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If
You Know Their Rules ...
You Can Play Their Games
Should
you decide to try to sell the car on your own, you might beable
to get a couple of thousand over the wholesale price and use
that as a down payment on the new car. On the other hand,
if the salesperson knows that your car is fully paid for,
that tells him or her that:
1. You've got $9,000 in equity to put against a new car, and
2. Your additional out-of-pocket payment is only $6,000
This information could them lead the salesperson to try to
sell you on a more expensive car. What's another two to three
thousand dollars?
3.
How much do you think your trade-in is worth?
Once you have made it known that you intend to trade in your
current car, the salesperson will try to establish if you
have a price in mind. If you suggest a number that is higher
than the car is worth on the wholesale market, that will suggest
that either:
1.
You need to be educated, or
2. You are one of those buyers who is more concerned with
getting a "good price for their trade" than they
are about the total cost of the transaction
If your estimate is lower than the car is worth you've told
them that:
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Their
used-car department can "steal" your trade.
-
They can quote you a low trade-in figure at the outset
and then use the difference between your estimate and
its real wholesale worth as a means of reducing the difference
between the trade and the price without hurting their
profit margin.
The lesson here, and one that we will discuss frequently in
this book, is to know the true wholesale value of your trade-in
before you start to shop. We'll provide instructions on how
to do that later.
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