takes a day. I told folks to show up on a Saturday and sold the car to the one that offered me the most money. It really only takes about a day. It's not a big deal. My last car sold for 3K more than what Carmax offered me. |
Anonymous
Great to know. We're looking to sell our "older" car. What's the process after you decide on the buyer/price? |