Have you ever prepared your kid for the school competition? Remember those hours of rigorous practice, picking up the best accessories to make your kid look smarter than ever before? Same should be the sequence of events, if you’re going to take your existing car for a trade-in deal in lieu of a new car.
And here are those valuable pieces of advice we have collected from an expert who serve at the new and used Richmond Chevrolet dealer.
Make it Ready for the Show
Though some car experts would advise you to take your car ‘as it is’ to the dealer, to give you a sigh of relief from the hard work, preparing your car well in advance, before you take it for the show down, will give you an extra edge to fetch a better price.
Make it ready for the show.
Start with removing all the junks out from the car, get it vacuumed, washed, waxed and detailed inch by inch, most preferably from a professional cleaning shop. Repair the dents and scratches if there’s any, clean the upholstery and replace it if it has been beyond repairment, and finally if possible, undergo a paint touchup to give it back the original shine. All this would fetch you greater returns replenishing the cost you’re investing in now, as the dealer would invariably take a walk around the car, sit and test drive it, before they give you trade-in price. Well, it would be still better if you can get the engine and the other under-hood space cleaned too.
Keep the Papers Handy
The first step should start when you initially acquire the car: keeping records and receipts. If so, when the day arrives to finally trade your vehicle, you can show the dealer receipts for all the purchases and repair work done on the car. If the dealer questions the condition of a certain engine part or area of the car, you can back up your side with a receipt. “Even though the dealer might throw those receipts out later, it says you took care of the car and ‘here’s proof,’” says Fix.
Research for the Competitive Market Price
To make your car score higher in the inspection results in the dealership, which will be the final deciding factor for its trade-in category and price, you need to first keep all its papers ready and handy. Do not try to save on time and hard work to keep the records printed on papers, the right way. It is these papers that will pave the way for your car to get more score in the inspection, as it would reduce the hard work of the inspectors and the dealership staff to retrieve from the respective authorities.
Do Not Feel Shy to Walk Away
A trade-in value still varies from dealerships to dealerships. The expert who advised us these tips gained experience of several years at the new and used Richmond Chevrolet dealership, and concludes with this, that if the deal isn’t making you happy, there’s no point in looking further for a better one. Do not feel shy to walk away just because you have invested in enough time of both the parties. The dealerships are eager to sell their car as well, so there is enough scope for negotiation from both the sides.