Best time to trade in a car

samwardill

I'm about to trade in my car (Audi A3) for a brand new car (probably A4 or A6 estate). I bought the car a few months old from Audi. The car will be 3 years old in Feb 2011. Is there a best time to make the switch to optimise the deals I might get. Any tips on getting the best deal? Do you think I could get better deal by doing all on the web (e.g. drivethedeal + webuyanycar) rather than via an Audi dealer?

frothey

There is no real best time these days - end of quarter (ie march/june/sept/dec) is the only time you are likely to get an outstanding deal if they are a bit short of quarter taget, but unless you have the car out of the showroom which might be the wrong spec/colour for you as Audi have longish lead times it doesn't work quite so well. Also, anything you gain in waiting could be offset by the depreciation in your car. Obviously try and "transact the deal" before the vat increase in Jan.

drivethedeal/etc are only brokers, they aren't guarantee'ing that they can supply the car, and they are getting them from dealers anyway, so trading web prices off against the dealers is the best way to go as the web operators can end up hitting your cars value (oh look, a scuffed wheel, that's £100.... stonechip on the bonnet, that's £50) on delivery - at least you can show it to the dealer and argue the toss with them!