Trade in your used car

Tips on trading in your car

Get your vehicle valued

When negotiating a Trade in, it is prudent to know how much your vehicle is worth. This will stop you from being taken for a ride. These days obtaining a vehicle valuation is as simple as filling out a form online. The trade in value obtained will be a ball park value of your car. Remember to be honest on the form, or you will have erroneous valuation data to work with.

Obtain multiple trade in offers

Trade in offers on your car may fluctuate drastically depending on the company or car dealership that makes the offer. To obtain the best possible trade in value on your car, you will need to shop around to see what different parties are willing to pay for your used car. Unfortunately, some car dealers will only accept your Trade-in if you purchase a car from them, this makes bargaining difficult as you are limited to dealers who have the vehicle you wish to purchase.

Obtain trade in quotes online

Technology now enables you to obtain a trade in quote online. This is usually the follow-up step to an online car valuation, where the valuator makes you an offer for your vehicle. This can be used to either negotiate with your current dealer, or can be processed as a trade-in option. Having cash instead of a car opens up many negotiation doorways when buying your next car.

Consider selling your car

Having a car to trade in is always limiting in some ways. If you can replace this with cash, your negotiating power increases when buying a new car. There are various ways for you to sell your car:
- Using our sell car facility to advertise your car privately on Cars.co.za. This option will usually yield the best returns, but comes with additional risk and can take time.
- Sell it directly to an online valuator (as discussed above) - you will usually get a better price than trading your car in.

Please note that tips provided on trading in your car are meant only as a guide to the car seller.