Agreed. We usually sell our old cars at CarMax or such, but if I were to trade, I would totally make the deal on the OTD of the car first. Even if they then lowball you on the offer for your trade you can get a price from CarMax which I believe is good for seven days which gives you time to take it to other places also if you like.
Not sure about your area, but here in IL we only pay tax on the difference. Also, with places like Carvana, CarMax, KBB and others, there's really no point in going through the hassle of dealing with strangers. We sold our CX-5 to a KBB dealer for what we would have received from a stranger. We didn't trade it in this time, because it was Tesla. They lowball trades so it made more sense to sell it outright first.
So let me see if I've got this straight. Carvana, Carmax, KBB and others will give you the same amount as a "stranger" and then they're going to make their 20% profit selling it to ___________?
Yep! Because they get them with their "warranty". And it was only about 5% markup on our old CX-5.
Also, in some cases, the tax credits from trades are well worth it. Maybe less so in the lower price brackets of pre-owned Mazdas, but the higher the value, the more value in trading there is.
2026 CX-5 Premiums just landed, more trims trickling in. We can currently offer 7% off MSRP, plus applicable rebates. This is a $2,730 discount on a $39,000 MSRP build.
