Pros & Cons of Selling an Old Car to a Dealership

Pros & Cons of Selling an Old Car to a Dealership

Posted on August 12, 2021

Selling your old car is all part of the new car buying process. After all, you need to make space for the new car and add some more money to the down payment pot. Selling your existing car achieves that. We asked our Burlington auto loans team to outline the pros and cons of selling an old car to a dealership instead of privately. This is what they said.

Pros of selling an old car to a dealership

There are definite upsides to selling your old car to a dealership. They include:

Quick and easy

There are few easier ways to sell a car than to walking into a dealership, having the car appraised, discussing it over a coffee and accepting or negotiating the offer.

It’s certainly faster and much less painful than trying to sell your car privately that’s for sure!

Higher offers than ever before

The strength of the used car market means we can offer higher prices than ever before for your old car. It still won’t quite meet what you could get selling it privately but considering how easy it is, it’s well worth considering.

A shortage of used vehicles in the market has driven up prices considerably, putting you in a strong position to negotiate. We can’t quite hit market rate but the gap is now closer than ever before!

Low risk

Not all private car sales go wrong but enough do to make it a nervous time for many sellers. Whether it’s theft, payment scams or something else, there is enough risk out there to make selling your car to a dealer a much more attractive prospect.

Cons of selling an old car to a dealership

There are a couple of downsides to selling your car to a dealer though.

Still pays less than private sales

It costs a dealer money to recondition a used car to prepare it for resale. That money has to come from somewhere, which is why we cannot offer the same prices you might get if you sold privately.

That gap is now smaller than ever and is probably measured in a couple of hundred dollars rather than thousands, but it’s still there.

Dealers won’t buy customs or modified cars

If you drive a non-standard car, you’re unlikely to be able to sell it to a dealer. The market for such cars is small and people looking for a custom or modified car aren’t going to be looking in dealerships.

If you have a non-standard car, you’re still better off selling privately or to a custom specialist.

On balance, we would say selling your old car to a dealer is the easiest option for a good price and safe transaction. Contact our team when it’s time to sell yours!

Contact Unique Chrysler for help, advice and competitive Burlington car finance and leasing.

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