[Christien]

I used to be a partner in a retail used car dealership, and as such did everything from cleaning floors to selling cars to buying inventory to marketing. I learned quickly that you can't sell cars by being completely honest. Not that you have to lie, but you have to conceal certain things and frame others a certain way. There are 2 reasons for this: 1. the other guy down the street is doing it, and the customer (for whatever reason) usually believes what they want to hear, regardless of reality, meaning that everything being equal between 2 cars, the customer will go with the one he's told is the better car, 90% of the time, and 2. the vast majority of used car buyers are unrealistic - they want a brand new car at used car prices.

I saw both as huge problems within the industry, but #1 propagates #2. I was lousy at sales, because I can't be dishonest with people. I learned that honesty doesn't go very far in used cars.