In some states, you can still take advantage of the tax break and still sell privately, if you have a notarized, bill-of-sale, dated within a certain time frame of purchasing your replacement vehicle.

 

I sold my 2007 vert on the forum within a few days of listing it and ordered a new vert from Kerbeck. Timed the pickup of my new vert and the pickup from the buyer of my old vert within days of each other. Both transactions went smooth and didn't have to bother with tire kickers.

 

One thing you might want to check out before deciding whether a trade in or private sell is best is to check with your state DMV and see what the law says about private sales and the ability to claim a sales tax credit for it. I know in this state if you privately sell a car within a certain period of time of buying another car, you can claim the sales price against the new car price for sales tax purposes.

 

I got a good price for both my vette and the trade for my '14 camaro. Make sure to negotiate the trade and the new car separately.

 

Sold my 2004 vette by listing on eBay. First time I listed did it as a buy it now option, bid to within $1500 of my reserve. Second time listed at $100 with a reserve, ended up getting $500 more than my reserve and a nice gentleman flew in to get her that weekend. I did lose sales tax credit but buying a new car without the trade makes the deal oh so sweet.

 

In Pa sales tax on a $70,000 car is $4,200. It is hard to make a private sale work to sellers benefit.

 

+1, here.

 

All car owners are delusional about the value of their trades, when I was in the car business, retail and then wholesale for a nearly a decade c. 1983-1991 that was a constant. Corvette owners are the worst, they simply love their cars so much. Understandable, but ultimately self-defeating. The mileage on your car is typical: there are TONS of C5 and C6 cars with stupid low miles, so it confers far less added value vs. typical book (wholesale or retail) than it might on models where owners DRIVE the cars.

Shop around, get trade values from 3-4 dealers, understand that the realistic retail value is perhaps $3-$4K more, then TRADE THE CAR and move on. Bear in mind that you generally pay less sales tax than if you don't have a trade, so that will narrow the difference to maybe $2K. $2K to deal with all the idiot tire kickers on the used Corvette market? Not for me. My 2007 C6 Coupe, stick, 3LT, (no Z51, transparent roof) MINT condition, new-ish tires (5K miles) was worth $16K-$19K wholesale, depending on the dealer (32,500 miles). I think $19K was all the money (and then some) here in the NY area, my dealer went $20K, but it's all semantics, they just discounted the new car more.

I bought the car for $29K, drove it 12500 miles, traded it and lost $10K or so, that's not really so bad in my view based on how much it can cost you in depreciation to drive a fancy sports car for two years.

You current car is not some coveted rare Barrett Jackson auction find. It's an OLD CORVETTE. A nice, low mileage, well maintained cosmetically beautiful old Corvette, but many of them are like that.

 

On my C7 Mike Furman gave me a "sight unseen" trade-in quote on my C6 that was reasonable. I drove the old car down to him, signed some papers, and was quickly on my way home with the new car. It really couldn't have been easier.

 

I sold my last two (C6) Vette's here on the Classified Forum. The transactions couldn't have gone any smoother. They were both a far better deal (for both of us) than going with a dealer.

It can be a little bit of a inconvenience, but it's worth it if you can save thousands $$
Good Luck

 

And the vast majority of car salesman/dealers are trying to maximize their profit too. 99% of my experience is the first trade in number is a complete joke. A huge Corvette forum sponsor here told me my trade in (2016 VW Golf R with 8K miles) was worth $26K. Another Corvette dealer offered me $32K after their site offered to match KBB value. I might have been able to get $34K selling privately but the $2k+ tax credit more than made up for the difference of selling privately.

I do agree with you that a low mileage older Corvette (when there are lots of them out there) is not going to fetch top dollar on a trade-in and selling privately is probably best.

 

Borntorun04,
I went through the same decision with a lower mileage 04 coupe a little over a year ago.
Patentcad's comment about being realistic with the value of your C5 is absolutely correct. When I sold my C5, I was VERY realistic. My C5 was loaded with options and had only 59K on the clock. I contacted MacMulkin (lowest offer), Criswell and Hendrick (tied for highest offer) and received trade-in offers from all three. I also brought the car to a local broker who promised I would pocket at least $2K more than the high trade-in value, but said he wanted to have it for at least 6 months if he listed it. Criswell had the C7 I wanted and Mike tied the highest trade-in offer, but had the best price on the C7 by far. At the end of the day, I realized by trading in, I was actually losing about $1K, but avoided all the hassels. It was worth it to me to trade with Criswell.
Your C5 has extremely low mileage. You might do better selling privately in a controlled environment. In your shoes, I would contact all three big Corvette dealers on the east coast to see what your trade will bring. Also get an offer from CarMax. Then I would consider listing it on Corvette Forums for $4K to $5K more than the average trade-in and insist on the buyer being over 25 years old, be a senior member and a member for at least 2 years. That ought to filter out the tire kickers and crazy drivers. If it didn't sell within 6 weeks, I'd trade. I wouldn't get anywhere near Craigslist with a beauty like that one. Hope it all works out for you.

 

Sometimes I will pay for convenience and this is one of the times.

 

One thing some folks don't realize is the state sales tax involved when doing a private sale. In most states, when you trade in a car, they do not tax the entire cost of the new car, they prorate the sales tax of the traded in vehicle.

New car 80,000 X sales tax 7% = $5600, in tax.

cost = 85,600
sale of used car 42,000

New car 80,000 - trade in value of 40000= 40,000 X sales tax 7% =2800.
cost 82,800
sale of used car 40,000

You actually pay $800 less in this scenario just trading it in.

 

I bought my 2017 from one of the biggest volume dealers in the country in October. The trade in they offered me for my 2002 was insulting to say the least.
I sold my car in early February locally for a fair price, actually $10,000 more than they offered. Don't think you're going to get anywhere near what you would want for your car on a trade. With spring approaching, you should have no problem selling your car.

 

Yup, in some states. Fortunately for me, Nevada is not one of those states -- NO sales tax on 'occasional ' private auto purchases.

Other states do not give a "trade in offset" at all, and charge sales tax on the entire amount of the car purchased, regardless of trade in value.

Important to know the laws of your own state, as all are different.

 

I've always been a strong proponent of selling the car yourself, but in the past few years it's gotten more and more difficult, and many potential buyers are just dicks who waste your time. The secret to selling it is to take good pictures, write a good description and price it fairly. And by that, I mean don't try for retail, or even close to it.

 

I'm in the same quandary as the OP, but have been hassling with dealers now for six weeks. I could write a book. My current ride is a cherry 2015 3LT Stingray A8 that I want to sell/trade for a new 2017 GS M7, and getting rid of the trade is the big problem I'm having.

I've talked to four local dealers and three out-of-state mega-dealers in the NE U.S. The locals have given the highest offer on the trade, still not very high, but their deal on the new car was predictably far below the mega-dealers, the bottom line being in favor of the latter. The problem is that two of the three I contacted dropped the ball after about two emails. Two mega-dealers have promised to get back with me after just getting started with discussions but did not. Rather than chase them around I've decided to move on. That's unfortunate since both dealers had cars I might well have purchased given the right deal.

Kerbeck isn't one of them, so after all this I decided to try selling the car myself and buying a car from them. They've been been helpful in the brief phone discussions we've had, and once my 2015 is sold I can fly to Phlly, take the Kerbeck shuttle to Atlantic City, and drive the car back to LA. A trip will do me good. Kerbeck currently has three GSs in stock that are close to my needs, but have made no bones about preferring a no-trade deal. They'll trade, but won't discuss it over the phone or via email, and that scenario just won't work when you live 1300 mi. from the dealer. The problem with a private sale is that used car sales are apparently slow and I've gotten no bites except for low-ballers looking for a steal, which I won't give them. In this part of LA we have a 10% sales tax (total) and I need to get $4500 over the trade value offered to break even on the tax difference between a trade and no trade. Foosh mentioned that some states will allow credits for private sales, but unfortunately LA isn't one of them.

I've recently placed the car here, Cargurus, USAA Car Buying Service, AutoTrader, and (ugh!) even Craigs List. So I wait, wondering when the good deals on new Vettes will dry up.

 

I will be calling Mike he's about 8 hours away from me I think. I know he will have to see car to finalize deal . Right now trying to see if I can get it done before cut off date 4/13 for 2017 orders if possible if not 2018

Once I get a good idea on trade value then I will be able to figure out either to trade or try selling privately.

I 'm going to check in my area if there is a Carmax around here , I know they are building a new dealership near by but won't be up and running for a while.

Patient is my middle name . If I don't get a fare trade price I will sell car during spring / summer and I will have a great car to enjoy cruise nights and order 2018 if at time of sale I can't find what I want on lot.

I will have to check into that to see what can be done in NY.

I will list it on forum for sale section if it gets to to private sale.

 

If it gets to private sale I will be listing in forum sale section.

Will be doing that I know we can with new car and trade ,will have to find out about regarding selling car privately and get tax credit.

Will do!


I realize it's not a Barrett Jackson but it is a very well maintained car in great shape and hoping to get a fare offer on trade so I don't have to deal with hassle of selling car. MY plan is to contact a couple forum dealers and one local and see what we get in results and If not right try to sell privately If I have too. Bottom line will be my car and how much money to get new car, If it doesn't work out I still have a great car to drive!




I will be calling Mike to see if we can work some thing out.

Will list on forum sale section if trade value not right.

I like your idea about forum dealers and will see if CarMax is near by I don't think there is one close but will checkout.



Glad it worked out for you, and I hope your right about spring coming and selling car.

Most of my past vehicles one of my friends always wanted due to low mileage and maintenance history. None of them are into owning a corvette now,

Hope it works out for you and both of us are driving a 2017 soon!