Usual Markup Of Used Car Shops

[junkofdavid2]

1) Around how much is a used car marked up when sold in a garage/tent?

2) Put inversely, if I was to sell my car in a garage/tent in Bangkok, how much would be a "usual" markup for them with a Thai owner (not a "markup on farang", if you know what I mean...)

3) If BUYING a used car from a garage/tent, would you say it's more difficult to check out the car for hidden problems because the "tent" would be a better expert at hiding car problems than a private car owner would?

[stingray]

1) Around how much is a used car marked up when sold in a garage/tent?

2) Put inversely, if I was to sell my car in a garage/tent in Bangkok, how much would be a "usual" markup for them with a Thai owner (not a "markup on farang", if you know what I mean...)

3) If BUYING a used car from a garage/tent, would you say it's more difficult to check out the car for hidden problems because the "tent" would be a better expert at hiding car problems than a private car owner would?

It's depend on the dealer. First of all:

Some dealers don't buy used cars. They just sale on consigment. So they don't really care in what condition their cars are. They can't put any money in the vehicles to fix or service them, because te cars not belong to them. They only get some commission (usally 10'000 Baht), if they sold the cars. Most of this dealers don't have the paperwort in their office, because the cars are not payd yet.

Some other dealers buy their cars. If the dealer is honest, he will not sell any accidend or bad cars, because he put , invested, his own money in, thet's mean he don't want have troubles with cars where he invested his own cash. This make sense. This kind of dealers don't sale any cars on commission. Their profit is more, because they buy the cars in cash, usually fix them up before selling them. But they don't buy junk, for example cars with damaged automatic transmissions or similar. Therefore you'll find sometime cheap cars as private offers, because no dealers want trade in that particular car because of the bad condition. There is a simple rule in this world. If somone invest cash, he want's to make some profit. This is with every business or stockmarket in the world. So the same sith the car dealers. But remeber sometimes it's not worth to buy just the cheapest one.

I think the important thing is if you check the condition of the car you buy. A car in good condition will always more expensive than the same model as "Junk". The dealer must have the blue book. You can't buy any car, if the dealer has no book. Make sure chassis and engine numbers matching in the book.

Testdrive is highly recommended and fine, but remember, its on your own risk, because no insurance.

[kartman]

1) Around how much is a used car marked up when sold in a garage/tent?

2) Put inversely, if I was to sell my car in a garage/tent in Bangkok, how much would be a "usual" markup for them with a Thai owner (not a "markup on farang", if you know what I mean...)

3) If BUYING a used car from a garage/tent, would you say it's more difficult to check out the car for hidden problems because the "tent" would be a better expert at hiding car problems than a private car owner would?

1&2 Why? the bottom line is how much they will give you if your selling to a tent, some will give more than others some won't want it at all for whatever reason. They know how much a certain type/model can be bought for, pointing out their possible markup would probably get the the big "P--- OFF.

3 Depends on how clever/clued up the tent AND private owner are at trying to sell a problem car and how knowledgeable the punter is.

[Deke]

In general, I think the used car dealers will not buy a vehicle for any amount over what they can finance it for. Their profit is the difference between the amount they can get from the finance company and the sale price.

The dealers though, may not finance through a regular finance company since they expect to turn the vehicle around as fast as possible. They often use loan sharks who retain the vehicle title as collateral.

I've not had too many problems with vehicles that I bought this way although you will pay more than if you had purchased it from the original owner. Most dealers do try to protect their reputation.

[PeaceBlondie]

One note about pricing and mathematics. Mark-up is a larger percentage than gross profit margin. If you do not understand those two terms, you will be confused (but the OP used them correctly).

We bought our used Nissan NV from a tent that had it on consignment. It took him a month to get the title. During that month, he let us have it fully inspected by our own mechanic, let us drive it, and shared half the repair cost to the A/C unit.