Well, that's not 100% true. Typically, the dealers will call in their local wholesalers & auction dealers (probably 2 for quick reference) and the dealer will be told the current sale of the car that matches to your car's options, years, condition & mileage.
The trick of the trade is the your dealer may ask you what trade in value do you have in mind, if you say a higher #, then the dealer may suggest you are asking way too much; if you say a lower #, then the dealer may say sure, I can do that as if they are doing you a big favor. That's why you need to do your homework. I find the Cdn Black Book reference # for trade in value is a pretty fair indication.
Just based on my recent car purchase experience, I found Mercedes Benz dealers offered a very fair assessment/trade in value appraisal as they looked at local wholesale market, as well as national wholesale market to ensure my car's trade in value was justified. If you have the time, may I have suggest you to visit your local MB dealer and pretend you are interested in their car, say "C" class and request an appraisal of your car. btw, one of the online used car wholesale sites used by MB is adesa.ca. I was given a print out of the car sthat were sold within 30 days that matches to my car's model, year, options & mileage. MB did not hide those numbers from me at all.
At the end, I had my car appraised by MB, Porsche and 5 bmw dealers in the GTA and I was amazed of the trade in value range of close to $10,000. btw, the car in question that I traded in was a 2011 F10 5 series.
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Originally Posted by Dgrohl
Thanks.
The problem is - I've gone to two dealers who say they use an online auction system for my trade-in so they don't know what the car will go for until bidding is done.
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