Chapter 10 - BUYING A USED CAR
sed sales drive the entire retail car business. In 2010, almost 37million used cars were sold, compared to only 11.6 million new
—and that’s well below the past decade’s average. Going usedcan mean a chance to obtain a better value and decrease you
Cost Per Mile, but it’s also a chance to make an expensive mistake.U
Over the past two decades, six out of 10 vehicles I’ve helped people buyhave been used. Even at new car franchise dealers, one-third of their sales (^)
are now used cars. First, some important information on the use of BlueBooks and the how the used car market operates, and then some tips to (^)
maximize the value of what you purchase and decrease the chance forsomething going wrong.
BLUE BOOK VERSUS TRANSACTION PRICES
When I started brokering in 1991, Blue Book values were the critical sourcefor both trade-in values and for setting retail prices. But over the past
decades, they have lost more and more relevance as the informationrevolution has made more up-to-the-minute data available to both buyers (^)
and sellers.
Most important for dealers these days are reports from the biggest auctioncompanies, Manheim and Adesa. They show real-time wholesale prices
that other dealers and wholesalers have paid for most any type of car, truckor SUV. Blue Book values have historically been predictive ; they are well-
educated guesses as to what any vehicle will be worth in the future. But