You are in the market to buy a new car. Your first thought is to trade in your existing one at the dealership. If you do not have any time and you are very comfortable loosing a couple of thousand dollars, go ahead and trade in your existing vehicle at the dealership. If you trade in at the dealership, you dont have to pay a portion of the sales tax, equivalent to the trade-in value of your old car, on your new car. For a $2,000 trade-in, that may be as high as $160 at 8% sales tax rate. But the same $2,000 trade-in car can be sold at $3,000 to a private party if you put some efforts. And that can be a nice chunk of money for a few hours of works.
If you have read so far, you must be interested in getting that extra $1,000. Go ahead start your research for the fair market value of your car using edmunds.com. Enter all your available vehicle features and mileage to obtain an accurate number. Take a printout of the page. Now you have all the details of your car at your finger tips and the estimated market value the sellers in your region are willing to pay from a private party sale.
Call your local news paper and buy a classified ads in automotive section for one...