Looks like trade in values are down quite a bit

laziness and convenience

 

Ford dealer offered me 29.6 trading for a new ranger, didn’t do it though. Others told me 25-26. Sellingis always better than trading imho.

 

I've sold cars private a few times. You are right it's a pain and you have to be able to sit on the vehicle until you find a buyer.
Loosing the sales tax benefit you get on the trade is an issue too. However if you can get more for the car to overcome that it not an issue. I think with older vehicles like my Jeep that still works great but has a few beauty flaws that come with age is the vehicle you sell yourself. It's so old no new car dealers want to make a decent offer. I have tried that. But someone would give me up to $1000 more for it on a private sale.

I'm going to wait for about 6 months and see what things are like. At this point I don't think car dealers are desperate enough. I hear used prices are lower. People aren't working so they likely won't be looking for used cars yet, the time to private sell is probably not now.

 

How many people do you know that have 25k plus to put down on a used private party. ?Try telling a bank I want a loan on a private party used truck. I forgot to add dealing with a bunch of dreamers, tire kickers and time wasters.

 

If you have the time to wait, your higher sales price will definitely offset the loss in sales tax on your purchase.

 

Same situation as OP, I brought my Tacoma to get appraised because I was thinking of trading it in for a tundra. They came back and told me my 19 OR DCLB was worth 25k. It’s has 35k miles and has 255/85/16s They said the larger tires are messing with the breaking system and needs to be fixed. So I brought up that I have had the tires on for the last 4 scheduled services done by them and they never brought this up to me! SO, now I’d like to speak to a service specialist about this. They went to a back office and in 5 minutes they said they looked over the truck again and it’s good. They can give me $32k for my truck. I walked out shortly after pretty upset that they treated my like that.

 

I'm going to wait because with this virus still going around to some extent there is no way I'm having people I don't know come look all over my car, want to drive it and get there germs all over it.
Who would have thought keeping away from cooties was ever going to be a valuable skill.

 

There is a nice 2016 TRD OR DC near me I will go look at when I get home in a few weeks. 50k miles 4.6 for $ 24,000. I’m sure my trade value will go down even lower there but it’s worth a look. With motor vehicle closed I don’t even know if they can register a new vehicle.

 

What options do you have?

 

Tech? It has the sensors on the bumpers and push start.