Pretend youre buying a used car...

Car Sales will give you a better idea of asking price than the Red Book, only amateurs use the book for pricing, dealers use current market conditions for pricing & the Book to id model changes

I fully agree, Steve.

Car salesmen pick their "marks", they are masters at judging who will pay the asking price and who will walk away unless the price is right.

During the late 90's I worked the spanners for Bridge Toyota in Darwin and there was always an attempted clean-out of used cars towards the end of the month and it was the best time for a potential buyer to get a deal they were happy with.

I bought a '97 Troopy there in 2000 (still have it) and I got it at a "staff" price of $31k - the asking price in the yard was $36k. The vehicle owed the company $29k, so they still made a couple of grand profit selling it to me, but could have made $7k if the right "mark" had shown any interest in the vehicle.

Used vehicles sitting for too long in a dealership yard cost the company money and generally they are only too happy to get rid of them. Quite often they will unload them at next to zero profit just to make room for better stock, especially when there is a sudden increase in new vehicle sales which also means an increase in trade-ins – a good time to shop for a quality used vehicle.

The astute buyer will do their homework and not only know the "demand" value of the vehicle they are looking for, but also the best time to go shopping.

Dusty

One of my buys was a 99 model Troopy at Bridge Palmerston in 2002, they wanted $34, I got it for $29.

The other was a run about for the misses, it was a $6,500 I got it for $5,000

I spent my last year with Bridge working at Palmerston and left in early 2002. It was a better place to work than Stuart Park.

Dusty

To Dusty's comment: "Used vehicles sitting for too long in a dealership yard cost the company money and generally they are only too happy to get rid of them."

That's certainly the case. They also get noticed by casual not-in-a-hurry buyers, and the longer they sit the more they know it hurts the dealer, aka bargaining time.

Here in W.A. AHG (at least, don't know about the others) will put a time-in-the-yard limit on used stock. If the vehicle isn't moved within that time, they RELOCATE it to another of their yards and the clock starts again.

That relocation process to other yards is most likely a common procedure with larger dealers around the country Zippo.

I worked for a large dealership in Sydney during the 80's and they had four used vehicle yards, the first being closely aligned with the new vehicle showroom for top shelf trade-ins. The second yard was a couple of hundred metres down the road for middle range trades, the third was out along Parramatta Rd for the cheapies and the final yard was what we referred to as the "pig pen". This yard held those vehicles that were hard to sell for whatever reason or required too much to be spent on them. Once we had 10 to 15 vehicles in it, a used car dealer would put a "lot price" on them and clear the yard out.

Dusty

Cash means nothing? First time ive heard that

You are correct. Dealers mainly want the finance deal. It's usually worth more to them than the profit on the car. Many dealers are simply selling finance .. the cars are secondary. If they could make more selling corn flakes they would do that if it needed finance.

Very few vehicles are sold on consignment by dealers since the introduction of the Motor Car Traders Act.

Our OKA was in a dealer's yard for $34k (in 2003).
I found the owner. He wanted $25K.
I paid him a small deposit and then paid my mechanic to spend 2 days looking over it.
With that report, I then concluded the sale from the owner direct for $18K.

Cheers,
Peter
OKA196 motorhome

I am only aware of the Victorian law:

Consignment selling

When a car is sold by consignment, it is sold by an agent acting on behalf of a person who is not a licensed motor car trader (LMCT).

It is against the law for a motor car trader to:

sell a motor car by consignment, or offer to sell a motor car by consignment, or
have a car in their possession with the intention of selling it by consignment.
You may face a fine of 100 penalty units, court action or both if you are an LMCT and sell a car by consignment.

The laws relating to consignment selling do not apply to cars sold at public auction.

An OKA is not a "car".
Maybe that is the difference?

Cheers,
Peter
OKA196 motorhome

As long as the seller isn't a licensed motor car trader, it could be sold on consignment. Originally the act called for the trader to placed the agreed net amount in to a trust account until the vehicle was sold, the funds would then be transferred to the owner, it was found to be an unwieldy & unworkable system, so it was easier to place a blanket ban on consignment deals.

You did say "pretend you're buying a used car"...which would include people who have never actually done it :)
Cheers
Greg