What's the most money you've lost on a car?

big reg

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Only loss I’ve ever had was trading in my Hellcat which amounted to 3k in negative equity. I usually just sell private party but at this stage in my life I didn’t want to deal with tire kickers and dreamers.

I told myself the loss was worth the lack of aggravation. I’ve “lost” probably 5 times that in strip clubs over the years so **** it.

Edit......

I lost a 5k down payment when I bought a new STI in 2003 at 26 and sold it 5 months later for what I owed. Forgot about that one.
 

13COBRA

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Only loss I’ve ever had was trading in my Hellcat which amounted to 3k in negative equity. I usually just sell private party but at this stage in my life I didn’t want to deal with tire kickers and dreamers.

I told myself the loss was worth the lack of aggravation. I’ve “lost” probably 5 times that in strip clubs over the years so **** it.

Edit......

I lost a 5k down payment when I bought a new STI in 2003 at 26 and sold it 5 months later for what I owed. Forgot about that one.

Negative equity isn't the loss ...

You can have a car for two years, have $1k in negative equity, but that doesn't mean you lost $1k. It means you lost The $1k + the dollar amount of payments you've made.
 

BlksvtCobra01

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On a personal level, I haven't ever lost money...knock on wood.

On a business level, probably in the neighborhood of $10k.

If you have a used car you buy at auction. How long have you had them sit before you start discounting to get it off the lot? Is that how you’re lost money?


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13COBRA

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If you have a used car you buy at auction. How long have you had them sit before you start discounting to get it off the lot? Is that how you’re lost money?


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I change our prices every 3-6 days, on every pre-owned vehicle on the lot. My average holding time is 29.6 days.

No, it was a customer's trade in. Traded for it on Friday and had it sold to a wholesaler for $15,800. Monday when they came to pick it up, the transmission had gone out. So we have to put a new transmission in it, $4k. Then the following week they came to pick it up, and the PCM/ECM had been shorted due to our mistake, so $2,500 there. At that point I made the decision to fix it and retail it to try and slow the bleeding. So we retailed it to a customer for $16k. A week later it was misfiring, $1,500. Then it needed a new harness, $1,800. Then the front brake calipers locked up and ruined the calipers, pads and rotors, $1,000.

I absolutely hate trading for Volvos.
 

BlckBox04

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I change our prices every 3-6 days, on every pre-owned vehicle on the lot. My average holding time is 29.6 days.

No, it was a customer's trade in. Traded for it on Friday and had it sold to a wholesaler for $15,800. Monday when they came to pick it up, the transmission had gone out. So we have to put a new transmission in it, $4k. Then the following week they came to pick it up, and the PCM/ECM had been shorted due to our mistake, so $2,500 there. At that point I made the decision to fix it and retail it to try and slow the bleeding. So we retailed it to a customer for $16k. A week later it was misfiring, $1,500. Then it needed a new harness, $1,800. Then the front brake calipers locked up and ruined the calipers, pads and rotors, $1,000.

I absolutely hate trading for Volvos.

I was under the impression that most dealers automatically send used cars that you're not going to make a nice markup on right to auction
 

Corbic

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Negative equity isn't the loss ...

You can have a car for two years, have $1k in negative equity, but that doesn't mean you lost $1k. It means you lost The $1k + the dollar amount of payments you've made.
Disagree. Cars depreciate and require upkeep cost. That's the cost of having transportation and getting use out of it.

You wouldn't consider "losing money" because you bought a steak dinner for $25. It's a loss when you buy the steak, drop it on the floor and only get to eat the mash potatoes for $25.

So on his case, I'd say he lost $3k to get rid of the car.
 

CV355

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I absolutely hate trading for Volvos.

*Owns Volvo*
*Tried to trade in Volvo*
*Value was less than the amount of repairs I've done in the last month*
*Kept Volvo*

giphy.gif
 

13COBRA

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I was under the impression that most dealers automatically send used cars that you're not going to make a nice markup on right to auction

Not really. I hate running cars through the auction. You pay a $350-600 fee, they can arbitrate, etc. Much easier to have a good relationship with 10 guys or so that will bid everything I don't want.

Disagree. Cars depreciate and require upkeep cost. That's the cost of having transportation and getting use out of it.

You wouldn't consider "losing money" because you bought a steak dinner for $25. It's a loss when you buy the steak, drop it on the floor and only get to eat the mash potatoes for $25.

So on his case, I'd say he lost $3k to get rid of the car.

So if he bought a car for $50k, drove it for 5 years, paid it off, then sold it for $10k, he made $10k on it?

No.
 

CV355

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So if he bought a car for $50k, drove it for 5 years, paid it off, then sold it for $10k, he made $10k on it?

No.

Mathematically, I agree with you. I think Corbic's point is that he's counting loss as excluding normal depreciation, which also makes sense. Just a different perspective. (correct me if I'm wrong, Corbic)

I'll use my poor little Volvo as an example again. Bought it for $21k, it's worth $1800 now. I put over 100k miles on it, drove it for 8+ years. If I sell it for $1800, did I lose $19,200, or $0?

Unfortunately, life is expensive. :/
 

13COBRA

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Mathematically, I agree with you. I think Corbic's point is that he's counting loss as excluding normal depreciation, which also makes sense. Just a different perspective. (correct me if I'm wrong, Corbic)

I'll use my poor little Volvo as an example again. Bought it for $21k, it's worth $1800 now. I put over 100k miles on it, drove it for 8+ years. If I sell it for $1800, did I lose $19,200, or $0?

Unfortunately, life is expensive. :/

When I think of 'loss' it's the difference between what you have in something, compared to what you sell it for...which includes depreciation.
 

blownstang4.6

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Not much. Really only labor cost and selling parts that I bought new. Bought my 03 GT in 2005 for $16,500. It was a daily driver. Spent about $15000 in mods and labor on it over 12 years. Demodded the entire car in 2015. Transfered the Vortech to my Mach. Sold the ARH longtubes and x pipe that I won for free in a raffle. Sold rear control arms and 31 spline axles. Car got side swiped in 2017 parked on the street at night. Insurance gave me $6300. I got 12 years of daily use out of the car. Haven't sold any other cars. If I ever sell the Mach I'll realize a greater loss on it most likely.
 

big reg

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When I think of 'loss' it's the difference between what you have in something, compared to what you sell it for...which includes depreciation.
I traded it in for far less than I could have sold it for to a private party. As I mentioned the lack of aggravation was worth it to me. I bought the car 6 months prior with $5500 down as well. I do see your point of view though.

They also sold the car for about what I originally paid a few weeks after I dropped it off. No reconditioning needed. Just put it on the lot and added it to inventory. I drove by the next day and saw it sitting there which made me check their website.

I normally don’t buy used cars from dealers but wanted this particular vehicle at the time. Lesson learned.
 

Silver Talon

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My 98 SHO was pretty hard on me. Paid 5k for it, drove it 3 months and ate a tranny (big surprise). Fools at work convinced me to put a new ford tranny in it for 4k. 6 months later I had it sold for 2k. Fun car though.
 

BlksvtCobra01

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I change our prices every 3-6 days, on every pre-owned vehicle on the lot. My average holding time is 29.6 days.

No, it was a customer's trade in. Traded for it on Friday and had it sold to a wholesaler for $15,800. Monday when they came to pick it up, the transmission had gone out. So we have to put a new transmission in it, $4k. Then the following week they came to pick it up, and the PCM/ECM had been shorted due to our mistake, so $2,500 there. At that point I made the decision to fix it and retail it to try and slow the bleeding. So we retailed it to a customer for $16k. A week later it was misfiring, $1,500. Then it needed a new harness, $1,800. Then the front brake calipers locked up and ruined the calipers, pads and rotors, $1,000.

I absolutely hate trading for Volvos.

I don’t blame you, what a bad luck car.


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