How to Sell a Car at a Dealership

Before you buy or lease a new vehicle, you’re probably wanting to sell your current vehicle and put some money towards your upgrade. While you could sell your vehicle privately, it’s much quicker and easier to sell your vehicle to a local Palm Springs-area dealership. How does selling your car to a dealership work? Find out how with Shottenkirk Desert Lexus!

Perks of Selling Your Car to a Dealership

Why sell your car to a dealership in the Palm Desert area? Some of the benefits of selling to a dealership include: 

• You’ll save time advertising your car online, haggling with potential buyers, and giving test drives to strangers. 
• Selling to a dealership allows you to have more money to put down towards a new vehicle. 
• Trading in a vehicle to a dealership means that you’ll only pay the sales tax on the difference between your current vehicle’s value and the cost of your new vehicle. 

Selling to a Dealership: How to Prepare

How does selling your car to a dealership work? Here’s what you’ll need to do before you trade in your vehicle: 

1. Clean up your car, have it washed, and replace any small parts that are broken or damaged. This will help bump up the value of your vehicle. 
2. Write down any special perks or stand-out features of your car like bike mounts or extra key fobs. This will make it more noticeable to the dealership. 
3. Have your vehicle’s title with you when you go to the dealership so that the process will go quicker. 
4. Value your trade at Shottenkirk Desert Lexus, so you can have some negotiating power when a dealership makes you a final offer. 
5. Research dealerships in the Indio area to see which dealers will offer you the best deals for your vehicle.

The Trade-In Process

Once your car is ready to go, here’s how to sell a car at a dealership: 

1. Make an appointment beforehand. While you can walk into a dealership without notice, it’s better to let them know so they can prepare all of the necessary paperwork. 
2. Once you drop your car off, you’ll be directed to a used car manager who will collect your information and run a vehicle history report on your car. 
3. The used car manager or someone in the service center will inspect your vehicle for quality, damage, and other factors. 
4. The dealership will then make an offer that you can accept, decline, or negotiate. 

You can pocket the offer made by the dealership or put it towards your new vehicle, but you don’t have to make a decision right then and there. For more car-buying tips, visit Shottenkirk Desert Lexus. 

We’ll Buy Your Car in Cathedral City

Now that you know how to sell a car at a dealership, bring your vehicle to our dealership so we can make you a cash offer! Contact us to get the process started.