small coinvestor small used car lot....

michael anderson

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Mar 31, 2018, 2:51:50 PM3/31/18

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no broken legs yet :)....

Although it's not as financially great as I thought. It's been paying out a profit for my investment, but a very small one. These last few weeks things have turned around though. Why? I think it has to do with people getting their income tax refunds....

I've actually been able to refer a few of my discharging inpatients to our lot though.

Interestingly, one car we cannot sell to our customer base is hybrids. To the point that we won't even buy them now. Something about our customers have absolutely no interest in them now

The NOTBCS Guy

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Mar 31, 2018, 5:08:55 PM3/31/18

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michael anderson wrote:

> Interestingly, one car we cannot sell to our customer base is hybrids. To the point that we won't even buy them now. Something about our customers have absolutely no interest in them now

How old are they, and how much are (were) you asking for them?

The older a hybrid gets, the closer its electric battery gets to going out, and, unlike with the normal battery, once the electric battery goes out, the amount of work you need to do in order to replace it makes it more cash efficient to junk the car.

The one thing I don't like about my Ford Fusion Hybrid (mid-2009, although it is a 2010 model year, or, as I like to call it, "2009 1/2") is, there's no opening between the trunk and the rear seat (so have fun trying to put anything more than 5 feet long that can't bend inside the car) - because that's where the electric battery is placed.

Some dued

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Mar 31, 2018, 5:50:10 PM3/31/18

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I replaced the battery in my wife's Prius, took a couple of hours and cost about 1300 bucks.

xyzzy

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Mar 31, 2018, 5:54:55 PM3/31/18

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On Saturday, March 31, 2018 at 5:50:10 PM UTC-4, Some dued wrote:
> I replaced the battery in my wife's Prius, took a couple of hours and cost about 1300 bucks.

Prius batteries are definitely lasting longer in the field than expected.

I'm seeing a gradual decline in MPG in my Prius as it approaches 90K miles. Could be due to the battery or could be due to the different tires I put on it... not enough difference to know for sure. It's definitely not enough that I would spend any real amount of money to replace or repair the battery.

The two biggest factors that influence my Prius mpg are:

1. outside temperature... warmer is better
2. net elevation gain or loss of the drive

Surprisingly, how hard I hammer the gas pedal ranks well below these.

michael anderson

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Mar 31, 2018, 6:10:19 PM3/31/18

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On Saturday, March 31, 2018 at 4:08:55 PM UTC-5, The NOTBCS Guy wrote:
> michael anderson wrote:
>
> > Interestingly, one car we cannot sell to our customer base is hybrids. To the point that we won't even buy them now. Something about our customers have absolutely no interest in them now
>
> How old are they, and how much are (were) you asking for them?
>

Im not sure...there were several we were trying to sell so Im guessing some fairly new and some older.

The price would be between 2500 and 5500 depending on the price of the vehicle...then just the payments per month.

the_andr...@yahoo.com

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Apr 1, 2018, 7:11:12 AM4/1/18

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> Could be due to the battery or could be due to the
> different tires I put on it...

I’m envisioning some old school Chatham County 36” swampers with an 18” lift kit.

J. Hugh Sullivan

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Apr 1, 2018, 9:49:22 AM4/1/18

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Do people actually finance cars that only cost 2500-5500?

Seems to me if they are out of checks they could pay online.

Hugh

michael anderson

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Apr 1, 2018, 11:38:56 AM4/1/18

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thats the down payment.... but yeah some of our customers finance cars that we have that much into....

michael anderson

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Apr 1, 2018, 11:44:21 AM4/1/18

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a typical example would be a base2013 mazda 3 with 90k miles....we may be able to get it for 4000. we sell it for 7300 with 3600 down. We've got back 90% of what we have into it, plus the customer is paying us like 269 a month for maybe 5 years. After a couple months we break even on the car...the rest is gravy. If they make the payments over the next 58 months, great. If they don't, great....we repo it and wash, rinse, repeat.

JGibson

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Apr 1, 2018, 6:59:25 PM4/1/18

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I keep reading this as coin-vestor instead of co-investor.

J. Hugh Sullivan

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Apr 2, 2018, 8:59:12 AM4/2/18

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On Sun, 1 Apr 2018 15:59:22 -0700 (PDT), JGibson
<james.m...@gmail.com> wrote:

>I keep reading this as coin-vestor instead of co-investor.

That means you are probably not a fake PhD.

Hugh

xyzzy

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Apr 2, 2018, 11:18:32 AM4/2/18

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Hah!

I saw one in Fox, AK (I think you can guess why I was there) and along with the usual coating of dust it had TWO engine heater cords dangling out the front (I assume one for the engine and one for the battery). The dude driving it was pure AK bush man. Not lifted though, that would have made it perfect.