Fun & Arbitrage in Car Markets - Sold my 2020 Mustang GT to Vroom & Ordered a 2022 Replacement

[deanm11]

Bought a new Mustang GT in VA a year ago and brought it home NJ. Put about 5200 miles on it.

Original list $38,670 (Base GT +Automatic)

Got $7000 off list before an egregious $800 doc fee + sales tax and reg.

Vroom bid me $39k in June a few thousand miles ago.

Before Thanksgiving I checked their price again. $40,036. Hit their bid. Woudn't have done it in prime driving season but timed exactly during Northeast winter? Done.

Ordered a 2022 GT exactly the same but a slightly different new blue (Atlas Blue instead of Velocity Blue) 2022s only begin build in January. Should the car as Spring breaks toward April.
Price: 4% under invoice. Before the 4% shown on my order confirmation below. $394 doc fee and then tax and registration.

After all costs, brand new one swapped out and put about $800 in my pocket. Will make sure the front bumper isn't drilled for a plate bracket this time.
I'm also seriously considering DIY paint protection film. There's a reasonably priced product by 'Anchor Room' - to the point I don't feel bad doing it twice in spots if I install it poorly or it gets damaged.

Supposedly my car is going to Florida. Curious of course to see how they do.

Dean

 

[dareo]

Congrats on joining the sellout crowd!

 

[Danno]

Congrats on joining the sellout crowd!

More of a smooth move imo.

 

[deanm11]

Sell and replace. They had this one at $37,999 on Nov. 27, reported as $3k drop then. Dropped it to $36,999 and sold. Same year, less miles and has the at least the Black accent package that mine doesn't have.

 

[BMWTurboDzl]

Nice.

Automakers have caught on through. For example BMW made an announcement a couple of months ago they they would not longer accept third-party payoffs (ex, CARVANA, CARMAX) on their leases.

 

[deanm11]

I think the new car buying services sometimes test seller behavior and/or infer competitor pricing with aggressive pricing at times.

Also, notice how the '22 mustang in same specs is only up $500 MSRP from my '20. All the 'inflation' is going to dealers in form of lower/no discounts. Certainly seems like recent inflation would have given cover to up the price 3% a year. MSRP only up 1% in all that time !

Another car buying service data point:

Turned my brother onto deals on leftover previous generation 2018 Mazda 3s 3 years ago. Stellar deal at $19k on $25k list. He used it 3years and 25k miles and just sold it to Carvana to $23.5k! You know your car appreciates 20-25% as soon as your drive it 3years off the lot !!

Carvana sent erroneously emails with an extended expiration date. He missed the original date and the refreshed price was down at least $2k. More evidence of the ocassional 'test bids' He did get them to honor the original price.

 

[haggler]

Bought a new Mustang GT in VA a year ago and brought it home NJ. Put about 5200 miles on it.

Original list $38,670 (Base GT +Automatic)

Got $7000 off list before an egregious $800 doc fee + sales tax and reg.

Vroom bid me $39k in June a few thousand miles ago.

Before Thanksgiving I checked their price again. $40,036. Hit their bid. Woudn't have done it in prime driving season but timed exactly during Northeast winter? Done.

Ordered a 2022 GT exactly the same but a slightly different new blue (Atlas Blue instead of Velocity Blue) 2022s only begin build in January. Should the car as Spring breaks toward April.
Price: 4% under invoice. Before the 4% shown on my order confirmation below. $394 doc fee and then tax and registration.

After all costs, brand new one swapped out and put about $800 in my pocket. Will make sure the front bumper isn't drilled for a plate bracket this time.
I'm also seriously considering DIY paint protection film. There's a reasonably priced product by 'Anchor Room' - to the point I don't feel bad doing it twice in spots if I install it poorly or it gets damaged.

Supposedly my car is going to Florida. Curious of course to see how they do.

Dean

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Hey thanks for the post...I'm looking to do something similar with my Kia...i got an offer of 22k, which is about 7k over what I paid for it EXCLUDING tax that I paid. I'm looking at a 2022 Camaro, do you have any advice on working with dealerships in this market? The winter is not as bad here but I dont know about the deals...I do get supplier discount with GM but thats only like 1k off MSRP. Any advice would be helpful Thanks.

 

[CKN]

Many complaints in Utah about Vroom when buying a car. They cannot send the paperwork or title in a satisfactory time period. The State Attorney General says they are not licensed as a car dealer in Utah-and any complaints need to be filed in Texas.

Maybe easier to sell than to buy in some states.

 

[deanm11]

With Vroom, they don't pay you on the spot like Carvana. Looks like it will be two business days ultimately before I see the direct deposit. I videoed everything, got the bill of lading electronically with their pictures before the trucker left.

No idea on ordering a Camaro. I traffic mustang6g.com and two forum dealers, one in Iowa, one in PA are willing to sell ordered cars at 4% under invoice. Think the rest of the world is MSRP.

 

[dareo]

More of a smooth move imo.

For sure. There are people who are taking advantage of this current market and there are people this market is taking advantage of. I think the BITOGrs are in the first camp.

 

[Dave Hess]

I would definitely recommend 301A option for your GT.

This is my wife’s 2020 GT and great car for the money. I love how the coyote engine runs at 7500 rpms when it’s in ‘drag strip mode.’ The 10R80 auto trans shifts sooooo lighting fast I chuckle when I drive it.

 

[dishdude]

Good luck.

Reddit - Dive into anything

www.reddit.com

 

[deanm11]

Yes, they clearly have some issues. Funds just hit my bank account.

 

[dareo]

Good luck.

Reddit - Dive into anything

www.reddit.com

Yes, they clearly have some issues. Funds just hit my bank account.

Selling to [vroom, carvana, ect] seems to be less risky than buying from them. You have a contract to get the agreed upon amount of money.
If you buy, you can be dissapointed in the condition of what they bring you. There is also the transit damage factor. We sold our beautiful, flawless, TourX to one of those companies and by the time they had it for sale online it had new scratches, and perhaps even more by the time it arrived to its new owner.

That reddit forum seems to be full of unhappy people but you don't get the happy people coming on very often at all. Like most things in the car world the complaints really stand out and the positives are ignored/not talked about nearly as often.

 

[eljefino]

How are you doing tax wise? My state hits with a 5.5% sales tax (not so bad) but then a 24-mill rate excise tax on the first year's registration.

 

[deanm11]

No way around paying sales tax again. 6.625% in NJ. All factored in to my net gains.. I do think I'm going to be able to transfer nearly 3 years of registration to the new one. No registration fees based on value in NJ.

It appears I qualified for a November $1000 ordered cars rebate so I'm at around replacing my car +$2000 in my pocket. Plus got word I'm scheduled for my car to be built week of January 17th, earlier than expected ! What chip shortage?

If the market is still crazy after delivery, I'll bid it out. I have to find out if vroom would take it on the MSO (manufacturer's statement of origin.) That would be before I title and pay sales tax.

 

[measureman]

Nice.

Automakers have caught on through. For example BMW made an announcement a couple of months ago they they would not longer accept third-party payoffs (ex, CARVANA, CARMAX) on their leases.

Yup the same with Hyundai.
I will have to buy my lease car and then flip it for about $7K over the purchase price.

 

[deanm11]

They finally have real pictures of my car on Vroom site. Before the real pictures they showed a selling price of $40,999. Now they're trying $41,999. "Great features" - it's a no-option GT automatic !!!

 

[dgunay]

Are they only making around $2k? If they offered you $40k and selling it for $42k, I was expecting more markup - am I missing something?

By the way, it's a great car for the money. I want to buy a GT with stick shift and PP as a weekend warrior/track toy in the future - will keep the GLI as a daily driver.

 

[Wolf359]

Are they only making around $2k? If they offered you $40k and selling it for $42k, I was expecting more markup - am I missing something?

By the way, it's a great car for the money. I want to buy a GT with stick shift and PP as a weekend warrior/track toy in the future - will keep the GLI as a daily driver.

No you're not missing much except all the venture capital money that they're probably burning through. I think their loses have doubled in the last quarter but their revenue has also doubled. They're trying to do the old internet thing, grow big fast and throw a lot of money around. Sometimes it works and sometimes it blows up. But when they're throwing free money around, I guess there's no harm in grabbing what you can.

Vroom 3Q Sales, Loss More Than Doubled From Year Earlier

By Jeffrey T. Lewis Online used-car sales platform operator Vroom Inc. said Tuesday both its total revenue and its loss more than doubled in the third...

www.marketwatch.com

By my simple math, I think they probably need to make at least 10% more to break even so a 2k gain is way too long. Of course a lot of those loses could be due to advertising which if they can double their sales again and keep advertising the same, maybe in the future they can reduce their loses. But maybe it will be like an Uber thing, they've been losing lots of money for years but they're still going.