Hey, how you doing? Bryan McEvoy here with Mercedes-Benz Edmonton West. I’m the Internet Sales Manager and I wanted to go over something with you today that a lot of people have doubts with and questions regarding your trade-in value.
Have you ever gotten a number from a dealership and you have no idea where this ambiguous number came from? Quite often you’re probably pretty disappointed with that number. Well, it happens all the time at dealerships all across the country and at Mercedes-Benz Edmonton West, we have a different procedure, a different policy in place so that you are 100% in the know the entire process in regards to the value and the worth of your vehicle.
When we take a vehicle in for sale, we want to recondition it and get it ready, sell it in our pre-owned department. We like our vehicles to sell in 30 days or less. We have to be competitive with the market.
The days of looking at a book, a black book or looking online to get a number based on some random generator are behind us. We have to go on live market value and look at competitors in the market.
When it comes down to putting a value to your vehicle, there’s things that we need to look at. Not only do we need to see the condition of your vehicle, but we need information on the history of it. We need to have some of that information on the history of the vehicle.
Carproof – this is a big one. When we put your VIN number into a system we have Carproof’s. On these Carproof’s it is going to tell us if your vehicle has ever been in an accident. If your vehicle comes in and its had one owner and no accidents, and it is a clean car, we can definitely put a lot more value into your vehicle.
I’m also going to look at competitors in the market. For example, in this 2009 Range Rover that we’re appraising today. I have two comparables here. Now with both of these vehicles we have to look at what it’s being retailed at, how many days its been on the market, again we want to sell them 30 days or less. Anything that’s been in the market for 200+ days is another tough sell.
We look at what they’re asking for their vehicle, then we pick our retail price. We usually need to be priced a little bit lower than everything else in the market, so that we’re attractive to the consumer.
We then do a market value assessment. In this market value assessment, what this is going to provide you with is what we’re asking for the vehicle retail wise, what I can be into it for after reconditioning, and then this gives you the margin that I work on after a little bit of negotiating to turn a profit for the store.
You know, a small profit doesn’t need to be large, which I think you’ll agree is very fair.
We have a detailing fee. We have cosmetic improvement fee and mechanical improvements. Everything to get the vehicle front line ready.
At that point we can add some credits, maybe you put some 3M on the vehicle, extended warranty, any accessories that sort of stuff to add value to your trade-in.
Sales Team
Mercedes-Benz Edmonton West
