Trade in options.

[Ohmang]

I currently drive a 99 Volvo S40 T4 and would be trading this in when I purchase a new GTI.

I am aware that I would definitely get better $$ for selling it myself but don't want to go down that road.

If I was to order a new car and trade my old one in and the delivery time is say, 4 - 5 months, would the dealer want my car at the time of contract signing - ie when deposit is made or would it be able to hand over the old car when the new one is delivered and retain the trade in value?

I'm not sure how all this works.

Any insight appreciated.

[Mattski]

My experience with older trade in's and my dealer was that they don't really want them. They'll tell you so by offering you about 5-10% of what it's worth. You'll definitely benefit from selling privately. I did so through carsales.com.au and sold in 1 week. Just make sure it's good mechanically, invest in a full interior and exterior detail for around $300, take good pictures and wait for the phone calls and offers.

Having said that mine was a '99 Nissan and yours is a Volvo which might make it more worthwhile to a dealer. Just don't be surprised if they only offer you less than 1k trade in. Private will ALWAYS get you more and when it's all over it won't have seemed that hard.

[SuperHans]

might depend on the dealer - i'm doing a trade with our car, and so far all I've paid is a deposit.

the small print on my contract says that once the car is ready for delivery we have 7 days to organise payment. So I'd say trade in occurs nearly or at the time of picking up the new car.

also :- the dealer will value you your car before the trade in - if the offer isn't anywhere near what a private car sale is on the carsales.com website then its probably not worth doing.

[Vino]

I found myself in a similar situation when ordering my R .Basically the dealer will offer you a price if you hand over your car on ordering or a (lower) price based on what they think your car will be worth in four to five months. I guess from the dealers perspective, its more difficult to commit to a price five or so months down the track as the car won't be in the "same" condition as when it was appraised. In my situation, my current car had 89,000k's on it (thats over 5 years of driving) so they would honour the current resale provided I didn't exceed 100,000k's, which isn't likely. I agreed to sign on the condition that should that milestone be exceeded, the contract be subject to a "satisfacory price" clause.

[mfl]

You may also want to check the contract, as the dealer may have the right to value the trade-in after certain time-frame.

that was the situation with the dealer I bought from, but as I just selected from what stock they had it wasn't an issue.

[Ohmang]

Thanks for the replies.

So it all comes down to how much they will give me. If it is ridiculously low, I might end having to sell it privately.
At least I know that there is a possibility of holding onto my car until the new one comes. I'll just have to have a good chat with the dealer I think.

[REXman]

DUDE, DONT TRADE IT IN.

I always traded in on new cars, till I sold my MY09 WRX on my own. I reckon I saved over $5000 in total both from bargaining power from outright purchase on the new car, and from trade in value.

[hooba]

DUDE, DONT TRADE IT IN.

I bet he'll find that it is the way to go when he finds out the trade in value of his S40 T4 - there is a reason why they don't command a premium over non turbo S40s.