Well I think you all have convinced us to go for a middle ground. Take the car to get detailed this weekend. Put it up for private sale and if it happens in the next week we'll go for it but if not trade it in. Let fate make up our mind!

Thanks for all the advice!

Traded my highlander a few months ago as part of a purchase. I thought about getting it detailed because it needed a very thorough scrub, but I ran out of time. I highly doubt it had an impact on the trade value. It was a 2007 so there may not have been "room" but it otherwise was in pretty good shape for its age (had some minor dings and scratches). Based on my experience, I wouldn't bother with detailing.

FWIW I was offered 5k for my car in a trade in...I had it detailed (250) and sold it for 8.5k in a week on autotrader ($25 for the ad). I had to pay another $75 to have the BOS notarized for stupid maryland requirements.

Yes, it is a little work but for netting 3k it was worth it.

If you plan on trading it in to the dealer, I would at least look up the kelly blue book value so you know how much your car might be worth. I would also get a quote from Carmax just to compare it to the dealer offer as well. You are going to get ripped off trading in your car for sure, the question is how much you can minimize this.

I agree it does not matter to detail it. I was offered 5k for my car last as trade in...did not do it.

This year I am trying to sell it and got it detailed, for fun I asked trade in value while it was looking great....5k.

I do not drive the car, I put maybe 1k a year in miles on it.

That being said, selling a car is a TOTAL PIA.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wouldn't even detail it before trading it in. They aren't going to give you more money because of that.

+1
Tidy it up at home for an hour. Paying $100-200 for a professional detail? No way.

How valuable is your time? Trading in is fast and easy. Selling an old and well-used car privately will require lots of time and patience. People will contact you. Not show up. They'll want to drive it. They'll want to have their mechanic look at it. It could take weeks.

I have considered selling privately but we are not in DC and so the market for new/used cars is not like...SUPER plentiful. We can't be without a car because this is the car we have that is big enough to cart our kids around in. So the trading in is appealing because of the 'walk in with a car' 'walk out with a car' aspect. My husband has a little 06 lexus sedan so we could sell privately and go out that night or the next day and buy one but I guess I'm worried we won't find a car we like and then we'll be stuck without family transportation for a week or something. I'm pregnant and we have two little kids so the idea of I dunno, not being able to get to be driven to the hospital or get the kids to the ER or something. I dunno, I guess we could smush the carseats in his little car in an emergency.

This isn't an old and well-used car though and that is why it is so tempting to sell privately. I've never done that before though and am a little nervous about doing it right. It is a car that was bought new in 2015, we are the only owners. It has been kept up on maintenance but is a family car and has some exterior dings and scrapes. There is one panel that would need to be replaced for a dent when someone hit me in a parking lot. We had planned on keeping it for a long long time but with a third coming we just want the space the minivan will offer us. We take a lot of long road trips.

I wouldn't call a four year old car with less than 45k miles on it that has only had one owner 'old and well used' but of course it is in the eye of the beholder.

Anonymous wrote:I wouldn't even detail it before trading it in. They aren't going to give you more money because of that.

+1
Tidy it up at home for an hour. Paying $100-200 for a professional detail? No way.

How valuable is your time? Trading in is fast and easy. Selling an old and well-used car privately will require lots of time and patience. People will contact you. Not show up. They'll want to drive it. They'll want to have their mechanic look at it. It could take weeks.

I wouldn't even detail it before trading it in. They aren't going to give you more money because of that.

Are they just scrapes or dents? Dents are a bigger deal and can cost thousands to repair. It also shows that you don’t care about your car and they will think you didn’t take care of it. If you sell to a private party, you should get a lot, like thousands more, vs trading in.

Thanks, that was my instinct!

Get the car detailed and make it look great. Buff out whatever scrtches you can. Don't put any money into it. Dealdership will fix whatever it wants to fix before they auction or sell as used. Look up your Kelley Blue Boook value. Know it cold for your mileage and ask for the "Excellent" value, settle for "good" (your car doesn't sound like fair condition…)

I am trading in my 2015 highlander likely in the next month or two for some kind of minivan. It is overall in good shape but has some scrapes and, most importantly, is due for a fair amount of maintenance soon (but not now). The light isn't on but the car has just shy of 45k miles and hasn't gotten new brakes or tires since manufacture. Once again, not overdue, the car hasn't sounded the alarm but I'm sure the dealership will note this.

What is the ROI on getting stuff like this fixed? I've already decided there is no way we would get the money back that we put into dealing with the scrapes and plan to have the car well cleaned before going in but I'm less sure about this maintenance stuff. Seems a little counterintuitive for me to pay for new brakes when they can likely do it cheaper with their in house mechanics but I also don't want to be low balled because of it.