Trade-in is theft. Need a better way
 

My wife doesn't like the IS 500 so I'm willing to cave. I went to look at trading for a new Honda Passport for her that retails for $54 plus enough accessories to make it more fair to me and we couldn't make a deal. They showed me a value of $48k for the IS 500. They would turn around and put it on their lot for 60k+ I'm certain. And their Passports are already out their pre-owned for 49k.

So I want to sell the Lexus myself and get a fair price or keep it and the wife can just be unhappy. What's even the best way to sell a car these days?

^^ Depending on where you live and the condition (mileage, clean, accident free etc) will affect the value of your IS 500. When you trade a vehicle, you get to recover the taxes on the value that you get on your car (here anyway) and for me, the hassle of selling a car privately is worth the money I lose. You will have to deal with people wanting to low ball you, test drive the car and god knows what else they will do, whether their finance is legit, if they run into an issue, they'll come back and complain...I just can't deal with that sort of thing, plus not knowing how long it will be, before I find a buyer....But good luck and hope it goes well.

As far as tips, people use marketplace to list their cars

It depends on year, mileage, color, and any customizations. Personally I would never trade-in a car unless the dealer shockingly gave me the same price I expected from a private sale, which rarely ever happens.

I've had really good luck with both FB Marketplace (just need to be patient and have thick skin) and driving my cars and parking them at car meet-ups (with a for-sale sign). You'll get enthusiasts that way that would be willing to pay more for clean examples.

For comparison, my CarFax is showing the estimated trade-in value of my 24k-mile 2023 IS 500 Premium as $45k, but the private party value is $52k. KBB also is showing a range of $49k-$52k for trade-in, and a bit higher for private party.

IMO I wouldn't accept anything less than $50k for mine on a trade currently, especially considering they're still going for high $50k's with similar mileage.

Just sold a car on Cars and Bids, went really well, and the buyer picked it up last week, they drove 8 hours to buy the car. Didn't have to endure any time wasting like happens on FB marketplace/Craigslist. It's just a more curated way to link up a buyer and a car.
You have to take good pictures and put a bit more work into the listing, but you will get a better price for sure - probably near the upper end of a private sale.
Bring a Trailer also worth checking out.

Dealer has to pay bills.

^^ I agree - We all have a point of view on how we want to deal with our cars and such. I know someone who would spend months trying to squeeze every penny out of a deal and pitting every dealers against each other. I respect him, and that is his money and his investment so he has every right to proceed how he wants. I am on the camp of I am not very patient and have the means to afford losing money on a trade for a fast and no hassle approach to dealing with my cars. The same way that some people are willing to spend hundreds of dollars to have their cars detailed instead of doing it themselves, or pay for lawn care, house cleaning and such. For me, I do all my own house chores and detail my cars but don't want deal with strangers for selling my cars. Dealers have a lot of overhead and they have to make a living like we all do. I don't work for free and I feel everyone deserves a fair wage and earn a good living. The same way some people are paying for markup fees, extended warranties or other features, it boils down to a personal choice.

What I have zero tolerance for is dealers that lie or manipulate customers....That is a NO NO!

Sell privately if you can. Problem is most people don't have $60k cash on hand.

I have noticed that dealers are also giving way less on trade-ins than 2021-2023 years

The whole car buying process is one huge scam, I hate going through the process. When I was getting my IS 500 and trading in my NX 300h with 12k miles and excellent condition, they lowballed me with $25k. This was in the middle of the car shortage after Covid where used car prices skyrocketed. KB pegged the value at $42k trade-in which is what I paid two years earlier! All I wanted was about $39-40k. I fought hard, walked out several times, called them out several times for inaccurate statements and how they were pricing my NX. I knew they were salivating at the prospect of just giving me $25k and then reselling at $42k. Well hell no! I got them up to $39k and the IS was MSPR in the end. And guess what, they listed the NX for $42k and it sold in less than 3 days; hybrids were hard to come by during that time. I could have gotten full value if I sold it myself but what a hassle that can be. We all go through this because we love special cars or just plain need them for transportation, but man, what a scam!

It is worth noting, that this is with one accident on the CarFax as well. A very minor incident which no one would be able to spot, but on the record nonetheless.

Yes. The trade-in value from CarFax or KBB is one thing, but the appraiser may not care or notice, and a car with a totally clean history would probably pull a couple thousand more.

I got offers between $45k and $55k for my IS500 for trades. Could have gotten higher if I went a different route on the vehicle I traded it for. That equates to a private sale of around $59k, which is what the dealer sold it for. It also needed new tires, so that would have taken some off the private sale. For a private sale, your best bet is Facebook. I got no bites on my local page, 1 bite on the classified ads here but the transaction was going to be too complicated. Take it to a different Honda dealer to get a number on it, preferably one with a dealer network that has a luxury brand in their network.

I would definitely shop different dealerships for the trade. Many will buy your car without you buying another. This just happened to my mom... between an EXTREMELY low offer on her car and the price on the Sequoia she wanted the local dealer was $40,000 more expensive than driving to a dealer an hour away.

Most of the dealerships will try to match Carvana or Carmax then call it quits. You can pay for the safety of a dealership buying the car or risk private party to get more money. I stick with dealers after some shady offerings when trying to sell my old GS. I just shop all the offers I can get and go from there.

Thanks for all the advice. This community is great!

My IS 500 has new Michelin PR4S tires and I have a pair of the aFe washable air filters that go with it. I swap every other oil change just because I can haha. Only other mod is the F Sport puddle lights. I've tried to find another white '23 with black interior and the black enkei wheels and there are zero out there with that combo for sale. I feel like most of the white ones have red seats and or BBS wheels.

I'm a stubborn old fart and never made a facecrook account but I recently retired at 55.5 so I definitely have time to deal with it. I will probably try marketplace first and see what happens.