Every car from a dealership these days comes with a CarFax and these have become mostly useless as a buying tool ever since they became a car sales tool. However, they do often give you some insight into where a car has been via registration and title changes.
I keep a record of recent hurricanes and where reports of flooding happened. If I'm looking at a car, the first thing I want to look at is the CarFax to see if it's ever been out of state so that I can cross-reference it to my hurricane/flooding list. If there is any indication that the car might have been in the same state at the time that a flood happened, it's an immediate hard pass. Doesn't matter if there's no visible evidence of being a flood car, doesn't matter if the title is green. Some outfits are very good at cleaning up flood cars to look close enough to normal that the average joe can't tell the difference. All flood cars are supposed to get a salvage title but a lot of them slip through the cracks. It doesn't take a lot of searching to find anecdotes from burned buyers online.
I have passed on several cars that looked like great deals but came from flood zones and possibly passed through the hands of a few unscrupulous auctions, mechanics, and dealers on their way to my region.
For the reliable cars like Honda Civics and in-demand ones the 1st year depreciation wasn't actually all that much compared to buying it new with a good dealer discount, urban legends notwithstanding.
Looking at cars now I’m seeing 2109 LX’s with 30K mikes selling for $26-28K it’s crazy.
The ACC is a bit spiky. Could use some easing. But with everything on it’s not too bad in rush hour traffic when I don’t feel like taking the motorcycle out. Feet on the floor and it takes care of everything.
They focus on and serve a few niche markets, so some models are always in tight supply and rarely have incentives.
I'm due for an upgrade, but if my choice is between a full price $40K new sedan or a 3 year old one for $38K (instead of the $26K I'd expect to pay a few years ago), then I'm more than content to just keep my ten year old Acura, knowing I'll need to spend $500/yr on repairs as it starts showing its age.
Is there any real difference besides the fact that you can order it online and that it appears much more expensive?
For example instead of selling a car, selling a license to use the car to the first owner and then deactivating features or throttling performance if/when they resell the car.
Ford does something similar but is easily defeated by changing the stereo. The APIM tracks your driving habits locations and ecu vars which is captured and uploaded to Ford when you take the car in for service (don’t know how this works in their newer 2019+ cars since they are also connected 24/7 like GM)
https://www.autolist.com/honda-odyssey/honda-odyssey-generat...
It is not that bad as of 5 years ago. You can email various dealerships and ask them to contact you if they are willing to sell at $x. If you are more desperate, you can ask them to email you their best offer. I was in and out in about 2 hours, just filled out forms based on what was discussed in the email and browsed on my phone in the meantime.
You can even see the inventory online at the car brands' websites. Although that may have changed in the last 18 months due to extreme imbalance in supply and demand.
Could be a good business idea if this doesn't exist in the US
I have only bought 2 cars in my life, the same way, so my data set is not extensive. But I did get the idea from reading about it on forums, so I presume others are getting it done the same way.
Actually, Costco has a program where the total out the door car price is set and non negotiable and I would assume the dealer would not want to screw you as that could cause you to report them to Costco and then Costco to sever ties with them.
What I did is start at the Costco price and email a bunch of dealers and let them know I am interested if anyone wants to beat that price.
Of course, this may have changed due to recent circumstances.
Or… just by a Tesla. I hate that I am a fanboy, but I am. Great sales process, great car.
Several dealers seemed to know the type of customer they were dealing with, and for the most part, played things straight.
A month or two later when I was reviewing my account on the credit company's site, I discovered some sort of financing charge for $1500. I have no idea how they managed to slip it in - maybe I could have got it removed if I complained. But at that point, the sale was made and the creditor would blame the dealer, the dealer would blame the creditor, and it wasn't worth the fight.
They just cannot be trusted - it's inherent in their business model and how the various teams (sales, financing, etc) all earn their commissions.
I'm sure I did "agree to it"... on page 18, paragraph 3, subsection 4 - right there in the 6pt font where it states I understand I'm liable for applicable dealer-financing surcharges, etc. which can be applied at some later date.
I don't understand - I've crossed state lines in the US in a car and never had to inform anyone.
Same if you take the car for service to a shop in New Jersey; if the shop participates with CarFax then the record will include 'oil change and tire rotation @ (shop name), NJ w/ 3,300 miles' or something roughly along those lines.
Cars made in the last 2 decades by most manufacturers tend to be very reliable, even well past the 200k miles mark.
As for maintenance, just find a trustworthy Indy mechanic and never go back to a dealer again. Compared to family that always leases a new car, there really isn't much difference in repair downtime. New cars tend to have a lot of bugs to work out that have already been addressed in a well used car.
It's interesting how people talk about "depreciation" of an item that pretty much never, if ever, increases in value.
For example for a few years Chevrolet Silverados were made with "cat eye" headlights. Those trucks hold their value far more than chevys with rectangle headlights, all other variables being equal.
It is a very useful concept.
For example, let's say the new car is $50,000. I wait until it's $42,000 or whatever, buy it, keep it for 2-3 years, and sell it for say $37,000. I've done that 4 times now. I don't understand the business model of Car Max, to be honest. There seems to be a lot of people who believe used cars are good deals, I guess.
Also, if you can’t deal with the “pain” of buying a new car every few years you must find a lot of things really painful.
Most people sell their new cars due to an expiring warranty period. Second most people sell their new cars due to the needs of a growing family. The third most people sell their new cars due to a changed financial situation. The fourth most people sell their new cars because they want even newer cars.
'Build quality dissatisfaction and reliability' is the fifth most common reason to sell a new car; or rather, to introduce a single-owner car to the used car market.
I had a JD Power infographic from ~2013 that listed the reasons, but am having trouble finding it.
Unless things have changed since 2013 signifigantly, most used cars that just exitted the factory warranty -- and sometimes factory maintenance umbrella -- have a lot of life left in them.
Aside from that, a car that is a few years older has a significant price advantage on parts -- a feature that is attractive to capable DIYers and mechanics.
And further aside from that -- if you're in the market for a used luxury brand car (Lexus/Infiniti/BMW/Audi/Mercedes/Porsche/ETC) , buying used allows one to side-step the dealer imposed major dealer-markup fees.
Example : the E92 M3 MSRP from from 2009 was about 70,900~ USD. The dealership markup in North Hollywood was 30.5k. In 2010 that same car was worth ~67,000 USD on the used market.
Many of these cars had less than 20,000 miles at the time of sale; buying a card with mileage that low is worth a 35,000 dollar discount to many people.
Anecdotally: bought a 2004 bmw from the original owner with 123k miles in 6 years. 7 years later. 185k miles, original clutch. (I'm also a mostly highway miles driver, but this also includes track days)
Most people leasing cars do it for fashion reasons, so they are normally getting rid of the car to upgrade to the next shiny thing, not due to problems.
Buying cars sucks and is entirely why Carvana and Carmax exist.
That said, not looking forward to having to rent a car and dealing with mold or more frequent breakdowns on the side of the road!
What is more, when you see all those cars that are going to be 'totalled' by the insurance company because they were under water in the southern part of the US or on the east coast, those cars used to be sold for pennies on the dollar in "salvage sales" in which salvage dealers would recover parts and/or do enough repairs to resell them with a salvage title. The bidding for those cars is much more intense given the demand by rental car companies for stock, any stock, to boost their fleets.
Well, the thing about flood-cars is they can look and drive fine but really merit being called totalled - having been submerged makes corrosion inevitable in a much quicker time frame. All of the electrical parts will go bad in X time frame.
Maybe these can be kept going long enough to bring value to companies but it seems like you'll have a lot more car renters on the side of the road than normal.
"Water can ruin electronics, lubricants, and mechanical systems. It may take months or years, but corrosion can find its way to the car's vital electronics, including airbag controllers."
https://www.consumerreports.org/buying-a-car/beware-the-floo...