Trading in old car at dealers

Rosie75

I'm planning to get rid of my Fiat Punto (1998) and buy a 2003 Renault Scenic and was wondering whether doing a trade-in at the dealers leaves you with less room for negotiation with the advertised price of the new car? can anyone help answer this?

rrockettman

Hi Rosie.
As a rule, the dealer will give you what he expects to sell it at auction for, as that is where it will end up. This will be much lower than you could sell it for privately, but cuts out a load of hassle trying to sell it.
If you decide to sell privately and not trade in, you may negotiate a better deal as it means less hassle for the garage.
If you know your Punto is 100% ok, it might be worth selling at the trade in price and negotiating a better deal on the Scenic.
As the car market is slow at this time of year for second hand cars, push for a good deal, be prepared to walk away if you don't get at least 5% off the screen price, it's a game of bluff.

vansboy

Your Punto will be hassle for the dealer - they'll just auction or sell on to a trade buyer of budget cars, so you'll only get a couple hundred - anything more & it'll mean he's over-priced the Renault, to allow for this.

You'd strike a better deal, selling the Punto yourself - assuming, as mentioned above,it's not got any untoward faults. This won't be too hard, as it's a cheap price range & low tax/insurance buy - a good first time car for someone.

Your local paper might cary free/low cost car adverts. Don't go to town with cocstly adverts, else it'll mean paying out more to get shot of it.

Best ask the dealer for a price WITHOUT trade in, as well as with trade in - then you can make up your mind, easier.

VB

Rosie75

Thanks for the replies - there's nothing wrong with the Punto at the moment, but based on past experience it's only a matter of time..

iluvmylexus

if you do plan to sell the punto yourself, you must factor in the costs of advertising (eg autotrader) if it doesnt sell first time this can get to be expensive, but you may sell quickly and be quids in

chainguy

Rosie, sell the Punto privately. It gives you a huge amount of bargaining power (way above the fact you dont have a trade in) when you talk figures with the dealer. He doesn't need the hassle and old Punto's are perfect classified ad fodder anyways.

When I used to be in the trade full time, the site of an 8 year old part ex was enough to really ruin your day!

Good luck.

hammy_the_hammer

my understanding is that isn't how it works now ...if you go to a main dealers and purchase one of their cars but only have a much older car to part-ex..there's only one lot of profit coming there way...if you buy a new car and trade in a 2 year old one they get two lots of profit