December 27, 2010

Christmas!

It was a good Christmas for us.  We closed the business Christmas Eve and Christmas Day giving us an unusual 3 day weekend.  Also time to finish up the shopping, decorating and preparations for the Christmas dinner.  We went to an "All Class Happy Hour" Thursday evening.  Saw a few members or my class and other people that I knew from other years.  Since Gerard High School has been closed over 20 years, it is hard to keep people connected. 

We went to church and it wasn't as crowded as I expected.  The priest who said Mass, Fr. Joe, was a military chaplain for years.  At the end of the service he made a comment that took me by surprise.  He said that 10 years ago he had been a chaplain in Afghanistan and had said Christmas Mass for the troops.  He then said that after 10 years there, the situation hasn't changed.  You could hear his voice waver a bit as he repeted the statement.  It makes me wonder why we are there.

Christmas day was great.  There were 5 grandchildren there with their parents.  It was fun watching  them open the presents.  The highlight was when I turned the ipod on and played "Jingle Bells"  After about 4 bars all 5 started singing and went on for 4 or 5 choruses. It was not planned, but we all enjoyed it. We then had a dinner that was fit for a king.  Then we sat, talked and watched football until late in the evening. A perfect ending for a very special day.

I hope yours was as good

September 30, 2010

Title Loans, Playing With Fire!




Over the years we have purchased a good number of cars because of tile loans.  The customer needs extra cash and gets the title loan.  He can then afford the interest payments on the loan, but when the principal comes due, he isn’t able to afford it.  He then renews the loan again.  It becomes a vicious cycle.  He gets to a point and either sells the car to pay it off or trades it in on another car that has more manageable payments.
I saw one last week that stunned me.  I know the interest rates on these loans can be in the 300% annual range.  A person brought two documents in on her title loan.  She wanted help to bail it out.  The first document was about 10 days old.  It had a payoff of about 45,00.  The car was repossessed the next day.  The second document was the payoff after the repossession, the payoff was about $10,000.  How the payoff can double that quickly doesn’t make sense.  There  were repossession fees included, but only around $300.  The only thing reason that makes any kind of sense is if there was a penalty for early payoff included in the loan.
 There are a lot of varieties of title loan.  I do not know them all.   If you are going to get a title loan make sure you have read all the fine print.  Make sure you understand what could happen if you miss the payment.  I really, really felt bad for the person in this example who lost her car.  I hope she goes to the Department of Financial Services who regulate these companies to make sure everything the title loan company did was legal. 

September 7, 2010

Have You Ever Wondered?

Last week we got a beautiful 92 Mercedes 500SL convertible. Bright red, tan leather and 113,000 miles.  I haven't driven one of these for a while, but they are fun to drive.  This one is also very nice so it can also turn a head or two.  Saturday night my wife and I went to a movie.  As usual the parking lot was full but there was  valet parking available. Have you ever looked at the area around the stand where the valets work.  Usually the high dollar cars are parked right up close so the owners do not have to walk very far.  I told my wife "watch what happens".  She looked at me as if she was thinking "What are you talking about".  As we pulled up to the valet area, there were 5 or 6 cars waiting to be parked.  I noticed that there was an Escalade and another car parked right at the curb and there was a space right in front of it.  As we got out of the car the valet said, Its getting close to 8:00 and we will be leaving about 9:30 so what I will do is park your car right here up front and bring the key back to you so you won't have problems when the movie is over.  That's exactly what he did. The 5 or 6 cars in front of us sat while he moved ours to the place of honor.  I hadn't asked anything special, but I was impressed with what happened. 

August 13, 2010

Bottling our tap water to make a profit.

There was an article in the August 10, 2000 Arizona Republic that Niagara will be building a new plant in Phoenix. This will be their 9th bottling and distribution facility that will run 24/7/365. It is estimated that it will bottle over 100 million gallons per year, almost 3 acre feet of water. After seeing the picture of Lake Mead in the paper last week at its lowest level in 54 years, do we really want someone opening up this type of business in Phoenix? We are as closer to water rationing that I have ever seen in my lifetime.

I remember the days when every business, church or school had a water fountain and we used them. The bank I go to almost every day originally had a water fountain in the lobby where you could get a drink. Several years ago they remodeled the bank and the water fountain came out. Now they have the 5 gallon bottle dispenser, which works most of the time unless it is out of water or cups or both.

I am the guy who doesn't trust water he can't taste. I very rarely buy a bottle of water. In our office we have water bottles for customers but I usually drink from the water fountain or fill up my reusable bottle from it. The city of Phoenix bills water usage by unit of 748 gallons. The smmer months are billed at $3.51 per unit. or .00469 per gallon. I was really thirsty last week and bought a liter bottle of water, it cost about $1.50. So I can give the city $1.50 and get about 350 gallons of water or get a liter of water in a nice plastic one use bottle for about the same cost. Is it really worth it?????

August 10, 2010

School Is Back In Session!

Most school districts in the Phoenix area have reopened even though it is just the beginning of August. Be careful, watch the school zones and obey the speed limit. We don't want anyone to get hurt.

Parents, don't forget that you are your child's first and best teacher. They learn so much from you even before they set foot inside a classroom. Turn off the TV and read a book. Teach them that it is fun to learn. The curious child is the one who learns not just to pass the test, but because he wants to. He enjoys learning how things work and what makes them tick. The student who only learns because he has to pass the test, will most likely forget the information.

Take the time to find out what your child is studying. Show them that you are interested in what they are learning. Keep in touch with his or her teacher. The teachers job is to give information to the children's job is to absorb and learn it. Some children are like sponges and take everything in. Others are like concrete, the information is poured out to them, they don't absorb it. wouldn't it be great if we could just pour the information into their heads, but it doesn't work that way.
For a student to succeed it requires cooperation of the parent, child, teacher and school. If this cooperation isn't there, even the brightest and most curious student can fail.

My wife teaches in a local high school and I have spent time in her classrooms talking to the students about the world they are going out into. How business and the financial system works, and some of what they will need to become successful once they graduate. What I find interesting is that in that 30 or 40 minutes I am in front of the students I am answering questions they have, and also asking questions of them. The ironic part is how easy it is to pick the students who are there because they want to be, and those who are just putting in "seat time" until they can graduate or decide to quit school.

July 19, 2010

One more business left town

We own a property that we rent out as a used car lot. The lot had been vacant for a year and someone rented it to do small engine repairs. Jet skis, motorcycles, lawn mowers etc. He had been there almost a year. He was a great tenant. Paid the rent on time, we didn't have any complaints from the neighbors about him or his business. It seemed he was making money and earning a living.

He had been at another location for several years before moving to our property, it seems the landlord there was raising the rent so he moved. He was a good businessman, an asset to the community.

Last week he came to visit me and said Frank, I am going to vacate the property even though I have a couple more months on the lease. I am taking my business and my family out of Arizona. I am starting over in another state. He was a hispanic, and like a lot of hispanics he was concerned about the law that takes affect in a few weeks.

I wish him and his family well.

June 19, 2010

Private Car Sales Why do they do it?

I often wonder why people buy cars from individuals rather than dealers. I have seen individuals advertising cars for $10,000, $15,000 or more. Who buys these? Buying from someone you do not know from Adam, a high priced item that could have problems. What happens if there is a title problem? If the car breaks down the next day? There are a lot of things that could happen. I look at it from the dealers side, because that is what I am. If you buy a car from a dealer, there is a public place of business rather than a street corner or curb in front of someones house. There is a phone number listed where you can reach someone if something goes wrong. There is a license and a bond up to $100,000 in case there is a problem, There is the implied warranty that comes with every car sold by a dealer in Arizona that it will run at least for 15 days or 500 miles.

Maybe someone had been pressured by a dealer one time. Maybe they got a bad deal. I know that the person who buys from a private party does not pay sales tax in Arizona which is a 9.3% advantage over a dealership.

I know that I have heard horror stories of people who buy cars with motor and transmission problems, title problems, not to mention trying to contact the seller if these problems occur.
Paying a little bit more might be good insurance!

Good Things Do Happen!

One of my customers visited me early this month and spoke of a problem he had. He is like every one of us. He has bills to pay. This individual is employed by a school district. This means that there are a couple of months during the summer he does not get a paycheck. He had tried to get hold of a lender for several days, leaving messages, getting put on hold and then being disconnected before speaking to anyone. Finally someone did talk to him, and set something up where he didn't have to make a payment until next month. I hear many stories like this where thay repossessed an item rather than waiting a few weeks to get a payment from someone who is struggling.

Makes you feel good!

June 12, 2010

A One Owner Car

I can't believe it! A customer visited with us today who said she purchased her first car from us in the early 1980's. We haven't heard from her since then but she was looking for a car. She was trading in a 1998 Nissan with 191,000 miles. The car has a few scratches and faded paint but otherwise looks good and I didn't see any rips or tears. I asked her how long she had the car and she replied "I bought it new!" so I have had it 12 years. That is an accomplishment. To keep a car in good running order for that long and those miles is great. I proplse sending it back to Nissan to see what they did wrong so they can duplicate it on the cars they are selling today!

June 3, 2010

Car Dealer Posing As Private Party!

I was looking over our posts on Craig's List advertising our inventory. When doing this I also look at other peoples ads to see what they are doing and if it is more interesting than what we are using. Just looking for a better way to do things. I had an ad open and copied the phone number and pasted it into the search bar. I was stunned, the search brought up 12 listings for cars, and all were listed for sale by owner rather than dealer.

As of a few days ago it is to a buyers advantage to purchase a car from an individual rather than a dealer because of the raise to 9.3% sales tax in Phoenix.

Arizona Law stated that if a person sells more than 4 cars per year he is a dealer and must be licensed. The penalties can be very harsh. You can also get a wholesale dealers license that allows you to sell to other dealers, but not to members of the public. The person who posted these cars for sale is skirting trhe law in several ways, all designed to save him money. He doesn't have to collect or pay sales tax, he doesn't have to invest in a sales lot etc.

The main difference is that by buying from other than a dealer, you lose the "implied warranty" that must go with every car purchased from a dealers. This says that the car will run and drive for 500 miles of 15 days from date of purchase. If anything goes wrong with the purchase you have no recourse. If you buy from a dealer, there is a bond of up to $100,000 to take care of any problems with title, mileage, or mechanical issues that could arise.

I'm sure that everyone has heard horror stories about cars that were purchased where the motor or transmission were bad, where there were liens on the title and the seller was nowhere to be found when this happened.

Be safe rather than sorry, buy from a dealer.

PS The dealers phone is 602-376-17**

May 28, 2010

A car for my bucket list!

I buy cars almost every day. Just about anything but mostly the common ones. the ones that most people drive. I don't usually get the exotic or unusual cars, but sometimes I get lucky and find one. I did just that yesterday. It is an 04 Mazda 8 with 65,000 miles. It is bright red with gray interior and a 6 speed transmission. This is the rotary engine car that redlines at 8500 RPM. The kind of car that you want to put your foot to the floor and see what happens. I drove it home last night and it was a kick. Mazda built the RX 7 up till 95 but in 04 They came out with the RX8. It is quick, nimble and has a great road feel. I don't think it gets very good gas mileage, but with this type of car, that isn't a really great concern.

The person who sold this car to me came in and said that due to circumstances he needed money more than a car like this. The way he talked about this car, how long he owned it, what he did to it as far as maintenance, I know that he treated it like a member of his family. It was almost like he was giving me one of his children. This is a nice car, a special car that someone will really enjoy. If this is what you want, give us a call or come by. It should be ready for sale next week.

May 26, 2010

The Used Car Business Isn't What It Used To Be!

The new car dealers would sell new cars and take used cars in trade. The new car dealer would keep the newest and nicest for resale and wholesale the rest either directly or indirectly to the used car dealerships. Generally they would keep 3 0r 4 year old cars with 50,000 miles or less, we would get the rest.

Several years ago the rental and lease companies started keeping their cars longer so they bought fewer new cars to become used cars. The banks started tightening up credit so very few new cars were being sold. In order to make a profit, the new car dealers started retailing older and higher mileage cars. I have heard of cars with 140,000 and 150,000 being offered at new car dealers used car lots. Pretty much a car that will pass a basic safety and emission inspection will be kept for resale.

Add this to the fact that very fewer new cars were being sold than were being scrapped because of wrecks and breakdowns. The add the "Cash For Clunkers" program which took 500,000 cars off the road for good. Most of which were in running and driving condition. I would love to have most of those cars to resell today.

Thc program also pushed car buyers to trade earlier than they normally would. Maybe someone wasn't thinking about getting another new car for a couple more years, but because of the program he already did it. Most people who are buying a car today is not because they really want to, it is because something happened to the one they had, and they have to replace it.

There are just fewer cars on the road period. I left work yesterday at 6:30 and drove home on the surface streets rather than the freeway. When you are driving on a major street at 6:30 in the evening and there aren't more than 3 or 4 cars waiting for the light to change it is an odd feeling.

The government tried to help us, but the law of supply and demand works perfectly. That 4 to six year old car that is the mainstay of our inventory is in short supply. In fact we are paying almost the same for that car that we paid 1 year ago. this is backed up by Manheim Auto auctions who have more than 50 auto auctions in the United States. The thoughts are that the used car industry won't be back to normal for 4-5 years. This about the time the new cars being sold today will start making their way into the used car markets.

Customer Appreciation Day!

We had a great time. 29 customers took me up on our food donation offer. If the customer brought in 5 food items, we paid $25.00 on his account. St Mary's Food Bank got a full box of food items. I awarded the Roman and Ruth Sarwark Memorial scholarship to Maria Oney. She graduated from North High last week. We couldn't have found a better recipient. She was involved in sports, extra curricular activies and even attended College classes. She is planning to attend Northern Arizona University next fall.

We also gave away restaurant coupons, grocery coupons and movie passes plus a flat screen TV. There were about 40 people who put thheir name in the hopper for the drawing. We had hot dogs and drinks for everybody who came in. I think it is a way togive something back to our customers. Without them, we wouldn't have a business.