Car Trade-in program - exchanging used cars

How does trade-in work?

If you decide to use the trade-in service, you need to contact a car dealership that supports this program and sells the brand of car you want to purchase. Salon representatives will conduct diagnostics and check documents. Afterwards the owner will be informed of the discount amount. If the conditions suit both parties, you can immediately conclude an agreement and arrange the purchase of a new vehicle.

How is a car assessed?

During trade-in diagnostics, all technical characteristics of the vehicle, its current condition, and the presence of breakdowns and defects are checked. The inspection takes place at the service center of the car dealership itself or at any other service specified by the manager. The car owner is not involved in choosing a workshop.

All data on the technical condition is entered into the protocol. He contains:

make and model;
year of issue;
complete set;
mileage;
information about the appearance of the car;
indication and description of technical faults;
a record of the availability of documents on the vehicle;
data on the current market demand for this car.

The result of the assessment is a cash offer from the dealership manager. If there is mutual agreement, the amount is immediately included in the contract.

How to speed up a deal

For those who understand what a trade-in is, there is no question of how to speed up the transaction. The process itself takes only a few hours, and you can arrive at the salon in an old car and leave in a new one.

The process may be delayed by the lack of necessary documents or disagreement with the estimated value of your car. In the latter case, it is not recommended to waste extra time on trading. Typically, the dealer's offer amount does not change.

What is the Trade-In service?

This program is often used by people who want to get a new iron horse and get a good discount for trading in the old one. A person comes to a car dealership and chooses the car he likes with the possibility of exchange. Having carefully examined his old car, the auto center specialists announce the price they are ready to offer as a discount on the purchase of a new car from the automotive industry. The remaining amount must be paid on the spot or by applying for a loan.

This service appeared relatively recently, so it is used by car dealerships in large cities. In the outback, little is known about what it is to trade-in a car at a car dealership. And those who are a little aware are wary of it and do not always dare to use it. Car enthusiasts believe that this is one of the versions of extorting money from visitors and the program contains many pitfalls. The Trade-In system was developed in the USA, where it is widely used to increase demand for new brands of vehicles.

pros

Cheating is practically impossible. The delivery of the old car to the dealership and the signing of documents takes place under the supervision of specialized lawyers. Selling through bulletin boards cannot give any guarantee that the transaction will be fair.
Take care of your nerves. When selling on your own, strange people may appear and intrusively offer to pick up the car “right now.” But they are usually willing to pay an amount much less than the seller wants to receive.
Saves time. Not all cars on the secondary market quickly find buyers. Sales using the Trade-In system occur within 24 hours. During the same time, a new car is bought.
Discounts. Official dealers can reduce the price for car enthusiasts who purchase cars of the same brand.

Minuses

Often the price is below the market threshold. Since the assessment is carried out by the organization's employees, they will look for any defects in order to pay less. By these actions they ensure the organization’s profit - the difference between the market and final price will be credited to the car dealership’s account. Car dealership employees carefully check the release time, distance traveled, and participation in an accident. No one will exchange a new car for a car with flaws. This deal will not bring benefits to the car dealership, since cars with obvious defects and serious malfunctions are difficult to sell at the proposed price.
Small selection of cars for sale. You can purchase using the Trade-In service only the cars available in the showroom, the modification and execution of which may not be to everyone’s liking.
By insidiously using NLP techniques, a dealer can impose an expensive car on a client.
If the purchased car is used, its technical condition can greatly upset the new owner. Dealers don't like to spend a lot of money on the item they sell.

Program conditions

The trade-in scheme is simple: the car owner gives his car to the dealership, and the dealer counts its cost as a discount on a new product. In essence, there is an exchange with an additional payment on the part of the buyer. The purchase price of a used car can be applied as a down payment when purchasing on credit. Sometimes the salon itself pays extra if the buyer wants to exchange a more expensive model for a cheaper one.

Each dealer's criteria are different. For example, some showrooms only accept cars of their own brand or up to a certain year of manufacture. The following conditions are general:

You can only get a discount on one product once, i.e. you won’t be able to trade in several cars at once to reduce the price of a new one.
Cars that are owned by the buyer or if he has a power of attorney are accepted.
Vehicles that are pledged or under arrest are not included in the program.
The owner has no prohibition on registration actions.

For example, our car dealership accepts cars of any brand.

Benefits of buying a used car

By purchasing a used car through the trade-in program, a citizen will receive the following benefits:

The salon provides a guarantee not only for new, but also for used cars.
Unlike buying a car second-hand, a transaction with a car dealership is absolutely safe.
When putting a car up for sale, the dealer carefully checks it for any technical problems. Therefore, subsequently the buyer will be deprived of unpleasant surprises.
The transaction is carried out quickly and without unnecessary hassle.

How does a trade-in happen: requirements for a car

To understand the basic requirements for a car, it’s enough to understand what a trade-in is and how it works. The dealer purchases the car for the purpose of resale. It is important that the appearance and technical characteristics of the vehicle interest the potential buyer. The seller wants to protect himself from possible legal proceedings. This leads to the following requirements:

The car was purchased legally, all documents confirming ownership and registration certificate are available.
The vehicle is in good condition, fully equipped (all doors, windows, parts are present).
There is no serious external damage to the body or VIN number (minor scratches are acceptable).

Required documents

Each salon requires its own package of documents for trade-in. There are no fundamental differences, but it is better to check with the dealer in advance about its standard list. Having all the required papers when conducting diagnostics will significantly speed up the process and increase buyer loyalty. Be sure to prepare:

Personal passport of the person making the sale.
Vehicle registration certificate.
Vehicle registration certificate.
Notarized power of attorney (if the sale is not carried out by the direct owner).

There are two options for how you can legally formalize what a trade-in is. They consist of either 2 purchase and sale agreements or an exchange agreement. After signing, the car owner receives his copy of the agreement and the vehicle acceptance certificate.

What kind of car will be accepted for trade-in?

All car dealerships differ in their car selection criteria. Some showrooms accept cars up to a certain year, while others do not choose all brands, etc. But they all have common conditions. Let's look at them:

You must have the necessary documents (owner's passport, car registration certificate and registration certificate).
Must be purchased legally.
No mechanical damage other than minor scratches.
The buyer must be the official owner of the car being sold or have a power of attorney with him.
Without collateral, credit, seizure or any restrictions.

Pros of a trade-in

To better understand what a trade-in is at a car dealership, we suggest understanding the benefits of both sides. There are a number of undeniable advantages for the car owner:

By using the program, he saves himself from having to look for a buyer on his own. Selling a car can take months. It requires submitting advertisements, meeting with potential buyers, and answering calls and messages. When choosing a trade-in, all this will be handled by the car dealership even after the transaction is completed.
Exchange of an old car for a new one takes place as quickly as possible. Usually all the necessary documents are always with the driver, so the contract will be drawn up within one day.
Contacting a dealer with a good reputation guarantees minimal risks of deception and fraud.
There is no requirement to carry out pre-sale preparation of the vehicle and participate in re-registration with the traffic police. The car dealership will handle all this.
A new car is purchased immediately after the old one is sold, and the driver does not have to spend several days or weeks without a vehicle between these transactions.
A car loan is available along with the trade-in.

The main advantage of the program remains the discount on a new car provided by the dealer. Depending on the market value of the available transport and the chosen model, the amount can vary from several thousand to half a million.

Features of machine evaluation

So that the representatives of the car dealership do not have any complaints about the car being sold, it is necessary to make sure that everything is in order with the vehicle from the point of view of legality. Therefore, for his part, the owner must check whether he has any unpaid fines or other questions from the traffic police.

In turn, the salon begins evaluating the car with a legal check.

The following items are checked:

whether the vehicle has been stolen;
absence in the lists of property that has been seized;
Is the car listed on bank collateral lists and car pawnshops (read about how to get a loan to buy a car).

Legal verification guarantees the safety of purchasing a vehicle not only by the dealership, but also by the subsequent buyer.

Then the technical characteristics of the car and its condition are assessed. Cars in disrepair are not allowed to participate in the program. Vehicles with significant problems are also not purchased by the dealership. Some cosmetic defects or minor problems can be easily eliminated by the company's car service center and are only important when calculating the cost of the car.

The remaining points that are taken into account in the assessment are: the operating time of the machine, the brand, the popularity of the model, and the country of origin. The cost of repairs (if necessary) is deducted from the amount received.

Additionally, we recommend reading our expert’s article, in which he talks about the features of buying a used car from Germany.

We also recommend that you carefully study the question of how to buy a car from Japan yourself. By the way, the answers to it are presented in the material of our author.

I'm wondering, is it possible to buy a car with maternity capital? Read a detailed article from our specialist.

You can find out more detailed information on how to buy a car second-hand by reading our expert’s article.

Vehicle requirements

Car dealerships care about purchasing a good car at a favorable price. Therefore, certain requirements are put forward for cars that wish to participate in the program:

age and mileage: from 5 to 10 years; up to 100 thousand km;
no technical faults;
presentable appearance;
popularity in the market.

Precautionary measures

Since cases of fraud in the automotive sector have become more frequent in our country, before purchasing a new car you need to find out the following points.

Who is the owner of the vehicle – the dealer or the previous owner.
Was the vehicle purchased on credit?
All dubious positions in the contract must be discussed and clarified. You should especially carefully study the issue of the provision and duration of the guarantee.
It is recommended to exchange cars in showrooms that are official dealers of this brand in the country.

Minuses

The advantages of a trade-in for the dealer begin in the same place as the disadvantages for the car owner. The main task of a car dealership is to buy a car below market value and sell it at a higher price. There is no deception here as such. By purchasing your car, the company undertakes its maintenance, repairs, pre-sale preparation, advertising, searching for buyers, and re-registration. The dealer cannot predict the exact time of receipt of the benefit, so the difference with the market price always includes future costs and estimated risks.

Each company has its own idea of what a trade-in at a car dealership is. Some will reduce the cost of the car by 5-10%, others may voice an offer 25-30% less than the market value. It is always better to compare the conditions of different dealers and first use a special calculator to clarify the current price of your car.

Trade-in pitfalls

A trade-in at a well-known brand car dealership is an almost 100% guarantee of transaction security. When making an exchange, it is important to be wary not of fraud, but of some completely legal nuances:

The client may be faced with the imposition of a particular make and model of a new car and the installation of additional equipment. It is better to determine in advance what kind of vehicle you are going to purchase and check with the dealer for its availability. You may have to wait a little longer for the exact model you want, but this is better than unreasonable overpayments.
You should not agree to additional terms in the contract in the form of obligations to carry out repairs at your own expense or compensate the car dealership for costs. Trade-in is buying your car here and now in the condition in which it is.
The contract must clearly state that the dealer is purchasing a car from you, and not helping you sell it on his site.
It is important to take into account the moment of re-registration of the vehicle. The company will engage in its further resale, but during this time you should not be listed as the owner of the car. Otherwise, you will continue to pay transport tax and possible fines. The car dealership must be listed as the buyer in the contract. Blank spaces in this column are not allowed.
Some companies offering trade-in carry out paid diagnostics. It is important to clarify this point in advance.

What is a trade-in, what are its advantages and disadvantages, and what are the pitfalls?

1. What is a trade-in?

Trade-in (or trade-in) is a service for accepting your car in exchange for the purchase of a new one, the price of which is reduced by the cost of yours, which is accepted as credit. This service is provided by dealers and car showrooms, and one of its main goals is to stimulate sales of new cars.

2. What is the procedure for buying and selling using the trade-in service?

The classic procedure for exchanging an old car for a new one is simple: you come to the dealer, he diagnoses your car and evaluates it, and if the offered price suits you, you sign a purchase and sale agreement for your car with the dealer and immediately purchase a new one, taking into account the “discount” , equal to the price of an old car. Accordingly, the dealer will deal with the sale of your old car - and you drive away with a new one.

3. What are the advantages of the trade-in service?

The benefits that a car owner receives when using a trade-in service are obvious. A car dealership relieves him of the need to sell an old car on his own: coming up with and publishing ads, taking dozens of calls and going to shows with capricious buyers, and then haggling until he sweats. In addition, with the right choice of dealer, the risk of fraud when completing a purchase and sale tends to zero. Little things like the absence of the need to do the so-called pre-sale preparation of the car and go with the buyer to the traffic police to re-register at the latter’s request are also on the list of positive features of the trade-in.

And this approach, as a rule, eliminates the need to be without a car while buying a new one - if the model you need is in stock at the dealer, you come to him with an old car and leave with a new one. Of course, to purchase this new car, you will also have access to a car loan - this can also be considered a plus. And finally, one of the main advantages at the moment is that the dealer provides an additional discount on a new car if it is purchased at a trade-in. Here the amounts vary greatly from brand to brand and from model to model: on a budget car you can save about 10-60 thousand, on a middle-class car - 50-150 thousand, and sometimes a good half a million can be knocked off the price tag of a premium sedan or SUV.

4. What are the disadvantages of the trade-in service?

However, you should not assume that a trade-in is an absolutely ideal way to change a car: there are also plenty of disadvantages and nuances. One of the main ones is the low estimated value of the car you are renting out: the car dealership is very likely to pay a price below the market value for it. And this is not a hoax: you should also soberly understand that the business needs profit, and your car will be put up for resale with associated costs. Of course, no one will repair it or do complex maintenance, but washing, dry cleaning and the salary of the manager of the used car department will be included in the potential profit for your car. Therefore, be prepared for the fact that the offered price will be several tens of thousands of rubles less than those indicated for similar items in private advertisements.

Another feature of a trade-in that reduces its attractiveness is the limited choice and sometimes the imposition of a car. After all, if you want to drive away in a new car the same day, you need to choose one of those available at the dealer. But here all the standard “tricks” of overly enterprising sellers can await you: they will persistently offer you a car that is “convenient” for them and convince you to install additional equipment, and often overpriced “extras” will already be installed on the car being sold without the possibility of them refuse, which significantly changes the final price tag and reduces the joy from the discounts received.

In addition, it is worth remembering that at a trade-in you can usually purchase not only a new car, but also one of those that were handed over to the car dealership by other owners. However, in this case, the purchase loses the charm of novelty and conventional ideality: you should not expect that, for example, a Ford car parked at a Kia dealer has been thoroughly checked and carefully serviced - such a purchase should be approached as a standard market procedure. And given that the requirements for cars offered for trade-in are low, the risk of encountering a rather problematic car at a car dealership is palpable. The only advantage in this case is the reduced risk of having “documentary” problems with the car: as a rule, dealers carefully check the cars accepted for trade-in for legal purity, and buying a credit or seized car from them is almost impossible.

5. What pitfalls exist in the trade-in service?

As mentioned above, when planning a trade-in, it is worth assessing the car in advance and agreeing with the dealer on what kind of car will be purchased - you may have to order it and wait, and the dealer must agree to this. It is also worth understanding that the estimated value of your car announced to you may change during the waiting period - the conditions for maintaining it should be agreed upon with the dealer.

Articles / Popular questions How to arrange the purchase and sale of a car and save money Buying and selling cars is the basis for the existence of the automobile market. This procedure itself is quite simple - without taking into account the choice of car and the pitfalls associated with it, of course. In… 19288 3 11 03/20/2017

The main condition for the accuracy of everything we have listed above is the honesty and official status of the dealer. If you are dealing with an unofficial dealer of a brand or even with a multi-brand car dealership that sells everything, then you should not expect any guarantees - price tags, configurations or purchase conditions can change overnight. Therefore, when signing any contract with an official dealer, you should be careful, and with an unofficial dealer, you should be three times careful.

Another way to take money from the car owner can be all sorts of additional conditions. If you are offered to carry out any pre-sale preparations or repairs at your own expense, including them in the mandatory conditions of the trade-in service or promising to compensate for the costs through a discount on a new car, it is highly likely that you are being deceived. The procedures will be carried out in the “interested” service center, the fact of the repair will not be confirmed by anything, and additional technical problems that may arise during the “repair” process will remain yours and will further reduce the cost of the car. Therefore, under normal conditions, all expenses associated with the sale of a car are borne by the dealer - you give him the car “as is” for the amount specified in the purchase and sale agreement - and you definitely shouldn’t agree to do something at your own expense.

You should also not agree to “commission” schemes with dealers and car dealerships that do not inspire confidence. As an alternative to a trade-in, you may be offered help with the sale by displaying the car at the dealership. This is also fraught with tricky additional agreements, including expensive pre-sale preparation, a fee for a place on the site, a sales commission and paid “qualified assistance” when re-registering a car. So if one car dealership is not ready to buy your car on its own, you simply go to another one.

6. What is the correct sequence of the trade-in procedure?

When planning to trade-in your car, be sure to visit several dealers and make a preliminary assessment, and also find out about the conditions and discounts that will be offered to you. Do not hesitate to clarify these details - after all, you need to sell the car as profitably as possible, and the conditions in different car dealerships may also differ. Having chosen the best offers, conduct an inspection at these dealers: the exact final amount that you will be offered for the car will be announced only based on the diagnostic results. If after this you are offered a price that suits you, you can move on to choosing a new car.

Here, too, you should not be timid: if the desired model is in stock, but it has additional options installed that can be removed or purchased cheaper, try to negotiate their dismantling or reducing their cost. History knows examples when a dealer reupholstered the seats of a C-class hatchback with leather (artificial, of course), but changed them back to fabric ones from another car by agreement with the client. Removing prohibitively expensive crankcase protection and wheel rims is in the same category. Of course, the chances of this are not that great, but it’s worth a try. Well, the alternative is to order another car and wait.

When both the desired and existing old car are at the dealer, you can begin the registration procedure. There is nothing unusual about it: first you sign a purchase and sale agreement for an old car with the dealer, and then pay the difference and purchase a new car or draw up a loan agreement for its purchase.

An extremely important point:

in addition to the standard purchase and sale agreement with the dealer, you need to conclude an agreement that will indicate the terms for the sale of your car or the authority to terminate the registration of the car by the dealer - in this case, you will need to issue a power of attorney for these actions. The point here is that after purchasing a car, the dealer is unlikely to re-register it in his name, and until the car finds a new owner, transport taxes and fines will be the concern of the previous owner. Thus, it is the dealer who must take responsibility for the sale and control over the re-registration of the car by the new owner. If these conditions were not met, and you, for example, received a fine for your sold car, you have the right to visit the traffic police and stop registering the vehicle , and then appeal the fine by providing a sales contract. In addition, it is worth including in the contract the service of informing you, as the previous owner, that the car was sold by a car dealership.

Stages of the trade-in procedure

Before signing a purchase and sale agreement using the trade-in system, you must go through the following steps:

Contact the dealer and get a preliminary assessment of the car. It is carried out according to a brief description provided by the owner. You can immediately check the availability of the new car model you need.
If you are satisfied with the preliminary price, then a time will be scheduled to undergo detailed diagnostics at the company’s service center. You need to bring the car and take all the documents. On average, the procedure takes about 3 hours.
After the technical inspection, a protocol is drawn up and the final price of the car is set. With the consent of the car owner, it is immediately included in the purchase and sale agreement. The agreement is signed by both parties, and a transfer and acceptance certificate is drawn up.
Another sales contract is drawn up for a new car, taking into account the discount received. The buyer is invoiced for additional payment. After payment, documents for a new car are drawn up.

Read how trade-in happens at our Avtostar car showroom in Simferopol on the street. Borodina, 14E.

What is a trade-in system

The trade-in system is a way of purchasing a new car, in which part of its cost is covered by the cost of the old car. In computer slang there is a concept of “update” that is similar in meaning.

The car owner’s action plan is absolutely simple and consists of several stages:

a trade-in car dealership is selected;
the owner arrives in his old car, which experts check and evaluate;
If the price suits you, the old car remains in the showroom, and the buyer drives away with the new one.