When it comes time to sell your car, there are two primary ways you can do it. You can try and sell it privately, or you can sell it to a dealership. While both options have their positives and negatives, in this article we’re going to be focused on selling to a dealership and the advantages it has over private sales.
Less Hassle
As the old saying goes “time is money” and that is especially apt when we’re talking about trying to sell your car. The unavoidable truth is that if you sell your car privately then most likely you’ll get more money than you would by selling to the dealership. However that cash is matched by the extra time and stress that goes into selling a car privately.
You’re going to have to set up online listings, talk with many different interested parties, negotiate, start the process again when those negotiations go nowhere, selling a car is a ton of work which is why we say that the smaller payout of selling to a dealership is worthwhile.
With a dealership you simply drive in, negotiate a price and walk away, quick and easy, consider the money lost as a payment for the simplicity of the process.
Trade-in
Another significant advantage to selling to a dealership is trade-in, while some dealerships will simply give you cash for the car, most will instead offer a trade-in, instead of cash, the value of the car you’re selling will be taken off the next car you buy. Say you traded in a car worth $4000 and you wanted to buy a car worth $20,000. The value of the new car is now reduced to $16,000.
What makes this credit so good is that this deduction is applied before anything else, meaning when you get a loan, you’re getting a loan on the $16,000 not the $20,000. So with a dealership you can jumpstart your next car purchase and get a good deal while doing it.
Security
Another important factor to consider is security and safety. When you’re selling privately you’re always at risk of thieves, scammers and con artists. People who’re looking to scam you out of a car, steal it, or at the very least just looking to waste your time. If you’re not an expert at seeing the signs then you’re always at risk.
When selling to a dealership you can rest easy knowing that you’re working with professionals, who can’t exactly scam you out of a car anyway because as a real business they can be held properly accountable if anything bad happens.