First post.

Sadly, we are thinking about trading in our Q7 4.2. It's basically got all the options including the $6000 leather upgrade, Nav, panormic moon roof.

I think the only option missing was the adaptive cruise control and the B&O sound sytem.

Anyways dealer is giving us 37K for the trade in. Audi is in excellent condition, only 29K miles on it with 14 more month of warranty left along with the AudiCare we purchased. We put 4 new tires in 6 months ago and it's only got 2-3K of miles on those tires.

So is 37K a fair trade in value?

With 2 young kids (ages 2 and 3 months), the wife is thinking a minivan (yes, mini van) is a more practical choice.

Keep in mind we live in Florida and Florida only charges sales taxes on the "spread difference" between the trade in value and the new purchase. So if we were to buy a $36K Honda Odyssey Touring edition with a 37K trade in. With dealer fees etc. It's a wash. So we would not end up paying anything for the new minivan, may $700 out of pocket at most.

Whereas if you were to do a private pay for 39-40K. We would have to pay the entire 6% sales taxes on the new purchase. So 36K new minivan x 6 percent taxes. Means we would pay over $2K in sales taxes.

Of course we can deduct the 2K in sales taxes on IRS returns. But tax benefit would be roughly $600.

So factoring in the trade in tax benefits....do you think 37K trade in for the audi is a fair price?

I've done research on Edmunds and KBB and trade in values varies from $36-38K. Dealer would probably jack up the price on the resell market to around $43K. Private sell looks like it will net me around 39-40K.

I got the Q7 4.2 Liter at a steal at end of 2009. We paid 54K for it only. 58K out the door with all fees and taxes/Audi Care.

So we would only be "losing 21K" on the Audi. It's almost like leasing the car for around $600-650/month for 34 months which isn't bad.