[rickyr17]

Now that my M850 is getting built, I'm starting to think about my trade-in at delivery. I've been looking at using some of those car buying services like carvana, carmax, autonation, etc to get their highest offers. If the dealer doesn't match or beat the highest offer I'll sell it elsewhere.

My question is about my current car. Right now, it's valued around $35k and I still owe about $20k. Would it be more beneficial to pay off the $20k and go in with a car I fully own? Or should I just let them pay it off and take the equity? I'm curious if they take that into consideration when they purchase my car. If whether or not I still owe money doesn't factor into the offer, then I can leave my money in my high-yield savings account.

[Vic55]

You dont need to pay it off--- in fact some states give you trade credit on the taxes (not Cali) so I would just get the best ACV on it at the dealer put in the contract.

Now if you can get a better offer via the sources you cited, do that because cash is king. Lately the used car indexes have dropped quite a bit so lock your offer in fast. AutoNation had been good at their offers but things could have changed. Remember when you get that offer (from AN) you can still talk to the GM of the receiving dealer and try to bump him up more on the price. I was able to do that while testing the waters on my 2022 M3 X Drive Comp--- they came in at msrp and I got them to give me 5k more. I didnt do the deal but wanted to see what my leverage was.

[rickyr17]

Originally Posted by Vic55

You dont need to pay it off--- in fact some states give you trade credit on the taxes (not Cali) so I would just get the best ACV on it at the dealer put in the contract.

Now if you can get a better offer via the sources you cited, do that because cash is king. Lately the used car indexes have dropped quite a bit so lock your offer in fast. AutoNation had been good at their offers but things could have changed. Remember when you get that offer (from AN) you can still talk to the GM of the receiving dealer and try to bump him up more on the price. I was able to do that while testing the waters on my 2022 M3 X Drive Comp--- they came in at msrp and I got them to give me 5k more. I didnt do the deal but wanted to see what my leverage was.

Thanks. I was leaning to not pay it off. I tested the waters on a few of the places and autonation was the best by far at $36k. Unfortunately, it's only good for 7 days so I'll have to check back when it's almost delivery day.

I'm in FL and they do offer less taxes with trade-in. The dealers use that as a bargaining chip. If a trade is worth 20k, it'll save about 1400 on the taxes. The dealer will then use that and only offer 18.6k and say you're saving money on the taxes. I call foul on that though. Cuz no matter how much they give you they'll turn around and sell it for a certain amount. That 1400 is just more profit for them if a person accepts the lower offer.

It's good to know you were able to get a better deal using the other spots for leverage. My plan is to get the best offer a few days before delivery. If my dealer doesn't match or beat it then I'll just sell it to the other spot. Interesting enough, the AN dealer who gave me the offer is a few miles from the BMW dealer. If my dealer doesn't give me a good deal it'll be easy to just take it to the other dealer, sell it and go back to BMW to pick up my car.