Five Things That Affect Your Trade Value

Our goal is help you get a realistic value for your vehicle so you are not "cheated" or disappointed by the dealer's evaluation.

Here are Five Things that affect your trade:

Condition:  When I look at a vehicle, I first look at the interior.  If the interior is clean and well-taken care of, it is usually a sign of a good vehicle.  People who trash out the inside of a car probably don't change the oil either.  The old adage is this: "Even a dog doesn't poop where he sleeps".  If the inside isn't in good condition, it's a safe bet that the car will have some minor or major maintenance and/or mechanical problems as well.  Dings, dents, scratches, tears, burns, etc., are a normal part of owning a vehicle...however, these things still effect the value because most prospective buyers want them fixed...and fixing them costs money.  The same goes for oil leaks, exhaust leaks, and mechanical problems.

The condition of a car has a dramatic impact on its value.  Use care when describing your vehicle's condition, don't over-value or under-value it.  Note: "Excellent means "New".  Very few cars will be in "excellent" condition.  Most cars fall between "Fair and Good".

Color: In Texas, light colored vehicles generally sell faster (and for more money) than dark colored vehicles.  But on some cars, especially highline vehicles like Mercedes-Benz, black is still a preferred color and typically brings a higher price than most other colors.  White is still the number one color.  While some "purple" cars are absolutely beautiful, purple doesn't sell as well as white and therefore will not command as high a value...the same is true of most other non-neutral colors.  Traditionally, black, white, and silver are the most popular colors.  Exceptions might be red and yellow on true "sports" cars like Porsche.

Previous Paint and/or Bodywork:  Most people understand that damage, even repaired damage, will diminish the value of a vehicle.  To a prospective buyer "damaged" vehicles, repaired or not, are simply not worth as much as undamaged vehicles (would you pay the same money for a "wrecked" car as an "un-wrecked" car?  Neither will anyone else, knowingly). 

The exception is an older higher mileage vehicle.  Repaired damage to these vehicles is generally not as much a factor (although it's still a factor), primarily because the value of an older high-mileage car is already low.  A good rule of thumb is to deduct 10-20% for previous paint and bodywork, although it could be more on late-model highline vehicles where the resale market is small (not too many people can afford a $50k vehicle and those who can, generally don't want a damaged vehicle at all, unless it's really cheap). 

You can try to hide or deny the existence of paint and bodywork, but most Used Car Managers are very experienced at detecting previous paint and bodywork...and most of them use Paint Meters today anyway, so the chances of "slipping one by" is almost non-existent.  If the appraiser says there's previous paint or bodywork, and you didn't know it, ask him (or her) to show you.

Mileage:  Mileage affects vehicles in different ways.  There are two types of vehicles that always have high demand...good clean well-maintained low-mileage cars and good clean well-maintained high-mileage cars.  You'll notice both types are preceded by "good clean and well-maintained.  It's the cars in the middle (and those that are neither good, clean, or well-maintained) that get hurt the most by mileage.  A vehicle with over 40,000 or under 80,000 miles is typically the most difficult to sell and therefore commands the least trade value.

Low mileage cars are always in high demand and short supply.  High mileage cars have a very high demand from people with very little money.  There are lots of buyers for good clean high-mileage vehicles, but they need to be cheap.

Highline vehicles...Mercedes, BMW, etc., are engineered to run for several hundred thousand miles, so a nice well-maintained Mercedes with 150,000 is still a good car and could be an excellent value.

Time:  There are better and worse times to trade.  If you want to trade your convertible in the middle of winter, it's simply not going to be worth as much as it would in late Spring or early Summer. 

It's called "supply and demand".  Not too many people want to buy a convertible with three feet of snow on the ground.  On the other hand, if you're in the market for a convertible, you can usually find a bargain in December.  Same with four-wheel drive vehicles.  They will bring more money in late Fall and early Winter, so buy one in July or August.

Don't be afraid to ask questions about your appraisal or the appraisal process.  Just be aware that all appraisals are subjective.  A Mercedes-Benz is probably worth more to a Mercedes dealer, than a Chevy dealer...and vice-versa.

If you have questions about your appraisal or the appraisal process, feel free to email us at cardogs@cardogsonline.com