Quote:
Originally Posted by Table 5
Despite them being a bad place to SELL a car if you want to maximize your dollar, I definitely think when you're BUYING a car, a dealer is often best place to go (unless it's one of those corner lot type deals). They have usually inspected/fixed/cleaned the cars, so you have a fairly good idea of what you're getting into.
Plus they tend to be pretty fair in terms of price. I've found that most private sellers typically over value their cars (especially if it's something interesting), while dealers tend to just want something that will maximize their profit but still sell in a reasonable amount of time...so they tend to be fairly decent price wise, or be willing to negotiate into a fair area. You might not get a steal, but it should be a decent price.
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Bingo. There is a saying in the car business. "We aren't selling Rembrandt's." In 99/100 cases, the dealer doesn't care if it is some special souped up edition, it is just another piece of inventory to turn a profit on. Your kick ass subwoofer, faux carbon fibre hood, shopping cart spoiler and totally radical fart cannon means nothing to us. Sorry you paid some guy who loops Fast5 24/7 thousands of dollars to vomit tackiness all over your 2007 Civic. In fact that type of stuff tends to push the value of the car in the opposite direction....substantially. Most people want factory original, and to be honest, your mods are very gay sir.
The odd time when we get a super rare in demand car, like a car with a sub 500 production count like a Golf R, or something, yeah, we will hold our ground and price it for what the market will bear. But your mint, 1994, AWD, Eddie Bauer Aerostar with 120k and, factory Mountain inspired pin-striping kit, Tasmanian devil seat covers and dream catcher in the windshield is only worth as much as the gas in the tank.