I am currently working for a smaller independent dealer and haven't been in the industry for too long, however I was just curious on some of the opinions and thoughts from veterans who have been in the space for awhile and have seen it evolve over the years. Is it even possible anymore to consistently sell cars at the NADA (or comparable) retail values anymore?
I just get the vibe from my short experience that these third party lead sites such as cargurus (especially), carfax, etc are in the business of increasingly overcharging dealers while creating a space where they push prices down in order to secure more visitors to their site. For example I am trying to sell one of my personal car through our dealership and while NADA values the clean retail at about $31,500, cargurus deems $28,500 a "fair" price and a "Good" price is closer to $25.5-27k. I find it crazy how something isn't even considered a "Great" deal until is is priced at $7k under an NADA value.
Is there a way anyone here has been able to break this cycle and are able to sell cars for what they are actually worth? As from my point of view it seems like these third party sites are creating, for a lack of better words, crabs in a barrel sentiment where dealers have to source increasingly cheaper inventory to compete and are conditioned to be content with ever decreasing margins on their units as the sites push for lower prices to benefit their own metrics rather than the benefit of dealers who keep their business operational in the first place. This probably came off more of a rant than I would like it to, however I am genuinely interested on others sentiment and perspective on this and all discussion to this thread is much appreciated. Thank you and I look forward to hearing others stances on this!
I just get the vibe from my short experience that these third party lead sites such as cargurus (especially), carfax, etc are in the business of increasingly overcharging dealers while creating a space where they push prices down in order to secure more visitors to their site. For example I am trying to sell one of my personal car through our dealership and while NADA values the clean retail at about $31,500, cargurus deems $28,500 a "fair" price and a "Good" price is closer to $25.5-27k. I find it crazy how something isn't even considered a "Great" deal until is is priced at $7k under an NADA value.
Is there a way anyone here has been able to break this cycle and are able to sell cars for what they are actually worth? As from my point of view it seems like these third party sites are creating, for a lack of better words, crabs in a barrel sentiment where dealers have to source increasingly cheaper inventory to compete and are conditioned to be content with ever decreasing margins on their units as the sites push for lower prices to benefit their own metrics rather than the benefit of dealers who keep their business operational in the first place. This probably came off more of a rant than I would like it to, however I am genuinely interested on others sentiment and perspective on this and all discussion to this thread is much appreciated. Thank you and I look forward to hearing others stances on this!
