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!

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!

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**