Quote:
Originally Posted by tevake
Eric; I see that you are doing car deals all over the country. How are you able to not get caught out in buying sight unseen? Are you able to trust the evaluation of other dealers?
Cheers Richard
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As a general rule, I don't buy from dealers. Most of the cars I buy come from companies that do not have retail outlets/license to sell their inventories so they must take them to auctions. These include banks (ie Chase), manufacturers (ie Mercedes-Benz), or manufacturer's finance arms (ie Mercedes-Benz Financial). They have nothing to hide, and no hidden reason to take a bad car to auction (like a dealer would). The auction does an independent condition report that is usually very thorough (esp MB, BMW, etc). They note every scratch, ding, and flaw. They note previous paintwork (acceptible or not), frame damage or repair, tire condition/depth, curb rash, smoke smell, missing items, etc. It's not perfect, but close enough. I've purchased a couple thousand cars this way and had only a handful of surprises. Usually they can be taken care of.
I wouldn't buy a 1987 Porsche 911 Carrera this way, but buying a 2010 Mercedes E350 this way is a pretty safe bet. 99.999% of cars have flaws. We just want to know what those flaws are to make an informed decision. Sometimes buying a car that needs tires, 3/32nds for example, an paying $500 less than one that has 6/32nd tires, is a good overall value. We just pay less, buy new 11/32 tires for $600, and add value overall. Other times you just have to decide what's normal wear and tear given the year and miles and decide what you can live with. Sometimes you just have to walk away, regardless of savings, because the car will never be able to be reconditioned to the client's expectations.
They do grade them overall, on a scale of 0.0 to 5.0. The cars we typically pursue are 3.0 or above. Usually, they are 4.0 or above. Often, they are 4.3 to 4.9 when we have enough to choose from, nationally. It just depends on why they got dropped to a lower grade, how easy it is to remedy, and if the selling price is enough of a discount to pay for the remedy or enough of a savings to live with it. Not everyone expects a perfect car. Not everyone wants to afford a perfect car. It's a pretty good system.
It's difficult to find needles in haystacks. If you come to me and say (actual current example), "I want a 2009-2011 Cayman S, has to be White with Black interior, has to be under 20K miles, has to have PDK transmission, has to have the Sport package, has to be flawless, etc".....well, they didn't make very many. It will take a loooong time to find that car. Someone else from Pelican wants a 997 Coupe with TipTronic for less than $40K, and it must be perfect. They're not out there in big numbers. Most of the cars at auctions are 2008 and newer, off lease, or at least a good reason to be there. The cars that were heavily leased new (MB, BMW, Audi, Mini, Ford, Toyota, etc) are out there in larger volumes, but they're 2-3 years old. So ask me to find one that's 4-5 years old and the numbers drop to 10% of the 2-3 year old cars.
Sometimes there are big savings, often there are not. Most clients save a little, but the big reason they do it is to avoid the dealer hassle, get good advice, and get exactly what they want/need.
YMMV