Should I Trade My Car In Or Sell It? All Your Questions Answered
Should I Trade My Car In Or Sell It? All Your Questions Answered
Posted on January 20, 2024
There are positives and negatives to both options and that’s why in this article we’re going to explore the topic to help you make the correct decision for you.
Trading In
Trading in a car is a process in which you take the car to a dealership and sell the car, however, instead of being paid back in cash, you are instead paid in credit which you can put towards your next car purchase.
The primary benefit of doing this is that it gives you a head start on the next car purchase, and by doing both the sale of the old car and the purchase of the new car through the same dealership the process can go much faster.
The credit applied to the next car also decreases the amount of loan you’ll have to pay, and therefore trading in actually leads to saving money on the new car, since you’ll end up paying less interest on the loan.
Selling Privately
When you sell privately it’s a very different process, you’ll have to put up a listing of the car and try and attract potential buyers, it’ll also be on you to secure the correct legal documentation to arrange the sale and do the price negotiations.
The upshot however is that at the end of the process you’re likely to get more money for the car, and that money will be in cash instead of in credit on the next car purchase, meaning you can use that money anywhere you want and on anything you want.
Which is Better?
There’s no clear definitive “better” between whether you should trade in or sell your car in Canada, instead what you need to determine is better for your situation and what you’re looking to do.
If you want to buy a new car then Trading in is probably a better option, where if you're planning to trade one used car for another then selling privately may be the preferable choice.
You can also view it as a choice between time and money, Selling in will make you more money but will also take longer and be more stressful, trading in will be faster but you’ll get less. You need to decide which matters more to you.
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