#HammerTime

Beware of the pin-prick mentality. It blinds even the best of us in the automotive world.

A lot of great cars over the decades have been deflated by the nascent fashions of the moment. The Chrysler minivan was a slow seller when it was first released. “Too big. Too bulky. Not a wagon!” cried the conventional soothsayers of the status quo.

Then it sold like hotcakes. 10+ million vehicles in 20 years. Beetles. Corollas. The 1st gen Taurus. Just a few ‘weird cars’ have invoked more enduring design ideas for auto design folk than hundreds of conventional hum-drum models of modern time. Which now brings me to New York City’s next taxi. Will it shine like a beacon in the coming era? Or is the design more out of wack than John Rocker’s first visit to the Big Apple?



Wanna buy a Hummer? You can buy them as cheap as dirt these days. There was a beautiful one that went through the block at a weekly public auction in Oakwood, GA. Nice leather interior. Well kept. The H2 models in particular were an easy piece to market and sell not too long ago… but not last Thusday. It no-saled. Not even the hope of a bid at $13k. Then came the H3. No sale at 10k. No takers. Only two no-sales from new car stores that generally sell everything. Why?

It was the good old days. The Summer of 2007. I had become one of the top buyers at a nearby discount parts store, and several others nearby wanted my business. At this point I was buying all my parts for my cars at ‘cost’ plus 10%. But that didn’t matter. Like the sub-prime world, the store managers were paid bonuses based on their volume of sales. Who needed profit when you could make it up with volume? Well, it took about a year for the guys up the chain of command to figure that out.

149 vehicles were sold in 1 hour. From a 2008 Mercedes C300 Sport with 71k that went for $21,400 (plus fee) to a 1998 Lincoln Town Car Executive with 263k that went for $1,600. Seeing that one go down the line for that price made me feel pretty good. I had bought a mint one with 100,000 fewer miles for the same price the week before. But by the end of the day I felt pretty crappy overall. Why?

Auto auctions are unique creatures. There are endless lines of cars going in and out of the lane. Auctioneers using their powers of persuasion to create the urgency to buy. Alliances. Egos. Organized chaos at every moment… and most of all a reserve price that has to be met come hell or high water. There is one unique twist to today’s auto auction world. Many buyers and sellers will never come to the auction. They are online. Viewing all the sales and inventory for the week on a computer. Which brings to me the first company featured in this three part installment:: Insurance Auto Auctions.

“When should I buy?” Some folks think that the end of the month is the best. Dealers need to hit their quotas and well.. isn’t every car salesman measured on their month end performance? Others believe that the best time to buy is when the new model’s change over during the August/September time frame. The manufacturers need to clear out those leftovers 2011 models for their recently pressed ‘new cars’. Most of the new cars are mostly the same so… why not just buy the old ones! Well, it’s not that simple.The answer to ‘when’ to buy always depends on three ‘whats’.

It just sat there. A car that so many enthusiasts could appreciate, a grey market 1978 Mercedes 350 SE, just collected springtime pollen on my driveway. I had a helluva deal on it. Back in 2008 I had bought it for only $325 already ‘restored’. A dealer in the North Georgia area didn’t know what to do with it and decided to clean out his inventory for the month end. That was the good news. In fact that was great news since I always wanted an old European gasser Mercedes. The bad news was that I just could not stand driving that thing.

I hate politics. Neither side of the extremes can do math and everyone in between ends up paying for it all. I don’t care if you’re a Rep, Dem, Lib, Con, Tea, or the apathetic majority. Putting faith in political solutions when it comes to money is never worth the effort. With that said, my home state of Georgia is money crunched. They see an asset worthy of their financial portfolio and yes, it is the automobile.

My pants still fit me from college. Well, they are sweatpants after all. They were given to me by a friend of mine who is known as a ‘Datsunaholic’. He keeps a few old cars. A few of those models have been written up by Paul Niedermeyer who now keeps a lot of houses along with his new web site. He invariably finds ‘keeper folk’ from all walks of life. But most of the people he finds are not car enthusiasts at all. Why do they ‘keep’ these cars then? Are they perhaps hoarders? Do they suffer the afflictions of the wantless? Or is this just another write-up inspired by Kevin Bacon?

Mark writes

Hi,

We will be buying a new car soon and that will leave us with an extra one. My experience selling a car myself makes me think we don’t really have the motivation to do it ourselves this time around.

The car is located in CT and is a White 2007 Hyundai Sonata SE with ~73k miles on it. The only option is the Sunroof. For whatever reason the side mirrors seem to attract having the outer housing broken, they sre still functional but the housing rattles.. I’ve replaced one, unpainted grey , and will be replacing the other shortly. There are no other issues with the car as I can tell. The emissions test is due next month, so I’ll have to have that done.

Any tips?

Have you ever been made an offer you couldn’t refuse? You never know when it might happen, so a little practice can’t hurt. Here’s the scenario: thanks to one of my old friends from New Jersey who has an amazing collection of Louisville Sluggers, 200 thousand dollars has been allocated to TTAC’s writers. $20,000 each. You’re welcome.

There is one catch.

The writers at TTAC have to buy a new car. That’s right. One new car (no BOGO free deals for a leftover Aveo). It can be anything they like. Hyundai, Toyota, Chevy… Jaguar? Fat chance! These fellows can go a little over the $20k mark on the MSRP. But the real world price before tax, title, bullshit fees etc. has to be no more than $20k.

So what car will they get? Will they follow the bleating herd of Billy Joel fans and buy something more milquetoast than a Milan? Perhaps a beige Camcord with an off-creme interior? Or maybe a Jetta that’s been as thoroughly decontented as Christina Aguilera’s last album? Or will it be something a bit more in your face? Like a… well… let me get to that later. I have to go move some mink coats. Just remember, when you’re taking favors from guys in a certain line of work, every decision has consequences…

My memories of ‘charity cars’ are not fond ones. Back in the late 1990’s the dirtiest public auction in metro-Atlanta would line up about 50 of these vehicles for the beginning of their sale. The acrid smell of blown head gaskets and leaking oils of every type would soon emanate the auction as most of these vehicles were pushed past the block. Back then you could buy a non-running car for about $20, and a running one for no more than $250. The high bidders were usually dealers, who would then bring back the same vehicles the following week and try to sell them for huge markup’s.

When should you not buy a used car? Try right now. From mid-February thru early-June, the auto industry goes through an event called tax season. Folks receive their refund checks from the IRS, which in turn creates a nice little bubble of activity in the used car industry. Which is a good thing. Except that bubbles always have nasty repercussions down the road.

Sledgehammers aren’t a common mechanic’s tool. Yet there it was. In my neighbor’s hands as he sought to knock some sense into his old Saab. The trunk had leaked from day one and the wiring harness made the rear lights as helter-skelter as a Charlie Manson jailhouse flashback. The cops pulled him over for the third time in a week and as a special, “Thank you!”, to his car, he decided to give it an early Christmas present. Jersey style.

I bought my house 14 years ago. It has 1800 square feet. Or maybe 1600? I honestly don’t know. From post-college corporate climbing to an endless string of automotive pursuits, it has remained my only ‘home’. I went through a lot of history here. Roommates. Marriage. Parenthood… and now I’m finally paying it all off. I supposedly missed a lot as far as homes go these last 10 years. The real estate boom happened all around me in northwest Atlanta. But I never missed it. In automotive terms, my house is a Toyota Corolla… with a hot tub, and I’m happy. Which makes me realize…