John Nielsen: Hi! I am John Nielsen with AAA. And we are here today talking about buying a car, and in this segment we are going to discuss what to do with the vehicle you already own. You really have three options. And the first option is to trade that vehicle in. Now, a couple of things that you need to know here. The first is that your car is probably worth less than you think it is. Now is a time to be really honest with yourself and assess the condition of your vehicle. How clean is it, if it's in very good shape, the tires are good, the paint's good, the interior is good, the mileage is right in line about 12,000 miles a year, you are going to have to consider that. When you go to assess the value online that it's average, if it is has door dings, if it has tires that need to be replaced, you are going to need to move towards poor condition. But be honest with yourself because that's what your car is going to get.

Now, you can go online, go to kbb.

com, go to nada.

com, that will give you information on average what you can hope to get out of your vehicle, selling it yourself or trading it in. You can also go to sites like cars.

com or autotrader.

com and get information of what other people are asking or trying to sell their car for. Remember that's what they are asking, that's not what it's sold for and it may not be a true reflection of what your car is worth.

So when you are trading your vehicle, the dealer is going to offer you a price that reflects the condition of your car. Trade-in value is much different than the value of you selling the vehicle yourself because a vehicle that you trade-in, they are going to have to clean up and resell themselves and they will make a profit on that. You have the option of selling the vehicle yourself, in which case there is a few things that you need to remember. The first off is you are going to need to keep your car clean all the time so that it's ready to be shown when somebody wants to see it. You are going to have to be willing to invite people to your home so they can see the car and drive it, and actually allow people to take your car away from your home and drive it to make sure that it's in good shape. All of those things can be done, and if you are willing to do that you'll make more money. Your car is worth more selling it to an individual than it is in the trading. But remember it takes more work. In the beginning, I said there were three options. The third option is to simply keep your car, you can keep it and give it to your children, you can give it to a friend, or you can park it in the garage and just have a pretty thing to look at.

Now, that we have talked about what you are going to do with the vehicle you already own. It's time to talk about actually negotiating the purchase of your next vehicle.