Glacier6

I'm looking at trading in my 2013 2.0 FWD Prem+ with 18k miles and upgrading to a prestige A6 and was quoted a value by one dealer of $35,500. KBB has it at $38,000.

What's the best way to negotiate a trade in value? And is KBB even a factor?

jatp

I'm in the same boat. I have a 2013 Premium plus with only 8400 that I'll be trading soon for a 2015 Prestige. My guy initially quoted me around 35K, and frankly, that wasn't going to fly with me. I came in with multiple quotes, KBB, Edmunds, NADA, Blackbook, etc. Additionally, I also printed out, and brought with me listings for similar CPOs from other dealerships in the area. He came up, significantly, on the price and we have a handshake deal for when my new car arrives.

At the end of the day, you may be able to get more from a private sale, but it may be more hassle than it's worth, and (depending which state you live in) you'll lose the sales tax benefit from a trade in with the dealer.

Best of luck.

Mike_L

Thats about all you're gonna get. First 2 dealers I went to only offered $38k on my 13 3.0T Prestige.

Dealer I got it from said $46k, but they had nothing I wanted. And the dealer I eventually traded it in to gave me $44k for it (plus the 8.875% sales tax break).

Maverick61

1. make sure to negotiate these as two separate transactions. Negotiate a price on the new vehicle first. Tell them you may want to sell your car yourself. Then after you ar happy with the price on the new vehicle, ask them if you did trade in the car, what would they buy it for.

2. You will get more if you sell it yourself. Typically a lot more to make it worthwhile to deal with the time and sales tax impact

3. If you do not want to sell it yourself, go to a few places like a CarMax or CarSense and ask them what they would pay for buying the car from you outright. They buy cars direct. It will typically be higher than the dealer's trade offer but less than you can get selling it yourself. I sold my old vehicle this way - not because I don't like to sell them myself (I have sold several other cars myself directly - easy to do via craigslist or other online ads) but because my car needed $6K worth of work that unless you mechanically checked it out you would not have known. It was only worth $6K - $7K in a private party sale so I did not want to stick someone I directly dealt with. The place that bought it told me they were just going to take it to the auction and look to make $500. They did not ask about it needing work nor did they do a mechanical evaluation. They gave me $4K for it which is what KBB had it at - not bad when I consider it was worth $6K to $7K but needed $6K worth of work - making it really worth $1K max

audi40

Definitely try Carmax if there's one near you. My wife has an ML 350 Bluetec on order that is coming in later this week. The best I could get the MB dealer to do on trading in a 2012 Honda Pilot with 30k miles was $26,000 (originally offered $24,500), so with 7% sales tax savings on the trade-in, it was like $27,800 off the ML. After reading many different forum posts about Carmax, figured I'd give them a try. Took the Pilot to Carmax and got an offer (good for up to 7 days) of $29,500 - was in and out with the offer within a half hour, no haggling or hassle. I'll be taking the Pilot back to Carmax to collect the $29,500 and then going to the MB dealer to pick up the ML when it arrives this weekend.

snagitseven

Dealers do not use any of these online or book trade-in value resources like KBB, Edmunds, Black Book, etc. They subscribe to a commercial service that provides recent actual wholesale auction sales data. No dealer will want to pay more than what they could buy at auction. Also keep in mind that used car sales are a major source of profit for a dealer so they will offer as little as possible.

I agree that the two transactions of car price and trade in amount should be kept separate in the negotiations. I never disclose I'm considering trading until after the new car price is finalized.

After getting the best trade offer from the dealer or other source like Car Max (keep in mind you lose the sales tax advantage here like selling it yourself), figure out what you would save in sales tax trading to the dealer vs. selling it privately (in most states), then figure what you could get above the trade after sales tax savings. If the difference is worth the extra work and potential hassle of selling it yourself and the timing works for you, go for it. I've done it both ways over the years - each situation was different.

u2jrmw

I never wanted to do a private sale, but when I recently sold my A4 I thought I'd give it a go. It was a lot easier than I thought and I got a lot more money than the dealers were offering, easily offset my tax benefit. I ended up buying my A6 from CA and shipping it to IA, so a trade-in ended up not being an option, but the experience has changed my view on it and I think I will always go for the private sale now.

ScrewGuy

When I traded in my car the dealer made a very low offer. A couple of days earlier I went to Carmax and received an offer to buy my car that was much higher. I showed the dealer the Carmax offer and they almost matched the Carmax price. I traded it in to the dealer since with the tax savings I was ahead of the game.

335i

When we got the A6 back in 2012 we traded in a 2008 528i which had a blue book value of around 23k. At first we went to BMW to buy the new 528i but the BMW dealer only offered $20k and wanted all the mods off the car which was going to be a pain to do.

Went to another Audi dealer who offered $22k (auction price because they wouldn't sell it on the lot) went to another Audi dealer that night who offered $24k.

My advice is to keep shopping around and going to different dealers. I later saw my old car for sale at the Audi dealer for $26k and it was sold in a week. Depending on the location and the area some dealers might be able to sell your car easily while others will have to take it to auction.

snagitseven

If you're going to shop around with Audi dealers, that's fine but as we said, make sure the new car price is negotiated first. One dealer could offer less on the trade but be lower on the price of the new car and the other dealer who offered $2K more on the trade could end up costing more if the new car discount is not as high. Also, be sure the negotiation on the two new cars are equipped exactly the same so you don't get caught up in a "price/option shuffle confusion". Also, be sure to factor in and compare the "add-on" charges virtually ever dealer tacks on for "prep", etc.

Finally, never, ever negotiate to a monthly lease or loan monthly payment. Know and negotiate the term, interest rate and down payment if a loan or term, money factor, cap cost, miles allowed and residual if leasing. A prepared buyer loaded with all the figures is a smart buyer. Nothing takes the wind out of the sails of a salivating salesperson than a buyer opening up a laptop or tablet at his desk with all the numbers already populated in a spreadsheet.