The only other thing I want to mention is the classic manual transmission.Outside of sports cars, the stick shift has become a very rare thing (only
four percent of new cars are now sold with one). Even if you know you wantone, be aware that it could dramatically reduce the audience when you go
to sell, unless the car is a high-performance or other specialty vehicle.
USED CAR CATEGORIES
Included in the overall used car market are some special categories ofvehicles that I want to touch on.
CERTIFIED PRE-OWNED
Certified (also known as Certified Pre-Owned, or CPO) cars are vehiclesthat franchised new car dealers put up for sale that have been through a
comprehensive inspection, have been reconditioned to a high standard andusually have some measure of warranty coverage. Toyota is king of CPO;
they’ve sold over three million since their program started in 1996. Otherplayers, like Hyundai, are newer to moving big numbers of certified cars, (^)
but we should expect the number of such vehicles sold to continue toincrease.
Just because they are certified does not mean they’ve never had anypaintwork or other damage—I’ve helped sell quite a few that have been (^)
painted. It just means any damage has been repaired to a set standard.Certified car sales are growing year on year, as they remove some of the (^)
most obvious risks from the car-buying equation.