I’ll be trading in my old Xterra and then paying cash for the new one. I’d really rather not go the private selling route if I can help it (unless anybody here wants a 2000 Xterra with 140,000 miles that runs great and has never been taken off-road!), but I’m afraid that a dealer will just try to make up the lower price on the new car by lowering the trade-in value. Any advice on how to deal with the trade-in and when to tell them you’re going to write a check for the car?
You'll get more money if you sell your car yourself versus trading it in. If you do trade it in, it may get more complicated if you buy from a dealer in L.A. because they won't be able to see the car until you get there. then you'll be at a disadvantage because they'll know you want to buy the car since you travelled all the way up there, and at the same time, you'll be less inclined to leave without a new car, thereby you'd be more willing to sacrifice the resale price of your trade in.
If you're doing a trade in, you need to pay particular attention to how much they are willing to offer you on the trade in along with the price of a new car. Quite frankly, some dealers will knock off the price on the new car to say $1000 below invoice, but offer you $2000 less than what you can get for your trade in.
That's why I think you should keep the two transactions separate. The more variables you have, the greater the changes are for paying more.
My advice it to sell your car first, then pick up your new car. Worse comes to worse, you can temporary drive your beater (if you have one), or borrow a ride from friends/etc while you're looking.
As far as selling used. Got to a reputable shop to get a rough examination of your car, but don't make any repairs unless it's a safety issue. When a person buys your used car, they will (if they are smart) ask you to take the car in for an inspection. If you already inspected it, and taking care of the serious problems (if any), then you should only have to worry about the small things, possibly like tires, spark plugs, brakes, etc. Then what you and your prospective buyer can do, is just split the cost of the repair. Just go to a cheap place to get the labor done. So place like GWin Auto Repair in Miramar.
You need to leave some minor things that the buyer will want you to take care of. Anyone who buys a used car is always expecting something needs to be fixed, so if you leave them with something small to haggle with, they'll feel better once you take care of it and your wallet wont be drastically impacted.
Last comment. When I mean buying a "new car", i mean "new new", not a "demo car" at the dealer. Why? Well to put things in perspective, I learned how to drive stick in a dealership's demo car while waiting for my car to be serviced one time. I can tell you I feel sorry for the poor person that bought that car, since I pretty much smoked the clutch, and ended up pretty much doing neutral drops to get the car in first when I was on a hill. The salesman was amused, and couldn't resist say ing "so I guess you won't be buying this particular car".
