Trade in or Private Sell??

So heres the dilemma i have an 06' Honda Civic Si that im looking to either trade in or private sell and get a 2012 DCLB. My civic is in great condition mechanically, and has low miles (roughly 23,500) the problem is that the clear coat is chipping like crazy almost all over (the roof, and passenger side mostly). But aside from the clear coat going to crap the car is in great condition.

I got some quotes for getting it fixed and so far the lowest ive found is $2800 for a full body repaint (thats what all the places I've taken it to have said will need to be done in order to get it to look like new again) So do i get it fixed and try to private sell it which i think around $14500 maybe $15k is what i can get if i get the paint done or try with the dealer and see what i get from them for it?

I did go to a dealer last summer and they looked at it and said basically the most that they would be able to give me for my car is $12,500 maybe $13k but there would be no wiggle room on the truck. (the clear coat has pretty much stopped chipping at this point but i think that its going to be pain if i go to the dealer with it in the current condition)

 

If anyone is willing to give you 12-13k for the Honda get RID of it.

 

I think you may be a little off on the value, it's a 6 year old Honda but you will always do better with a private sale though. Good luck either way you go.

 

I am thinking about trading in my Truck too and the dealer is offering up to 150% of Book Value.. but book value on my Truck is 30k (2011 Tundra).. I doubt they will give me 40k+ for the truck

 

Just put your car up on craigslist and see what happens. The worst that can happen is you get no bite then you can consider trading it in.

 

The problem here is the clear coat. Appearance to a buyer means alot to most people. I would finagle the dealer in this case for the best price.

 

^This. Even if you price it a little lower because of the paint a buyer will want you to come off the price because of the paint.

 

I used to sell cars at a local Mazda / Saturn / Chevy dealership. If a nice car came on the lot (like yours) and the clear coat wasn't great we would usually knock about $1750 off the trade in value. Then just take it to MAACO for a $500 clearcoat spray Win win for the dealership. I did a NADA check for you at your zip and the trade in would be average around 10.5k and private sale around 11.7k. Though Cali runs high alot of times so could be + 1k. There was a '06 black Si with 92k miles for sale at Nelson Honda near you and they wanted 14k. Good luck with it though!

 

Ragin Devildoc i just called a local Macco and they quoted me over the phone $1200 for a full paint job minus prep work, but i cant imagine that being more than $500. But even then say $1700, that beats the hell out of the $2800 from the other shop I went to that said was giving me a discount because i was referred by my co-worker. so tomorrow I'm going to head down there to have Macco actually see the extent of the damage and give me an actual price with their prep, and anyother work they need to do (resealing windows etc...)

 

yea but i was going off of what a dealer said they would give not book value, and based on that is where i was getting my numbers from. I realize that the dealer is always going to be trying to get the most they can in a deal, and that they could careless about the customer when it comes to their bottom line, because in the end its all about money.

 

Would never take another veh to Macco,they suck biiiggggggg time.

 

why do you say that? just bad experience? over priced?
keep in mind that im doing this to get my civic ready to sell

 

Holy sh** Im in the same boat as OP only my civic is an ex and it looks brand new. I would definently try private. The dealer will make 3-5 grand off you depending on the deal. See what you can get for it as is and then call around paint shops for price and see how much it would cost to get into clean retail territory. You could do partial repaints on the effected panels aswell.

 

Yettee - I agree with you. I can't see how it would cost 1200 plus prep (unless it is a complete paint job + clear coat). If you get the cheapest possible job at maaco its like 3-400. Since you are going to try and sell it I would look at it like a house buying situation. Check what others in the area are selling for and in what condition and mileage. Most are selling between 13-17k at dealerships with a hella lot more miles. If the money spent on paint is worth it then jump.