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Unlike rental agency cars, service loaners are often incredibly maintained, or nearly new. They are often used to upsell while a Customer's often-older car is getting repairs.
Manager's cars are also good deals.
Each of the above have never been titled, and are sold as new, at a used-car price!
I've done it several times, no regrets -- ever. Been buying cars for 50+ years.
Wait, so rental cars aren't maintained?? My insurance company arranged a rental for me through Enterprise, and as the rental agent walked me out to the car, she mentioned that they sell cars as well as do financing. Are you saying avoid this?
Good idea to test drive at Carmax. And you're right, I would never buy from them; they're too expensive, and I don't go anywhere that I can't negotiate. I don't care how good they say the price is....
Umm, you DO realize that your demand to negotiate is one of the biggest reasons why car dealers are ALWAYS negotiating with their customers right?
Wait, so rental cars aren't maintained?? My insurance company arranged a rental for me through Enterprise, and as the rental agent walked me out to the car, she mentioned that they sell cars as well as do financing. Are you saying avoid this?
Wait, so rental cars aren't maintained?? My insurance company arranged a rental for me through Enterprise, and as the rental agent walked me out to the car, she mentioned that they sell cars as well as do financing. Are you saying avoid this?
Enterprise is awful for maintenance. Others are a bit better.
Rental cars get way more wear than a lessee car or single owner car. Different driving styles wreak havoc on daily and short term rentals. The low mileage hides a lot until the abuse appears down the road.
What i liked the most were used California Highway Patrol interceptors. Kept well and all heavy duty parts.
Umm, you DO realize that your demand to negotiate is one of the biggest reasons why car dealers are ALWAYS negotiating with their customers right?
No, the fact that dealerships overprice their cars are the reason they are always negotiating with their customers. They leave lots of room for negotiations, if someone is smart enough to research the actual value and know what they want to pay. Sure, there are plenty of people who pay whatever is on the window sticker, no questions asked. The rest of us negotiate a better price.
My understanding was that Carmax sticker prices are set; hence the reason they refer to themselves as "no haggle." Maybe I'm missing something...
I've never shopped at Carmax, but I'm willing to bet that some 'discounting' goes on to get a deal done.
But let's say I'm wrong. There are nearly 17,000 car dealerships in this country (not including the buy here pay here joints and the exclusively used dealerships). Carmax has has 186 locations. Originally,Saturn ran no haggling stores. They went out of business partially because of that policy. AutoNation abandoned the no haggle policy years ago. A dealership group called Lithia (over 100 stores) announced with great fanfare that all their stores were going no haggle. The plan was cancelled after testing in 20% of their stores.
And don't forget that haggling applies to more than simply the sales price. Financing, that documentation fee, dealer add ons like paint protection and window tint, the floor mats. Etc etc ETC
My DH used to be in the industry, eventually owning a business that trained car salespersons. NOW, he absolutely refuses to do anything except test drive. Time to buy? He dumps it on me. And I do it online and on the phone. And they STILL have to be haggle with at the dealership, particularly with financing.
I hate it but I don't see it changing (except maybe CarMax).
Choices, choices.
You miss the point, in context of the thread.
The OP is looking for an honest sales rep, and limiting the choices. I know a Ford guy who is pretty straightforward, IMO.
To drift down the path you lay....
Yes. My Fords all have various levels of import-origins.
Globalization is not to be denied at this point. I do try to make choices regarding foreign content vs. domestic content. But, don't claim to be a purist, which would be futile.
By mentioning Honda, the OP is considering using a possible very high domestic content manufacturer.
What is very hard to trace is the overall labor burden in manufacturing, and where the design and engineering money is spent.
But, one of my faves will always be the Priuses with a Bernie bumper sticker.
"I want good paying union jobs here, so I can buy a 100% foreign-sourced car."
Disconnect...
Please understand those domestic content percentages are severely flawed in many cases. These numbers are really useless as there are some loopholes that certain manufacturers use to drastically overstate the domestic content percentage. (The big one being how sub-assemblies are classified.)
That piece of paper NHTSA publishes is truly garbage. If the classification rules were changed to an appropriate method then it would be more useful. Would be happy to post more facts on why if people want but don't want to hijack the thread.
Enterprise is awful for maintenance. Others are a bit better.
Rental cars get way more wear than a lessee car or single owner car. Different driving styles wreak havoc on daily and short term rentals. The low mileage hides a lot until the abuse appears down the road.
What i liked the most were used California Highway Patrol interceptors. Kept well and all heavy duty parts.
Wow. Now I'm confused. I just followed a link to a forum where people say just the opposite about Enterprise. UGH> Maybe I'll just stay away from that as an option all together.
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