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Will Rivian facilitate trade-ins?

Hmp10

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I'm wondering if Rivian will do anything to facilitate trade-ins.

When I bought my Tesla in 2015 Tesla had a contract with a third party that allowed you to trade in a previous car. The third party did the appraisal and took the car, but the transaction was run through the Tesla system, and you were credited with the trade-in value at the time of purchase. This meant that I had to pay sales tax only on the difference between the price of the Tesla and the trade-in value. If I had disposed of the car on my own, I would have had to pay sales tax on the full purchase price of the Tesla.

The trade-in I arranged this way got me a better price than I would have likely been able to get myself, and it saved me almost $6,000 on sales tax (as the trade-in value for my old car was $95,000).

It would be a big boon to Rivian buyers if Rivian could work out this same kind of arrangement with a third party.
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ElectricTrucking

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If it is anything like Tesla at this moment try and stay clear. Tesla was going to give me auction price of $24K for my 2017 Mercedes C300. I sold it for $33500. This was 2 months ago. Gave me time to hold the cash and wait for the Rivian.
 
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Hmp10

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Yep, I don't know what the situation is these days. I had a four-year-old Audi R8 V-10 Spyder in mint condition with low mileage. It was hard to sell locally, as most people who would pay $95K for a used car are people who could and would rather buy a new car. Cars like that usually go outside the country for resale by brokers. Tesla (or rather their third party) offered me the Blue Book trade-in price. I approached my local Audi dealer to see what they would give me for it, and they said he couldn't beat the Tesla price. Audi would have had to offer me over $100K for the car to match the Tesla offer, once you factor in the sales tax savings.

But setting aside the details of our particular transactions, I still think Rivian would find it easer to sell to some buyers if they contracted with a third-party firm to handle trade-ins. It doesn't tie up any Rivian cash or barely any personnel. All Tesla did was give me the number of the contractor. Their appraiser came to my house, gave me the offer on the spot, and arranged to trailer my car from my driveway on the date we agreed to. Couldn't have been easier.

If Rivian facilitated this, people could decide whether the trade-in offer works for them or not. I have quite a few friends who have decided on one car or another based on which dealer made the trade-in most attractive, either in cost or convenience. Some people are skittish about taking the leap into an EV, and every hurdle lowered helps.
 

KeithPleas

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This saving the sales tax on a trade-in is indeed significant in high-sales-tax states. In WA, that's 10%. But is that enough to overcome the trade-in penalty over selling it yourself?
 
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Hmp10

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It'll really depend on the individual situation. Sometimes a trade-in offer works out to beat a higher offer on a private sale once sales tax is factored in. In other cases a trade-in, even at a price lower than what you think the car should be worth, is the only way to get rid of an unusual car that is in low demand.

In my case, I will be getting rid of a Tesla, which might be a harder car to sell in the used market than an ICE car. If I cannot sell it readily or trade it in, I will have to turn it over to a broker, as I would have had to do to sell the R8 had not Tesla arranged a trade-in.

I have a deposit on both a Lucid Air and a Rivian R1S, which are hitting the market at about the same time. If one offers a trade-in arrangement and the other doesn't, that could become a factor in which way I go.
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