Is it better to trade in or sell before negotiating?

Hi everyone -

I am looking at a new Audi e-tron Premium Plus. I will probably be working with a dealer in SoCal since all the dealers where I live in NorCal have ADM’s and SoCal dealers seem to have more inventory. I am hoping to find a dealer who will honor affinity pricing.

However, I’m not sure what to do with my existing vehicle. I have some good offers to sell it to Carmax and Driveway, but I’m curious whether trying to negotiate a trade-in and a purchase at the same time is to my advantage or not. The vehicle in question is not an Audi vehicle, so I am leaning toward selling it before negotiating the e-tron but wanted to check with you all first. As mentioned, I’m in CA so I won’t get any sales tax benefits from trading it in.

The liklihood that the dealer thats going to give you the best price on your purchase is also the dealer thats going to give the best price on your sale is very low.

Get a bunch of offers, digure out the best, negotiate the new vehicle indepedently of the trade, and then tell them at the end that if they can beat your best offer, they can have it.

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Really just up to how much work you want to put into it. Easier route is to just sell it on your own. Maybe a dealer will give you the same or better, but the only way is to have them appraise it.

Now with that said, a dealer might be more lenient on pricing if you have a trade-in. But again, only way to know for sure is to work a deal. Some dealer might say, this is our price regardless and others might not add an ADM if you are trading something in.

Reach out to @Samaudibh. He is a straight shooter and I was able to get two good deals from him on e-trons recently. Good luck.

I highly doubt this is realistic on an e-tron right now but I guess no harm in trying (other than a dealer writing you off and no longer bothering to reply to your messages).

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