You've been thinking about trading in your vehicle. As you have grown more and more determined, you have also sought advice from others; people who've traded in a car or two in their day.

Everyone had advice: Clean it up, buy new tires, have it painted. . . All sorts of work that will cost you money and, truth be known, will seldom bring back the same value when you take it in for the trade. What's the truth behind trading in a car? What can you actually expect and have a basic understanding of before you make your move?

Most any news-stand carries the current "Blue Book" Guide to used car appraisals, and you can buy your own to look up your car, or, if you're a cheap-scape like me, just glance at your car's info. This is THE tool that the industry uses; that and their eyes and a test drive will tell the used car manager who is considering the value of your trade just how much to offer you.

What goes on in his or her mind?

Of course they are first and foremost profit motivated. They want to buy your vehicle for a lower price and still remain as fair as possible; after all, they do want to remain in business in the long run; scamming or bad dealing with customers is a fast track to closing down. You can trust that they do not want to take this route. But, how do you know if you're getting a square deal?

First, they will look around your car. It helps if it is clean, but even that is debatable. A clean car will also show off all the shopping cart dings in the doors, the curb scuffs that happened when you misjudge the width of the lane in the drive thru. Lots of little things happen to the appearance of our vehicles as we drive them in our daily lives. All these things show when we take it in for trade and all these little dents, dings and scrapes are what has to be considered, but that isn't everything they take to mind. . .

Now, in the blue book (which isn't really blue at all) you'll see a few columns with numbers. They show what vehicles like yours sold for originally. It will show the current loan value, or what a bank might loan for the purchase of a vehicle like yours.

Another column details the value of the average trade and that is the figure a used car manager is going to begin with.

Average is average, not exact! Do not expect to get the figure listed for the average trade, not unless you're so anal-retentive that you wash your car everyday, maintain all records with a meticulous scrutiny to rival Ebenezer

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