[Burrcold]

what I meant by tax savings is that if you turn the car over to a dealer (most likely for wholesale price) you can deduct the sale of your celica to them with the sale of the new vehicle to you. Example: You purchase a car from the dealer for $25,000, and they give you say $12,500 on trade-in on your celica. You then only pay 15% tax on $12,500 ($1875) rather then on the full $25,000 ($3750).

So the difference in tax savings, plus the trade in value (in this case would be $12,500 + $1875 = $14,375) is close to what you would get for it privately then go with the trade in. One point to mention. Negociate the price of the car first and don't say a thing about a trade in. Tell them once you have your price set for the new car and then bust out the "oh and by the way I need to trade my car in.." they will be giving you wholesale price regardless so it won't matter.