He was so convincing about the second-hand vehicle’s service history, previous owner, ‘market’ price and fuel consumption efficiency .
For many South Africans, this is an uncomfortable reality and for others it is simply a nightmare. Let’s face it. After all, you’ve worked hard to save up for a car you thought you’d get great worth out of by the time you’re ready to enter the ‘sell my car’ or trade in car.
So what now? Well, many cars are well-engineered, but you’ve got to think about the cons of modern secondhand cars too! Even the most expensively engineered cars will break down – perhaps even after only one year. So, whichever way you look at it, you may get stuck with a car that’s not going anywhere.
You’re probably thinking, “I can always fix up my car in any case…” Even so, what are the costs of reconditioning your car? Will the cost of getting your car issues repaired exceed your budget? If so, selling a car would be the best option.
Trading in a car at a dealership is a common way for South Africans to sell car for a new one. But, say you’re interested in buying a car, but your vehicle is still under finance, do you have the hassle-free option of trade in car before you’ve settled your vehicle finances, while at the same time, get the best car trade in value?

If you decide to trade in car for a new one, it may help to familiarise yourself with all the car trade in jargon.

1. Trade Book Value:
A vehicle’s ‘trade book value’ is a rough guide used to help determine the trade price of that specific car. The industry uses book value – only as a starting point – and not as a definitive reference. Book values are calculated using historical data collected from previous trade transactions and typically differ significantly from current market values. In fact, book prices are almost always significantly higher than market prices.
2. Retail price:
It’s essentially the price of the car when someone buys it from a dealer. Retailing is expensive! Dealerships incur substantial costs when selling a vehicle. These costs include displaying the car on the showroom floor, marketing, workforce, insurance, reconditioning, capital and others. To get retail price for your car, you will have to become the retailer! This means that you will incur similar costs to dealers. In addition, you will also have to deal with phone calls from potential buyers, handle test drives, time wasters etc… And most importantly, you will have to take serious safety and fraud risks!
3. Trade-in price:
This is the price the dealer will pay you for a car. Most consumers believe that car trade-ins offer the best deal. However, when trading-in, you generally buy an new car, on which dealers make a good profit. To entice you, dealers reduce the profit on the new car and allocate this “discount” to the amount offered for your car trade-in – creating the impression of a ‘great deal’. To answer our question about your car finance settlements, this price will either contribute towards settling your car loan or you can use it as cash towards a new car purchase.
4. Reconditioning costs:
Would you purchase a used vehicle with scratches, dents or tires that need replacement? Reconditioning costs are the costs required to bring the car into a ‘selling condition’. Your CarZar inspector will evaluate your car’s reconditioning costs and incorporate them into final cash offer.

Next? Working out your car trade in value.

Working out your car trade in value may seem like a seamless effort, however there’s many nitty gritty details cracks to see to – research, getting an unbiased professional evaluation, contacting multiple dealers, etc. When it comes to getting an estimate for the market value of your car, here are the easiest options:

1. Get a free online quote for your car on online car buying services like www.carzar.co.za – CarZar uses a unique algorithm based on market trends and previous transaction histories.
2. Schedule a professional vehicle inspection – CarZar has partnered with independent valuation service, DEKRA and KwikFit, to provide transparent inspections and a guaranteed unbiased cash offer.
3. Keep your dealer options open – why go through the hassle of contacting loads of dealers when CarZar can advertise your car to hundreds of dealers on their matchmaking selling platform for 48-hours, to help get you the best price the market is willing to pay.

OR

1. Do your own research.
2. Get a haggling salesman to calculate the resale value of your car.
3. Call up different dealers on your own.

The best part out trying to figure out the trade-in value of your car is that CarZar’s clearly got all your options covered – it’s a 3 in 1 solution.
If you want to enhance the resale value of your car and make your trade-in attractive, ensure you have spare keys, full proof of service history and that your second hand car’s interior and exterior is in selling condition – we only buy running cars!
To find out which cars trade in well, check out:

• The Most Valuable Colours for Trading in a Car

Though, there are cons to trading-in your car.

Retailing is expensive! Dealerships incur substantial costs when selling a car. These costs include displaying the car on the showroom floor, marketing, workforce, insurance, reconditioning, capital and others. This essentially means dealers have to make a commission.
The profit made on your new car purchase is reduced and made to seem as though you’re getting a massive ‘discount’.
If there’s one thing you can take from this, it’s that selling a car would give you cash in hands; which ultimately means more flexibility to purchase at any dealership, higher bargaining power to negotiate a really good discount and you will not incur any hidden retail costs. So, why go through the hassle trying to figure out how to trade in a car?

With CarZar.co.za you can get hundreds of offers from top dealers around the company, and in turn, the best price the market is willing to pay for your car.

GET A FREE QUOTE NOW