Quote:
Originally Posted by miamiten
Because they're acquired a majority of the time by Hertz's subsidiary Donlen Corporation, then internally leased back to specific Regional Hertz LLC's, and self-insured. Cars involved in Moderate to major accidents that would blemish the vehicle history and resale value are sent directly for salvage sale, while minor body damage is repaired in house. Unless the repairs require the job to be performed at an authorized dealer, the history reports come back appearing clean or without much documented history. Your father's C63 is a good example of this practice. The first "service" was much more than that and took a while to complete. There's a reason it didn't follow the usual remarketing program and bounced between a couple of random dealerships, passed on by a few MB enthusiasts, and eventually running through a mid-tier auction facility, to reach Ft Lauderdale. There is one ex-Hertz M5 on the market that has ZERO service records of any type and unless one knows what to specifically look for, wouldn't know by looking at a carfax what its provenance is. The only history is the acquisition, lease, and 1 registration renewal. These cars are generally beat to hell and the fleet managers and service contracts are inconsistent. In some areas Authorized Dealerships have the contract for maintenance while in others, it's handled in-house, and often never completed. I've been given an M5 with more than 7k miles at least a dozen times in different cities and the cars had never even received the 1200mi break in service. Sadly the worst offender in my experience was a franchise location owned by a well respected dealership group with multiple BMW Dealerships and have since been removed from the Dream Car Program.
Now an important lesson to remember.
The auto industry in South Florida is far more organized and monitored than many realize. Don't tip over your father's boat with these blatantly intentional multiple personas. One moment you're clueless about the basic fundamentals of dealer transactions, replying to inquires for wholesale values with actual figures, then questioning why people ask for this privileged information reserved for dealers like yourself to broker or bird-dog a transaction.
News flash...technology has removed most of the secrecy from the wholesale market and society as a whole. Anyone with the desire to search, has 10 mins to spare, and can type words into the Google search box will find wholesale values in some form. It's no different than the information obtained from TrueCar for a new vehicle. Buyers want to either see a reasonable asking price above "cost" or have resources to assist in the negotiation process. If you have difficulty understanding this concept, I'll happily have someone from AutoNation drop off the Dealership Operations and Sales Training program I developed for them in 2008. The program which is becoming the industry standard everywhere.
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i get what you're saying, but at the end of the day, i could careless if a car was broken in properly, or maintained from the first mile. i buy used (i actually just put an order in for an m5 a week ago this will be my first new car) and all i need to worry about is if the car is covered under factory warranty for the time being that I will have it. Which will not be very long. My fathers amg was perfectly, only thing that was damaged when we bought it were all 4 rims. lol. had them repaired, and car was pristine. if i told you it was a rental from the beginning you would've never believed me. all i'm saying is, if you know what you're doing and what to look for, steals can be had.