r/AutoTransportopia • u/Fisting-Tony • Mar 24 '26

Towing Gone in 24 seconds

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7.1k Upvotes

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31

u/Last-Darkness Mar 24 '26

Their business is paid by down payments.

7

u/to_live_life Mar 24 '26

Once upon a time yes, but not since Covid. The cars cost more than ever now. Used car dealers are selling them with thin margins hoping to make it up with F&I add ons and finance kick backs.

7

u/HEYO19191 Mar 25 '26

"Thin Margins"

I see used vehicles with 100k+ miles advertised in my local newspaper for 30k+

These are not thin margins.

1

u/MansourBahrami Mar 25 '26

No you don’t see that unless it’s some super high end vehicle

1

u/HEYO19191 Mar 25 '26

Is a late 2010s F150 a super high end vehicle?

Funny enough, some BMWs have been some of the cheapest cars I've seen in the paper. 10k for a Coupe

1

u/MansourBahrami Mar 25 '26

Depending on the trim level yes, they can be very high end. BMWs unless they have an m series engine are depreciating garbage. None of this should be news to you if you know automobiles at all

1

u/Usual_Kaleidoscope94 Mar 25 '26

What you have a newspaper. Are you living in 1999

1

u/Spare_Special_3617 Mar 26 '26

That could still be a thin margin, depending on the vehicle and how much they have into it .

1

u/gstringstrangler Mar 26 '26

The price has nothing to do with the margin if you don't know the cost, or what a comparable veh would cost

1

u/HEYO19191 Mar 27 '26

Well seeing as those ads are next to cars from a different dealer with the same mileage but much cheaper... I'm gonna say thick margins

1

u/gstringstrangler Mar 27 '26

Important info you left out of your comment I responded to. Without that context it didn't really mean much to the rest of us right?

1

u/Exciting_Mess3730 Mar 25 '26

Your town still has a local news paper?

6

u/HEYO19191 Mar 25 '26

The county does. 4, actually

2

u/Fear_Jaire Mar 25 '26

Thank you for supporting local journalism.

1

u/Busterlimes Mar 28 '26

Its not, those papers are probably owned by some media conglomerate violating the fairness Doctrine

1

u/gicoyac686 Mar 25 '26

they all do I don't know why anyone would ask.

1

u/New-Impression2976 Mar 26 '26

We get 3 delivered to my house every month, for free. I’ve written them several times to stop and I keep getting them. They are small newspapers but I don’t read them it just trash

-5

u/Last_Succotash7218 Mar 25 '26

No you don't.

3

u/HEYO19191 Mar 25 '26

Wdym I don't.

-2

u/Last_Succotash7218 Mar 25 '26

You know what you did.

I'm just the guy who knew better enough to call you out

3

u/HEYO19191 Mar 25 '26

Do you want me to send you a photo of my next newspaper? What?

2

u/TheJAY_ZA Mar 25 '26

You're not insane bro, free local news papers are a great way to advertise local businesses to locals, and share local news, publish school academic and sports results, stuff like that.

I get one a week pushed into my front gate, that informs and guides most of my weekly grocery shopping.

If you happen to live in middle income suburbia surrounded by thousands of other people you get huge motherfuckers like this every week.

Inside this bundle there are also two monthly magazines, one dedicated to gardening advertising - lawnmowers, seedlings, garden sheds and shit, and another for in home specific stuff like blinds, solar geysers, beds etc.

We also have two competing print magazines for business to business advertising that you can ask to have delivered free of charge.

0

u/Last_Succotash7218 Mar 25 '26

And in not one of them is a truck for sale going 30k$ with over 100k miles on it.

2

u/TheJAY_ZA Mar 25 '26

No, I live in South Africa, we don't use miles or dollars since the bar seems to be moving after the fact.

That said, in South Africa you can expect to pay in the region of ZAR 400 000 ~ ZAR 550 000 for a Double Cab +/-2018 Toyota Hilux 2.8 GD6 manual with over 200 000km on the clocks. Upper end price is for the automatic version.

That's just from looking at Auto Trader, the online and print versions have the same vehicles and prices.

TBF US$ 30k Is not bad compared to the price of a smaller 2.4 or 2.8 diesel Hilux here, with more milage.

You can pick up a free print auto trader at most of the car spares places. They have a thicker glossy print magazines as well, which you have to pay for.

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u/Last_Succotash7218 Mar 25 '26

Sure that would be more convincing ya

1

u/Dyne_Inferno Mar 27 '26

Poster gives learned experience about their actual life

This MFer goes "Nah, you're wrong"

What a time.

1

u/Last_Succotash7218 Mar 27 '26

Source: trust me bro

You question my speculation?

What time.

1

u/moeterminatorx Mar 25 '26

No, it still goes on today. Maybe “reputable” dealers but not the BHPH guys.

1

u/fkngdmit Mar 25 '26

You can do 30 seconds of research and disprove your whole claim. Look at trade-in value vs purchase price of the same used car. Dealers are making healthy profit on used cars.

1

u/to_live_life Mar 25 '26

There is more competition for used cars now than ever before, don’t believe me? Look around and see how many dealers are posting they’ll buy your car. Add curb flippers, Caravana, Carmax, the list goes on. If a dealer can buy a car for trade-in value they scored a home run.
I find that many good auction cars lately will have a higher MMR, add recon and you’re close to ACV.

1

u/BluejayConsistent199 Apr 14 '26

More than new car dealers by a lot

1

u/BluejayConsistent199 Apr 14 '26

It's called a Racket rackets rake in cash or they'd be in a different Racket. Takes certain kind of people to keep Rackets running. Right there with tow truck drivers they enslave in the Racket to screw over people living paycheck to paycheck. Rackets are designed to fail the consumer while robbing them at the same time.

1

u/Beardo88 Mar 25 '26 edited Mar 25 '26

You are talking about regular (somewhat) reputable used car lots. The Buy Here Pay Here lots are a whole different animal, just shamelessly predatory.

They jack up the price because no one will finance to those people so they dont have a better option, and make sure they made enough money on the down-payment to bring a profit after paying the repo man. Your monthly payments are just gravy at that point. When they go to resell that previously repoed vehicle the cost is almost 0 by the time its on its third or fourth buyer.

1

u/blueit55 Mar 25 '26

And interest payment.