Hello!

I'm in the Los Angeles area and ordered my MINI a couple of months back from Bob Smith MINI... $1000 over MSRP (yeah, that sucks, but I didn't find these forums until afterwards & everything else I read said that MSRP or higher was becoming the norm for MINIs...). Anyway, my BRG MINI is waiting at the dealer for me, so I was going to pick it up later this weekend. I'd like to trade-in my current car, if possible...

Is there any chance of getting a decent trade-in value for my car?

--Greg

 

A good rule of thumb for trade in is take low Kelly Blue book and take $2000 off as a starting point. Then it is up to your persistence and negotiating skills to get more. Some dealers will negotiate and others won't. Also depends on what you are trading in. If an SUV you can forget about getting anything even 1/2 reasonable for it.

 

It depends on the type of vehicle it is - especially in these economic times. You might try Car Max if there is one near you - see what the dealer will give you and if you don't have time to sell it yourself, then you've got at least 2 offers to go by. Just my 2 cents...

Donna

 

It has been my experience that the trade-in price on Edmunds is about what dealers are offering. Edmunds tends to be signifcantly lower than Kelly Blue Book. If anything, look at the prices on both and consider the Edmund's price the starting offer and the KBB price as the high end

 

Thanks for all the suggestions!

I ended up going to Carmax, then getting the my MA to match the Carmax quote. I just don't have the time (or, more importantly for me, the patience) to sell the car myself, so this worked out pretty well.

Thanks again!