Posted by Tim Way on Tuesday, October 08, 2002 at 3:37PM :
In Reply to: Re: I walked away... posted by Jonas. on Tuesday, October 08, 2002 at 12:31PM :
Jonas,
I think you did the right thing in this case. There will be other better trucks out there. Hey, they may be rare, but they are WAY easier to find than Power Wagons!
It's possible, although not likely, that the dealer couldn't go any lower than $21,700 and still make a profit. Sounds funny doesn't it!? I have a very good friend who is in the car business. He is an auto wholesaler; those are the guys that go to the auto auctions, buy a bunch of cars/trucks and then sell them to car dealers for their used car lots.
At any rate, anytime he accepts a trade in lieu of cash, he doesn't calculate profit on the deal until the trade-in is sold. The dealerships work the same way (at least around here). If your buddy got a "smokin' deal" on the D-Max, the dealership may have actually taken a small loss on the new truck hoping to make it up on selling the CTD for a large profit and making the whole deal profitable. $4500 sounds like a pretty big number, but if they took a $4000 hit on the D-Max, the whole deal only makes $500 IF they can sell the CTD for that price. If it sits too long because the price is too high they will drop the price accordingly OR trade it off to a wholesaler on a vehicle they can make money on. On the other hand, they are probably just money grubbing #%$%^&.
I'm not trying to defend ANY auto 'stealers', Lord knows I've been taken to the cleaners more than once by those folks, just trying to shed some light on the behind-the-scenes stuff that happens in the auto bidness. I know that I've received quite an education since I've been a friend to a guy on the inside. The biggest eye opener was how many people make money on some late model used vehicles BEFORE it hits the dealership lot; the folks that put it up for auction (rental car companies, GMAC etc.), the auction house, the car transporter, the wholesaler and the guy backing the wholesaler. Scary huh?
BTW, my buddy doesn't trust car dealers either. He tells me all the time how they are trying to screw each other out of the green stuff. And even he admits that he'll 'never give a sucker an even break.'. I guess it's true; there's no honor among thieves!
Tim Way
Albuquerque, NM
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