Jan

1

Ford E-350 Super Duty 12-passenger vanI've noticed that every time I have sold a car, the dealer told me how flooded the market is with my make and model, and that the prices are much lower than I would expect. I take the dealer's words with a grain of salt, but am still not going to beat him in his own market. The equities and futures markets are much the same (and although this is anecdotal), it seems whenever I need to pitch out a position, there is a lot of whatever I own offered for sale at that moment. Conversely, whenever I wish to buy something, there is never enough around. I usually end up paying too much and selling too cheap.

Jeff Watson, surfer, speculator, poker player and art connoisseur, blogs as MasterOfTheUniverse.

Bill Egan writes:

You need a new van. A large one. By the end of February.

Ford E-350 Super Duty 12-passenger vans look good.

Prices for 2009 models

new MSRP: $36,325

new Invoice: $32,184

new Edmund's "What Others are Paying": $30,459

Yuck

Edmunds used retail price: $25,808

Kelley Blue Book used retail price: $24,710

Better

What is the distribution of true prices? Attached is the histogram of prices of 168 used 2009 Ford E-350 vans listed on cars.com within 500 miles of my house. Yes, the same basic vehicle is selling for $16,477 to $32,995. This took about ten minutes for me to make. (Yes, some options did vary, and there were a few misclassified vehicles, but overall this is really useful)

It is even faster to look at the most useful percentiles. Just sort by price on cars.com. Then go to the last page to get the total number of vehicles that actually have a price. In this case there were 168 vans with prices. Scrolling through the four web pages and quickly counting allows you to figure out the percentiles. For example, the midpoint or median is at the 84th van (168/2). That price is $21,495. The 25th percentile is at the 42nd van (168/4) priced at $19,998.

Used list price at the closest Ford dealer: $21,695 (just over 50th percentile)

Used "best price" at closest Ford dealer after we had a chat about other dealers' prices: $19,495 (18th percentile).

For a fleet vehicle manufactured in March, 2009, auctioned in October, 2009, clean CarFax, with 13,200 miles and almost all the options.

Kim Zussman replies:

Don't you think the distribution of prices attributes less to mispricing than +/- valuation factors estimated by sellers — mileage, condition, options? They ought to know the going prices, and attempt to price theirs competitively modified by their knowledge of condition.

As with romance, if condition is held constant then price should vary based on ignorance and desperation.

Gordon Haave writes:

Car selling is all about one thing: price discrimination. The good salespeople do one thing: size up the maximum that you are willing to pay and make sure that is how much you pay. They do this through a number of techniques but most notably the questions about what you do for a living, how much your current car payment is, etc.

All the confusion around pricing and monthly payments and such is just to give them wiggle room to be able to charge you the most you are willing to pay.

Alan Millhone adds:

I pass a used car lot daily in Belpre and have been noticing the strategy this fellow uses to push his lot vehicles. He calls 89,000 miles LOW mileage ! One car he lists on window as a LOCALLY owned car — So? Occasionally he puts a HOLD sign on the windshield — who cares? Across the street is a strip plaza that a man owns that I know. On the front that is not used you can set your vehicle or boat or trailer and pay him 20.00 a month for that parking spot. Lots of traffic flows by each day. You list details on your vehicle and make your own deal. One new car dealer of KIA has his own clunker program and will give you 5,000.00 on your trade. My best friend traded in his car and a van he had towed in and the dealer allowed him 4,000.00 each towards a new KIA auto. I note gas in my area creeping up again so the economy cars are selling well.


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