How do you find wreked cars? Is there a insurance network?

[Fred]

Interesting. Maybe look into it. But I'd probably only go there to see what BMW's auctions had, and see if there's anything worth gettin, ya know?

Yeah, I hear ya. The owner of the shop where I work has a dealer license and buys cars every month from Mercedes-Benz Credit, which are all late model lease-returns. Sometimes he gets great margins, other times they bid the cars over blue book. Sometimes the cars are immaculate, other times they are scratched, dented, and run rough. It's kind of a hit-or-miss deal.

BMW Financial Services has monthly auctions here in the San Francisco area as well. If you want an idea of what cars are offered, check out www.adesa.com since they're one of the companies that auctions off these cars.

Fred

[lukasbmw]

Fred is right on target

This is an industry I looked into a few years ago, but decided to go to school as the market was unstable at the time. I'm glad I held off as many small dealerships have crashed locally.

Sure there are some awesome deals, and you can make as much as 5 figures off of some cars, but you also have to account for cars with hidden damage, or bidding wars that drive the price beyond what the car is worth.

Most of the dealer auctions I've attended had most cars going for maybe $2k under the price where they could sell them. Once you factor in your expenses, you'll gross maybe $1,500. Again, there are exceptions, and some auctions are better then others, but the deals are not always as good as they seem.

Still $1,500 a car is not a bad deal if you move 10 cars a month.

The market is also very competitive. If you want to move cars you'll need to take advantage of all the advertising opportunities. Be sure to list the car in all the online resources and in your local paper and auto trader.

You also need to remember the longer you have the car, the more it will depreciate.

A family friend owns a very successful used car dealership and he has advised me to get a wholesale license and see if the industry is for me. Excellent advice I plan to take this summer.

FYI: He also claims that you'll make the same % off beaters as you will on high end cars so he advises those getting into the game to go for the cheaper cars at first to keep your overhead low. From what I have seen, I agree. I know Dodge Neons go for shit at auctions!