Neighbor News
Car Dealers are Out Bidding Direct Sales Buyers
Car dealer lots were thinning out, and they had to do something about it.
We did not see it coming. But, it happened suddenly. We wanted to sell a car, and in a very short period of time, car dealers appeared on our radar and out competed direct sale buyers. In fact, they blew them out of the water. It was all driven by Covid, production stoppages, quarantine, labor shortages, the disruption of the supply chain, and container ships sitting offshore. New car sales plummeted due to a micro chip shortage from Taiwan. Car dealer lots were thinning out, and they had to do something about it.
We just sold a 2012 Honda Accord LX with only 61,000 miles. The car had a clean title. We prepped the car for sale. The car was Maryland inspected and was in overall good condition.
We set our price at $13,950 after reviewing the same year, make, model, and mileage cars listed with CarMax and Carvana in Gaithersburg, which we felt were good benchmarks for our local market.
Here’s What Happened
When we first posted the car for sale on Craigslist, eBay, Auto Trader, NextDoor, and Facebook Market Place we were inundated with the inquiries mostly from ankle biters and bottom feeders short on cash.
