When you place an order for a new car, and plan to use your old one as a trade, do you have to surrender your old one to the dealer at the time the deal is signed (order is placed), or when you take delivery of the new one? But the loan doesn't start till you have the new car, right?

 

Right, you trade the in the old, and pay for the new, when you can drive off in the new one.

 

But you do have to give some sort of deposit when ordering, right?

Here's what i am thinking of doing. Settle on a deal for a new ordered one, figuring my trade into the numbers. Now since its going to take probably 8 - 10 weeks, I can use that time to try and sell my old one for more than the trade value. If I do, then when the new one comes in instead of giving them the trade I would give them the cash instead - and hopefully more cash which would bring the payments down. Would this work? Would it be ok to change the deal from cash+trade+financing to just cash+finance after an order is placed?

 

yes you could do that... the dealership may complain at first, but your the customer and its about what you want, and getting more for your car is better for you!!!

 

the dealer will try and give you at least 2500 less than market value so sell it yourself if you can.

 

yep, that's what I'd like to do. I just dont know the best way to work it as far as timing it. If I sell my car first, by then they may be all out of '07s and i'll have to order & wait 2 months - without a car. So if I place an order, then i know i have a couple months to at least try selling mine while knowing i have the exact one I want locked in. If I get lucky and sell my car in say 2 weeks (unlikely), then at least it'll only be 6 weeks without a car. The exact one I'd want is probably sitting on some dealer's lot right now but that won't do me any good because I can't expect them to hold it for 2 months. I have never sold a car privately - I traded my last one after unsuccessfully advertising it for 3 months! I can't figure any easier way to do this and not be car-less.

 

If I bought a trade at only 2500 below market value-guaranteed I will loose money trying to sell it

 

ok!!

 

Some other things to consider ... the sales tax laws in your state. I'm in NJ and here you pay sales tax only on the net price after trade-in. For example if you buy a $30K car and get $10K for your trade you pay sales tax on only $20K. That can be quite a bit of $$ if you have a valuable trade. If you sell yourself separately you'll pay sales tax on the full value of the new car. What I did was find a buyer on Autotrader then went to the dealer and had them process my old car as a trade-in. That way I got full trade-in value for my car; the dealer took it in trade and sold it to the buyer I brought to them. I got a sales tax credit against the full price that I sold the car for.

Finally, be careful about getting a trade-in estimate if you don't plan to turn over the car until 2-3 months later when your new one comes in. I thought about doing that too -- at one dealership I went to they told me a good trade-in value but it had some soft language about condition of the vehicle and market conditions at the time of the actual trade. When I told them I would be willing to hand over the car right away and just wait for the new one to come in (it is a 2nd car for me so I can do without) they came back with a trade-in value quite a bit less. I suspect they were trying to rope me in with an attractive trade quote, and would have simply cut it way down when my new car came in. I guess I called their bluff by offering to give them the car immediately.

Good Luck!

 

What do you guys think about this. In working on the deal, my dealer isn't giving me anything extra without taking it off of something else - "robbing peter to pay paul" as he says. For example, he's charging me full sticker. When I balk at paying full retail he says he can knock off a thousand, but he has to give me a thousand less for my trade. No matter which way I go I'm still paying the same price. Is this a fair deal? If I was to offer him a little above invoice, he'd say fine - but my trade amount then goes down.

 

Find a new dealer and don't mention the trade at all.
If you can't sell it by the time the new one comes in, then talk to him.
Stand firm and be prepared to walk away from the deal for a day.

 

He showed you a trade allowance. This is showing you list price and the discount factored in on the trade. You should ask him for the true numbers. Actual trade value, actual sale price. All he was doing was pllaying with numbers. What you should do, is go onto Blueovalnews.com, get yourself an X-Plan PIN number. If you run into any questions or problems, feel free to PM me. I'll be happy to answer any questions you have about what they try to pull on you.

 

But I dont think i'm eligible to buy on that plan....does that part of your post still apply to me??

 

That's the great thing about Blueovalnews.com. They give the X-Plans to anyone, and you would be eligible under "friends and family".