Trading in a car at a dealership can be a very stressful process of trying to get a price on your vehicle that is actually fair. Often times when you take your car to Carmax for example, they will drastically under price the trade-in value of your car unless you are willing to buy a car from there lot. In addition, they actually will give you more money if you know how to act and if you do your research.

Always consider your options before trading in your car. In many cases you can get a lot more money if you sell to an individual person. This does take significantly more work, but it can be worth it in the end.

To get a better offer on your trade-in, make sure that your car is cleaned up as well as possible. You should do a thorough cleaning of both the inside and outside of the car. It should be the cleanest you have ever made your car if possible. Even deep cleaning the carpets can be worth it. If you smoke, you also need to make sure you use smoke cleaning products to ensure your car smells as new as possible

Before you trade in your car, make sure to get multiple offers. There are so many car dealerships out there that it should not be hard to find multiple dealerships to give you an offer on your trade in. Keep in mind that they are going to try and pressure you into buying, but you need to be assertive in that you will come back if their trade in value is fair. That way they have incentive to offer you a little bit better of a deal.

Websites like Edmunds and Kelly Blue Book can be absolutely essential to determining a fair value for your car. Remember that car dealerships are pretty much never going to rate your car as very good or excellent. The only way you are going to get this rating is if you complete a true deep clean prior to bringing your car into the dealership.

In the vast majority of cases, you will get the best deal by either trading in your car to the dealer that you are actually going to buy your new car from or trading your car to a private seller. If you follow these simple rules, you can earn yourself a significant amount of money compared to just accepting your first offer.x