The Pot Lot

I manage a pot lot. For those of The Others who might be reading, a pot lot is a car lot that specializes in older, higher mileage cars. We make our living selling the cars the new car dealers don’t want to screw around with. A car that can be retailed for between $5000 and $6000 is my bread and butter. I sell cars that are more money than that, but no one in this neighbor hood can qualify for a vehicle over $10,000. It’s just a fact of life. Thank God for the Internet!

The average car on my lot is six years old and has about 100,000 miles on it. When I first came here after so many years of working in new car stores, I was a little taken aback. Heck I remember a time when a dealer wouldn’t keep a trade over 70,000 miles on it. Today, if I get a car with 70K on the odometer, I’m a happy bastard!

Working at a pot lot has given me great insight into the quality of both foreign and domestic cars and the selling attributes of both. In the time I’ve been here, I’ve learned a lot, I gotta tell you. I’d like to pass some of my observations on to you.

First let’s get the obvious out of the way. Which would I prefer, a 2000 Chevy Cavalier, or a 2000 Honda Civic? Having both would be cool, but believe it or not if I had to choose, I’d lean toward the Cavalier. It’s no secret that if the mileage on the two cars are the same, chances are the Honda is a better car, but a Honda is more expensive than a Cavalier. At my end of the car business spectrum the more costly the car the harder it is to get financed.

A domestic car’s worthiness largely lies on how well it was taken care of during its years on the road. It can still be pretty serviceable when it has 100,000 miles on it as long as it wasn’t beat up. A beat up Dodge Neon can be the proverbial money pit (thank God for used transmissions!), but a Neon that has experienced a little TLC during its life is still a pretty good car.

Keep in mind that when I sell an older car, it’s not with the intention of telling a customer that this baby will last another ten years. I deal mostly in flakes. Flakes get financed sub-prime. The contracts are rarely longer than 30 months, and we try like hell to keep them at 24. My pitch to the customer who’s looking at that Dodge Neon is this: This car is not destined to last a long time. It is not supposed to be your dream car. The purpose of the car is for it to last you a 2 or 3 years while you hopefully make the payments on time and re-establish your credit. After that, you can get that new Toyota if you want to.

And if they don’t make the payments on time, it’s not my problem.

In this scenario any car will work as long as the deal can be structured correctly. And because American cars can generally be purchased for back of book, it makes them easier to finance. The secret, of course, is to make sure it’s a decent car.

The problem with domestic cars is that they all seem to have inherent problems that their Japanese counterparts do not have. Older American cars have problems with power windows. They fail so often it’s almost predictable. All Dodges have suspect transmissions, and the 2.7 V6 should be avoided if at all possible. General Motor vehicles have clunky steering that is apparently not anything to worry about, but they scare the crap out of the guy trying to by that old Monte Carlo.

And Fords? Well what can you say their Fords? Hold up two fingers in the shape of a cross and hope for the best.

I happen to like Hyundai’s. For some reason, these cars seem to get better with age. A used Elantra with a 100K on it is usually still a pretty tight little ride. Most of the time you can buy them right, and it’s easy to make a sub-prime deal work. Wish I had a lot full of them.

Japanese cars are great, but they attract propeller heads, and I as I’ve ranted many times in the past, these people are just a pain in the ass. A Chevy Cavalier with a 100K on it might be $5000, but a Honda with 100K on it is still $7000 or maybe more. The problem is that propeller heads want the Honda for the Cavalier price.

I don’t get a lot of used Hondas or Toyotas. They go for a lot of money, and are virtually useless in a sub-prime situation because you’re rarely in them right. Give me that old Cavalier. Wobbly steering and broken power window or not, it’s still an easier sell to a flake.

I’ll let you deal with those Honda buyers. I’m too old for that shit.


Talk to you later,



David