Elusive1

Should the fact that my car was damaged ($5000) and repaired (basically as good as new) have any negative effect on a trade-in? Dealer says the fact that the car was in an accident lowers it's trade value. Please help!!!

MBE55AMG

Your dealer's right. Of course the trade-in value is lowered. It's on the history record, right?

mainroman

If it is showing on Carfax - then yes, trade in value will be lowered.
If it's not showing on carfax, just sell it and never tell anyone.
You are not the dealer.
Or find another dealership to trade that in. And don't tell them about accident. If they can't find it, it's their problem.

Anyway - why would you trade car in?
Won't get more money if you just sell it?

Elusive1

Thanks for the advice mainroman i appreciate it. I am a noob here and have very little experience dealing with trade-ins. I just wanted to see what people would say about my situation. The car is leased & has a few payments left on it.

Vic55

Just finish the lease, if the repairs are half way decent the servicing bank will not notice it on lease inspection. Most of these banks outsource companies to do their inspections. My boss had a Volvo and two older people probably in their 70's came out and inspected it at our office. They missed so many imperfections that we were laughing after they left.

mainroman

If it's leased just finish yet. I agree.
This way you will minimize your loss.

I never leased a car, always buy.
And if you buy a car - no matter how (cash or financ) it is always better to sell it, then buy smth new.

Trade in is for lazy rich people usually. ;-)

e55 baller

I should check the car fax on my car. has been dinged twice in parking lots by morons...both 1-1.5K each time.

jangy

Never buy. Always lease. Why pay $100K in today's dollars , when I can buy half now and half in 3 years for the cost of TODAY!!

Then there is the TAX INCENTIVE!!

LOL

zoink

Typically if it's only fender bender and no police report, it won't show up in Carfax.

zoink

What tax incentive? You mean sales tax?

Unless you could give me example w/ numbers, I still think buying is better than leasing. The only case I could think leasing is better is when considering opportunity of investing the money somewhere else. But this could still be overcome by financing instead of paying in cash.

Here's my logic:
In typical lease deals, the money you spent to iniate the lease and during lease period (lost money) is bigger than the depreciation (and interest, if financing) including the sales tax you paid. This means at the end of the day you still end up w/ more cash if you buy.