I want to downsize my car to one that's less expensive and more fuel efficient. I was thinking about doing this privately, but, dealers have a huge tax advantage in Ontario over private sellers, which lets them be very competitive (basically, the buyer only pays tax on the difference in price once the trade-in is deducted, but in a private sale, 13% tax must be paid on the full transaction). That means it could kind of suck to sell my car privately. Also, dealers have a lot of built-in convenience and selection over the private market.
So that works great for normal people who trade up, but I'm wondering if anyone has ever traded a car in to a dealer, and then left with a less expensive car plus some cash? Comments?