What do dealerships usually do with classic trade-ins?

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DroVal

DroVal

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Just a little curious about what dealerships usually do with these old cars when they get em in on trade.

Back in 2002 I traded my 72 Duster in on a Ford Ranger Pickup. Yes, I know, I did a very bad thing, lol. The Duster was sound mechanically and the only thing left to fix was a little bit of front end work. The body was perfect (Arizona car it's whole life). The worst part about the interior was the carpet and dash pad, seats looked almost new.

Anyway, like I said, just curious as to what might have happened to it. Would be great if I could track it down, but don't have my hopes up on that one.
 
Around here they whoesale them unless they are nice enough to go on the lot. In OKC and Tulsa they tend to send them to auctions. If they are in sad shape they are sold to the scrappers and auto salvages. In reality they won't usally take one in trade unless it is pretty nice.
 
I work at a large dealership in PA, we sell about a 1,000 cars a month all retail..When we get something in I make sure I look at them right away and call friends of mine. We just traded last month a 69 road runner 383 4speed in orange, number 3 condition. Last month we traded a older vette and currently working on trading a 71 340 Duster..
 
I bet dealership employees would get first crack at them, then move it to somewhere that specializes in classics. All dealers have connections to other dealers.
 
efriedrich said:
What was the trade in value?
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Trade in values are only on paper and mean very little. I used to buy bottom feeder trade ins from dealers as long as I wouldn't sell them in the area of the dealership. People tend to get pissed when they see the car they traded in last week for $3000 sitting somewhere with a $1000 price tag on it. That makes for a serious reality check.
 
they auction them off at dealers only auctions
the fair ones go to body shops and get repainted then run back through
the good ones go to used car dealers,
the junk goes to the junk yard
the auction starts at a minimum bid set by the junk yards that will buy anything at that price
 
It definitely wasn't anything special. Stock 72' with original paint (faded), the 318 and the bolt ons were the only thing new about it. Was reminiscing a bit earlier and got myself wondering about what would have happened to it, lol.
 
My uncle has a place in Arizona and deals in a lot of classic cars, from what he tells me about the market down there, the car probably got sold to a low end used car dealer or sent to the junk yard.

Oklacarcollecto said:
Trade in values are only on paper and mean very little. I used to buy bottom feeder trade ins from dealers as long as I wouldn't sell them in the area of the dealership. People tend to get pissed when they see the car they traded in last week for $3000 sitting somewhere with a $1000 price tag on it. That makes for a serious reality check.
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I've never understood why people trade in cars, common sense tells you that the prices they put on paper is false, they just use up the bargaining room with the insane trade in offers, you always come out way ahead if you buy outright and sell your car yourself.

My buddy worked in used car financing for years and explained to me how dealers price trade in's, the actual price you get is usually 30-35% of what is wrote down on paper on nice cars and can be as low as 10% or less on cars in need of repair.
 
I work at a dealer and most times we wont even take them. We have taken a vette or two and they go rite to auction. Most times, they tell the customer to sell it their self as they will get more money that way. The cool thing is, is that I am the classic car guru at our dealer. So anytime something like that comes in, they come grab me to go over it. To bud it doesn't happen to frequently.
 
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