When you buy a new car, you usually have to get rid of your old vehicle. The dealer will help you get rid of your vehicle by offering you a trade in allowance on your old car . If you have an exceptionally clean vehicle, the dealer might keep it for resale himself and you could get an excellent offer. Unfortunately, this is unusual and the dealer will usually offer you a price based on his auctioning your vehicle off. DO NOT BE INSULTED...the dealer is just giving you an offer that reflects what he will get from your vehicle.

Often, the tax benefit from donating your vehicle is greater than the dealer can offer you in trade-in. In most cases, the dealer does not care if you take his trade in allowance or not (as long as you buy a car from him.)

You can see if you are better off donating or trading with the simple calculation below.

	Total
Estimated Tax Benefit	$
Less: Trade-in Offer	-$
Donation Gain or Cost(-)	$