Buy Here Pay Here used car lots: vicious cycle: sign, drive, default, repossess and resell

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cwerdna

Well-known member
Joined
Jun 3, 2011
Messages
13,671
Location
SF Bay Area, CA
I'd never even heard of such operations until something related to California law came up that applied to "Buy Here Pay Here" used car lots.

http://www.latimes.com/projects/la-fi-buyhere-payhere/ convinced me these businesses seem predatory, preying on the poor/those w/bad credit who need a car.
 
We've had them here for years, and yes, they are. They essentially rent high mileage older vehicles for new car payments, repossessing and reselling them often.
 
Very big business here in Oklahoma. Heck there are even chains like Car Mart where that is their primary business model.

Buy car at Auction for $3,000 or less.

Sell car for $6,000.
$500 - $1,500 down payment
$200 a month car payment.
Most will make 1 - 5 payments then default. Some never make a payment.
Pay $200 to reposses car (with a gps tracker)
Sue for remaining balance on the car.
Resell car to next person.

I had a friend that worked his dads lot for a while. Said their record was selling the same car 5 times.
Very easy to prey on those that need a car but have bad credit and will pay almost anything to get one. Truly sad.

This is right up there with allowing people to sell a car they are upside down on and finance their loss on a new car so they are immediatly upside down on it. Turning a $20,000 car into a $25,000 car that they will continually never pay off. Sad thing is these are almost always Chevy dealers with these ads.
 
cwerdna said:
I'd never even heard of such operations until something related to California law came up that applied to "Buy Here Pay Here" used car lots.

http://www.latimes.com/projects/la-fi-buyhere-payhere/ convinced me these businesses seem predatory, preying on the poor/those w/bad credit who need a car.

"This" is the reason I got out of the car selling business. FYI; these practices are not restricted to fly by night operators. Every dealership that sells used cars has people using "Spify" (Pronounced "Spy-Fi" for Special Financing)

I sold cars for a well known American Auto Manufacturer and yeah, it was an independently owned franchise but after seeing the EXACT same thing at 2 other dealerships, I realized that it was all about selling cars using any method available.

It was hitting people who were trying to get up. It was something I simply could not be a part of.
 
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