I have not bought used car for a while, my last two used cars are both Toyota Pre own certified: basically I found the car online, went for a test drive at the dealership and bought them.
But this morning I had opportunity to visit a used car dealer in my old neighborhood: I lived near that place about 20 years ago. I remember the good old days, in late 1990s (1998 and 1999 to be specific), when I was a graduate student in Rolla (Missouri S&T), we would buy the St. Louis Post Dispatch newspaper on a Friday, went through the paper auto classified ads section, circle out the cars we were interested, call the private owners and made appointment for Saturday. And so on.
I was not familiar with used car dealers. I did buy a used Subaru from an auto shop (note his specialty is service not selling used cars). And I bought another used Subaru in year 2010, from an owner via local Craigslist. I drove that one for about 3 years and trade it in for the used Toyota Sienna in summer 2013, without losing much value.
Btw, I liked two cars I drove this morning, a 2013 Volvo XC 60 and a 2015 Honda Odyssey EX-L. Both came with leather seats, which my Sienna doesn’t have. They came with about 144 k miles though – which is higher than my current own 2013 Sienna.
Why a used car dealer with a physical presence
I didn’t give it much thought, again you can look at my used car purchase history above. I also bought 2 other used cars while I was in Rolla. One is from a Taiwanese student and it’s a 1984 Toyota Celica (I bought it in Spring 1998).
Big picture or 40,000 feet view
YT Video from the Car Care Nut (about 1 hour 30 minutes): What is The Future Of The Automotive Industry? Featuring Savagegeese
YT video from Royalty Auto Service: Ranking The Top 5 Least Expensive Vehicles To Maintain That We Work On At Our Shop!
How Much Do Car Dealerships Really Make? 80后男孩在美国开二手车行是怎么赚钱的？