{"id":108,"date":"2026-07-22T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-07-22T09:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/template-preview.com\/wordpress\/avavamotors\/2026\/07\/22\/trade-in-vs-private-sale-the-real-numbers\/"},"modified":"2026-07-22T09:00:00","modified_gmt":"2026-07-22T09:00:00","slug":"trade-in-vs-private-sale-the-real-numbers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/template-preview.com\/wordpress\/avavamotors\/trade-in-vs-private-sale-the-real-numbers\/","title":{"rendered":"Trade-in vs private sale: the real numbers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"has-drop-cap wp-block-paragraph\">A private sale usually gets a higher price. A trade-in usually costs less time and, in many states, less tax. Here is how to know which one leaves more money in your pocket.<\/p><h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The price gap<\/h2><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Private buyers pay close to retail; a dealer pays wholesale so it can resell. On an everyday car the gap is often 10 to 15 per cent.<\/p><h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The tax credit<\/h2><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In many states you only pay sales tax on the difference between the new car and your trade-in. On an expensive car that credit can close most of the gap.<\/p><h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Your time<\/h2><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Photos, adverts, calls, viewings and paperwork take weeks. Put a price on your weekends before you decide.<\/p><h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The safe middle<\/h2><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Get a written trade-in offer first. If a private buyer beats it by more than the tax credit and your time are worth, sell privately.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Time, tax and hassle \u2014 when a trade-in actually pays more.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":103,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_avava_byline":"S. Kim","_avava_car":0,"_avava_notes":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[42,45],"class_list":["post-108","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-finance","tag-finance","tag-selling"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/template-preview.com\/wordpress\/avavamotors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/template-preview.com\/wordpress\/avavamotors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/template-preview.com\/wordpress\/avavamotors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/template-preview.com\/wordpress\/avavamotors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/template-preview.com\/wordpress\/avavamotors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=108"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/template-preview.com\/wordpress\/avavamotors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/template-preview.com\/wordpress\/avavamotors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/103"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/template-preview.com\/wordpress\/avavamotors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=108"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/template-preview.com\/wordpress\/avavamotors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=108"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/template-preview.com\/wordpress\/avavamotors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=108"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}