I’m going to mix it up a little for today’s installment of The Morning Dump, as I actually did a little in-person, human reporting, with a pen and a notebook and everything. Memorial Day draws nigh, and with it comes big car sales. So I went to a car dealership and talked to some salespeople to bring you the latest information.
I’ve also got some data from Edmunds showing which dealers are sitting on 2023 models and, based on their data, how much dealers of various brands have lowered their prices. These are where the best deals are likely to be had, if not the best cars.
What if you’re ready to get rid of your old car? I had my beloved Subaru appraised and learned a little bit about that process so you can make an informed judgment.
Dealerships, like any other business, are subject to being swayed by buzzwords. What are the big buzzwords in the dealership world right now? The first one won’t surprise you. And, finally, Ford is claiming that it’s both making more vehicles in the United States and exporting more U.S.-built vehicles than anyone else.
Let’s Dump.
Why You Should Think About Buying A New Car This Weekend
If you were on the fence about buying a car, there’s a reasonable argument to be made that maybe this weekend is the time to do it.
“The time is now,” Delimar Diaz, a consultant for White Plains Honda in New York told me on my visit to her showroom yesterday. “To be honest, we are getting a lot of inventory and we want to push it out.”
After almost three years of supply constraint, factories are back at full speed and dealers can finally play a volume game as opposed to trying to squeeze as much profit out of the car. Diaz doesn’t remember those days, however, as she only started selling cars three months ago.
With a wide smile and a warm demeanor, Diaz managed to snag the top-seller trophy in just her 2nd month and she’s working on her third. Her approach?
“Connecting with people and working for the people. We all want to make a sale, but you have to make it work for [the customer]” Diaz said.
This showroom is unique in that the dealership has both a matte black Civic Type-R, which is cool, and a matte black Honda Accord, which was a bit of a surprise.
When I asked Diaz if she was feeling any heat from the other salespeople after doing so well so fast she laughed.
“It’s a friendly competition, but sometimes it can be unfriendly…”
How unfriendly?
“…60% unfriendly.”
In spite of the competitive nature of the business, Diaz was happy to introduce me to Paul Kim, another consultant who happened to sell the dealership’s first EV Prologue. I was curious about the buyer, and Kim explained that the customer was trying out all EVs from as many brands as he could and ultimately decided on the Honda due to its functionality, driving dynamics, and the big screen.
Honda dealers have it easy according to Edmunds, which put out a list of the brands with the most 2023 Model Year vehicles sticking around:
Right at the bottom is Honda, with just 0.6% of 2023MY vehicles on lots, which I assume are all Ridgelines. Because of this, the average discount is just $786 for those vehicles. Toyota and Subaru are also both down there at the bottom, although Subaru is showing a slightly higher average discount of $1,450.
At the other extreme is Dodge and Chrysler, which are both sitting on a ton of old inventory. Dodge currently is the worst, with more than half of the inventory share on dealer lots being 2023MY vehicles, which means discounting of over $6,753. These numbers are merely the listed price versus the MSRP, so more discounts can definitely be expected.
“Supply chain disruptions and limited inventory left little to be excited about in summer holiday car shopping the past few years, but discounts on outgoing model year vehicles this Memorial Day weekend are a bright spot for consumers in an otherwise challenging market,” said Jessica Caldwell, Edmunds’ head of insights. “For dealers and automakers, the trend serves as a moment of caution surrounding the old habits of overproduction and inventory glut. It’s also a reminder that the expensive vehicles now being discounted were strong sellers one to two years ago, showing just how significant high interest rates are in today’s market.”
Five of the top seven are Stellantis brands, which is not a surprise. I’m not sure if you want a Dodge Hornet, but now is the time to get a deal on a Hornet.
How Much Do You Think My Subaru Is Worth?
As you’re all aware, I’m not super pleased with my 2016 Subaru Forester, and I’m excited to get rid of it. Part of this exercise was to get my old Subaru appraised as I prepare to potentially offload it for something else. With interest rates high, anything I can do to roll that into my purchase helps with lowering my monthly payment.
I arrived early to White Plains Honda for my appraisal and, of course, they sent me first to the salesfloor to see if I wanted to buy anything. Having finally sussed out that I wasn’t buying anything today, they finally turfed me to the used car department where I met Ivan Rados, the dealership’s longtime Sales Manager, who appraised my car.
Having never done this, I was expecting it to take a while, to answer questions about the missing wheel stud, and list all the maintenance I’d done to keep it in tip-top shape. Nope. He walked around, checked the paint and wheels, turned it on, and snapped a photo of the VIN. It took maybe three minutes, tops.
We sat at his desk and he popped the VIN into vAuto, which is the dealership management software arm of Cox Automotive. Friendly and experienced, Rados was happy to show me the screen and the comparable vehicles.
“I’ll give you $10,500 or it,” he offered, explaining that he could probably sell the car for $14,000 after putting in approximately $2,000 to paint the scuff on the bumper, redo the brakes, and flush and replace all the fluids. The brakes are relatively new, but it doesn’t matter.
“Safety is too important. If I sell the car and something happens, it doesn’t matter that you said you did whatever to the car, it’s not worth it, so we’ll do it ourselves,” he explained.
Rados is cheerful and matter-of-fact, pointing out other dealerships listing the same car, including one listed for way more than the other ones. “It’s been for sale for 96 days, it’s going to be 196 days at that price.”
I was ready to leave when Rados, ever the businessman, asked: “What do you want for it.”
I explained that Carvana offered $11,400 and he said “Ok, I’ll give you $11,400.”
Though I’m not quite ready to sell the Subaru juuuust yet, I shook his hand and promised him the first shot at it. Rados admits I could get more on the private market, but I don’t have the time or energy to deal with tire-kickers or a million “is it still for sale” messages.
The lesson here is that, at least at dealerships, this isn’t a huge margin business. Rados is trying to make $1,000 or maybe a little more on these cars, so if you see what your car is selling for at other dealerships you can work your way backward to a price.
There are also tax benefits to trading in your car at a dealership, as in many states (including New York) you can reduce the trade-in price from your total taxable amount.
And, finally, since this is often a volume business, remember that the first price isn’t always the final price.
Yes, Dealerships Are Talking About AI
There’s a fun post over at Cox Automotive about dealership business buzzwords, and it’s amusing to see that all businesses are thinking about the same thing. Specifically, artificial intelligence:
Historically linked to autonomous vehicle systems, AI is streamlining the entire automotive marketplace today. AI leads to access to more data, enabling dealers to get the right car in front of the right buyer at the right time. Dealers can use AI data to serve personalized messaging and can also help with retargeting as it continues to drive brand awareness and profits.
The other buzzwords are “CDP” (Customer Data Platform) and “Hybrid Retailing,” if you were curious. CDPs just go to show that there’s a SaaS tool for everything.
“Hybrid Retailing” is a little more interesting as all retailers, from Amazon to fast food companies, are reconsidering how they blend online sales with in-person sales. For dealers, it’s clear that more people are comfortable doing the vast majority of the buying of a car online, but inevitably want to actually see and touch a thing before they spend tens of thousands of dollars on it.
Ford: Look At How American We Are
What makes a car American? Does it come from an American brand? Is it built in America? Does it have the most American-sourced parts? Based on a mix of parts sourcing and production, Cars.com thinks the most American cars are Teslas, which makes sense, followed primarily by Japanese automakers with robust American production.
This also makes sense as, in order to access the market, various administrations (especially Ronald Reagan) leaned heavily into Japanese carmakers to make cars here and to use U.S.-made parts, which then led to major Japanese suppliers opening up plants here.
How does Ford do on the list? The automaker is somewhere in the middle, with the Lincoln Corsair taking the 16th spot.
Nevertheless, Ford is out this week pushing data from S&P Global Mobility that shows no one is making more cars in the United States than the blue oval brand. According to the data, Ford is the biggest employer of American autoworkers, the biggest producer of cars in America (80% of Ford’s vehicles are made in America), and also the biggest exporter of American-made cars (260,000 last year).
“Ford is a uniquely American company,” said Andrew Frick, Ford Blue president. “We are proud to serve our customers with vehicles that embody the best of American innovation and ingenuity.”
I’m mostly sharing this story this morning because I really like the above graphic that shows all the places where Ford is exporting its vehicles. Curiously, Ford is shipping American cars to Russia according to this. I gotta ask Ford about that one.
What I’m Listening To While Writing TMD
I played an ultimate frisbee game last night on a team that was about 50% college students or recent college grads and it was exhausting. I felt great and a little old. So now I’m going to make some of you feel old by pointing out that the self-titled Violent Femmes album is exactly as old as I am, which is a hair over 40. These guys were like 18 when this album came out, btw.
The Big Question
When was the last time you sold a car. How’d you do it? Was it a huge pain?
Hey Matt! Which is worse, the dealership or the frisbee?
“They’ll hurt me bad, but I don’t mind, they’ll hurt me bad, they do it all the time”
The last car I sold was a 2012 Lexus RX450h. I was planning on just taking it to Carmax for the convenience, but was a bit worried about the hail damage it had (just dents and didn’t want to deal with trying to get them fixed). But then I ended up talking to a friend of mine and he was looking for a new car for his daughter. So I sold it to him for what I wanted to get from Carmax, and he got a good deal compared to buying a similar car from a dealer or private seller. And it was super easy for everyone.
Last car I sold was my 4×4 van in Colorado. Amateur camper conversion. Sold quickly as I had it priced fairly.
I then donated a turbo 740 to NPR due to a blown head gasket. Then also a Forester XT due to a spun bearing.
I am now sitting on a sportsmobile and a 1986 4Runner that need to go but I just don’t want to deal with people. So they sit in the barn.
I recently sold my 2008 Porsche Cayenne S, it was mostly just a slog with no one interested. Granted I foolishly listed it in November, but took multiple price drops before it sold. Got some annoying people online, nitpicking or just making ridiculous lowball offers without having seen it. The only two people who even bothered to come look at it were pretty chill, both car enthusiasts and the guy who wound up buying it is planning on building it into a Alcan rally vehicle, which is about the most awesome fate I can think of for it.
Last car I sold was my 97 ZJ Grand Cherokee. It was 2013, my downstairs neighbor bought it without even a test drive. He was a mechanic and wasn’t expecting much for 1,500 bucks, he just wanted a winter beater.
I’m considering selling my 4Runner, but kind of dread the experience. I also have an old Volvo and possibly my Firebird to sell. Neither of those are worth anything for trade in, the Volvo I may even just donate or sell as a parts car. The 4R has almost 175K so it prob would go to a Toyota nerd for way more than a dealer would give for it.
I have a friend who buys/sells cars all the time, he stays just under the number that would require a dealer license. He’s got a nice shop with a lift; he enjoys fixing and flipping them. I wish i was more like that, I dread dealing with people.
Ugh for real, just sold a car, and at best sometimes you get lucky and deal with some cool car people. At worst it’s obnoxious flakey people, plus everybody wants to haggle over text now without even seeing it.
This is timely. I’m likely selling my current (stick shift, high mileage, lots of new parts, compact sedan) daily sometime over the summer. I’d love to keep it but just don’t have space for three cars. Plus it would probably end up getting not driven enough to justify holding onto it.
Not mentioning exact specifics since this isn’t meant to be an ad for my car, I swear!
I have been locked on the Pandora and Spotify Femmes playlist for a few weeks now. So so so good.
I hated “Raisin” enough to avoid everything else, with the lone exception being the song on the Crow. Listening to this live recording isn’t making me want to hear any more, so I’ll keep assuming “Color Me Once” was a fluke until somebody convinces me otherwise?
I just spend about 10 minutes in a hole w.r.t. your comment. Now I gotta ask… cause I’m a dolt and can’t tell, do you like the Femmes? I listened to Color Me Once, and it wasn’t horrible, but did seem pretty close to their sound. They have a number of very excellent tunes, otherwise, well worth the time to listen to.
I don’t, but they’ve been popular and influential enough that I feel like I want to. There was a recurring piece on the AV Club years ago called “Primer” and I feel like that’s what I need for Violent Femmes (and a whole heap of others I’ve similarly slighted): somebody whose perspective I understand to set up why they’re popular and influential and walk me through a fistful of tracks that illustrate that. I’ve never done my own deep dive because I find “Blister” so off-putting (I am an idiot and somehow turned “Blister in the Sun” into “Raisin in the Sun,” oof), but I’m willing to check it out when the right guide crosses my path. I’m sorry if I sounded like I was trolling; I meant no disrespect to you or them.
You are absolutely not trolling. I’m just curious. And, it’s funny, cause, I’ve been listening to more and more of their stuff, and a lot of it is actually pretty offensive by today’s standards, despite enjoying it. I had never really taken too deep a dive past their greatest hits (which are all great) before. So, it’s been an interesting journey.
“Offensive by today’s standards:” just a few weeks ago somebody at my wife’s workplace–an elementary school–put on the bouncy and upbeat “Blister” over the PA for the Morning Music/welcome song…the half of the staff that pays attention to lyrics was mortified and on pins and needles waiting for a student, or worse, a parent, to notice! Ahh the ’80s.
Last time I sold a car was in 2022 it was a 73 Javelin that we bought a year prior to that sold for a couple grand more then we had paid for it. Needed the money for other things and thought I would like the car more then I did. Listed it on Facebook and was not to bad selling it besides the few low ballers or not serious people.
Last car I sold was my Leaf. I sold it via private sale on Craigslist. It sold maybe 4 hours after I listed it for sale. As it turns out, the buyer had an alert set up for a 1G Leaf and his main requirement was that the car had at least a 10 bar battery. My car caught his attention because the title of the listing was “2016 Leaf – 10 bars.”
Selling this car was very easy. I suspect buyers of niche vehicles like the OG Leaf are more knowledgeable about what they are looking for than the typical car shopper. It also presumably helped that I listed the car for a firm, fair price and was open about the vehicle’s flaws.
I dumped a Subaru Outback that was killing CVT #3 on CarMax in early 2023. I was playing around with the online trade-in estimates and found out that the value of Subarus with CVTs drops like a rock once they get close to the end of the warranty. Mine had half the warranty left, both in miles and time. Overall, it was simple and painless and I was very happy with what they paid!
We stalked that car as much as we could after. It appears to have sold the next day, then was bought back by CarMax a few weeks later. I assume the buyer felt something was off with the CVT and got the same “operating as designed” crap from the dealers I did. CarMax sold it again a few states away. I’m hopeful that dealers in that state could actually find out why that car went through CVTs faster than air filters.
What year Outback? Have a 2010 with 100k on the CVT and zero issues. Contemplating changing the fluid on it.
It was a 2017. I’ve read a lot of positive things about changing the fluid at that mileage.
My theory on Subaru CVTs is this. You either get a good one and have no issues, ever. Or, you get a bad one and the only options for replacements are remanufactured bad ones. Then it’s a roll of the dice if the reman CVT had the failure properly root caused and fixed.
The last car I sold was 2019, friend of a friend so it went really smooth. Previous to that I sold two other cars and a motorcycle through craigslist and yes it was a pain, but not a huge pain. Both of those cars were over 10yo so trade-in value was less than $1000 but I got over $3000 for them on the private market so worth the hassle.
The last time I sold a car was 2014. Wasn’t too bad because the guy buying it was serious and had bought/sold many used vehicles. Two weeks on the AutoTrade site and 2 days on CarsDot site. Stayed far away from social media avenues.
Carmax offered me $3200 and I ended up selling it for $8000 privately relatively quickly. Many people asking if I’d take $3000 to $5000 “cash”. I told many a person that it was “”cash” regardless and if they find more money, I’d sell to them.
I did just get through trading in a vehicle on the purchase of a new one. That process went quickly. Got a couple quotes from Carmax and KBB (whatever service they use). Took those to the dealer and after a cursory inspection, they matched those quotes. The days of someone at the dealership going over the vehicle and compiling a number are over. All done via the VIN and some computer program.
I’ve never sold my cars. I’ve either donated it, or it was a lease that I turned in for another lease. I did, however, sell my Ex’s Solara that was on it’s last legs. The tranny was shot, and the car was just tired. Put up an ad online for $2k cash only, and the next day a guy came by with $2k in cash. Could have been a steal for the guy, but for us, it was a problem solved. So, that was that.
Hey Matt, just a FYI (not sure about anyone else having the same issue), but when I have more than one notification, as soon as I select one, the rest disappear completely. It’s like reading a Choose Your Own Adventure book where you are stuck with the one choice until you die, only you can’t go back and start over, or metaphorically cheat.
I’ve been working around this by opening each one in a new tab before moving to a new page on the original tab. But, yeah, it’s not just you.
That’s entirely too much work. I’m not doing that, lol.
Fair. And it does end up disappearing when I accidentally click wrong, so I have definitely lost a few notifications despite my system.
Same, it’s a workable solution but also kind of a hassle.
Same thing here with the notifications. I opened one the other day and lost the rest of them.
Not sure what state you’re in, but in this one there’s no way a dealer would take care of paint and brakes.
If you’re lucky it’ll get a car wash and a vacuum then slapped on the lot.
Yeah, that sounded either really good or like a lie they tell to offer a lower price.
Could be a NY state thing. My RAV4 came with brand new brakes when we purchased it CPO from a local to us Toyota dealer in 2016ish. I’m at the opposite end of the state from Matt. Only had 40k miles, which with the flattish land around me is easy on brakes.
This. No dealer is dumping $2k in to a car just to make $2k revenue on the deal.
Seriously. His quote should have been: “If I sell the car and something happens, it doesn’t matter.” Full stop. The rest was a lie.
It kinda depends on the dealer – some of them have their own “reconditioning centers.” One of my local dealers had a very large center and would often do a lot of work on the cars – which was cost effective for them since they had the volume to keep the techs busy (and maybe used it as training on non-customer cars) and purchased the parts at deep discounts. I do not think they are as effective today as they were years ago when I knew some of the managers – they are on their third owner since then.
We used to have a couple reputable dealers, then 2020 hit.
Suddenly it was OK for the formerly premium dealers to put cars out with Camry dents and non-matching hub caps.
Last time I sold a car it was to Carmax in 2020-ish, so not a great comparison as I got more than it was worth for sure, of course less than a year later I was buying another car for daily driving, and could’ve kept my old one as it didn’t have any issues(I was doing WFH 4 days a week so who needs a whole separate car for that? I was so smart! lol) so in the end I did take quite a hit on it.
LOL at counting Puerto Rico as exports. PR *is* the US!
Why couldn’t Ford export more Transits, Rangers, and Escapes? They’re already sold in Europe, too (though the Escape goes by the name Kuga over there)
Did Ford really overtake BMW as America’s largest exporter of cars?
PR is a territory. It is not a state and not a part of the US. If you’re unsure, look at how many votes they get in Congress.
Puerto Ricans are US citizens. As a US territory, it’s still part of the US, since it is not its own sovereign nation.
Well, we could argue the technicalities, but ask a Puerto Rican if they’re an American. They’ve voted against statehood several times. In 1898 they were made citizens of the US against their will, arguably so the US could draft them into the military. Their representation in congress doesn’t get to vote and the Puerto Ricans living there don’t generally have to pay US Federal income tax, so… I’m sticking with not a part of the US.
Sorta like “friends with benefits, but not a key”.
You do not need a passport to enter or leave Puerto Rico. It may not be a state or have representatives in Congress, but then neither do residents of Washington D.C.
Until 2001, you didn’t need a passport to go to Canada or Mexico, either. Residents of DC pay Federal income tax. I’d say we claim their island, but they don’t necessarily agree. Anyway, part of America or not, Ford sends them trucks.
I’ve been to Puerto Rico and hung with the locals. You are right that they are not keen on the US, but that doesn’t change the fact that they are citizens and have protection at any US Embassy in the world. Sure, they aren’t on the same level as the USVI in some respects, but it’s not like how St. Kitts is still marginally connected to the Monarchy, yet they are their own country.
You can feel how you want, but it is part of the US, though not a state. That’s not a technicality. They are neither a sovereign nation nor part of another nation.
As to the votes regarding statehood, a significant caveat: they have voted for statehood multiple times, though some previous attempts preferred Commonwealth status (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_Puerto_Rican_status_referendum).
Congress has elected not to grant them statehood for several reasons (one big one being the suspicion it would shift the balance of power in our two party system).
As long as we agree on the main points of the rights they have and the rights we have regarding them (and we do), I’m happy. Part of the US, not part of the US, I’ll call it a gray area, and we can agree Ford sends trucks there. It might be interesting to see what the Dept. of Commerce thinks about it being an export situation though, as I think we can both agree sending cars to Hawaii wouldn’t be exporting them.
If I recall correctly, your last point is why we have two Dakotas.
I’m not sure about that (though it makes some sense, given that the Dakota Territory included both states, as well as parts of Montana and Wyoming).
It’s definitely a reason we won’t combine some of the lower-population states and won’t make DC a state.
You win. Dept. of Commerce says shipping goods to US territories is not considered exportation. At least I learned something today.
I actually didn’t go check on that. Thank you for sharing!
For some reason they are given their own team in international sports too; they don’t compete as part of the US
That can depend on the sport, and at what level, as well. It is odd, though, that some guys will play baseball or basketball for PR rather than USA or vice versa.
I dated a girl from PR for a while, a coworker advised me to be careful she wasn’t just looking for a greencard. They were really surprised when I told them she was a citizen and had a US passport. “Are you sure? You better check on that”. SMH.
LOL, wow people are ignorant sometimes!
It’s a really common mistake. I suspect a lot of it comes from PR predominantly using Spanish. It just feels like another country, so people assume it is.
Same here. PR family with 3 gens born in the US. Unreal sweet, smart, and incredible looks. Just a beautiful dark skinned person.
We lived in a pretty redneck state, and the DMV gave her shit for claiming white race vs black on her drivers license.
Some of the shit we/she heard was unbelievable and hard to come to terms with.
America what a country!
Missing a key detail: It is a Territory “of the United States”. As a DC resident, which also doesn’t have true congressional representation as we have zero votes just like PR, we both have a delegate who can bring up topics in the House.
You should probably brush up on United States government before talking about it again.
I am well versed in the US govt. I said “no votes” not “no representation”. Also, I know what a US territory is. Maybe you should read AND COMPREHEND my statements before deciding what i should or shouldn’t comment on.
The definition of Kuga: An amorous middle-aged woman looking for a younger mate, but who does not know how to spell.
Part B: Previously, an Escort.
The last car I sold was my 911 in 2022.
The story was unremarkable except for the fact that the buyer, who was coming from the next state over to trailer the car, was so paranoid about news stories of civil forfeiture and cops taking thousands of dollars from innocent motorists that he refused to bring cash. And for whatever reason his bank was extremely slow in transferring funds. So there was a weird couple hours where he had the car loaded but couldn’t leave until my bank verified they had received the money.
“, was so paranoid about news stories of civil forfeiture and cops taking thousands of dollars from innocent motorists that he refused to bring cash.”
And justifiably so as there have many cases of cops taking people’s cash for no justifiable reason.
I wouldn’t call that ‘paranoid’. I would call that ‘smart’.
Watch this to see what I’m talking about:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jr2oItXC1eM
I think civil forfeiture should be illegal too, but that doesn’t make it something rational to fear IMO.
I’ve been driving almost 25 years and been pulled over plenty. Never once has my car been searched.
And because I can hear the reply coming already, the gentleman who came to buy the 911 was of the same demographic as myself.
“I’ve been driving almost 25 years and been pulled over plenty. Never once has my car been searched.”
Well all it takes is to be pulled over by the wrong cop in the wrong place and you could have some very bad luck… and the law won’t be on your side.
Just because it hasn’t happened to you doesn’t mean it can’t ever happen.
I wouldn’t blame that guy one bit for taking sensible precautions against potential cop-induced bad luck.
Last car was my ’90 Miata, which was sad to see go, but just like it was my first fun car of adulthood, I got it to a good home. The guy could barely drive stick, and barely negotiated off my asking price, but was excited and wanted to try out cars for a hobby, and the transaction was fairly quick and painless. It was nice to not have the usual round of scammers and low-ballers.
Second to last car I sold was a medium-broken Ford Edge for a friend, with the requirement of “the sooner it’s gone the better, you get $100 as a thank you regardless” and everyone seemed happy with a 1k sale within a week. I was just happy to get my friend a few times scrap value, but man does Facebook Marketplace suck.
The number of offers for $300 when I had it up for $1,800 were insane. I’d rather launch it off a cliff than give someone the satisfaction of getting it for under 20% of asking price.
It’s interesting that you posit that most of the remaining MY2023 Hondas on lots are probably Ridgelines. In my neck of the woods the Ridgeline is a good seller for Honda, and when I was at the local Honda dealer to pick up my Odyssey after some recall work a few weeks ago there was an abundance of Civics, Accords, CR-Vs, and Passports. What they had few of were the Ridgeline (they had two), the Odyssey (they had four), and the Pilot (they had three).
Last time I sold one was a trade, and I shopped it around, then used the offers to negotiate when I found what I wanted to buy. I’ve found CarMax is the usual one to beat, and most dealers will match or beat them.
I’m currently getting ready to trade in another and probably sell my pickup (private sale, since it’s not worth much on trade). I don’t care for the dance of a private sale, so I’ll probably put it up for about 20% more than I hope to get and take the first reasonable offer.
Last time I sold a car was my 128i at the end of 2019 via marketplace. It wasn’t too bad aside from the usual dipshits asking if I would trade it for various shitpiles. If only I had the resources and space to keep it.
Interesting. Bronco production is starting in China. Also, Puerto Rico is a U.S. territory, why would it be considered a foreign export? So South Korea is interesting because most Rangers are exported from Thailand. The Thai factory does RHD and LHD, right? Seems a bit expensive to import the Ranger from the U.S. unless there are some tariffs I didn’t know about between Thailand and SK.
Last car I sold was my Toyota Crown. It went easier than expected, a friend of a friend who had looked at buying my car before that (a Celica GT-Four) was in the market for a daily driver as his Supra build had gotten out of hand and was no longer suitable for a daily. He saw it pop up when I listed it on FB marketplace, and called me within an hour of listing it. I had never saved his number so it freaked me out for a minute but he came and checked it out, drove it like 2 miles, and I delivered it to his house the next day after work. I have honestly had really good experiences selling cars in the last few years, and have heard from the buyers of several a few times as they go through their ownership experiences. I usually sell cars cheaper than I should, but I have never heard anyone complain after the fact which is a big deal to me, I don’t want to rip anyone off.
I sold my truck private party about a year ago. It wasn’t too big of a pain and probably worth the effort over what the dealer would have offered on a trade, but it was an older (but reasonably valuable) vehicle. If I had a car under 10 years old I’d be very tempted to just take the trade in at the dealer over dealing with the general public.
No link to the list? Or copy of the list?
Oops, fixed.
Thank you!