Selling and buying a used car tips?
 

So after 8 years I'm thinking of getting rid of my car and getting a new one (used).

I've never sold or bought a used car before so I don't even know where I should start. I'm not completely retarded of course there are some basics I'm aware of i.e. carproof, inspection etc.

1. Is there any huge benefit of buying or selling privately?

It wasn't really a thought as I was only planning on selling/trading at a dealership and also buying there too but there may be good reason to consider private I suppose that I'm not aware of.

2. Are margins really high for used cars? I'll negotiate but nice to know what's realistic. I'm literally in day 1 of this idea but looking at a SUV in the 2-4 years tops range. Maybe a GLK, Q3 or Q5, or Lexus perhaps dunno yet.

Any tips at all or even recommended places are welcome.

If you're not naive, you can tell if the seller is a shady POS or not. A good private seller will have records and you'll be able to talk directly to the guy who actually owned and maintained the thing. You'll get to see if he seems like someone who goes the extra mile to take care of his shit or not.

Cost aside, intangibles that you can't get, purely looking at records from a dealership, getting a carproof and inspection.

I think dealerships make their money on the buy more than anything.

I think it depends on what car you are selling/trading in.

For example, when I was looking at an Audi S4, the dealer was going to give me $400 for my beater Toyota Corolla. One Toyota dealer offered $700. Porsche $1200, and the final Toyota dealer gave me $2000 for it. The problem for me was, I couldn't even sell it for $500, let alone, give it away. The Corolla needed approximately $2000 in repairs/maintenance.

Do your due diligence and see what the market is demanding on a similar vehicle to yours, both on paper in terms of specifications/options and in person (i.e. accidents, dings, scratches, worn seats, curbed wheels, maintained with documents etc.) You can then decide if it's worth trading in or selling private. Most dealers don't care about mods, however, the same can be said about the private market as well. Also, maintenance is maintenance. You cannot recover maintenance costs, although some goof balls out there, especially forums, believe it increases the car's value.

Fair enough, not all trade in scenarios are equal. Trading in a 2010 Mazda 6 so a 8 year old car with just over 80,000. Hopefully the low clicks buys me some more decent money.

I'll hunt around and do some groundwork first thanks for the tips so far

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It's complicated, trade-in will always be a lower price than private sale but the combination of hassle-free trade-in and whatever tax savings you get from the trade-in amount on your next vehicle could make it worthwhile to you. That's up to you to evaluate as it's a personal decision.

I will say that a 2010 Mazda 6 would no be an easy sale privately, it was not a well loved era for that particular model.

Without doing research I would agree. Just seeing the amount of Mazda 6s for the gen before mine vs mine is night and day. Sometimes I go days before seeing another one. The hassle is the main factor I'm not considering a private sale. Best guess I think my car is worth around 10k ish and a private sale may or may not get me an extra grand. In terms of percentages, 10% sounds good but how much time and effort would I have put in to make that sale happen?

Timing plays into it as well. If you need that new car immediately, trade in. As was mentioned before check around a few dealers, the price will not be determined solely by the value. If the dealer really wants to make a deal, the trade-in offer could be better (as BCRdukes mentions).

The reason I say timing is that you better list that Mazda6 now if you want to sell it in the spring. Generally speaking it takes quite a bit of time (as in weeks to a few months) to sell a used car unless it's something rare and desirable. If it's a common car it'll need to be priced WAY below other examples of the same car. Just plan for a private sale to take some time. You could always have a go at selling it privately first and if it doesn't sell by new car time, you know that trading it in is your option.

I think the supply and demand of the vehicle plays a huge role on trade in values. I would assume that a lot of the older vehicles would probably be sold to smaller dealers and or wholesalers.

I traded in my Q50 Red Sport for a 4Runner and we negotiated back and forth and I felt like we got a good trade in price. Now 2.5 months later, the car is still sitting there and they dropped the price to almost what my trade in value was. I think they probably regret giving me so much on the car.

when I bought my Infiniti, I traded in my almost 5 year old Sienna, and I also got decent value for it. They marked up the Sienna about 7-8 grand more. I don’t know what the final price was but the van was sold in 2 weeks.