A few years back, everyone was making money, gas wasn’t $3.00 a gallon and the dot com people were trading in perfectly good used cars to buy ridiculously expensive vehicles…

Fast forward to now, the under $10,000 vehicle IS the market!

Every one wants an inexpensive car that is good on gas, reliable, dependable and low mileage.

Dealers are paying over NADA ‘book’ RETAIL so that they can have these vehicles on their lots…

There is a huge portion of the vehicle market that is not really so new called the ‘Buy Here- Pay Here’ store. These car lots are advertising that your paycheck is your credit or no credit? NO PROBLEM!! These dealers will collect a down payment from you that will pay for their investment in the car and then charge you 25-35% interest for their profit. If you default on the loan, they repossess the car and sell it to the next in line and so it goes...

Some of you may be thinking, “Who would do that?”

The truth is it happens several times a day, every day. This is where the real $money$ is, in this business.

If I tell people the truth which is, in my opinion after 25 years in this business, that there really is NO such thing as a $5,000.00 car that doesn’t need another $2,000.00 worth of work done to it, their inner voices immediately tell them, ‘Yes there is’..

No one trades in a cheap car that is giving them NO TROUBLE, they trade it in when they have determined that it will cost more to fix it than to get another car.

The problem that I see most often these days are parents whose children want a Honda or an Integra and they have a budget of $5,000 or less. In defense of the parents, they are remembering their first car and thinking that $1,300.00 should buy a perfect first car. Most have no way of knowing that in ‘Honda land’ (An Integra is made by Acura which is also a Honda) spending sometimes three times that means that you will be driving a 1994 or older depending on the miles or condition of the vehicle. Not only that, but confusion abounds! For example, there were 8 different models of Integra built in 1994 and that doesn’t even consider the manual/automatic distinction. Each one with a different configuration of equipment, after market accessories and CONDITION which equals VALUE.

Is there a car that will fit your price range? YOU BET YA!!! There is a car out there in the world for any price that you want to pay. Maybe you will take higher miles if it is the right color, perhaps a dent that barely shows (after the dealer had a PDR (paint less dent repair) guy work on it for a few hours to disguise the underlying damage and the fact that the trunk leaks) is OK because it has such low miles.

But, every vehicle has its’ own personality and history. For such an important decision that can will result in a financial commitment for as long as 84 months these days, I can’t believe people drive by a car lot, fall ‘in love’ and have to have that car-that day and end up living with the result of a split second attraction that will stay with them for years, but then again, I don’t have children either.

Before you put, maybe your child, into a ‘Branded Title’ car do a simple exercise; crumple up a piece of paper and then straighten it out- iron it if you have to. Now, crumple it up again. It will follow the same lines that it did the first time only faster and easier the second time....that is what a car that has been wrecked will do. Not to mention the tire wear, alignment and safety issues.

How much are you willing to gamble on your loved ones’ safety?

By the time that I find a $5-6,000.00 car and recondition it to my standards, it is no longer a vehicle in that price range. And, it is not profitable for me to look for those vehicles as it takes twice as long to find one that is half way decent as they all have issues...I have to try to stay in a price range, get the best car that I can to represent value and then pray that it really doesn’t need any major repairs as that would eat up my profit as I am at the edge of the budget that I have been given.

And, it does set my clients up for a huge disappointment and I can't afford that either. Usually, people call me to get educated and then go out to see what may be on the car lots in the price range that they are shooting for, this results in either a reality check or they fall in love and then they spend more money than they had intended to just to be done with it and get on with life. Even though I could have saved them money or gotten them a newer model year for the same money if given the chance.

I just had a Toyota Corolla with 164K miles on it and it was worth over $5,000.00 by NADA standards! With those miles all you have is a $5,000.00 time bomb! I never had so many calls on one car! I could have sold it 50 times over. Why? you ask, because, it said ‘Toyota’ on it.

Is it better than a Dodge Neon, Ford Taurus or a Nissan Sentra- who knows? It is a used car and one that has been driven many miles and maybe it had the oil changed, maybe it had the tires rotated, maybe it was never overheated, then again, maybe the oil was changed twice and the last time was just before you looked at it. Perhaps it is so clean because it was ‘super scrubbed’ by the best detail guy in town before it left New Orleans after the flood.

Just because a car is being sold by a private party, do not let your guard down, that is a common mistake and can be a costly one. Consider the fixed income folks who are offered cash, under the table, to sell vehicles for less scrupulous individuals who are looking for ways to ‘fence’ these vehicles. Have you ever answered an ad for the car of your dreams priced much lower than others and heard a sad story or been told that the person answering the phone is selling the car for ‘a grandson who was just shipped off to Afghanistan’ and is selling the car to help him out? Or, the grand daughter who needs to sell her car to ‘pay for the out of state college tuition’? Whatever the story, the details are usually that you can not SEE THE TITLE because there is a payoff and until the car is sold, there can be no pay off and until the payoff is complete and a undesignated time has passed at the lending institutions discretion, the title will not be ‘in hand’. When it gets to you or the credit union, it is branded...and your loan is now unsecured.

I have had people tell me that they do not want to work with me because they want to SEE what they are buying before they buy it and yet several have ended up with branded title cars and then called me to help them get out of it. The time for me to be of help has passed, but then again they did save that $500- $1,000.00, or did they? A vehicle that has a branded title is worth $.50 on the dollar if even that, it really depends on the repair and condition of the vehicle.

Not only do I personally buy all my vehicles for my clients’, in 25 years I have only had one women turn down a vehicle after I bought it for her and her excuse was color. Truth is, you have the check in your hand until you pass it into mine. I do not buy ‘below average’ cars, unfortunately most $5,000 imports are just that, below average.

When I am trying to meet a ‘price’ for my client and they have to have a Honda or Acura or Toyota or a Jetta, I am forced to sell vehicles with chips in the glass, scratches or paint repair, worn tires, old timing belts, brakes ETC, that isn’t how I have been an unadvertised, repeat and referral business for as long as I have, it really isn't what I want to do...

In today’s got to have what I want, when I want it society a service like mine really doesn’t do very well because I tell people the truth as I see it, try to let them know what would be a good ‘bang for their buck’ or what vehicle would make their dollar go further and they don’t want to hear it, they want what they want and they hear what they want to hear which may or may not be the truth.

I guess I must apologize, I do not roll thousands of dollars of negative equity onto the car that I am selling you, I do not finance people at all well alone at 30%. I understand that everyone has a story, but I want my client’s to call me back when they need another vehicle and I do not ever want to explain why they owe more on their trade than it is worth.

For now, the best $5,000 (& under) car could be a Taurus or a Neon or a Pontiac of any kind but it isn’t a Honda, Toyota, Acura or Jetta!

The Truth About ‘Off-Site’ Car Sales

So you think you are going to get a better deal at an off site sale?

Please consider that the prices on those cars will be impacted by:

The massive tents they rent to keep you dry :

30 x 50 Tents = $850.00 per day/per tent

The tables/chairs that they provide for you to sit at while you are ‘signing your cash away’:

8 foot table: $150.00 per day/per 10 tables
chairs: $ 60.00 per day/per 12 chairs

The porta potties provided for your ‘pleasure’ and convenience:

1 ‘can’ $100.00 per day/per ‘can’

The one page ad in the daily paper: $1,000.00s!!!!!!/per day

The lot where the sale is held: multiple $ 1,000.00s/per day

Not to mention that all their cars are priced at Kelley Blue Book?

The electricity to run the computers, the phone lines, the transportation to and from the off site sale for all of those cars, the mobile detail unit to clean all those cars that just came from auction, the extra staff to sell you those cars…

Starting to get the idea???

Why would you go to a sale like that when you know that they have to cover their overhead by passing the costs on to you?

Why would you let a dealer put you into a car that they need to sell instead of having Katie the Car Lady help you decide what car is going to serve you the best and be the best value for your dollar?

Give me a call and we can work together to find the perfect car or truck for you budget and your life style. I will buy the car especially for you, have it mechanically inspected, take your trade in and even help get you the best finance rate available!

Why pay more when you don’t have to?

The RIGHT car (or truck) at the RIGHT price!