My Options with my Current 2008 X5

[4MoJoe]

IMHO - I'd sell your X5 yourself and then go buy what you decide on. Dealers goal is to make money on your trade and then on the new.

Keep the replacement purchase simple - with no trade you will have a better place to bargain from. Also, you need to get a quote from a dealer or use a source (like edmunds.com) as to what you think you can do on trade versus selling it private party. If your sales tax diff isn't that great then there's your answer. If you can get someone that has access to manheim dealer auction that will give you an idea of what your car is going to bring on trade.

Example-
I got quoted $14,000 for trade in value on my 2004 - I sold it privately about 5 or 6 weeks ago for $22,000. I'd take the $8K in cash over the smaller sales tax savings.

[kthankzbye]

Originally Posted by 4MoJoe

IMHO - I'd sell your X5 yourself and then go buy what you decide on. Dealers goal is to make money on your trade and then on the new.

Keep the replacement purchase simple - with no trade you will have a better place to bargain from. Also, you need to get a quote from a dealer or use a source (like edmunds.com) as to what you think you can do on trade versus selling it private party. If your sales tax diff isn't that great then there's your answer. If you can get someone that has access to manheim dealer auction that will give you an idea of what your car is going to bring on trade.

Example-
I got quoted $14,000 for trade in value on my 2004 - I sold it privately about 5 or 6 weeks ago for $22,000. I'd take the $8K in cash over the smaller sales tax savings.

Where did you sell it on? I gotta see how much my trade in is. I got it for 35.5k and after TTL was 40k. I'll see what dealer gives me vs privately.

[4MoJoe]

Craigslist of all places...worked like a charm.

[BGM]

Originally Posted by 4MoJoe

IMHO - I'd sell your X5 yourself and then go buy what you decide on. Dealers goal is to make money on your trade and then on the new.

Keep the replacement purchase simple - with no trade you will have a better place to bargain from. Also, you need to get a quote from a dealer or use a source (like edmunds.com) as to what you think you can do on trade versus selling it private party. If your sales tax diff isn't that great then there's your answer. If you can get someone that has access to manheim dealer auction that will give you an idea of what your car is going to bring on trade.

Example-
I got quoted $14,000 for trade in value on my 2004 - I sold it privately about 5 or 6 weeks ago for $22,000. I'd take the $8K in cash over the smaller sales tax savings.

That is more of the effect of the supply and demand from a dealer with the dealer giving you a real low-ball offer. That was a 33% difference between the 2 prices--his '08 3.0 trade is probably worth low $30Ks-- there's not much of a chance he sells private party for $40K (that same 33% difference) on an '08 3.0 45K miles. Most dealer offers on trade are going to be about 10-15% lower than private party amount in general. But I do agree if you want to maximize then sell private. But other factors like sales tax savings, do you have a car right away to drive once you sell it, etc are to be weighed.

[stockguru]

My dealer keeps sending me an offer to trade in my '08 X5. They are advertising a 2012 x5 at the same payment with a lower APR. sounds enticing but because I don't really drive my X5 much (14k miles) I doubt I would get fair value on a trade in. This might work for you though.

[AaronSD]

I just bought a cpo 08 4.8 by trading in a vehicle. Selling privately wasn't an option. I emailed every dealer in socal (10 dealers) before going in. U would be surprised how easy and effective it is pre arranging a deal contingent upon final inspection from both parties. Might want to do this if u r willing to drive a bit.

[jeremym]

Originally Posted by AaronSD

I just bought a cpo 08 4.8 by trading in a vehicle. Selling privately wasn't an option. I emailed every dealer in socal (10 dealers) before going in. U would be surprised how easy and effective it is pre arranging a deal contingent upon final inspection from both parties. Might want to do this if u r willing to drive a bit.

That's exactly what I did. My local dealers (within 20-30 miles) were either assholes, didn't have what I wanted or just couldn't make a deal with me.

I found one, ironically a sister dealership of two locals that were straight up the definition of "used car dealership," that took the stats of my current X and we negotiated a deal over the phone upon final inspection. The numbers didn't change once I got there and that was that.

They took my trade-in, no questions asked and I purchased no questions asked. That's how a deal should be done.

FYI to anyone local: the dealership I had success with was BMW of Bloomfield in New Jersey.