There’s something amazing about recessions. Prices can come tumbling down to Earth and the costs of living can all of a sudden be dirt cheap. Yes, I’m aware that my country’s leaders seem fully content on feasting on our future wealth with no concern for the consequences. Fair enough. But I also know a good deal when I see one.
A $100 car with 123k? Bought it today. Runs fine. Just needs a paint job and motor mounts. The 3 $200 cars I bought (1991 Volvo 740, 1996 Cavailer, 1997 Maxima) sold for about $4600 altogether recently. Am I blessed with amazing foresight when it comes to beaters? Yes and no. To be frank I’m stuck in a time warp and I deal with so many older cars in my line of work that it’s usually easy to figure out who had the right and wrong owners. It’s really not ‘the car’ that is important when it comes to buying used. It’s the driver. Speaking of which…
I’m likely the only car guy you’ll meet who will initially reject his own future customers. A lady went to my place today and looked at a 2000 Ford Mustang. 5-speed, V6, plenty of power for the open road. Her son came with her and proceeded to salivate all over the car… right up to the point when he realized it wasn’t a GT. “Do you have a Mustang with a V8?” Well at this point I could tell two things.
First this kid was following his dreams which is usually a good thing. However there were only five cars in the entire lot left and unless my cars magically became Transformers, he would be out of luck. ‘Do you have anything that’s really fast?” I was immediately tempted to point him to a scooter I had in the shed and let Darwin have his way. But I’ve been there. I remember longing for the Camaros and Mustangs back in the late-80’s. Then I drove one and realized the error of my ways.
The second thing I discovered was that his mom was ‘an enabler’. She looked at me without blinking and the first thing out of her mouth was, “My son drives my Corvette on a daily basis.” My mind was instantly filled with a thousand points of sarcasm. But instead of letting loose a monologue worthy of Roseanne I said, “Hmmm… interesting… How many accidents has he had?” Again without blinking, “Two, are you sure you don’t have a Mustang V8?”
Hell, it said V6 on the frigging ad for crying out loud! But I’m lucky enough to hire an older fellow who has been well versed in the ways of verbal assuasions. He’s my neighbor and between raising four daughters and working with truckers, he’s heard it all. Without a whisper of doubt he intervenes, “Honestly, I really don’t think I would ever give a 260 horsepower car to a 16 year old kid. 210 horsepower is more than enough. You’re asking for trouble.”
It was a dope slap. But then again maybe the phrase ‘teachable moment’ is a better description. My neighbor and I go through a lot of these situations and surprisingly most of them are pleasant. The most common issue are folks who want to be financed but don’t have the means. Bounced checks. Overdue utility bills. Employment issues. Typically we always ask for several references (landlord, employer, personal), a pay stub, utility bill, and a bank statement. Most of the scam artists won’t bother with this information regardless of the deal. However a surprising number of our customers are either emerging out of bankruptcy or are trying to get out of a deal written by the devil (think about 18k of payments for a 5 year old Buick). For them it’s a very reasonable request with good results.
One other big thing. We only finance within a seven mile radius. No exceptions. When you get outside of that range you’re either dependent on GPS systems or fervent prayer. One of the fortunate things I’ve had in my work as an auctioneer is advice from folks who are far more experienced in this world than yours truly. There are hundreds of subtleties in this business. Most of which have to do with managing personality types instead of selling. But if I can sum it in twelve words it would be, “Always call immediately, always be helpful, avoid cleavers and liars, repo quick.” I’ve let people slide for months without penalty or interest if they’re truly going through a rough patch in life. In fact I don’t charge late fees or interest at all. But if they lie or don’t return my calls I get my vehicle back.
For me, it works. I only had one ‘skip’ for all of last year (someone who makes off with a vehicle) and I got that back thanks in large part to an arrest warrant. My success rate is 85% to 90% with getting a finance deal paid off and I also self-finance… which is very rare. I also use my relationships in the auction business to find older cars with good owners and low miles, and most of my customers become owners instead of renters as a result of it.
Oh, about that mom. I have to hand her one thing. After she smiled and thought about my friend’s response she asked him, “How about the Mercedes?”
A sales organization cannot be all things to all people. Either the prospect fits the image of one’s business or it becomes far to difficult to tailor to fit. One would have to be in the bespoke trade to do this type of catering. Excellent article as always Steven.
I thoroughly enjoyed this.
How a customer reacts when you ask then for stips is a great way to see how serious they are. The customer with a 540 beacon can usually get bought with the right amount of money down if they can prove their income, address, and employment, but when someone tries to run before you come back with the results from the credit ap, you know they were up to something a little less than honest.
What gets me are some of the things banks did back in the great automotive financing heyday of ’03 – ’07. While today someone with a respectable 700+ credit score can get a new car financed and maybe even roll a little negative equity into it, for 60 or 72 months, a few years ago banks were just being stupid-crazy. One bank I know in particular was happy to hand out 84 and 96 month loans (on cars) to 600 beacon score customers at 150% of invoice, ar rates around 8 – 10 %.
Well written and a pleasure to read!
Twotone
Great story. I don’t mind when people ask uninformed questions; it’s when they ask them repeatedly that I get irritated. It’s as though they expect the answer to change to their liking if they ask it enough.
An example is when I advertised my 10-year-old, 190,000 mile 1996 Maxima for sale in the newspaper; I’d owned it since new and kept up the maintenance by the book. No kidding, every caller on the first day asked if I’d changed the timing belt, which would have been a neat trick on an engine that has a timing chain. I would calmly say, “This engine has a timing chain, which is why I bought it. Now I understand that it’s difficult to trust a stranger who is selling you a car, but please call the service department at the Nissan dealer and they’d be happy to verify this for you.”
For most, that sufficed. But about an hour before I had three possible buyers coming over to look at the car, a caller with a think Indian accent (mentioned just to clarify that I’ll assume a lack of English proficiency) kept asking, “So there no replacement of timing chain in almost 200,000 miles?” Deep breath, then I repeated that the VQ30DE engine has a chain. Again he asks the same question. I repeat my answer. Finally this goes on for about two more cycles, when finally I said, “Look, buddy, I’ve told you three times it has a timing chain and how to check that fact for yourself. You can ask me again, but I promise you that engine’s not going to sprout a timing belt that it never had.” Then I hung up.
Not one of my proudest moments, but less than two hours later I had two buyers in my driveway trying to outbid each other. Maybe it’s a good thing I don’t try to sell used cars on a daily basis.
When I’ve sold my used cars (haven’t in a while) most of the callers don’t even know basic facts that are in the ad. I think that’s because they call 20 ads in sitting, and by the time you can call them back they forget which ad you were associated with.
Great article, thanks for reminding me why my father gave me the keys to a 92hp, Iron Duke powered Celebrity when I turned 16 and not anything more powerful. I’ve gotten to drive his 1967 Mustang (289V8, cruise-o-matic) about a half dozen times, 5 with him riding shotgun, 1 with my mom in the passenger seat.
If I get totally irrational (but following my dreams) on my purchase of a commuter car it would likely be a Mustang V6, 5 speed. Fun but not stupid high insurance rates, I only call it irrational because it seems a little fool hardy for a guy who likes to keep cars and plans on having kids within the next 5 years.
The mothers reaction to all the responses should be telling about the current society, and its financial state of affairs. You can learn a lot about the world from a corner used car lot.
One time a guy wanted to buy my nissan, he said he needs to pay child support so he needs to drive the car for few mths and make partial payments. I ask if he could give me a bunch of post dated cheque he hum & hawed.
I knew is impossible to deal with these dead beat dad.
Some folks offer a couple of hundred for a 1000 car, I told them is etter t buy a bus pass, is green, enviro-correct.
Good story, having just shopped for a used car for/with my mom yesterday. Settled on an 02 Altima 2.5 S, to replace the 90 Taurus.
When I asked one salesman the price of a particular car, his response after checking on it was “do you intend to finance?” I asked whether that affected the price. “No, of course not,” he replied. So I asked again, got the answer, and left.
Interesting, I had a similar experience this past weekend. Was looking at a used truck that the dealer had advertised on craigslist for below Edmund’s value, so I figured something was up. When he asked if intended to finance I said no, so let’s test drive it. He then said, “sorry can’t drive it, we don’t have the key, the last person to test-drive it took the key with him and I have to tow it to the dealer to get a key made. Let me take your number and I’ll call you when it’s ready.” I don’t expect to hear from him. That was an interesting brush-off I must say, and one I was completely unprepared for.
I realized that he is clearly looking to make his money on this truck on the financing since the list price was below Edmunds. Next time I’m asked that question I’ll respond with something noncomittal but sounds promising like “financing? can you help me out with that?”
I still like the advice my dad gave me. If you can’t pay cash for a car you can’t afford it. While I don’t completely agree with that I will say the longest I’ve ever made new car payments is 3 years. Then I drove it for another 8!
Unbelievable how much knowledge and experience goes into selling a used car. I never understood that and still don’t.
When I was pushing new Toyotas years ago, we had a name for the folks who had fuzzy financing: Bogues. It was pseudo-French for bogus. I can’t imagine working an iron lot and all of the bogues that must show up on a daily basis.
A friend of mine had an extra car he was selling last summer. He priced it kind of high for it’s age, but he figured it would give him room to deal. Well, even though it was in a high traffic area, he hardly got any calls on the car. The one guy who was interested had a sad-sack story and wanted to make payments on the car, rather than buying it cash. He indicated he would pay the full price for the car.
My buddy was so thrilled to sell the car, he took the deal. When he told me about it, I said to him, you will end up with that car back in your driveway. Well, the charade went on for three months, with the bogue not paying for two months. My buddy did ‘repo’ his car, and much to my surprise it was almost completely intact and not damaged mechanically or otherwise.
I really really wanted to say “I told you so’, but I get along well with the guy and didn’t want to add insult to injury. As it turns out, about a month later his older daughter totalled her car, and he gave her the old Lumina to drive.
In the end, it kind of worked out for him, but I still think he was incredibly lucky to get the car back in one piece.
Mr. Lang, have you given any thought to writing a book? Every one of your contributions to TTAC have, in my humble opinion, fallen somewhere between well above average to absolutely exceptional in terms of content, writing style and holding one’s interest. You are an accomplished story teller. More please.
^ Sign me up for that book.
All the above just reinforces my instinct to either give my car to my little brother or donate it. [I’d send a car to the crusher myself before handing one off to my older brother who seems to have an undeclared genius for destroying automobiles. I wouldn’t wish him on a Yugo, bless him]
Mr. Lang you must have some other-worldly sense of self preservation.