Where do "low credit" dealerships obtain their vehicles from?

[JONOV]

Originally Posted by santafe400

So my follow-up question is, if you were to see a nice, fairly new vehicle (less than 2 years old) at one of these dealers at a price that seemed quite reasonable, would you consider making a purchase? Or would you prefer to pay a little bit more to have the reliability and warranty of purchasing a vehicle at the "name brand" dealership?

Hard to say exactly without knowing the dealership. I wouldn't worry about it if I did a carfax and checked it over very carefully, possibly had a mechanic look at it.

Is it a true "buy here, pay here" store or a store that will get people with rougher credit profiles in cars? There is a difference. The dealer family I worked for had a small "chain" of used car stores. There was nothing wrong with their cars, but they all fit a very narrow profile in terms of mileage/condition/etc...The banks had strict requirements for both the car and the buyer in terms of money down, age and mileage of the car...

[rstevens62]

Originally Posted by SoHoVe

I also believe the places that basically exist to take advantage of the disadvantaged could basically not care less about the long term mechanical worthiness of what they stock...as long as it runs well enough at the time to sell.

People are far more likely to default on a vehicle that isn't reliable and they can afford to repair. No problem, they have your down payment in addition to any payments made and can still come after the balance while the resell the vehicle.

They are limited to how long they can pursue a lien on a car though, it varies by state, here in KY, it is 7yrs. Ive heard other states where it is 14 yrs. I learned that liens automatically come off after this point in KY.

When I was married we went thru something strange when my ex wife bought a used truck from some cheap shady lot, some financial place in CA picked up the loan, but after a couple payments, they wouldnt take her money and insisted they knew nothing about her or the truck. I tried calling them a few times, but eventually they were getting annoyed and told us to stop calling. They were even listed on the title lien at our courthouse! This caused a few problems in the next few years when she bought other vehicles, but eventually the lien automatically came off at the courthouse. The people at the courthouse said cars and people slip thru the cracks all the time like this!

[iamweasel]

Originally Posted by sunsprit

he saw a lot of brand new cars damaged in transit or while at a dealership. I've seen a lot of his work through the years and the dealers selling the cars didn't notify the buyers that the car had been repaired while still on an MSO.

There is no legal requirement for a dealer to disclose minor repairs on a vehicle damaged in transit, in their own parking lot or whatever. Should they tell someone? Sure, maybe, but the dealer would just screw themselves if they did if the buyer insisted on a price reduction due to the damages. (Because the transport company or manufacturer will only pay for the repairs, they will not give the dealer any funds to cover the loss of value.)

For those suggesting check the CarFax that's fine but people have to realize it is very easy to get things done to a car where it does NOT show on CarFax. I do it all the time with my company vehicles that have sustained damage. Plenty of repair and body shops around that do not report to CarFax.

To answer the OP's question, most of these cars come from auctions and it is certainly possible for some of them to have flood damage or who-knows-what. The "buy here pay here" places do not get first choice on the "nice" lease turn-ins, the OEM dealers do.