Should You Trade or Sell Your Used Car?

At new-car time there's nearly always an accompanying question: What to do with the old car? If you've already promised it to your daughter so she can take it to college, your decision is made. But for most of the rest of us, we have to decide whether to trade it in on the new one, or sell it ourselves.

The Usual Truth
Right up front, here is a near-universal truth: You will get more for your old car if you sell it yourself. There are, understandably, some exceptions to this rule and some conditions. One big exception occurs if your current car is on a lease program that provides certain benefits if you trade it back in and lease another vehicle of the same brand. Most manufacturers offer such lease programs. For people who absolutely, positively must have a new car every couple of years, these programs have their advantages. One big condition to the idea of selling it yourself is dependent upon the marketability of the car in question.


Let's cover that issue. Real estate agents will tell you that the easiest homes to sell are those that are, pretty much, like the other homes in the neighborhood. It's the odd-ball custom-built homes, or the ones with strange interior decors, or weird backyard gardens, or off-beat add-ons—or the one that's been remodeled to the point of being the most expensive house on the block—that are the difficult ones to unload. If it's an unusual house, it's going to require an unusual buyer.


The same goes for cars. What's easy to sell are four-door Honda Accords and Toyota Camrys and the like, with medium to higher-end trim levels, and with no silly modifications such as racy spoilers, fancy wheels, loud exhausts, paint stripes, lowering kits, boom-box stereos or even window tinting. When you go to sell the car, your task is easier if it's a nice, clean, normal car—because that's what most of the market wants. And, most definitely, if the car isn't a nice, clean, normal one, no dealership is going to want it for a trade-in.

Trade Advantage
Here is the advantage for trading it in: Basically, you don't have to "hassle with it." In fact, that's exactly what many new-car buyers say about the question of trading in or selling. "I don't want to hassle with it," they'll say, and then gloss over the unpleasant little truth that avoiding that hassle might easily cost them thousands of dollars.