Used car quality considerable downgrade

[magicmike]

I'm in the market for a used car, or as dealers like to say (pre-owned).

There is a massive Penski corp dealer here in Rhode island call Inskip auto centers. They own the market here in RI for all high end cars and they have a massive small European style city where there are like 20 different dealership buildings ranging from Lexus to Lamborghini, to mini to Bentley. They even have round a bouts at the intersections and cobblestone streets and sidewalks.

Anyway, 5 years ago you could go there and pick up a pre owned car that looked brand new regardless the mileage. They would take in a car and do a complete detail on it, repair the wheels if they had curb rash, have the dent wizard remove all the door dings, repaint sand blasted hoods, and detail the car down to the new car scent!

Now you go there and all the certified pre owned cars are total shitboxes! They should be ashamed of themselves for putting these cars on the lot in the conditions that they are in. I was there this past weekend looking at about 10 different 2008 infiniti G35xS. Every single one of these was an auction car. They came from all around the country and every single one was a mess.

I'm looking at a 2008 g35xs with 19000 miles and it looked like it was in a demo derby. every panel had a dent and a scratch on it. They were asking $28,900!!! insane!

My G35 with 118,500 miles on it looks and drives like its brand new! not a mark on it except for a small scratch on the rear bumper. They offer me 5500 for it. 2 thousand below kbb trade in value not even the private party value!

My beef isn't only with inskip, but rather the quality of used cars as a whole lately. Everywhere I look I only see terrible vehicles trying to be sold for outrageous prices.

Rant over

[evolutionmovement]

That's another reason I bought a new car. In some cases, it's even cheaper because you can get a better rate. The prices they're asking is insane. Though that Infiniti has to take the cake! For Fuji's sake, that's got to be around 75% of the price when new. I got $4500 for my Mazda3 with 150k and needing a good amount of bodywork, struts, shocks, and the tires were marginal. I could have probably gotten a little more, too, as they didn't fight me when I asked for an additional $500. Or maybe, it was $4300 I got . . . whatever, it was the lower end of the KBB, which I thought was fair for the miles and condition.

[beatersubi]

Vote with your feet.
If you are really peeved, try contacting Infinity directly and alerting them to the sub-par quality of 'certified' pre-owned cars at their dealership.

[Legacy777]

Yeah....based on my searching for a new Legacy, almost all the stuff are auction cars. Some dealers detail them up and fix the minor shit so it looks good. Others.....they don't seem to care.

[oldscoobyturbo]

sadly new and late model used cars are becoming very disposable. the general public are starting to maintain this trend. so used cars are going to become restoration projects after even one owner. I had a friend just yesterday say
" i've had this car for 2 years now and i'll keep it another 3-5 years then buy something new again."

[Legacy777]

sadly new and late model used cars are becoming very disposable. the general public are starting to maintain this trend. so used cars are going to become restoration projects after even one owner.

That is so true. My recently purchased 2006 Legacy is a prime example of that.

http://www.main.experiencetherave.com/s ... egacywagon

[evolutionmovement]

Definitely. My car didn't even have seam sealer around the door skins (easily fixed by me, but still). I'd rather they skimp on the BS stuff and even the fancy interiors they have and give me something built to last, but not enough people would buy them. Considering everything in cars now, the prices are really cheap. Look at what you get for $20k today vs. what you got for the same price 20 years ago. Something's got to give and that's quality control (the less apparent stuff), plus I'm sure planned obsolescence plays a part. That's why I need to build my own car—built to last, cheap to operate, and adaptable to future technology changes.

[beatersubi]

The problem is that the market follows demand. As soon as demand increases for a product that will last rather than be replaced with the latest gizmo-packed trend-mobile as soon as the latest version comes on the market, manufactures will start making them. In this time of economic woe, you'd think people would wise up to the fact that its more cost-effective to maintain a reliable car than replace it regularly. But with manufactures including more of the latest gizmos for the same or not much more cost to the consumer than the last model, the cost of those gizmos has to be made up somewhere.
Its a sad reflection of our disposable consumerist society.

[evolutionmovement]

It's actually a division. The national fleet average is older than it's ever been right now, so people are holding onto cars longer (I'd bet there's a lot of early 90's cars still running in that statistic). Premium makes are also the ones selling the most, the market for them expanding, so I'd say it almost marks the divide between the haves and have nots. The cheap new cars sell to the natural turnover of used cars that have met the end of their life and people like me who do too many miles to run a used car already in its maintenance phase. But, I agree. It's not cool to build your own things anymore or to keep old things in good order (unless they're old enough to be considered classic, antique, etc.) by taking care of them and repairing them yourself.