Did you recently take on (or consider) a loan of 84 months or longer on a car purchase?
A reporter would like to speak with you about your experience; please reach out to PR@Edmunds.com by 7/22 for details.
A reporter would like to speak with you about your experience; please reach out to PR@Edmunds.com by 7/22 for details.
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Any Questions for a Car Dealer?
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azldw---I would ask them if they have any at the port or if any are on the way. Try a buying service like priceline, raybear can help you there. Not sure about carsdirect or autobytel, but you may want to try them also.
I am not a dealer, just some suggestions.
I had a friend of mine who was also undercut on a trade-in offer. But the San Diego Lexus dealer in my area really won't negotiate much on trade-ins from what I saw. So--are the Edmunds values *seriously* inflated?
Scott
Keep in mind edmunds is just a "guesstimate" albeit a very good one. As they say your mileage may vary.
As for our dealership we would not re-sell a car with 115,000 miles on it. We would wholesale it, which means getting bids from wholesalers.
Obviously they want to make something on the transaction as well.
Finally, the common sense approach. If your car should trade for $5200, ask yourself if you would buy the same car for $7-8000, on a lot knowing nothing about that car? Probably not.
Without knowing more about your car, year, transmission, body etc I can't give you my opinion of your cars worth.
Max
Try visiting a used car dealer to see what he'll pay for it-cash. That's one way to find the car's wholesale value.
Also, see "Real World Trade In Values" here in Smart Shopper.
2001 Prelude Type SH, 2022 Highlander XLE AWD, 2025 Camry SE AWD
Your Integra has high miles. It may also be a bad color, be a bit rough, reek of cigeratte smoke...I don't know...all used cars are different.
You can always run an ad and try to sell it yourself.
But I read an article somewhere recently that still claims a good 40% of used cars on the market today have been rolled.
Anyone care to comment?
A individual with any ethics at all wouldn't even consider buying, selling, or even walking near a vehicle that was suspicious of a rollback. It simply is against everything a dealer is supposed to stand for.
Why would a dealer sell a car with a rolledback odometer? Dealers deal with millions of dollars each month. You don't risk reputaion with public and the wholesalers you need over a couple of dollars.
Small or independant wholesalers wouldn't last long if they associated themselves with activities like that.
It equates to "Why don't you mug a guy on the street for his wallet"?
BTW, Jocko in Texas doesn't appreciate what you said.....he runs an honest business and you are just trying to bring him down........ he will be calling on you shortly.
But as a customer I should not have to compromise my buying decision because a dealer is worried about his demo fleet. That's what insurance is for. Cars are wrecked and stolen from dealerships every day, many times by dealership employees including new car salesmen. I don't believe dealers have restricted their employees from driving cars so why should customers be restricted?
Unfortunately we have had to use the form to get a damaged or wrecked car paid for.
Like everything else in the car business I don't think consumers really understand the true cost and scale of the business.
By the way bret most dealers do not allow the employees to drive the cars without a specific reason, ie test drive.
I like VOLVOMAX's idea of having customers accept responsibility for insuring themselves on a test drive. While on one hand I think this is an area that business should make invisible to customers (asking for proof of insurance suggests irresponsibility) it may be one of those things whose time has come. I'm sure a smart dealer can find a way to mask rising insurance costs and still give shoppers a feeling of confidence.
I just went to the dealer to sit in one (was curious to see how much interior room they had), and when I got out the salesman was staring at me. He asked if I had driven one yet, and when I said no, he asked which one I wanted to drive. I hesitated and he said to drive them both. Made a copy of my license and tossed me the keys. I drove up in a Focus and am 23 but look a few years younger, so I was a bit surprised. I wasn't asked to sign any insurance waivers or anything, either.
The penalities are SO severe that only an idiot would do this. Also, the modern digital odometers I have heard are near impossible to roll back.
Still...I guess anything is possible...?
M.
The dealership had many cars with add-ons, but they don't require them. They are also selling at straight MSRP. The combination of those two is probably why the salesman said it would take 3 months for an order - because they've already used up their allocation for July.
When I got in the biz 20 years ago a few of the sleazy used car dealers were still "clocking cars" but I have not heard or seen proof of a dealers clocking in many years....We have way to much to lose....consumers on the otherhand have little risk and big gains in clocking cars!!
Of course, many mfg. can still pull the actual mileage off a non-working odometer via the cars internal computers. Most clocking consumers dont realize this. Eventually somebody will get screwed and it all will hit the fan. Dealers will be blamed. haha
Rich
The modern way of rolling back and odometer (especially the digital ones) is to install a switch that actually deactivates the entire instrument cluster. So in esscense the miles are not being rolled back, but are not even being put on the car. The actual reading is like 5 miles for every 100 put on or something like that.
2001 Prelude Type SH, 2022 Highlander XLE AWD, 2025 Camry SE AWD
speedos. Laptops with a homemade program can even
reset the computer itself.......and fool the dealer computer !
I'm real surprised this dealership would call me since I a major problem w/ their service dept. and had it out w/ the manager over the incident.
I hope now I'm off their list. Then again I keep getting letters to refinance a mortgage we closed in 96.
Peeter
With about a week left on the auction, my car is already very close to the reserve price (set at what I owe), so I think it's going to sell. The thing is, Ford Credit holds the title. As soon as the buyer gives me the money, I'm going to pay off the loan and Ford will send me the title (right?). In the meantime, will the buyer be able to register the car in his name and drive it around? How? I've never sold a car before so I'm a little worried about how the whole thing will go through.
So if I buy your vehicle, I must wait for your lein holder to release the title to you and for you to sign it over to me. Then I can present it to the RMV along with their forms and various checks in order to get a new title and registration in my name. Technically, the car could sit in the driveway for a couple of weeks.
What some people have done is arrange for multiple checks. One check is made out to the lein holder for the payoff amount and one check made out to the seller for the balance which would be handed over in exchange for the title. Of course there has to be a little trust in this as the buyer is paying off the seller's car.
Do you have any free cash to pay off the lein so you have a clear title to hand over?
Easy!
Bill
If a car's price is $20,000 and there is a customer rebate of $3,000 available then you could choose to receive a cheque for the rebate and then go pay $20,000 + tax for the car. Or you can use the rebate as a downpayment and pay $20,000 + tax - $3,000.
Similarly, your own downpayment doesn't enter into the sales tax equation (except on leases, but that's another issue). After all, if you were to put $19,500 down you would not expect to get away with only being taxed on the remaining $500.