How much work should i do to my car before trade in?

Question

i have an '02 camry. it has 99000 miles on it. it's pretty beat up on one side. the rocker panel is dented in and it has been scraped against poles and has scratches & rust. the windshield has a huge crack.

my husband wants to have the windshield fixed before we go to trade it. i feel like they are going to look at the damage on the side and a fixed windshield won't make a huge difference in value. what do you think?

oh, and how much should we expect them to offer us as-is?

thank you!

Answer 1

According to the blue book for my area the difference in trade in value should be about 1,475 US dollars. That is if all the body repair work is done. Just the windshield being fixed most likely will not add that much value to it.

So, can you get the work done for less then that?

It you took the money for the repairs and used it as a down, how much interest would you save, and or how much lower would your payments be?

Look into these things first. If you have to take out a loan (or put it on a card) to fix the Camry up before trading it in, any increased value in the trade  in will be lost to credit costs.

I would just trade it in as is. If I were to fix the cosmetic problems, I would just keep it.

But the choice is yours.

Answer 2

Technically, the damages might not make much of a difference in the car's value, but the dealer will use the damages as a way of working you down on the value of the trade. You'll have a hard time arguing against it unless you know exactly how much it'll cost to repair and how much it affects the trade value of the car. You can be assured that the dealer will knock off at least twice as much as it'll cost to be repaired.