How to Prepare Your Car for Trade-In

Contact Us Value Your Trade

When you’re looking to buy a new car, more times than not you’re also looking to trade in your old one. At Patty Peck Honda we make it easy to do both. We buy used cars and our Ridgeland Honda dealership serving Madison County is here to help you get the most out of your old car.

Trading in your car at a dealership like Patty Peck Honda allows you to avoid the hassle of trying to sell the vehicle yourself while giving you the opportunity to apply the trade-in value to the purchase of a brand new Honda. Our car trade-in tips will help you learn how to trade in a car and how to prepare your car for trade-in, so you can get the best value possible.

How to Trade In a Car

Knowing how to prepare your car for trade-in will help to streamline the trade-in process, while also ensuring that you receive top dollar for your old car. Just follow these car trade-in tips:

  • Wash Your Car: It’s such a small step, but a clean car can increase the money you receive. When it comes to trading in your car, the more time and effort you put in to make it look appealing, the more money you’ll receive in return. Take it through the car wash, wipe down the interior, clean the windshield and windows – make it shine!
  • Repair Your Car: Before you go and repair everything on your car, determine whether the repairs will increase the value of your trade-in. You must make sure that the repairs you make will increase the selling price of the car enough to recoup the cost of the repairs. For safety and emission requirements, it would be wise to have a certified mechanic inspect the vehicle, so you can be assured that it meets state requirements. All in all, be sure to fix your vehicle to make sure it runs properly before you sell it.
  • Organize Your Records: Round up your maintenance records as it shows that you care about your vehicle. If you have had your car serviced at our dealership, you can call us in advance and ask for a copy of your service history. We also recommend you get a detailed history report on your vehicle based on its VIN number just as backup documentation about the validity of the title and mileage, as well as other historical information about your vehicle.
  • Get a Value: Before you head to our Brandon-area dealership to trade in your car, you’ll want to find out just how much your vehicle is worth. Patty Peck Honda makes this step quick and easy with our convenient Value Your Trade tool. Just enter your car’s year, make, and model, along with your name, email, and phone number. Then, add information about the vehicle’s condition, and you’ll receive the estimated value of your car in seconds. You can access other online trade-in tools, such as Kelley Blue Book® Value and Edmunds True Market Value® if you would like to do more research.

Getting an Appraisal

Once you have a trade-in value estimate, bring your vehicle down to Patty Peck Honda to get an appraisal. We will inspect your car while taking into consideration our current used inventory to determine whether we can sell the vehicle. Make sure that you bring along your trade-in value estimate, as well as any other trade-in offers, you may have received.

Negotiate or Accept a Trade-In Offer

We will make you an offer based on the results of our appraisal. You can choose to either negotiate or accept the offer outright and finalize the deal. The trade-in process at Patty Peck Honda is very simple and straightforward, which is one of the benefits of trading in your car at our dealership. Other advantages include:

  • Unlike many other Jackson-area dealerships, you have the opportunity to negotiate the trade-in offer you receive from Patty Peck Honda, based on the trade-in value research you’ve done.
  • If you’re upside down on your auto loan and wish to consolidate what you owe with the price of your new car, our finance specialists can help you do that.

If you accept our offer, you can finalize your trade for cash, or put the car’s value toward the purchase of a brand new Honda or one of our high-quality pre-owned vehicles.

Learn More About Your Car Trade-In Options at Patty Peck Honda

If you have any further questions on how to trade in a car and how to prepare your car for trade-in, please feel free to contact us. Our team of professionals will be happy to provide you with car trade-in tips and fill you in on our new vehicle specials and currently used car deals. We’re ready to buy your old car and help you upgrade to a new Honda or quality pre-owned vehicle, so come see us today!