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I have a question about whether to sell or trade in our 1996 Honda Civic.

My partner and I are looking at buying a new used car and have been offered a trade-in price of $2250 against a 2006 Toyota Rav4.

Is this a good trade value or is it worth selling privately for more?

I'm hoping we can get at least $3k privately. It has a body kit, mags, an aftermarket exhaust and has been lowered. No tinkering has been done under the hood.

All modifications have been purely cosmetic and apart from a few abrasions it's quite a tidy car.

The car has travelled 196,000km's which is quite high.

What do you think?

Jason

From the "Ask Jack" archives - 10 December, 2010

I suspect the trade-in price is about right. A dealer is never going to give you a comparable private sale asking price unless there is a huge profit margin in the car they are selling.

They normally always allow for a profit margin of some sort when they on-sell any trade whether it be to the public or via a wholesaler. Remember when a dealer sells a car to the general public, they do carry some risks which their profit margins help cover at times.

The benefits of excepting the dealer price are; its easy for you, do the deal and walk away.

You may have a target private sale price in mind but there is never a guarantee this will be achieved. Most private buyers want to negotiate any asking price and the difference between the dealer trade-in price and what you actually achieve selling privately can be a lot closer than you first imagine.

At 196K your Civic may be quite hard to sell privately.