Comments on: Purchasing a Used Car from a Dealership

By: jim

jim — Fri, 03 Jun 2005 02:39:58 +0000

Guess what Nickel? As it turned out my girlfriend ran the CarFax this morning (I didn’t ask her) before going in to formally purchase the car. It was owned (not leased) and traded in – clear title, no hassles.

Ryan, I don’t know how you came to those numbers via KBB (I never checked Edmund’s myself) but it seems a bit low. This car has almost every available option on the EX that you can get from Honda so perhaps the options you used on Edmunds differed from hers. The option of walking away was available but we couldn’t wait until the end of the month. With her work being in NJ and her vacation ending this week, we were under a bit of a time crunch.

By: nickel

nickel — Thu, 02 Jun 2005 23:24:18 +0000

The main thing that I would've done different given your circumstances would be CarFax, and/or a quick inspection by an independent mechanic and/or body shop. You can even get people on some message boards to run a VIN for you and e-mail you the result (people who have paid for a month of access can do it for free). But otherwise is sounds like a good deal. And given that it's such a long-lived car, even if she had overpaid a bit, it wouldn't amount to much amortized across the next 12 or so years (assuming that she's willing to keep it that long). fivecentnickel.com

By: ryan

ryan — Thu, 02 Jun 2005 22:54:44 +0000

Well after some research on kelley blue book and edmunds.com. The true market value of the car at retail is around 12800. I believe that if you showed that you were willing to walk away you could have saved about 1000 dollars (1500 at the end of the month). You could have gotten away with around 12K for this car. They would have paid about 11830 at trade-in….and if it was a lease they would have paid nothing!!!! I’d say it was a fair deal, but a new one would have only cost a couple thousand more!

By: jim

jim — Thu, 02 Jun 2005 21:22:20 +0000

Hahaha, carbon fiber hood that’s a different color than the body and a particle board spoiler.

The car is hers, title and everything. The reason given by the dealership as to why it wasn’t Certified Preowned was because the cost to the dealership didn’t outweigh any benefits. Since it was so new and because they are an Acura and not a Honda, it didn’t make sense for them to certify it. A 2004 Certified Preowned would command no more than a 2004 non-Certified preowned because the warranty is in place. Is that bogus? Who knows but I don’t think it makes a difference.

By: Tim

Tim — Thu, 02 Jun 2005 20:10:59 +0000

Sometimes a good thing is really a good thing. Sounds like a good deal to me. Though i would never buy a Civic!!! They are so practical it is sickening…Tell her to get the exhaust and spoiler installed. Oh yea and a carbon fiber hood! That’s the only way she will be able to locate her car since there will be 52 other ones in the same parking lot…

By: jim

jim — Thu, 02 Jun 2005 16:50:59 +0000

We never asked why it wasn’t certified, I assumed because we were at an Acura dealership and not a Honda (though they’re the same really). Plus, the balance of the manufacturer’s warranty gave us assurance we weren’t going to have problems.

No check on CarFax, didn’t feel it was necessary, the guy said it was a trade-in so probably a lease. The low mileage made it not a consideration and the test drive gave my girlfriend confidence that the clutch wasn’t abused.

By: Personal Finance Blog

Personal Finance Blog — Thu, 02 Jun 2005 15:51:13 +0000

Sounds like a good deal … it doesn’t matter if it is certified or not because you still have 25k in the warranty. Maybe this used to be a lease car? Did you check out Carfax?

By: Flexo

Flexo — Thu, 02 Jun 2005 13:23:19 +0000

It seems like a very good deal, but did they tell you why it wasn’t certified preowned? That seems a little odd for such a recent model. In my experience with Honda (I purchased a 2004 Honda Civic LX a year ago) the dealer will tell you it has something to do with the tires.

By: FMF

FMF — Thu, 02 Jun 2005 12:37:14 +0000

I think it was probably an ok deal — not that great, but not that bad either. On the plus side, the car will run forever (we had one for 13 years) and with little maintenance. So that’s the good part. And the price wasn’t bad.

You could have probably saved $500 or so by taking a few simple steps (buying at the END of the month — as you noted), being willing to walk away (i.e. considering other cars), offering to pay in cash (if you had it), etc.