Hammer Time

Hammer Time: Oye Como Va!

By Steven Lang
November 18, 2008 -

Those who know the least are screwed the most (both figuratively and literally). Case in point. 1997 Nissan Pathfinder XE. No leather, but a roof and a helluva good look. 206,852 miles. It sold for the mind numbingly high price of $3800. Why? Well, to find the answer you have to go back to the good old days of the 1970’s when odometers were turned back more often than a stoner at the Lion’s Club. This one will undoubtedly be sold to an immigrant who knows as much about Carfax as yours truly knows about Lawrence Welk’s bubble making machine. As for the domesticated mastodons, a 2004 Explorer repo with 94k miles sold for $4100 and a 2003 Trailblazer with leather and all the options checked, but 131k, sold for $4700. As they say in Detroit Yiddish, “Oy vay! [sic]“

Posted in Hammer Time | News Blog | 7 comments

Hammer Time: And Aveo We Go!

By Steven Lang
November 10, 2008 -

Sometimes it’s the stingiest person who pays too much. Case in point. A 2007 Chevy Aveo with no a/c, ugly gray color, and wheel covers made out of recycled Chinese plastic. Yours truly was the high bidder on this 25k mile car for only $4000. It was a reasonable offer given the lightning quick depreciation of any stripper in Atlanta. In Georgia, no a/c in a car means no customers. Nada! In fact, the neighborhood Kia dealer used to give them away if the customer in question would finance a regular Rio. Some people never learn.

Posted in Hammer Time | News Blog | 15 comments

Hammer Time: Who Needs a Truck?

By Steven Lang
October 28, 2008 -

How cheap are work trucks when no one’s working? Case in point. 2008 Ford F250 Superduty with rear seats, Automatic, and a throbbing 6.4L V8 powerstroke diesel with 350 Hp and 650 lbs. of torque. 41k highway miles, and, oh yeah. Like most other trucks at the auctions it’s a repo which has become a mantra for Atlanta inventory. Charge out price this morning at Carmax Auctions was $10,500, and that was with absolutely no announcements that would normally detract from the truck’s value (Engine Noise, Transmission Slips, Frame Damage, etc.). Oh, and every other truck and SUV repo that was at today’s sale, didn’t sell. Even a Toyota Tacoma and Hyundai Santa Fe Limited found no buyers.

Posted in Hammer Time | News Blog | 23 comments

Hammer Time: Used Car Market Feeling the Pain, Too

By Steven Lang
October 24, 2008 -

We just had the local Dodge dealership close down in Marietta. This coincided with one of the briefest sales I’ve ever seen at a nearby Friday afternoon sale. With that in mind… Dealers make a LOT of money off of trade-in’s and ‘we buy your POS’ lowball offers. No big deal. That’s always been a big part of any auto retailers bottom line. Until now. At a time when some of the larger dealer networks used to offer 80 to 100 trade-ins on a weekly basis at the dealer auctions, sources now say metro-Atlanta’s trade-in inventory is down by well over a third.  Neutron bombed metro-Atlanta also appears to be fielding far more repos at these sales, and even a few high demand models that apparently are ‘Not needed in inventory’. With a local landscape that resembles the bad old days of Tecumseh Sherman, and a new emphasis on even finding reliable lending sources, it’s no surprise that even the billion dollar retail outfits are feeling more than a credit pinch.

Posted in Hammer Time | News Blog | 8 comments

Insult To Injury: Buy A GM Car, Get GM Stock

By Edward Niedermeyer
October 20, 2008 -

With GM’s resale values and stock price hovering at record lows, two Texas dealers have come up with one hell of a sales gimmick. Buy a GM vehicle at Frank Kent Motor Co. in Fort Worth, Texas by the end of the month and the owners will give you 50 shares in General Motors. The scheme is advertised as a celebration of GM’s 100th anniversary, but when asked by Automotive News [sub], Frank Kent Motors owners admit that the promotion was actually inspired by the depths to which GM stock had sunk. And while “50 shares of General Motors” sounds better than “$327″ (based on GM’s $6.54/share price at the time of writing), the dealers see the stock as (get this) a hedge against depreciation. “Typically when a customer buys a car and they go to trade it in in two or three years, it has depreciated,” Frank Ken Motors owner Will Churchill said. “Hopefully in two or three years (the stock) will probably be worth more.” Or, as we are fond of saying around here, not. There are very few scenarios for GM’s next several years that involve good news for its stock holders, and quite a few that could see your “incentive” stock wiped out to zero. And then all you have is a massively depreciated Aveo (or whatever). And twice the buyers remorse.

Automotive News (sub) »

Posted in Dealer News | Hammer Time | High Finance | Marketing | News Blog | Sales | 11 comments

Hammer Time: How Much for A Mint Condition 1999 Tahoe with 119k?

By Steven Lang
October 17, 2008 -

Atlanta area. Fire engine red 1999 Chevrolet Tahoe with 119k on the clock. Loaded to the gills with everything save leather. One owner, no accidents, perfect Carfax. Looks like it just came out of the showroom. My older brother (who considers himself the world’s best bargain hunter and resident expert on everything) gave the Tahoe the once-over and couldn’t find anything wrong with it to point out where I’d done it wrong.  I asked him how much he thought I paid for it. He said “hmmm… I’d say around $7500.” Bought at auction for $4825. Oh, and this one went to former TTAC Managing Editor Frank Williams, who also gave me a 1993 VW Eurovan for $750 that I’d bought for him a year ago.

Posted in Hammer Time | News Blog | 17 comments

Bruce Willis Muscle Cars For Sale

By Robert Farago
October 10, 2008 -

Interesting photo. Either Bruce is majorly pissed about something the photographer said or did (see: Winston Churchill Karsh), or he’s finally perfected the art of looking like a something other than an endlessly pampered, egomaniacal movie star. Anyway, his timing for this sale sucks. Anyone who clings to the belief that prices for vintage muscle cars will defy the gravity of the stock market is seriously deluded. By the time this deal goes down– Saturday, October 25 at Bonham’s in LA– the muscle car market will have tanked. Are there enough “crotch sniffers” (nice one Stephan) who’d pay a premium to own a muscle car owned by a man famous for saying “Yippie ki-yay, motherfucker”? I doubt it. It’s one thing to own an example of the breed purchased by Steve McQueen (or similar) back in the day. It’s another to own a muscle car bought by a celebrity who uses it to pose like a tough guy, even though the toughest thing about him is his agent.

Bonhams (all images courtesy Octane magazine) »

Posted in Hammer Time | New Cars | News Blog | 9 comments

Hammer Time: Repossessing Germans

By Steven Lang
October 7, 2008 -

The 2006 Jetta came with everything but a willing buyer. This time, it wasn’t the VW’s fault. Like the 12 Kias that came before it, the Jetta was a repo, complete with its own customized owner-inspired design. A few tears in the floor where stereo wiring used to be. Gashes on each corner to test out those European bumpers. Then of course, they had to blow the damned glovebox into a thousand pieces of plastic using an M-40. The poor Jetta may have already suffered enough from modern day German electronics and a Euro denominated price tag. But like an errant animal, kid, spouse, or Wall Street executive, it was the owner that made it a truly bloody mess. No sale @ $9800. The big question: is this Jetta the harbinger of hundreds of thousands of repos– new SUVs, pickups and cars sold to anyone with a pulse via easy credit and no money down deals– yet to come? You know; once lenders stop allowing deadbeats to drive them for free, rather than take the hit to the bank’s balance sheet.

Posted in Hammer Time | News Blog | 15 comments

Hammer Time: Minivans Rock!

By Steven Lang
October 2, 2008 -

The minivan market’s always interesting to those of us on the front lines; the genre reflects the paradox of the most conservative and loyal car buyers. Many of these folks will shop for ‘brand name’ regardless of whether the model in question really deserves a price premium given it’s history. For example, the average 2007 Grand Caravan (SXTmodel with 22k miles) is going for $10,200 average, wholesale, book. That’s a steal compared to the Sienna LE ($14,650) and the Odyssey LX ($14,850), which have generally trailed their name brand stablemates in the quality category. Speaking of history, a 2007 Saturn Relay is around $9400, while the Ford Freestar SE is going for $9550. As October’s historically the worst month for used cars (no ’sale’ holidays, no tax refunds, fear-inducing elections), this may be the right time to pull the trigger on a near-new minivan at 40 cents to the depreciating dollar.

Posted in Hammer Time | News Blog | 25 comments

Hammer Time: Mercury Milans Aplenty, Toyota Prius White Hot

By Steven Lang
September 30, 2008 -

If there’s a poster car for wholesale heaven, the Mercury Milan is it. No surprise in my neck of the woods. The oft-forgotten sibling of the Ford Fusion is flogged by a dealer network dwarfed by Ford’s name brand Goliaths. More to the point, around Atlanta, it seems like Lincoln/Mercury dealers are either closing shop, changing brands or giving-in to the white flag of consolidation. I saw over 50 Milans today. Only 10 sold. The number of Lincoln Mercury dealers buying? Zero. The Toyota Prius, on the other hand, is on fire. I saw a low-end 2004 model go for $15,800. When you incorporate the auction’s fee, that equates to a $2500 premium over a similar Prius on Ebay’s completed items section. Near-new Priora are following suit. Low-mileage 2008 examples were only going for around $21k a few weeks back. Many of them are now selling in the $23k to $25k range. When the Prius factory comes on-stream in ‘Ole Miss, prices should ease. But will they? A rising tide may lift all boats, but the Volt begins life seriously outgunned.

Posted in Hammer Time | News Blog | 25 comments