If It Rolls, Roll It

It was interesting to hear a luxury highline dealer, in a high income area of a large metro city talking about his used car philosophy – “If it rolls, then I roll it.” There were 5 new Mercedes sitting on his showroom floor and an educated guess would tell me the average sticker price across the board on these 5 would be $85,000 (meaning there were no C-Class base models sitting there).

When you walk outside you immediately see “the bargain row” probably 10-12 used cars all with bright orange hang tags on the mirrors with WAS / IS pricing. The even better part is not one of the “IS” prices was over $15,000. My grandfather use to say “There was a Jack for every Jill” and I have heard numerous car guys say “There is an ass for every seat” which was precisely why this on the lot merchandising impressed me. What was even more impressive was that on this dealers website there were 20 vehicles all priced under $15k…

A lot of people have valid concerns about getting “heat” or upset customers from selling used cars that have not been rigorously taken through the shop and fixed. The purpose of this note is not to say start selling all the “junk cars” but to be a serve as a reminder that there are all types of buyers out there. People want and are looking for different types of cars in different types of condition. The buyer of a new 2012 Maybach is not going to be interested in a 2003 Honda Civic hatchback – but to get the most traffic and the most “out of your traffic” – you are going to be better off if you can sell them both.

-JPS