Part ex my old car for a not so old car (!)

toneeb

Hi all
Seeking some advice
Recent family additions have meant that our 07 plate Astra Sxi is no longer cutting it (especially a 3 door with 2 kids seats in the back!)
Its got around 40k on the clock.
We are considering getting a more family friendly car. Cant buy a brand new one so we are looking at a budget of £7500 - £8000.
My initial thoughts are to use our current car as part exchange (and any money they will knock off any new car we are interested in)
However, it has two very long scratches on it (some little “expletive deleted” keyed it - twice). There is unfortunately a problem in our area but we are hoping to move soon anyway.
We just got a quote from “Chips away” of over £400 to fix it. To be honest, i was expecting this as basically, the scratches are too deep to polish our and the relevant panels will need a respray.
This could be impossible to answer but seeking anyones advice.
If I was to take my car to a dealer ‘as is’ with a view to part ex’ing it, how much negotiating leeway will I have? Fully appreciate that any dealer will be perfectly within their rights to ‘knock off’ any potential value due to the scratches but then again, i’m sure they could fix the scratches for not much cost and get it back out on the forecourt pretty sharpish.
Or, get the scratches sorted before I start looking. As our car is silver, im a bit wary of and repair looking right.
In hindsight, this is probably a case of “well you dont know until you go to the dealer” but in view of my staggering ignorance of part ex’ing (a dream customer i guess for a dealer!) any pointers would help.
Ta in advance J

scotsbob

Pick a dealer, any dealer, and find a car in your price range. Then ask what cost would be with trade in. Then you will have a ball park figure to work on when you go to your preferred dealer to negotiate.

Building_Surveyor

I part exchanged my car a few months back. They checked the body work for scratches and stuff and offered me £500 for it, I declined and said I was going to walk away, they then offferd me £1000 for it. The car was in a really poor condition and they only thing they wanted me to do was a new tyre as I was running on the spare, I just get a cheap second hand one the day before I gave it to them. The time and effort I could have spent sorting out a gazzilion scratches just wasn't worth it for me. And to be fair, I asked them what they were going to do with the car they said it's going to auction. The day before I exchanged it the grill actually fell off. When I took it in they didn't care.

I had a Renault and This was a main nissan dealership but I'm sure other dealers depending on what car your giving may sell it on their forecourt and therefore would want it in better condition.

londonTiger

Building_Surveyor wrote: »

I part exchanged my car a few months back. They checked the body work for scratches and stuff and offered me £500 for it, I declined and said I was going to walk away, they then offferd me £1000 for it. The car was in a really poor condition and they only thing they wanted me to do was a new tyre as I was running on the spare, I just get a cheap second hand one the day before I gave it to them. The time and effort I could have spent sorting out a gazzilion scratches just wasn't worth it for me. And to be fair, I asked them what they were going to do with the car they said it's going to auction. The day before I exchanged it the grill actually fell off. When I took it in they didn't care.

I had a Renault and This was a main nissan dealership but I'm sure other dealers depending on what car your giving may sell it on their forecourt and therefore would want it in better condition.

Car has to be in shockingly poor condition for the grill to just fall off. I'm imagining a car with scratches and dents on every single panel.

BeenThroughItAll

londonTiger wrote: »

Car has to be in shockingly poor condition for the grill to just fall off. I'm imagining a car with scratches and dents on every single panel.

Or, be a Renault, as in this case; in which circumstances, based on my experience, almost any part can suddenly detach itself or otherwise fail without warning.

sinbad182

londonTiger wrote: »

Car has to be in shockingly poor condition for the grill to just fall off. I'm imagining a car with scratches and dents on every single panel.

Or perhaps just the grill/grill fixings were broken?