Transactions needed for new car purchase without trade-in but later sold old car?

jryan32

I bought a car for $30k from dealer & paid cash. Instead of trading old car in for only $2k, I sold it privately for $5k a couple months later (no outstanding loan).

If I'd have traded the old car, I'd have paid $28k.
Instead, I paid $30k, but then took in $5k…so basically it cost me $25k.

Here's what I've done in Quicken but doesn't seem right:

-In Checking acct I have transaction for check I wrote to dealer for purchase price ($30k) and assigned a new Car asset acct as the category ([New Car Asset]).

-I then sold the old car & entered a Checking deposit of $5k with a category of "Misc Income".
At the same time, I added a Balance Adjustment to the Old Car Asset of $5k to zero it out.
I felt that wasn't right, but it seemed to work.

However, when I print year end Spending vs Budget report, it shows I had Expenses of $30k for the new car, and Income of $5k for the old car. While that could be ok, my budget was $25k and to me that's what I spent…but according to report I'm over budget.

What transaction(s) could/should I add so I see $25k of spending for the new car?

NotACPA

How, in Q, did you carry the value of the old car? Because, it seems to me, that the $5k should have reduced that asset with any balance being written off.

The 2 actions, simply, aren't related. That they were both for cars is immaterial.