Buying a near New/ Demo Car and Trading in My Old One - Good to Do It Now or Later?

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  pegaxs on 28/07/2021 - 14:20

  +4

  If you are going to wait and there are plenty of stock of the car you want, private sell your car (the extra money you will get for it will make it worth the "hassel"). You will get more for it than what a dealer will offer as a trade in. Once it finally sells, go buy your new car.

  Also, what's the need for trading up? More space? Current car is turning into a money pit? Sea change? Keeping up with the Joneses?

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  Hybroid on 28/07/2021 - 14:21

  +6

  Keep the Tiguan if it hasn't given you any issues yet.

  • 

    peterwilliams83 on 28/07/2021 - 16:54

    +3

    but don't all VW's spontaneously combust once they reach 6 years old?? /s

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  Mechz on 28/07/2021 - 14:21

  If you've had the car since new, and not had any issues, I wouldn't.

  Trade in will always rip you a new one. Private sell if you really want and can get the CX-8 but really, if you've treated your car well it's unlikely to turn into a lemon overnight.

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  JDMcarfan on 28/07/2021 - 14:42

  Unless you urgently need the new car for the extra people capacity, I would just recommend keeping the Tiguan and riding it out until something more serious has come apparent. More than likely, esp given the make, that you've copped the hit financially with depreciation at this point and might as well hold it out.

  I would say sell now privately and hire/lease until you buy in a year when prices are cheaper is the next best option but as you've mentioned that won't be suitable for you.

  What model Tiguan exactly are we speaking about (model/version/kms)? If its a MY17+ then I'd seriously suggest you keep as its pretty modern by any standard.
  And have you gotten any trade-in valuations as of yet? you can use carsales instant offer and use that as the low ball amount to start your trade-in valuations at.
  Also as your profile doesn't indicate, your location will also matter in terms of getting a higher trade-in, regional vs city is particularly important as the lack of competition regionally usually means poorer trade-ins.

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  Gervais fanboy on 28/07/2021 - 14:53

  +1

  Privately sell your car and use that to buy whatever car you want from the dealer..

  The dealer would never give you a fair price evaluation on your existing vehicle…

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  Drakesy on 28/07/2021 - 15:01

  +2

  Sell your car privately, however if you trade it in now you should still get a fairly reasonable price for it.

  Car companies are playing catchup with supplies still so the sooner you sell the car the better.

  But of course that's if you really consider updating a 6 year old car a need or a want.

  In my opinion it's firmly in the want column, a 6 year old euro car isn't going to start falling apart if you've looked after it.

  The depreciation hit you'll take to your new car will far outweigh any issues that may arise.

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  [Deactivated] on 28/07/2021 - 15:18

  -1

  can't rely on older European cars.

  Could agree more. I had both a Golf MKV GT Sport and Mini F56 Cooper S.

  It was like they KNEW when to start developing random issues that required expensive repairs, not to mention the scheduled servicing costs on something like the VW DSG gearbox.

  • 

    JimB on 28/07/2021 - 16:33

    Golf MKV GT was fairly complex, turbocharged and supercharged so not surprised it isn't reliable..

    The Mini is well.. a Mini so it's a given something will go wrong.

    Current model Tiguan is quite reliable. I think it should run for 10 years without major faults, but some small faults along the way.

    DSG service every 4 years/60k is say $500, so not the end of the world.

    • 

      brendanm on 28/07/2021 - 17:52

      DSG service every 4 years/60k is say $500, so not the end of the world.

      This, not sure where people get the idea it costs a million dollars to service, it's actually quite easy.

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  Euphemistic on 28/07/2021 - 15:24

  I suspect the dealers will be trying to claim old value for your trade in but then selling at covid inflated rates. You could try to talk them up, but it will still be less than what you’d sell for privately.

  If you want to maximise your returns you have to sell privately. If you want to get rid of your car quickly, trade it in.

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  nubzy on 28/07/2021 - 16:40

  +3

  5 years is old now? Wow. And yes you can rely on European cars provided you service them properly. It's really only after 10 years that you start getting the odd issue, and even still it's almost always more cost effective to keep the car going than buy brand new.

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  Euphemistic on 28/07/2021 - 17:13

  +1

  Is it latwr? Might as well do it now. There’s no guarantee it’s going to improve in any timeframe. Could take 3 months or 2-3years.

  If you need to sell the car before buying for financial reasons you might need to go without a car for a period of time. You may be able to arrange with the dealer to take your trade in on condition you haven’t sold privately. They are often ok with this. Write a clause integrity contract for the new car specifying trade in value if not sold prior.

  If you need a car for transport all the time you’ll need to trade or sell after buying, or potentially hire a car negating some of the $ of selling privately.

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  belesci on 28/07/2021 - 23:30

  Hi OP, where you located I might be looking into getting a tiguan. Would love to get some details on the car.

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  DEMwatcher on 29/07/2021 - 14:34

  Thanks for the responses everyone. The missus wants the additonal 2 seats at the back - but its more a good to have rather than a must have. I just feel there could be an issue around the corner with Eur cars, and of course VW doesnt have the best reputation. I didn't think about that i've already taken most of the 'hit' to depreciation so I guess it might be worth hanging on it to for a while. May need to crunch some more numbers myself haha..