Liquidation Sales
Buyer Beware

Buyer Beware of
The BIG Car Sales Events

The biggest car liquidation sales event of the year! All vehicles must be sold off! Bank repo's, off-lease vehicles, trade ins, we're overstocked and they must go now!

All credit applications accepted!

Save thousands!

This weekend only!

Sound familiar? If you live in a big city you're probably inundated with these kinds of commercials, but are they for real?

Advertising alone...
First off, let's look at the advertising costs. For a four day liquidation sale some dealers pay up to or over $100,000!

No. That's not a typo. Between radio, newspaper ads and mailers it can add up quickly.

Let's set it all up...
Next to figure is the cost and time to move all the used inventory to some off site location, where they've:

• rented tents
• generators
• the location itself
• hired an around the clock security company
• moved their computers
• bought balloons
• bought food and drinks

Bring in the Pro's
On top of all that they have brought in a team of special car sales event salesmen. These sales people will be gone in a week, and more often than not, the promises they make you will never be delivered upon.

Call me crazy, but that sounds like a whole lot of trouble to go through to sell a bunch of cars for a loss.

It might be legit if...
There are times when these big car sales events might be legit, because a dealer really needs to move inventory for cash flow reasons, but it would probably be held on their lot to minimize expenses.

For the most part these events are not pleasant experiences for most customers, and you will not get any smokin' hot car deals.

Something smells fishy
The first sign that this Big Liquidation Sales Event is a sham, is when you see something like this on the windshields:

If they were really "slashing" prices, they'd show you the retail book value and then their "slashed" liquidation sales price. Not just some "bogus" reduction in monthly payments.

It's hot in the desert...
My dealer will have these types of car sales events from time to time. Trust me the guys and gals that fly in from around the country and pay their own way staying in a hotel for a week, are not here to enjoy the beautiful desert scenery, and the 120 degree heat in the summer.

They fly out here to try and make $5000 - $6000 for the week and then they're off to where ever they came from, to spend your hard earned money.

By the way, these sales typically average a profit of $4,000 to $4,800 per vehicle. I don't know about you, but that doesn't sound like much of a bargain to me.

Did I win?
A lot of times during these sales events, there will be incentives like mailers with keys to new cars in them. All you have to do is go down to the sale and if your key starts the new car you get to drive off in it.

Well, guess what? The key that starts that car is mailed out all right (so they can stay legal) but it's usually mailed seven states away. So please don't fall for that one.

My Summary
To quickly sum this up, when you hear of one of these liquidation sales events, STAY AWAY! Trust me, you'll get better service and a much better deal visiting a car dealership on some random Wednesday night closer to the end of the month than you will at one of these price gouger sales events.

If you're one of those people that just has to know if that key will start the car, just don't say I didn't warn you about the three ring circus you're about to walk into.

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