Hello Folks. Im usually a lurker, reading more than i post, and have been absent for a long time due to the fact of not having my focus for nearly a year now. Today my father and I went down to the local ford dealer and looked around the lot. I wanted to share my thoughts and ask for advice on my plans of selling my current car, and purchasing a new focus.

To start things of I am looking to buy a 2012 Focus SEL hatch with the 301a package. I really want MFT and the only exterior package i wanted was a moonroof but would live without if it came down to it. While looking around the lot i noticed a few things. The sedan's outnumber the hatch's 5 to 1. Any hatch i looked at was an SE. There happened to be one SEL and one Titanium. I will admit the titanium was nice and had the MFT, but had a couple options i would never use (parking assist, winter package crap).

The car I ended up test driving was the one sel hatch in the arctic white. The car handled nicely and looked really good in its color. The rims looked decent and it had nice leather seats. The factory stereo sounded ok but i really look for a quality sound system in cars due to my huge love for music while driving. I tried playing around with the voice command but either my dad and i speak french, or the system is very picky with the commands. I was unsure of what to say for what i wanted but even saying radio came back as unable to do. The system seemed a little fishy. During the drive back I tried out the sport mode shifting with the rocker buttons on the shifter. I was able to work it in slow speeds but it seemed to still shift rather fast and automatically. Over all the car was a 8/10 for me and very fun and comfortable.

Now on to the decision part. Currently i am driving a 1999 eclipse spyder. It has 190k miles on the body and around 88k on the engine due to a recent replacement of the original motor. The car over all is in ok shape for its age. The only part with major flaws are the convertable top. It is frawying, split along the windows, and one brace in the middle is broken, but it functions manually just fine. My only issue with getting the new focus is what to do with this car. I am unsure if I should craigslist it to finish off the loans i have on it (one for the car itself, and one for the replacement motor. I talked with the dealer and he said i can trade it in to reduce the net price of the focus. This sounded nice to me, i was just worried that i might be able to get more for it if i was to sell it myself.

The thing i wanted help with is, what would be the better decision to make with my car. Should i trade it in on my new focus, or sell it myself. I will have to wait another 2.5 months to get my focus, but that will give me plenty of time to knock off some on the loans i owe for the eclipse. My dad sounded like he knew more on loans and payment stuff than the dealer, so i wanted to ask for more advice from my fellow focus people. Dont tell him i said this, but i was able to tell my dad more about all of the new focus' than the dealer. He was a chump to say the least.

Sorry for the rant but i figured giving my review of the car i drove would help, and any background info would help also. I GREATLY appriciate the help and thank you so so much for reading.

-Ryan.

You can probably make $500 or more selling privately rather than trading the car in but you also have to deal with the hassle or listing it and letting random people come to your house to test drive then lowball you then transferring the title and whatever paperwork is included with an engine swap.

Sell it outright.. you'll get more for it.

I would try selling it on your own while waiting for the Focus, but confirm with the dealer they will take it as a trade in. Since you have to wait, might as well give selling it on your own a shot.

Honestly given the economy, I have given this advice many times to friends buying cars. Get a quote on trade in value from your dealer. Then take an honest look at what comparable cars are going for on craigslist, ebay, autotrader, cars.com, etc. Blue book value is a great guideline, but your car is only really worth what someone is willing to pay. If you keep the car for 6 months trying to sell and you end up saying "screw it" and let it go cheap to just get rid of it, then you may as well have traded it in and saved yourself the hassle.

But compare trade in value to a conservative estimate on private party sale. And decide if the extra money is worth the hassle of cleaning it up and dealing with people for as ogn as it may take to sell it.

You should have some luck selling it privately since the used car market is so hot right now, but a convertable that has issues with the top is going to be harder to move. It does make sense to do what apagios said and get the quote for a trade in then try and move it on your own.

Youll have plenty of interest from high school aged kids on a car like that. Give it a shot and be honest with any potential buyers. The used car market is really hot due to cash for clunkers.

Thanks everyone for the advice. I think im going to sell the car localy and get a used zx3 or maybe an svt. I think ive decided to wait till i finish college (just short of 2 years) to purchase the new focus. By then the ST should be around and I can take a shot at one of those.