How Much is Your Used Car Worth?

In appraising a used car, which had over 40,000 miles on the odometer and had been described by its owner as excellent, for a potential trade-in, a used-car manager once remarked, "There's no such thing as a car with 40,000 miles on it in excellent condition." It was obvious the car in question hadn't had a vacuum cleaner inside it in about six months, there was evidence of body repair, the tires were worn out.

Retail Vs. Trade
Also, on these Internet sources, you should find categories for Retail or Trade-in. Retail is what you might expect to get on the free, open market. Trade-in is what the dealership might give you for it. These numbers are probably not exactly current, because the used-car market, based as it is on the natural law of supply and demand, is in constant flux. In fact, the numbers may be high, because with each passing day the value of any given used car naturally goes down. And do not, ever, expect to trade-in the car and get retail value. It's not going to happen.


A sales manager at a luxury-car dealership had a standard reply for any customer who would whine that, according to the Internet, his car should be worth more than the dealership was offering. "Fine," he'd say, "sell it to the Internet."

Stock Option
And here's one more silly way people reduce the value of their vehicles: Any time you start personalizing the thing, with tape stripes, chrome wheels, lowering kits on cars or lift kits on trucks, loud exhausts, body modifications, fancy paint jobs—even window tinting—you also start knocking down both the retail and trade-in value of that vehicle. You will never, never get back what that stuff cost you, and you may very well end up with something that nobody else wants. If it's just for you, that's fine. But when you start personalizing the vehicle, you start reducing its value and you make it more difficult to get rid of. And dealerships don't want personalized cars as trade-ins.


Even if it's just a normal four-door sedan in nice, clean shape, but you've had the windows tinted—unless you live someplace in the desert like Phoenix or Las Vegas, you will find it easier to sell if you remove the tinting.