I was hoping someone could help me. What is the best way to get the maximum amount for my 2002 Maxima SE with 82,000 highway miles in good condition in a trade in. I am looking to buy a 2005 Pathfinder and want to know how to negotiate the lowst pirchase price. They have offed the Pathfinder for around $28,500 with an $8,000 trade in value. Does this sound fair?
On 1/8/2005 2:56 PM US(ET), snipped-for-privacy@aol.com took fingers to keys, and typed the following:
Best way is to sell it, not trade it in!
You'll have to do some math to decide of selling outright is better than trading in. At least in my state, sales tax is calculated on the difference between trade-in and new car price. If you don't have a trade-in, you pay sales tax on the entire price of the new vehicle.
When I did my most recent car deal, I would have had to sell the old car for $1,000 more than the dealer's trade-in offer just to break even. The difference in sales tax was worth that much. Besides that, I would have had the cost of any advertising, the aggravation of making appointments to show the car, worrying about bad checks, etc. In my case, trading the car in was the best way to go.
I would go to kbb.com or edmunds.com to see what the trade-in and sale value are. You can decide from there if the dealer's $8,000 offer is fair and if you can do better on your own.
Good luck.
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