Thoughts on Pricing?

[bk_park]

Here is Carfax's history
Any opinion?

 

[Volfy]

Thank you!
Where should I look closely under the hood and undercarriage in order to find any signs of collision repair?
I've never bought a used car...

Look at the sheet metal at each corner. Those places are where collision most likely to occur. Signs of repairs run the gamut. Most obvious would be odd panel gaps. From there, you'll have to look on the inside of the body sheet metal. If the damage was not too severe, they might just pull the structure steel straight, but some places will still invariably still look a bit crumpled. OTOH, if badly-crumpled body work were cut out and replaced, there will be weld seams that look out of place and doesn't match the other side (unrepaired).

Paint might look different too. OEM paint usually have different formulation for outside body and underhood/undercarriage, and mfrs provide paint codes for both. This is done to save large scale mfg cost, as there is no need for the underhood/undercarriage to match the fancy metallic/pearl/candy exterior bodyworks. However, body shops don't always bother to match that for a repair job. Time savings is worth more to them and buying two paint codes and having to swap/clean guns waste time/money. Often, there might also be overspray along edges of body panels, where the masking tape wasn't done quite right.

If suspension or other parts were replaced, the replacement parts, if new enough, will look different compared to the rest of the car. Sometimes, there might be grease pen marks, tags or labels still left on the replacement part.

Don't let me scare you too badly. These days, with Carfax so prevalent, most reputable dealers, especially the larger ones don't want to risk being caught without proper disclosure. Still, whenever I go shop, I prefer to play by Ronald Reagan's "Trust but Verify."

 

[csu87]

i wouldnt worry about the multiple owners too much. plenty of people are buying cars and using them for just a short time. Whether its because they couldnt find the car they wanted, but needed a car while they wait for what they wanted, bought something and then lost their job during covid, or bought it and then realized they could sell for more than they paid, theres a ton of reasons for it. Hell, ive debated buying a new truck to use for a few months while I wait for mine to be built, knowing I wont lose much, if any, in the process, and the dealer is willing to take my 5yr old truck with 85k miles on it for 10k less than i bought it new for right now.

Theres also a fairly new phenomenon that started during covid of everyone thinking they are flippers. I know a few people that buy cars to flip. All of those report multiple owners, since they buy and register them and maybe drive them for a short time before flipping.

As for the price, only way to tell if its a good deal or not is check out what other cars similar to it are selling for in the area. 2 years ago, 10k off MSRP for a 3 year old car, I would have said not a good deal. Now a days, new cars are going for MSRP and over and used cars are going for close to new MSRP.

 

[jetrep]

i think your rationalizing. I doubt many sold their cars after one year just because of Covid. That’s a big loss and the could have just unregistered it until Covid lessened. Two for this car, unlikely IMO.

I've seen countless posts on social media of people selling low mileage cars due to Covid. Call it rationalizing if you want but it's reality. Lots of people also lost their jobs. Not sure why it would be surprising that people would have been selling low mileage cars.

 

[jetrep]

i wouldnt worry about the multiple owners too much. plenty of people are buying cars and using them for just a short time. Whether its because they couldnt find the car they wanted, but needed a car while they wait for what they wanted, bought something and then lost their job during covid, or bought it and then realized they could sell for more than they paid, theres a ton of reasons for it. Hell, ive debated buying a new truck to use for a few months while I wait for mine to be built, knowing I wont lose much, if any, in the process, and the dealer is willing to take my 5yr old truck with 85k miles on it for 10k less than i bought it new for right now.

Theres also a fairly new phenomenon that started during covid of everyone thinking they are flippers. I know a few people that buy cars to flip. All of those report multiple owners, since they buy and register them and maybe drive them for a short time before flipping.

As for the price, only way to tell if its a good deal or not is check out what other cars similar to it are selling for in the area. 2 years ago, 10k off MSRP for a 3 year old car, I would have said not a good deal. Now a days, new cars are going for MSRP and over and used cars are going for close to new MSRP.

I agree with most of this. I've also seen Carfax report a single owner as multiple owners when they moved from one state to another. Many people put way too much faith in Carfax. It's a good tool if you know how to use it and what it's limitations are. For example: Carfax stating a car is accident free does not mean it's not been in an accident! It simply means the various sources that report to them have not reported an accident/repair.

 

[Volfy]

Here is Carfax's history
Any opinion?
View attachment 44899View attachment 44902

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First thing that caught my attention was the first purchase noted no loan or lien. That's unusual for a car at this price. It means 1 of 2 possibilities:

1. First owner was very well to do and paid cash (or traded in an expensive car, paid off or with big equity). This would be a plus, since such an owner would likely have it garage-kept and have other cars to drive. This could account for less than 7k miles driven over about a year of ownership.

2. The dealer took possession of the vehicle, in essence bought the car themselves. This could be for their personal use, say, by a family member. Or... the car might have been used within the dealership (courtesy car, etc.) Dealer taking possession happens more often than you might think, particularly for slower selling cars. Dealer might have needed to meet a quota for that month/quarter sales to make their bonus. If this was the case, it's not surprising that the same dealer subsequently resold the same car.

Or... the first owner could've come back and traded it in for a GV70. Who knows.

It's fun to speculate.