Trade or sell

[6speed8]

All of the above.

 - If immediate cash is the priority then sell privately.

 - If you can do without the $500+ to go towards a newer car, donate it and take full book value as a tax break.

No dealer will ever give you top dollar no matter the age. Recent example:

A close friend was settling her mom's estate. She asked me if I was interested in mom's car. 2010 Honda Civic EX sedan with 27,000 miles. I didn't buy it for two reasons. 1 - I wasn't ready to buy yet. That will heppen in July or later. 2 - Civics and Accords are always in the Top 10 Stolen Cars. She sold it to CarMax. They gave her $9700 for it. Search around at retail prices, that car is being sold for $15,500.

[Anonymous]

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@Chris679 wrote:
Donate it and claim $2000 for the value, problem solved.

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How can I claim 2K when Blue Book value maxes out at  a litle over 1K? I don't need the $500 for the down payment, I just want to get rid of it as fuss free as possible. Donating to chairty is not an issue if I can do so.

[Chris679]

I guess you can't

[C7LT1]

A $1000 car should sell fast on Craigslist. Even though its cheap spend a little time cleaning and detailing the car. It will help the car sell but don't spend more that $20 on cleaning supplies.  

[Anonymous]

I like the idea of donating to charity. Just to be clear, it  I donate I can legally claim 1K? I plan to clean the car up regardless of who gets it, but a charitable donation is appealing to me.

[Anonymous]

Depending on your individual tax situation donating may not be of any tax advantage at all.  I wouldnt donate unless you talk to a tax professional about it.  Personally I would list it for 800 or 850 and take 700. Take that 700 and use it for the down payment on the new car.

[StartingOver10]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Depending on your individual tax situation donating may not be of any tax advantage at all.  I wouldnt donate unless you talk to a tax professional about it.  Personally I would list it for 800 or 850 and take 700. Take that 700 and use it for the down payment on the new car.

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^^Agree 100%.  

If you get $700 and put it down along with whatever you were going to put down then you also spend less monthly and less total interest over the term. It's not a lot, but the money in your pocket is better than in the dealers pocket.  

The important part is you can have a more transparent negotiation on the purchase without the trade and usually can negotiate a better deal for yourself that way. JMO

[Anonymous]

Thanks guys, this is all good food for thought. I've never used Craigslist so I'm a little leery of them. At this point the only thing I am certain of is I don't plan to use this as a trade.