I used to be a wholesale car dealer way back when and I happened to be at a Honda dealer one night where a customer had negotiated a $75 over invoice on a new Prelude. I asked them why they bothered and he said, well, he is buying it from the dealer cross town if not from us for $100 over. Plus, they get incentives and volume bonuses and so forth.
But, ANY new car is a losing proposition.
Once, I was at a dealer auction standing with a used car manager from a ford store and there was a nearly new ford pickup and it was going for over what he said I could buy one for with incentives If I walked into their dealership as a retail customer.
If there was anything I learned in my dozen years in the low end car business, its that depreciation is a fact of life. Ive never owned a new car and I doubt I ever will.
Once, a couple years after I retired from the car business, a friends wife was selling her very nice SUV to CarMax for $20k. And they offered it to me for the same price. Being out of the car business and with no insurance and the monthly depreciation if I couldn't sell it right away, I passed.
They sold it to CarMax, who had it detailed and it was listed on their website 2 days later for $23,997.
I just wasn't confident in my ability to find someone willing to pay me $21-21.5k before it depreciated by $1000. Not to mention insuring it, titling it and paying sales tax. And I didn't want it for myself.
Paying invoice plus a fee is no huge deal except to the guy who was probably going to overpay by $1500. Or get suckered into paying a $799 or $999 doc fee too.
And, don't even get me started on extended warranties. |
