Buying and selling automotive

Buying and selling automotive - it's a bigger business than most people stop to consider. If the current car woes aren't example enough - the world economy and international trade relies heavily on the auto trade.

Outside of the home it's the single largest "investment" most people make. You have to make it an ongoing concern as long as you want to drive. Call it a life expense - not an investment, unless you are rich.

Assuming a $250-500 monthly cost to put a vehicle on the road over a driving career of 60 years, that's several hundred thousand dollars of money out the driver's window. Forget that a loaf of bread will cost $250 when you're 76.

So it pays at all stages of life to be educated about the realities of the car world. How many people do you see driving down the road with more money than brains - on stupid ugly rims that cost more than a Mars Explorer's?

There are too many cars being built for the amount of people that need them. Do we really need a new car every 3 years when they last 10? The low cost carmaker financing trick worked for many years ($7,500 cash back anyone?!) to make a new car more affordable than a used one. The car credit market collapsed because there wasn't enough people to give away new cars to.

A glut of new cars creates a glut of used cars - it devalues the whole market. We paid people to crush perfectly good cars to trade in for defective Toyotas. The automotive sales world has been turned on its head. The ridiculous system of NA automaker dealerships had been reduced to more realistic levels of support. The market correction was overdue and necessary - sorry about the lost $60 per hour forklift driver jobs that shouldn't maybe have existed in the first place.

Automotive sales have also been changed dramatically by the internet. Now you can shop many dealers and private sellers in your area in your housecoat. That makes it both harder and easier to buy and sell a car - you now have competition from afar but the same wider market to draw from. There are a number of auto specific search engines used in the trade. This is the secret sauce to finding the best deals out there.

Buying and selling a car is getting more complicated. The average person does not have the time to do all the research and learning necessary for most informed opinions. With tens of thousands of dollars at stake all the time, a new layer of sales service will emerge - a more direct and personal approach. Automative sales consulting. Did you know you can walk into Costco and buy a new car? www.costcoauto.com/enterzipcode.aspx?gotourl=%2fdefault.aspx

There - you just got $500 worth of free consulting advice.