I don't think it's true in every state, but in OH, you only pay tax on the diff between new car price and trade-in value. In my case, it saved me $1600 dollars in taxes. So as long as you can get a descent trade-in value, as well as a good deal on the new car, trading can work out ok!!

 

so many posters here really have no idea how the car business works

to really answer the question:

1 - KBB doesn't mean ****. Don't be blind-sighting into thinking your car is worth those numbers at for a trade-in. Most of those numbers are bogus. Do you know KBB is owned by Autotrader.com now? Hmmm, the biggest site that sells cars owns the biggest resource for car pricing..........If you go to a dealer 100% thinking that KBB is an accurate value of your trade-in, you're being the unreasonable one

2 - Find a friend/mechanic/etc that has an auctioneers license that can check what other cars like your trade are selling for. Trade-in value is based on AUTO-AUCTION values. The auto-auction is the dealer's last resort to selling a trade-in - so they'll buy it around what it sells for auction - if the trade-in doesn't sell on their used car lot, then they break-even at the auction. The auto-auction is their ONLY guaranteed sell - there is no reason any dealership should risk throwing thousands more for your trade. If they sell your trade on the used-car lot, then they made a profit - if not, they break even at the auction and move on

KBB is a nice reference, but if you think that's a concrete value of your car, you're being blind-sighted and stupid. There's a reason some dealers won't budge on trade-in value: they want to at least have the option of breaking even if they have to sell it at the auction.

Yes, trade-in value is lower, and might be lower than KBB, but just accept it. If it pisses you off, take the time to sell it privately and quit complaining (oh wait, some of you probably are too lazy to do that, in that case quit complaining). And you still remember you save a bit with tax credit on a trade-in as well.

/endrant

 

lol no need to get that serious about it I just was curious how dealers selling an evo looked at kbb as a whole...depending on the car being sold the trade-in negotiation could go completely different...ive been down the road multiple times but never with an evo i just wanted some sort of reference point..but thanks for your 2 cents I completely agree with what you said and knew all that as a general rule