well?
Where do they get their cars from apart from auctions, I have been scouring major auction sites checking and numerous cars have been popping up on autotrader that werent at auctions, does anyone know where they get the cars from, as I want to cut out the middleman ;)
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Someone correct me if I'm wrong but I think most of them get them from main dealers.
The main dealers take in these cars as part exchange and the used car dealers buy them off the main dealer for the same price as what the main dealer offered. The main dealer isnt making off of it. The used car dealer slaps X amount on top and sells them.
Not 100% sure why main dealers dont sell these cars. Someone told me once that its because they cant be bothered with the little bits they trade in. They are in the business to sell new cars.
Sure someone will tell me if this is all wrong :-)
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Lease companies provide most second hand cars upto three years old followed by rental companies.Some rental companies actually have a web site of listed stock ,older vehicles are sourced as stated above.
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Someone correct me if I'm wrong ....
I was told by a main dealer that cars bought by them in part exchange were simply sold on to auction (and presumably non-main dealers) unless they were in exceptional condition. I think it's because the older cars make too little profit, take up valuable forecourt space, and create a negative image for the dealership. Who wants to buy a nice shiny new Audi A4 from a forecourt full of piles of rust. Main dealers put a lot of money and effort into creating a flashy image.
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Though some main dealer groups and leasing cos. did set up their own forecourts to take the 3-5 year old trades and ex-lease cars and sell them retail, but at a different location to the new car site.
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When I worked for a main dealer, the cars were either good part exs, came as sale or return from the manufacturer or they came from auctions.
When I worked for a used car dealer, he mainly got his cars from the local auctions or one of three main dealers he had agreements with ( BMW, Porsche and Chrysler dealers ).
Main dealers have high overheads so have no interest in small profit margins, so cars under say £4k are not worth it unless they were bought in for a few hundred and can easily have a warranty accepted on them.
A back street dealer however usually has less overheads and the warranty is usually bought in so they can direct complaints to the warranty company and away from them. This allows them to sell older cars for less money. They often give less than the car was traded in for aswell.
I have seen this done with RAC warranted cars at a dealer I know - the cars are never driven and in some cases never started up if battery is flat so they get a mickey mouse inspection and the dealer often annotates the report. What this inspection does is makes it possible to slap an RAC warranty on the car and sell it as such. Then when things go wong, it costs the RAC, not the dealer.
This makes them cheap to turn around.
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it's because the older cars make too little profit, take up valuable forecourt space, and create a negative image for the dealership. Who wants to buy a nice shiny new Audi A4 from a forecourt full of piles of rust.
Alternatively, who'd pay £20k for a brand new one at a dealer, if the forecourt had lots of shiny, and perfectly adequate 5 year old models for £4000 !!!!
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Not 100% sure why main dealers dont sell these cars.
A dealer for one make of car won't generally want another make of car on their forecourt.
--
L\'escargot.
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As others on this site have said some of these cars come from main dealers.
However they only sell 'trade' cars to other car traders
They are not intersted in selling direct to you to 'cut out the middleman'
The reason for this is warranty and speed of sale issues.
Better for the dealer to sell to a bonafide trader and have no 'come back' problems that can arise from retail sales.
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The tradersoften have agreements where they will guarantee to take so many cars a month too; regardless of age and condition so the dealer doesnt have to worry about creating space etc.
Neither side will be happy for a retail type customer trying to get in the middle.
However, if you are looking for something precise, then the dealer may be able to offer a deal, but he will still want to earn out of it; on a sold as seen basis only. Some of the extar cyut will end up in traders pocket to keep him sweet too.
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I've just got quite a nice Volvo S80 off a fairly reputable garage. A Y plate 2.4 with leather and all that lot for 4200. Lots of car for the money and only 83000 miles with full volvo history. He took it off Mercedes main dealer who themselves took it off someone in px against a new merc. He told me that he had made about 700 on the deal with me. He also said that he took 3 or 4 cars a month off them, and seems to shift them fairly quickly. I'm certainly pleased with mine so far.
O
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Jaguar XJS V12 - comes with free personalised oil tanker.
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My daughter exchanged her car and got £4000 from a local dealers for it. It then appears on their forecourt for £5700. It sat there for a while and it has now dropped to £4750. The point is to save cash go private but check everything with a fine toothcomb. This car was £14000 odd when new and dropped a cool almost exact £10000 in three years.
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A friend of mine is a "Middleman", he underwrites cars from half a dozen local dealers then sells them on to smaller used car dealers or the public. He puts a value on trade-ins over the phone so the main dealer can quickly work out how much money is in the deal for him. He's obviously at the mercy of the main dealer when it comes to describing the condition of the vehicle but most are OK. He usually values below the book price to enable him to turn a profit when he sells the car on. He doesn't make much on each car, but turns over quite a few every week to give him a good living. Many of the cars are sold on before he goes to collect them so he doesn't even have to store them. He's willing to sell to the public and will give a limited warranty but hasn't got time for people coming around complaining that light bulbs have blown etc. Most of his cars are 2 or 3 years old and have dealer service histories. I've bought half a dozen cars off him over the years and never had a problem.
To spot one of these "Middlemen", check the local paper for "Cars bought for cash, finance settled" kind of ads. Avoid cowboys (you'll know when you see his place) and don't expect a low purchase price AND a high trade in price, he's got to make a profit at one end of the deal or another!
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I've noticed a bit of a swing back to auctions recently - the major players (BCA and Manheim) have been fighting back a bit and picking up contracts from some of the larger dealer groups to take all their PX's as a job lot. As individual independent dealers decline an increasing number of dealers have to follow whatever the group policy is with regard to disposing of unwanted stock - whether it via an auction chain or swapping around withing the group rather than bunging a nice PX out to a friendly local dealer in exchange for a quick deal and some nice gifts at Christmas time (and, dare I say it, maybe the odd bung under the table in some cases).
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