Vehicle EconomicsTrade-In vs Instant Cash Offer Calculator
Should you trade your car in at the dealer or take an instant online cash offer?
Why this comes up
Instant online cash offers usually beat a dealer's trade-in number outright, but a dealer trade often carries a sales-tax credit an instant-offer sale does not, since many states only reduce taxable price on a same-transaction trade. This engine compares the two paths on real net proceeds, not sticker offer alone.
How we calculated this
Net proceeds for each path are the offer amount minus your loan payoff, with the trade-in path also crediited the sales tax you avoid on your next purchase by trading in instead of selling separately.
Worked example, using this page's own defaults ($16,500 instant offer vs $15,000 trade, $9,000 payoff, 7% tax credit rate): run the calculator above to see which path nets more and by how much.
What this means
- The tax credit only applies if you are buying another vehicle from a dealer in the same transaction, it does not apply to a standalone sale.
- An instant offer is typically good for only 7 to 10 days, get a fresh trade-in quote before comparing if either number is stale.
- See Private Sale vs Trade-In for the fuller private-party comparison, which adds prep and listing costs an instant offer skips.
Limitations
Sales tax credit rules vary by state and some states offer none at all; confirm your state's rule before relying on this figure. See Methodology.
Methodology
This engine reuses Vehicle Economics' equity framing from Private Sale vs Trade-In, applied to an instant cash offer instead of a private-party sale. See Methodology for the full detail.