For many years the prevailing philosophy in the Buy Here – Pay Here industry was to sell only to customers near your dealership who could come in every time they got paid and pay you in cash. That philosophy was based on a couple of facts and/or beliefs: If a customer lived more than a 30 minute drive from the dealership, they were more likely to mail in their payments
I just got off the telephone with a dealer who was complaining he hadn’t been able to buy a single unit at the auction today. He claimed every car he wanted went for over $3500 and, with a cash in deal policy of $2500, average reconditioning expenses of just about $700 and average customer down of just under $800, he just couldn’t make $3500 cost vehicles fit his business model.
