My brother in-law mentioned to me that he was going to sell his two cars in order to upgrade to a bigger car for his growing family. His plan was to go to a dealer and off-load his two, older cars on them, take the cash and use that to buy the new car.
Without asking my advice, I told him he should reconsider his options. I suggested that he should find someone to do an excellent job at detailing both cars. Clean them inside and out and use all of those car-cleaning products you find in Auto stores. After that, take the cars down to a dealer and ask them how much they would give him. After getting a quote, he could go to a mechanic to have them do an inspection and write up any problems the cars have. Then he should try and sell them privately.
Having them cleaned and a mechanic having inspected the cars, my in-law should be able to sell the cars privately for more than if he had traded them in. When a dealer takes a trade in, he's trying to make money and realizes that he'll have to raise the price over what he bought the car for to do that. Because people generally don't trust used cars, even though enough buy them. According to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics, 44 million used cars were sold in 2005. That's 72% of all car sales in one year! In the United States, this sub-industry is worth $367 billion a year.
What he has to weigh is whether the hassle of cleaning and inspecting and marketing the car is worth the extra money he could make by selling it himself. Two sites I found offer very valuable tips on selling a car: Carsguide and Autotrader. Both sites are biased toward selling privately, but offer tips on turning the car into a dealer, too.
Good luck!
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