[onewhippedpuppy]

Originally Posted by Christien

10%? How does that break down into reconditioning & overhead vs profit? Maybe that's the difference between what winter driving conditions in Ontario do to cars! (though KS gets pretty hard winters too, don't you?) Generally recon here is going to run $5-1000, lot pack is about $500-1000, sales commission $300, so on my $10k example you're only looking at about $1000 at most dealer profit. Mind you, I've only ever dealt in cars in the $8-15000 range, so it might be different on higher-end vehicles.

I'm talking straight price, wholesale gavel price vs retail price. I shop online and nationally, so it's not subject to regional bias. Very slim margins on a lot of cars, probably why most dealerships seem to make it up in volume. I only deal in higher end specialty stuff and am a sole proprietorship, so most of my mechanical and cosmetic reconditioning is "free". Much like Lee, I think you can find nearly as good of deals on Craigslist.