DoesThatSparkle wrote:
So nobody buys cars from a private owner if they are $20k+? Uhh....

I just think it's completely silly to automatically trade in your car. Try and sell it first. If it's a long time and you still can't? Then fine, trade it in. But to automatically lose thousands of dollars and say "eh, it's not worth it" is just bad money management. My parents, friends, family, etc. have all sold all of their cars privately and never had a problem. And some of them very recently. I mean, obviously do what you want...but like I said, it's just silly to automatically go for the trade in when 9 times out of 10 they will never result in as much as a private sale.



On the other hand, I know several people who have traded in their vehicles and definitely don't have money management problems. It's just a different route to go down. It's not necessarily "silly" to trade in a car, especially if a dealership is offering incentives for trade-ins. When you privately sell a car, the buyer has to go out and secure a loan on his/her own rather than going through a dealership, so it's difficult and sometimes risky to privately sell it. There is usually more than 1 way to skin a cat.