Two-thirds of trade-in customers are walking into dealerships with record positive equity averaging $13,330, and most of them have no idea it's a ready-made down payment.
Edmunds found the average positive equity has grown nearly $4,000 since early 2021, and it isn't limited to luxury vehicles or recent model years. A 2018 Ford F-150 carries close to $17,900 in equity. A 2019 Honda CR-V sits around $10,500. Even a 2017 Toyota Camry is showing $8,800.
The numbers are crazy, borderline unbelievable. You've got a large subset, actually a majority of trades, that are in good shape and will be a benefit to the consumer to trade in.
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Look Past Your Own Sold List
Most dealers are only checking their CRM for customers they personally sold a car to. That misses the bigger opportunity. Tools that surface every vehicle sitting in a customer's driveway, not just the one your store sold them, let you find equity you'd otherwise never see. If someone in your database is driving a paid-off car you never touched, that's still a lead worth working.
The 2017-2019 Sweet Spot
A lot of this equity exists because buyers who couldn't get into the market over the past few years held onto their vehicles longer and paid them down. That means the 2017-to-2019 range, ordinary CR-Vs, Camrys, F-150s, isn't just aging inventory sitting in someone's driveway. It's a built-in down payment waiting for the right offer, especially with rates easing slightly and incentives ticking up on the new side.
What This Means for Your Store
Run a CRM pull this week for every 2017-2019 model year vehicle in your database, not just the ones you sold. That equity is sitting there whether or not you were the one who put the customer in the car. Pair it with a straightforward appraisal conversation, since the customer likely doesn't know what they're sitting on, and you may turn a routine visit into a deal that started as a service appointment.
