Trade in values

What is everyone seeing as the best tool or site for trade in values? Kbb has seemed unrealistic (saying a base DCSB v6 4x4 is only worth $1,000 less than a TRD Sport with tow package and entune audio plus, which is $4500 in options). Black book only lets you pick a double cab with sr5, but if you add TRD sport and take away sr5 it shows the TRD model worth $125 less than the sr5 and it has all the same features and more. You also can't add in the tow package or entune audio. The only one that has even seemed reasonable is NADA, any thoughts?

 

Take your truck to a CarMax. They will give you a real value for it in writing good for a week or 300 miles (in my eperience this does not change after the period. THEN SELL it yourself for $1500-2000 more. Or you can take the Carmax offer to your dealer and spring it at the end of the deal and offer the truck to them.

KBB "good" has been CarMax's price offer on my Tacomas. I never had to sell to them and instead sold them privately. FYI They offered $26K for my 15 TRD Sport 2WD DCSB with 1700 miles. I sold it for $27900.

Trade value is horrid on Tacomas Resale is great....There is a huge difference.

 

So my question is, how do you you guys go about selling your truck privately? I have a 2012 Toyota Tacoma Crew Cab TRD Sport that's white with chrome wheel covers, JBL, Navigation and Weathertech Digital Floor Liners. It has less that 10,000 on it. My experience has been simply this. Everybody and their brother wants to buy it until it's time to come up with the cash. How do you guys manage to sell a truck worth so much money privately? Thanks in advance.

 

Took my 2005 TRD OR PreRunner to CarMax and got a quote for $11,000. Posted on Craigslist (first time I sold anything on CL) and sold it in less than 10 min for $13,500.

Take it CM for a quote and do the research and see what other private parties are asking for on Autotrader and CL in your area for comparable Tacos, then adjust your price accordingly based on condition and mileage. My local CM had a Taco similar to mine for $21,000 a few weeks ago. That's absurd for a truck that sold for $26,000 11 years ago!

 

Here in Canada, many sell it on kijiji.ca…kinda like your Craigslist. I look at 5-10 other examples (many of them could be used car dealers posting theirs adds)…and I undercut them by a few thousand. I too have a 2012 sport fully loaded (35,000 miles), upgraded tires, levelled, tonneau cover, etc, and hope to get $30,000 CAD for it. Thats roughly $25kUS if anyone in the US bought it.

 

How to deal with the actual logistics of a $10K+ transaction between 2 private parties is a bit of a sticky wicket. I'm not terribly comfortable walking around with that much cash in my pocket, especially if I'm meeting someone I don't know.
The best I can tell you is to do it in a public place when it comes time for the cash to actually change hands.

I sold my Mazdaspeed Miata a few years ago. I met the buyer at his bank branch, pulling the car on a trailer with my truck. I accompanied his friend test driving the car (the buyer couldn't drive a manual trans). When we got back, the friend gave him the thumbs up, or nod or whatever so the buyer knew it was OK. Then we went inside the bank. He withdrew the cash and I handed him the signed title. I jumped in my truck and went on my way.

Some people are fine walking around with $20K cash. I deposited that $12K as soon as I could. There's always the cashier's check option, but those can be fraudulent. Cash can be counterfeit too, but you can buy pens to detect that at any office supply store. Since I saw the cash come directly from the teller in the case of the Miata sale, I didn't worry about it.

 

The thing is this, KBB is way off on their numbers right now for the Tacoma. The local dealer uses KBB on their site, I entered the info of my truck as a DCSB 4x4 V6 BASE and it did not have any more options. They offered 27k as a quote. Everyone knows the TRD models are the bread and butter in the Tacoma world. So according to KBB, a base truck is worth 27k but my TRD Sport ($3,300 option) with the Towing package ($650 option) and entune audio plus ($680 option) is only worth 28K? That makes absolutely no sense to me.

Anyhow in MD you get a tax credit (6% on 30k is about 1,800), which is why it makes sense to trade. My truck valued private party is $31k and nobody is willing to pay that much when you can get a new one for just as much. That is why I bought my truck new last July as opposed to a used one, because the used ones were actually more than what I paid before taxes.

I used NADA and the value for average is 28,300 but for clean it is 29,300. Black book was also in the 29-30 range for trade in. I'm hoping the dealer will be willing to come up to where I'm at in my head. A local dealer gave me a print out of what the auctions were seeing and told me to expect around that. The two comparable (mileage wise and automatic) were 28,600 and 28,900 but were only listed as average condition. I'm also not sure what packages they had on them. I plan on going to a few dealers to get an appraisal, maybe tell them Im looking at a Tundra or 4runner so they price high. Then taking the highest offer and seeing if my dealer will match.

 

I always meet at a public place with cameras regardless.
That way if they try anything it will be on camera.

 

Last car I sold privately I made them meet me at his bank, so I could see that he got the check from there and the transaction was smoother. Too much sketchy shit with fake cashiers checks

 

AZ is one of the States where tax paid on a new vehicle is determined by new car price minus trade = tax paid. For that reason I generally trade the vehicle in. I don't want the hassle of selling the vehicle myself (though I sold my 06 Tacoma myself). The small extra amount I could make selling is not worth my time and hassle. I will trade in the 09 Ram when I purchase a new Tacoma.

 

As atrouth said, meet them at their bank, or have them meet you at yours. I sold my Mazda 3 a few years back and had the buyer meet at my credit union. They verified his check, notarized my simple sales doc, etc. Had the whole thing done in about 30 minutes and I didn't have to worry about anything. You'll pretty much always get more from a private sale than you would in a trade in.

 

I agree with this, especially in older vehicles. But with the Tacoma I would need 30k to be even with what I can get off the trade because of the tax credit. It just makes more sense in this case

 

I use AutoTrader and don't cheap out on the free ad. Pay for more pics and some extras to make it stand out. My truck sold in four days. I probably should have asked for more but I was happy with the price. Craigslist is not bad but for late models you will find dealers trying to steal your vehicle for resale.

The most important thing is price it right. Do all transactions at a bank. If you take a cashier's check be there at the bank or their loan company drafting it in your name. Do not accept cash after banking hours. An unscrupulous buyer will know you have that cash in the house.

Look at tax consequences as well. Here there are none so trading never makes sense on high demand vehicles. Sales Tax is capped at $300

 

CarMax or even other dealers is a good first step with a Tacoma. All dealers love used Tacomas. From there negotiate a trade with the one you are buying from. You might find that the tax break gets you to the point where you do not want to mess with selling a high priced vehicle yourself. That is what happened with my 2009. When the trade value plus tax break got within $400 of what I wanted to sell it for I traded. It will be several more years before I sell mine but I wondering how to value a Baja when I do. I will be in no hurry to sell when I do so I will probably just list in Auto Trader at top $ and see what happens. Try looking up a Baja in Nada, Kelly, or Edmunds.