Trade In - How do you value it?

Here's the deal: i'm about to take my car to Carmax, since I just bought a "new" one from an individual. My black car has a lot of fine scratches in the paint (my stupid dog) that I believe will come out with a good buffing. Detailer wants $200 and I have to wait until Thursday.

My husband thinks I should just leave the car dirty where the scratches aren't noticable and take it on over there.

I think the difference between "rough" and "clean" is about $2,500 on NADA ('05 545i) and it could really be worth the trouble. On the other hand, that gorgeous new car in my garage is calling me to hurry up and ditch the old one which may just throw another check engine light before Thrusday!

Opinions? Thanks.

If spending $200 can increase the value by $2,500, I'd say that is one hell of an investment.

Detail it. Makes a world of difference in appraisal. Perception is everything.

FWIW, I got my car appraised by the same dealer on two separate occasions within a month. They apparently lost the original appraisal or something - anyway the first time was when the car was somewhat dirty, and the second time was after I spent some time detailing it myself. Appraisal price differed by $1500 ($9500 when dirty, $11k when clean)

Go to the the public library. Look at their copy of the NADA book; the actual book, not the online version. Add up what the book says Loan value is for your car. That is pretty close to what you can expect on trade-in. I know the book has a Wholesale/Trade-in value that is higher than the Loan value. It doesn't matter. The Loan value is the closest to the real world trade-in value. I hate to have to admit how long I've been doing this, but I've been doing it for more than 30 years.

$2500-$200 = $2300 return for 2 day's wait. If you can make $1150 a day would you wait?

Tell the worthless husband to do it.

No guarantee you will make 2500 more either.

Carmax is a good experience imo. I took a nice '09 328 vert in with about 25k miles and they offered 31k which I thought was reasonable. It had no options except auto and heated seats. It was quick and easy and while I didn't take the offer I knew what was fair when I traded it. This number was close to what Edmunds had for "clean trade".