What is the deal here? I had never heard of this place. Can you haggle or its like Carmax, pay whats on the website?
Lithia is a large corporation that has dealerships over a wide area .
New Corollas on Car Gurus at $19000. New, choice of colors, full warranty. Get credit union financing and go for it. Civic LX has a $1200 lease cash.
I have purchased used rental cars in the past. However, large rental companies self insure the collision coverage and therefore might not report collision damage to Carfax. Many āCPOā cars sold by new car dealers are ex rentals bought at auction.
A new car is less hassle in every way.
Hereās a data point. I happened by the Hertz car sales lot the other day during a daily walk-a-bout. They had two Toyota Yarisās in the front row, both 2017 models, both priced around $9,700. If you donāt mind an automatic transmission, I think thatās a pretty good value for a nearly new car that has an excellent reputation for reliability.
3 Likes
Why do you keep saying that ? You donāt like them and that is fine. But the number of people who actually want manuals for every day driving is quite low. Also the vehicle search that Noelm is involved with is for a lady who lives on Long Island , New York . Not exactly a place where I think a manual would be anything but annoying.
5 Likes
You are probably right, but Long Island is about 90 miles long, and much of the eastern end is not densely populated. I do agree that most people want an automatic transmission, though.
Jerry Seinfeld lives on Long Island. How many of his Porsches do you think have automatic transmission?
1 Like
Comparing a collector like Jerry Seinfeild to a lady who drives to work and wants a medium size vehicle is a little silly.
3 Likes
I donāt know the answer to that question, but in light of the fact that you canāt drive anywhere outside of Long Island without driving through at least 2 boroughs of NYC, I hope for his sake that none of those cars have a manual transmission.
Update
So yesterday we had a long talk, rehashing that my responsibility is limited to directing her to different car places. Her job how she wants to proceed.
I asked her to take a look at Carmax for the prices. Then check on Hertz rental to compare the price. She can also check TrueCar used or Carfax used for other price data points, if interested. If she is comfortable with the price, find a good rated mechanic and auto body shop on Yelp in her vicinity (or ask around the neighborhood). Go have a word with them that she would like to bring in a car for inspection, how much it will cost, how much time they would need to do a thorough inspection etc. If she gets a green light from them, proceed, else return the car and pay for 3-days rental.
Rest is on her now. Hopefully, I am done with the job. Thank you everyone for chiming in.
She wants a basic vanilla car with automatic transmission.
You need to keep this in mind. No matter how careful and inspection even by the finest of techs is not a guarantee of no problems. New cars break down and used one are no better. There are just too many components involved that may fail at any time.
Many years ago I did an inspection for some good customers of mine. They found an older Ford that appeared to be showroom new in and out. I spent 2 hours going over that car and could zero, zilch, nada wrong with it other than the need for an accessory belt.
They bought the car. Six months later he went out to go to work one morning and smoke rolled from around the hood. He raised the hood and it went up in flames. The car was a total loss right there in the drive before the FD arrived.
He said before it became a BBQ pit that he saw a gas line broken open and throwing gas everywhere. I inspected those lines pre-purchase and on the surface the appeared to be fine. Thank goodness he did not blame me for it and the point of this tale is just to show you that nothing is infallible including any car you get involved with. Best of luck though.
5 Likes
You are right. I have made that clear explicitly multiple times.
I wasnāt comparing Seinfeld to her. You made a general statement about Long Island, and I said it isnāt all densely populated like the west end of the island. If someone owns 50 or more Porsches and they all have a manual transmission, then he only drives a manual. Thatās like the rest of us owning one car with a manual transmission.
Iād go to a NEW car dealer and look at what used cars they have on the lot.
This is something I read long ago but tried only twice in the past 20 years. Both times I came home with a great car.
The reasoning goes like this: When a customer trades in their car to buy a new one, the dealer has two options, 1) to sell it (if itās in good condition) or 2) to get it off the lot quickly to a used car dealer. No dealer wants to sell a bad car; bad for repeat business and word of mouth.
So if we see a used car at a new car dealership, itās a car that the dealerās mechanics have checked and blessed.
But one step remains: to check the carās CARFAX report. The dealer (at least at my last purchased car) will provide the report free. There we can see what repairs were ever done and, more important, what regular maintenance was done. Oil, coolant and brake fluid changes, etc.
The used car we buy at the new car dealer will be more expensive up front than most anywhere else. But only at first. In the long run, itāll be least expensive and least likely to put us on the side of the interstate with our hood up and blinkers flashing.
You realize that a Carfax report is just a guide and should not be taken as actual fact. Even on the Carfax web site they state they only have what is reported to them and not every facility reports or reports every thing.
1 Like
As Volvo_v70 said, they are the 3rd largest dealer in the country, selling numerous brands. My point was to check dealer ads. Even on new cars from the same chain, there can be significant savings if you watch the websites.
I donāt know about your area, but here most Hertz cars are leases. These often come with maintenance packages, or require proof of basic maintenance. I passed on several cars because they were higher priced than local dealers, but they might be OK. As a regional manage told me, they donāt make their money renting, but from selling cars.
Try to find one that Carfax shows as a lease. Youāll stand a much better chance of it being properly maintained.
I have been told this by many people but 5 years ago. When I was in the market for a used car, none of the dealers in my area had lower prices (for a 2-3 year old lease returns), irrespective of brand and model. It was like, we might as well add a thousand or two extra and get a new one. We were targeting Forester. We knew Foresters hold value in area. So just to make sure its just Subaru and nor others, we tried other dealerships. Almost same story across the board. Buying new car in NYC and surrounding, you would NEVER get a good price, so I finally got new Forester from a dealership in NH. Every local dealership told me that the price I was getting was NH dealership is impossible and I would be duped one way or the other.
In 2 months, we will be clocking 5 years on our Forester and the best experience I had with car purchase so far, without knowing how the dealership or my salesman looks like.
The point I am getting at, this may very well be true in your area but our area is loaded with crooks. On their website, you will see a great deal but when you step into the dealership, the car is gone (still on the website). All other are higher priced, absolutely no room for negotiation. Your trade-in a valued at peanuts (We had our car priced at Carmax.) So on so forth. Its frustrating, to say the least.
So my trust in local pre-owned dealership units is almost non-existent. I will happily pay 1K over the price for haggle-free car shopping. This is the reason, I actually like Carmax, Carvana etc. They have their pitfalls, esp Carvana but the stress of buying a car just irritates the heck out of me.
1 Like
@Steve_K1 another thought, weāve had regular users on here report inaccuracies on the carfax reports for their own cars as well (including cars they bought as new). Carfax should be taken with a large grain of salt
Yes, youāre right. If an oil change was done in the driveway, for example, it wouldnāt appear on the Carfax report. Like a condom in a wallet, itās better than nothing but dangerous if trusted too much. (Can I say that on Cartalk? 
)
My current car is a 2011 Toyota Venza I bought in late 2016 at a Lexus dealership. Looked like new, even with 75,000 miles on it. What made me buy it, though, was its Carfax report showing an oil change ā at the Toyota dealership where the car was bought ā every 5000 miles. No need to add that in the three years weāve owned it, the car hasnāt required a single repair.
1 Like
Iāve seen no evidence that the sales department at a dealership cares one iota about repeat business. In fact, Iāve found the opposite to be true.
ā¦and TWO steps remain. After you check the carfax report, you should get the car inspected by your mechanic.
Two anecdotes arenāt nearly enough to rule out good luck.
2 Likes