New car dealers often look for customer trade-ins. When you resell your car to a dealer, this gives them another customer and more profit. To make sure you get the most out of the resale, look up your car’s price in online sites like Kelley Blue Book or the National Auto Dealers Association for some good pricing guidelines. Remember that they are only guidelines, since elements such as any damage to your car can significantly offset the original guideline price. Things to keep in mind:

Your car’s condition

If your car’s condition is damaged, this decreases the value because Subaru dealers have to pay for reconditioning. It also means the Subaru dealer spends time and space making the repairs. If your car is in good condition, this means higher trade-in value. If your tires are worn, or belts, wipers and hoses have needed replacement, this indicates poor maintenance. For best trade-in value, also keep good maintenance records.

If your car has original paint, this is a positive selling feature, since the manufacture warranty only covers original paint for damage such as peeling.

In addition, if your car is clean, this is another plus. If the dealer must spend money detailing the car, this costs them money and ultimately reduces your trade-in value. If you make these repairs or maintenance before you take the car into the dealership, you significantly increase your trade-in value; this is worth it, since the money you’ll spend making these repairs will actually make you money on the trade-in in the long run.

Market conditions

If the overall market at the time of trade-in is in your favor, of course, you’ll make more on the trade-in. The reverse is also true. Even though this is something that you don’t have control over, understanding how trade-in works should at least make a lower price than you expected easier to swallow. Everything from car type (for example, SUVs were once in great demand and now are somewhat less so, since gas prices have gone up so much) to the amount of good quality used vehicles (some with warranty already included) on the market can affect what trade-in price you get. Therefore, you have to adjust your price to account for these factors.

Dealership

What dealership you trade your car in it can affect what you get, although to make sure this is true, you have to do your homework carefully. Oftentimes, for example, if you take your Subaru to a Subaru dealership to trade it in, you’ll get more than you would at a generic used car lot, since Subaru dealers will be looking for good Subaru cars to place on their lot. However, if the city you live in is quite large, dealerships often trade or sell cars between them, so prices you are offered between dealerships are likely be much more consistent with each other.