Devaluing your trade... What most car dealers DON'T want you to know.

    Are you concerned about trading in your car for that much wanted upgrade? Wondering how much it will be vs how much it SHOULD be? I'm going to give you a bit of information that will hopefully help.

To put this into perspective, consider this scenario;
If you've ever sold real estate, your agent gave a "free" evaluation. They brought comps(comparisons) to show to you and proceeded to walk through your home in order to see what it offers, right? Well, hopefully that is the case but some may also have been looking for things to devalue your home. Things that you probably don't have any control over. Then you will have sat down to look at comps. Those same agents looking to "devalue" would then show you an incomplete list of homes and proceed to tell you why you need to lower you price. A good agent on the other hand, could be simply helping you to be realistic if you are overpriced. The rest are trying to get you to lower your price to where it is an easy sell. Translation; "let me sell this place cause I got bills to pay." (grammatical error intentional because that is probably how those agents talk.) Be sure the "comps" are complete and include all aspects and criteria in the market. If the "translated" version was your agent, you may want to consider a new agent because in real estate, your agent's fiduciary responsibility is to YOU, the seller.

Now, you are probably wondering what that scenario has to do with trading in your car, right? Well, the only difference is that a car salesman or "dealer" has a fiduciary responsibility to his wallet or his boss, NOT to you the person trading in the car. Other than that, pretty much the same thing. Now I'm not saying don't trade in your car, because more times than not, it does make sense due to the sales tax savings. Also the trouble of advertising, meeting potential buyers, and time. So here are a few tips when trading in your car;

• Know what your car's value before you go in for the deal. NADA is the guide that your bank or credit union is going to use and is the most reliable for accurate information.
• Search the features your car has to offer and don't forget them when it comes to negotiating. Often some of those features add value such as navigation, auto trans., etc.
• Know your cars trim level. For instance is it an S, SL, SE, (examples as each car manufacturer has their own trim level symbols). Trim level can have a significant impact on value.
• Understand the process. Know that when a dealer is walking around your car, touching the bald tire or the door ding, that touch is a subliminal message to you that this is going to hurt. Think about it... your car, he or she touches a flaw... how does that make you feel? You probably flinch or look down. That touch is for a reason. Don't be intimidated and counter back with a positive feature.

Now if the prospect of trading your car and getting exactly what you want is still a bit intimidating, look us up at Draperautos.com and we will make it simple for you.

~Gary Lauritzen, Draper Auto LLC

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