Can you make a living selling used cars and not screw people?

My auto buying experiences have been ridiculous. Uniformed morons, liars, cheats, cheap shinny suits, and slicked back hair. It's unbelievable. But since it's been that way for ever (or nearly so) it begs the question; do you have to be a cheat to make a living selling used cars?

I read an article recently about how you don't have to come up with a new idea, you just need to make existing ideas better. Can you make car buying better? If you aren't a douche-bag, treat people fair, and try to sell a good product, will it work? Or will you not be appreciated, still be nickeled and dimed to death, and still have people thing you're a crook?

Anyway, rant off. Hopefully picking up a lightly used Focus tomorrow.

J

There is a place near me that sells $2500 or less cars. He works 6-8 months a year and vacations the rest. I've bought a couple of cars from him. He's not a BS kind of guy. He buys non runners at auction, fixes them and sells them. He'll tell you what was broken when he bought it. Gets his parts from LKQ. No BS, no lying, no cheating. Just good cheap cars. So I'd say yes.

Toyman beat me to it. If I were going to start a used car business that's how I would go about it.

Yes if your not afraid to get your hands dirty or fix what needs to be fixed.

Lots of used car dealers get a bad rap because they sell cars that need lots of work or have been flooded or been wrecked and they don't disclose that information.

On the opposite side, lots of good dealers get a bad rap because a car has a common problem that was not evident at the time of sale and went wrong a year later, the buyer goes back to the used car dealer touting the lemon law.

I'd think if you wanted to sell used car, you'd better get real good at fixing them, and be really good at knowing which cars have cheap problems and which have expensive problems.

A lot of those places aren't even in the car business, they're in the financing business. Which is how they really screw people.

no matter how honest and up front you are there will still be problem customers. when people would ask me how long a car would last when i was partners in a used car lot i would tell them i left my crystral ball at home.

i have a friend who has a "cheap used car lot" and he is one of the most honest people i know. he tells it the way it is on his cars and writes everything down on the bill of sale that is wrong and he still has problem customers.

a lot of the time its the customer but it always seems to fall back on the "sleazy" used car salesman

Kenny_McCormic wrote: A lot of those places aren't even in the car business, they're in the financing business. Which is how they really screw people.

Buy a car at auction for $500. Sell it for $3000 with $500 down and $100 payments for 30 months. Car will probably get repossesed 1-4 times, so the guy can sell it over and over and over again.

The wife's girlfriend's husband is a car salesmen. I won't buy a car from him.

cutter67 wrote: no matter how honest and up front you are there will still be problem customers.

This is totally true.

It's also something that occurs to me no matter what sort of business I contemplate. There's probably variation in the types of problem customers, and the types of problems they'll have, but there's no getting rid of them.

I'm not sure you can make a living doing anything without screwing people. But if you go into used cars, you're competing with some of the worst sleazeballs out there (in terms of intent, but surely not damage), and that's what people will expect you to be too...

In reply to ransom:

Its those with a false sense of entitlement......

No. And you won't be in business long, because the guys who do screw can afford to outbid you at the auctions.

Managers in charge is also the culprit. Back in 2002 I was hired at a new Ford dealership. 12 people were hired up for training. First day of training and less than a minute into it. The manager in charge of training says "Welcome. Let's get started. Ok, anyone here that has a problem lying to customers best leave the premises now. I am DEAD serious, you will not make it in this business if you can't lie." Seven of us left. Since then I have not set foot at a Ford Dealership.

I gave up on Corner-Carvers years ago once cars became a side bar and every thread turned into politics and ultra conservative banner waving, but over there, there was a great thread about a guy who was doing just this. He quit his day job and set up as a used car dealer. He had lots and lots of details about what type and age of car to buy at auction. What and how he prepped them and how he sold them.

Toyman01 wrote: There is a place near me that sells $2500 or less cars. He works 6-8 months a year and vacations the rest. I've bought a couple of cars from him. He's not a BS kind of guy. He buys non runners at auction, fixes them and sells them. He'll tell you what was broken when he bought it. Gets his parts from LKQ. No BS, no lying, no cheating. Just good cheap cars. So I'd say yes.

Holy crap.

I couldn't imagine the amount of work that must take.

Kenny_McCormic wrote: A lot of those places aren't even in the car business, they're in the financing business. Which is how they really screw people.

Bingo Bango Bongo. I heard a guy recently refer to the Buy here - Pay here next to his shop as "The dollar down, chase you 'round town" place. Thought that was pretty good.

Found the CC.com thead.

http://forums.corner-carvers.com/showthread.php?t=42327

ransom wrote:

cutter67 wrote: no matter how honest and up front you are there will still be problem customers.

This is totally true. It's also something that occurs to me no matter what sort of business I contemplate. There's probably variation in the types of problem customers, and the types of problems they'll have, but there's no getting rid of them.

I think I've had 2 "problem" customers in the last 10 years. The good news is, as the man, you can just tell them to go get berkeleyed. You can usually smell them a mile away too. I know to keep good notes on the ones that seem like they're angling to get something for nothing. It was worse when my wife was here. People thought they could push her around. They soon figured out I'd put up with way more E36 M3 for a buck than she would.

Aeromoto wrote: No. And you won't be in business long, because the guys who do screw can afford to outbid you at the auctions.

Not true. There's plenty of guys who 'dirt lot' like Toyman said: pick a price niche, stick with it and are up front about what they sell. Tose guys tend to be in it for the long haul.

The sleazy 'dirt lot' types tend to move a few cars, screw a few people, word gets around, they go under then pop up again under a different name somewhere else. They move a few cars, the word gets around that the new placeis crooked, they go under again, rinse and repeat.

The Mom and Pop 'buy here/pay here' types are typically pretty sleazy operations. They are the last resort for those who just can't get credit anywhere else. I refuse to associate with them. There are a couple of national franchises that specialize in that which are actually not bad places, even if the interest is high.

There are two places that can tell you about the honesty of the local dealers: 1) other local dealers and 2) local lawyers. They both get calls about the other guys and their tactics.
I represent 5 different used car lots, varying from selling only late models to selling only crap to crappy buyers who cant get credit or car any other way and only one is really marginal in their tactics and they keep me the busiest due to their repossession rates. They would be the middle of the road lot in value but have over 500 outstanding contracts.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7b5CKSqlz60

This salesman is an expert at dealing with the aftermath of the screwing

Here is an inspiring story about selling used cars.

http://flywheelthemovie.com/story.php

trucke wrote: Here is an inspiring story about selling used cars. http://flywheelthemovie.com/story.php

I've got a copy of that at home I've been meaning to watch.

Swank Force One wrote:

Toyman01 wrote: There is a place near me that sells $2500 or less cars. He works 6-8 months a year and vacations the rest. I've bought a couple of cars from him. He's not a BS kind of guy. He buys non runners at auction, fixes them and sells them. He'll tell you what was broken when he bought it. Gets his parts from LKQ. No BS, no lying, no cheating. Just good cheap cars. So I'd say yes.

Holy crap. I couldn't imagine the amount of work that must take.

He's got a Spanish speaking individual that works for him that does most of the work. All sales are cash only so he doesn't have to deal with financing or chasing down deadbeats.

Most of the cars are the scrapings off the auction lots at the end of the day. Bad water pumps, power steering pumps, won't start, won't move, whatever. He buys the best examples of them for $300-$500 and sells them for double to triple whatever he has in them. He only fixes what is needed to make them move and be safe. So a $300 car, plus parts, plus labor ends up selling for $1500-$2000. The last time I talked to him was a Saturday. He had sold 10 cars that day. Do that enough and you are talking real money.

Nws:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4sZuN0xXWLc&feature=youtube_gdata_player