Depends on how much you sell it for direct vs trade in at the dealership. In my case, I got $10,000 more from a third party(dealer) than what the Ford dealerships were offering me, the sales tax on my new truck is only $3,500. When the dust settles, I will payout $2,000 cash (net of the upgrades on the new vehicle) for a custom ordered truck and had the benefit of using the previous truck for 1.5 years and 7,000 miles. In no previous life have I been able to make that deal.

 

Here's my situation, maybe others are in the same situation or maybe not...

I thought about the sales tax credit as well as insurance, registration, maintenance and fuel costs when I sold my truck. Insurance and registration costs are approximately $200 a month for me and my sales tax rate is 5.4%. I sold my truck private party at the end of March. I invested the $70k in vtsax and I'm up around 6.5% since then (up $4500 right now and the $70k should double in value in around 10 years). I didn't expect this kind of return right away. However, the market does historically average approximately 7% per year. I'm saving $2400 per year on registration and insurance. So depending on when I buy my next truck will determine how much I come out ahead with the sales tax situation. The money saved on insurance, registration, maintenance, fuel etc... Offsets the lost sales tax benefit also. I have municipal bond funds with minimal long term capital gains that I will use to buy my next truck along with bonuses from work and rock bottom low interest rates so I don't have to worry about paying short term capital gains on the money just invested.

I don't need a truck right now and being the capitalist I am I took advantage of the situation. However, I want another hd or sd truck to haul a truck camper for retirement. I have always gotten a huge chunk off of MSRP by initiating multiple dealerships about 2 months before I want to buy and usually buy at the end of the quarter or year. We'll see how it goes with this situation at the end of the year or next spring... My goal is to get a 3 year newer truck for $4k less than what I sold my 2019 for. That alone is more than the sales tax benefit for me. If it works out like this then that's great and if it doesn't then that's fine too. I took a risk and sometimes they pay off and sometimes they don't.