Lesser known car dealers and their quality (insurance, vehicles, 2009)

[shanv3]

Hello,
Another question on reliability this time about small local dealers. I saw a few good cars with decent miles and decent condition but for a lower price than other major dealers. Say for eg, 2009 Camry with 70K miles , a price of 12000 is good. And some dealers offer it at a lower price than this.

Question is, can I really go and buy them? Some are body shops and what is the chance the parts are still original?

[CCc girl]

No doubt if a body shop is selling it it has been in an accident. Yes, you can go buy them, but unless you actually go in and ask to see the history report and discuss the car at length, i.e. number of previous owners, miles on car, maintenance records, you are not comparing equal cars.

[Parsec]

I don't think he's talking about a body shop - he's probably talking about a used car lot. These guys buy their inventory from auction. You can find a good deal, but you'll have to do your due diligence and definitely have YOUR mechanic check out the car. Don't let the dealer have "his mechanic next door" check it out for you.

[Hemlock140]

There are usually good reasons why a dealer will take a trade and auction it instead of selling it on their lot. Carfax or Autocheck is the place to start, but even if that's clean a flood or accident may not have been reported. It's always worth the $75-100 to have a good mechanic check it out.

[BrendanSWM]

Actually, you cannot find a good deal at a used car dealership. At least not compared to a private sale. Car delearships have overhead (Rent or mortgage, property tax, advertising, administrative employees, phone, computers, internet, insurance, building and lot maintenance, salespersons, buyers, detailers, etc.). These are very substantial costs. A private seller has none of these expenses. There is only one place the costs of overhead can come from.

WHen we sell cars used in our business, we under-price them to sell them quickly so we do not have to incur costs of having an employee tied up selling them. We post an advert, set a single day when people can buy the vehicles and sell them first come first serve cash only. We may get a bit less than the long way of selling them, but we actually save money.

[Hemlock140]

While I agree with Brendan, private sellers always have that attachment to their car and when they sell it they always seem to overprice it. Typically they will have their car on the market a long time before they "settle" for what is a realistic offer. Again, a mechanic's assessment is important, because private sellers are not required to meet safety requirements like dealers, such as legal brake pad thickness, tires, windshield cracks, and lights working.

[nylonggamer]

private sellers may overvalue their car but there are many sellers. they don't have the overhead dealers do, they don't negotiate as well, they're more honest and you could get a much better idea how the car was treated.