Trade or Sell Your Car, part 2

So I thought I'd compare trading versus selling your car a little further since I wrote a post earlier on this topic. There are two big sites for comparing used car prices, Kelley Blue Book and NADA Guides. Even though Kelley Blue Book is more popular, I've heard that NADA is the source used by dealerships more frequently. I will use a fully loaded 2002 Nissan Altima SE as a comparison car. As of the date of this posting, this car has a trade-in value of $16,125 versus a private sale value of $18,800. Let's say we are in the purchasing a new 2006 Infiniti G35 Coupe 6MT Liquid Platinum with every feature available, MSRP $40,840.00. Wow! I don't think I would ever buy a car this expensive, but hey I'm just using it as an example. Let's assume tax in the imaginary state of Bloggee is 5%. If you trade-in: MSRP: $40,840.00 Trade-in: ($16,125.00) Subtotal: $24,715.00 Tax: $1,235.75 Final total: $25,950.75 (plus license and doc fees) If you sell private market: MSRP: $40,840.00 Tax: $2,042.00 Subtotal: $42,882.00 Private sale: ($18,800.00) Advertising costs: $50.00 Final total: $24,132.00 (plus license and doc fees) So in the end, you will end up with $1,818.75 more if you sell private market versus trading in. Now, my calculations do not take into consideration the value of your time used to sell, financing charges, and the "value" of peace of mind. Overall though, selling your car on the private market maybe a better option provided you can sell your car at the recommended value.