does a used car dealer in Arizona have to display a price on each car for sale?

The Arizona Department of Weights and Measures requires that "all commodities" offered for sale in Arizona have a price posted on or near the item for sale.  I have a book called "Arizona Auto Advertising Guidelines" that was compiled by the Arizona  Attorney Generals office in 1995. It is interesting reading.  It lists topics like "Lowest Prices/Guaranteed Lowest Prices", "Name Your Price", "Clearance Sale"and "Credit Availability" among others.   A dealer should not use claims such as "everyone financed", "No credit rejected" or similar statements unless the dealer can and is willing to extend such credit to any individual under any circumstance.  It states that all used automobiles must have a price sticker when being offered for sale. 

"We believe that the buyer of a used car should have the same information about the price as the buyer of a new car."

As I drive around Phoenix, I look at used car lots. Federal law requires that each car should have a Buyers Guide in the window that discloses whether there is a warranty on the vehicle being sold.  In Arizona There is an implied warranty that says that car will be driveable for 500 miles of 15 days from the time of sale.  It also describes what will happen if the car develops a problem. 

Arizona Law requires that there should be a price sticker on each car. 

I am amazed at the number of used car dealerships that do not post either of these stickers on the cars they have for sale.  These dealers do not realize that if an inspector was to come on their lot looking for the sticker, the dealership could be fined $1,000 for each car that doesn't have a sticker on it. 

Is it really worth not putting the stickers on??

Many consumers look on Craigslist.com.  You can find just about anything you might want, and a few things you really would not want to take home with you.  One of the busiest areas on craigslist.com is the auto and truck section.  I wouldn't want to guess the number of entry's that are made everyday, but it is staggering.

There are 3 auto sections.  all, dealer and private party.  According to Arizona statute 28-4301-35 a "used motor vehicle dealer" is defined as a person, other than a new motor vehicle dealer, who buys, sells, auctions, exchanges or offers or attempted to negotiate a sale or exchange of an interest in, or who is engaged in the selling, four or more used motor vehicle dealers in a contiguous twelve month period.  Used motor vehicle dealer does not include a wholesale motor vehicle auction dealer, or a public consignment auction dealer."

If you look at private party listings, copy a phone number from an ad and put it in the search bar.  I have seen as many as 15 cars listed with the same phone number at the same time.  If you apply the statute listed above to the person offering these cars, that person is considered to be a dealer by the State of Arizona.

If you want to take a chance, that is ok.  The car you are looking at may be a great one, but it also could be ready to fall apart.  Also I would make sure that I take someone else with me to help examine the car and make sure there are no serious issues.  Some of the newer transmissions can be $2000-3000 or more to rebuild.  The better thing to do would be to visit a used car dealership,at least you then know exactly where to go back to if you have a problem.  Also there is no such thing as an "as-is" sale of a car in Arizona, so if there are problems, you can work something out with the seller to get the car repaired or get your money refunded.

USED CAR AS-IS STICKERS

Are you aware that every used car for sale at a dealership is required to have a Federal As-Is warranty sticker since this was required since 1985. Non compliance can be subject to up to a $10,000 civil fine for each car that is displayed without a sticker.

I see many lots that don't display the federal sticker.  When asked why not, they say "Nobody ever checks on this".  Not displaying these could be terribly expensive if you get caught.

In Arizona used cars are sold with a 15 day, 500 mile implied warranty. This means that the car will run and drive in for this length of time. This doesn't require that the a/c blows cold or the power windows work.    If you are not able to drive it safely  for normal everyday use, the dealer is required to fix it, take the car back and cancel the deal or come to a solution that is acceptable to both parties.  Because of this in Arizona it is against the law for a dealer to sell a car "As-Is".  It is ok to sell a car that has mechanical problems if the problems are clearly marked on the purchase order and the buyer acknowledges that he is aware of these problems.
The following link describes the law that has been in effect for almost 30 years.

  http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/guides/usedcar-comply.shtm

Is the carfax fox losing his bite?

Several months ago CARFAX was hit with a class action lawsuit alleging that the vehicle history reporting company engages in anti-competitive practices and violates antitrust laws. 

The suit, filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, seeks damages of more than $50 million. It also alleges that Carfax, through exclusive agreements with auto companies and popular classified auto Web sites, is "monopolist in the sale of vehicle history reports.

I heard there was a comment made by a manager from the block at a Phoenix auto auction that they wouldn't be using CARFAX any longer. 

I have used CARFAX and Autocheck  on the same car.  In most cases the information given is almost alike.  The most important things odometer rollbacks and salvage titles usually show up on both.

What the automobile buying customers do not realize is that there are many unreported accidents. Have you ever known someone who was involved in an accident in a parking lot?    I am not sure how many body shops report to these two sites, but I don't think it is a lot.

If you have been in an accident and are working with an insurance company, here is a site that can give lots of information.

http://www.ican2000.com/

I enjoy speaking with our customers when they are either here making a payment or getting their cars serviced.  The customer I was speaking with today had bought her car from us about 18 months ago.  The a/c compressor was going bad and it was one of those that is more expensive than the others.  She didn't look forward to spending the money to replace it.

She brought up  liking the way we did business and was enjoyed the car she purchased.  Also that when friends mentioned needing a car, she always told them about us and that we were pretty easy to get along with.

She had been looking at new cars, particularly the ones that have a 100,000 mile power train warranty.  And ws surprised when she was told that they might be able to get her financed.  She realized that having a good record with our company helped her credit score.

I hope she gets her new car, even though  will miss seeing her as a customer.

Like it or not, the Holidays are coming!

I have been seeing Christmas decorations in stores for about a month.  Wow! I've never understood pushing the envelope. Maybe next year they will put the decorations out before Labor Day!

On another note with the Holidays come the requests for the charities for Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner.  This is where I find a weakness.  I know that there are a lot of people out of work or underemployed.  A lot of families where the income is way down from where it used to be.

There are a lot of charities out there.  some of them are very good spending a large part of their income taking care of their charitable mission.  There are others that will use most of the income for overhead and spend very little on the charitable mission.  Due your job, make sure the charity you are contributing to is on the up and up.  The BBB does keep tabs on them.

I did notice a store with a sign  we would deck our halls after Thanksgiving.  I give them a compliment. 

Visiting with an old friend

A customer came in today and purchased another car.  What is unusual about this is that the last one he purchased was in 1994.  It was a much simpler time.  Sales tax was only  6.8%.    He bought a 1988 Honda Civic.  He paid for it in a couple of years. After it was paid for he came in a few times to say hello.  But today he came in out of the blue and bought an 8 year old Audi.  We spoke for a while about the car and my father and mother who were both very active in the business at that time. I get nostalgic when I look at records from back then.  Everything was lower priced.  The sales tax, The wages and the price of cars. A 9 year old Civic is 50% more than the 4 year old civic was then.

It seems like everything is more expensive, but you are making a lot more than you did back then.  The ultimate question I like to ask.  Are cars and houses worth a lot more today than then or is the money just worth less?

I really appreciate the loyalty that brings a customer back after all that time!

Credit Card Transactions!

Some time ago we started using a virtual terminal to collect payments from our customers. It is a simple process. Open a website, enter the information needed, card number, name address etc, fill in the amount and click, your payment is made.  Convenient and easy.

We didn't realize how easy it is....  The number of fraudulent transactions that people try to pass is unreal.  They get or make up a credit card number, make up an expiration date, security code etc and try to pass it off as a real number.  We have had a few stolen cards go through, which creates a problem for our account, plus we are charged by the transaction whether it is real or fraudulent.  I am not really sure what benefit someone gets by using our site, since we don't ship a product. Maybe it is a test to see if the number will go through so they can try somebody else's site and buy merchandise there.

The reason I mention this is that we have put some new security measures into effect that identify fraudulent transactions so they don't go through.  The main things the customer needs to enter are the name, address, zip code and security code.  If those are correct, your transaction should go through.

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

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. 

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. 

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?????

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.

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.

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**

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.

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.