I'll be buying my next one from one of the forum dealers back east. How does one work out the one I'll be trading in? When they deliver the new on to me do they simply pick up the trade at the same time? I would appreciate your experiences. I don't want to mess around with selling it myself. I just want it gone. Thanks.

 

Hi Joe,
Not sure your going to do a sight-unseen trade with the dealer. Pretty sure your going to have to sell yours outright or take it to whomever you make a deal with on the new car. Closest I came to that was at CarMax. I looked at their car online and they accepted pictures of mine with an offer subject to their inspection of the car and mine of theirs. But, I did have to take the car there to finish the deal.
Van Bortel (forum dealer) made me the same offer; everything by VIN # and photos, but to close the deal, it was subject to their inspection on arrival of my car. Unfortunately the deal didn't work out on my end not theirs. They were great to work with.
tom

 

When I bought my original C7, I had a C6 that I wanted to trade in, but I also wanted to order my car. I put my C6 up on a site that dealers bid for the car and I sold it to the highest bidder. I then took the cash (along with more money) and used it to purchase my new car. I got a decent price for my car and it was actually several thousand more than Car Max offered.

So you may want to try that before you buy from any dealer because it add a lot of flexibility to the deal when you do not have to trade.

 

Mike Furman at Criswell does a lot of sight unseen trade ins.

 

I did a sight unseen trade in when I bought my new one. I sent them plenty of pictures. They delivered my new C7 and took the trade in back with them

 

If I may ask, who was the dealership? Thanks.

 

Don't discount the CarMax option! It only take a little time to get a free appraisal, and their offers are good for seven days, so you have some time to consider options before actually selling it to them. I've had vehicles appraised there several times and actually sold them vehicles twice...the second one, coincidentally, being a Jeep Wrangler that I just sold to CarMax earlier this evening. Of the appraisals I've had done I've gotten a few lowball offers, but several strong offers as well. In the case of the Jeep, I had to go out of state to get the vehicle I wanted to replace it, Carmax gave a solid offer, IMO, and thus it was quick and painless.

 

 

For me, a good offer is something close to or above Blue Book (or equivalent) trade in values. In my mind, selling to CarMax is basically the same as a trade-in at any other dealer. They are going to have to make money on the resale of the vehicle and certainly aren't going to pay a seller retail money up front. Both times I have sold them vehicles, they were on the upper end of Blue Book's trade in value range. Obviously, you stand to get more selling privately, but then you have the time and hassles involved with that. I had my Jeep appraised at CarMax last week...probably took 45 minutes or so to get the offer. Last night, I went back to accept the offer, signed some docs. They got the payoff from my current lender, cut me a check for the difference, and I was out in less than a half-hour.

I've also used Carmax appraisals to my advantage in negotiations where I ultimately traded with a dealer who was trying to low-ball my trade in. Told them I would just take the trade off the table, because I already had $X offer from CarMax...and suddenly my trade-in offer from said dealer increased quickly.

Not trying to come across as a CarMax fanboy or anything...just offering up another potential tool to use in the games you play with car deals.

 

MY first C7 was from Kerbeck and it was a fine buying experience but when I wanted to trade that car in on a Z06 I found that they really where not going to work with me. I found a dealer in Atlanta with a 17 leftover at a great price at the time who did give me a price based on pictures ect, conditional that it lived up to those picture which it did.

 

A few comments:
Try selling it yourself...put it on "vettefinders.com" for a week or three. you never know but you would be better off in another AZ locale like Phoenix.
Carmax is a reasonable option - but there isn't one near you in AZ
How many Chevy dealers within 50 miles of you? looks like just your local guy.
Mike Furman at Criswell is giving "sight unseens" all the time. I'd buy and trade thru him - great reputation. likely can arrange to ship yours back to him but that will cost you another $1k

Not many real good options

 

I'd hate to have to ever buy new out-of-State, because then Texas Lemon Law protection is out the window. That said, I'd try to get some sort of comparison dealer-to-dealer going. The bonafide Chev. trade-in for new go to is Mike Furman @ Criswell Chev. in MD. He WANTS your trade-in in order to sell you a new Corvette. I used to deal with a dealer I bought Mercedes-Benz from, that became the incoming appraiser at Mercedes-Benz of Chicago. He gave me a rock solid trade-in number for my used MB sight-unseen. That's a rare commodity of trust to have in your dealer. Mike Furman is that kind of dealer!