Trading In An Old Car Can Cost You

Your car is probably one of the biggest money drains people waste their hard earned sweat on. Suppose there is a new car you want and an old one you want to get rid of. The dealer offers you the new one for $22,500 less $6000 for your old one in trade. You figure you can’t do much better, but you may be wrong.

In the first place, it’s very little trouble to put a three line ad in your local paper offering your old car for $8500. You might sell it for that yourself. In the second place you might get that new car for $20,000 cash if you try. If you trade you will lay out $16,500 and have anew car. If you sell and buy you will lay out only $14,000 and have the same new car.

How did you make that $2500 extra? By going to a little trouble. The dealer, you see, has to make an investment in that old jalopy of yours and take a chance on selling it. If you do it yourself he doesn’t mind. You might very well scare up more cash for it and he doesn’t mind getting cash instead of the trade-in. Try it. Cash is powerful!

The same thing applies to other items, particularly small boats, The dealer will take your old one in a trade, but if you sell it yourself at the beginning of the season you might very well get more for it. Just remember that when you accept the dealer’s offer of a trade-in, he is only using that as a sales device. He rarely makes money on the used item.

He has to make an investment in it; to store and repair it; then to sell it in a separate transaction requiring more bookkeeping. He has to consider all that in the deal he makes you. Remember this also: no experienced dealer will ever pay you more than something is worth. A less knowledgeable buyer just might.

Incidentally, if you do trade in your old car for a new one be sure that the contract states exactly what the trade-in price is AND THAT IT WILL REMAIN THE SAME between the time of making the deal and the delivery of the new car.

What’s more, don’t turn your old car over to the dealer, not even the registration, until you have the new car in hand and it belongs to you.

To keep you better informed there is much more on the topic of check your credit score Visit www.everlife.com for more on the world of finance and your money.

Exploring The Possibilities Of Car Leasing

More individuals as well as small business operators and professionals are exploring the possibilities of car leasing on a yearly basis as opposed to owning a car. Recent depressions in the car business have encouraged more dealers to experiment in the field, and in many areas advantageous prices have already been offered to individuals. There are angles that are often overlooked.

In the first place, if you use a car only occasionally, whether for business or personal reasons, it would probably be cheapest for you to rent it on a daily or weekly basis when you need it. However, in our go-go world that is not happening. Short-term rental fees can be very attractive indeed when you consider all the investment you do not have to make buying, keeping, maintaining, and insuring the car when you’re not using it.

When weighing a yearly lease, however, an opposite view must be taken. The more you use a oar, the more mileage you put on it each year, the better the leasing deal could be for you. That’s because there are certain fixed charges which you pay as a base while you add so much a mile.

You can figure that the average small-medium car, run about 15,000 miles a year, will cost you about $1,000 a year to keep up, plus gas and oil, unless it’s a lemon. If it is a lemon the advantage is all on the side of leasing. If you lease a lemon you can have the superb satisfaction of taking it back and getting another car without question. As a matter of fact the good lessor is anxious to keep your car in top condition for you.

If you drive a car with some faults in it you’re likely to break down and need expensive repairs. So dealers see to it that you’re always in the best running order. Which is a second advantage of leasing over owning-no shady repair bills from doubtful mechanics for doubtful repairs. If the car doesn’t run perfectly you just take it back and get it fixed on the house. Sometimes easier said than done.

The trouble with all this is that if you go right out and try to lease one car for one year you may find that the price in your area is too high, that is it is higher per month than the total of payments on a car you buy, plus maintenance, plus insurance. Here are two points, though, that you must not overlook:

1) The carrying charges on your car installments. Make sure you really know how much they come to.

2) If you normally buy for all cash, consider the USE of the money.

If you operate a business you might want to use that couple of thousand dollars used for down payment some other way instead of tying it up in a car. If you run your personal life like a business (and you should), by investing your spare money so that it earns the most possible, you must make a similar calculation.

For more information on the topic of credit card debt assistance Visit www.everlife.com for more on the world of finance and your money.