What do Dealerships do with Used Cars?

[lesnar]

What do Dealerships do with used/trade-in cars when they get it? what are some of the things they do to prepare the car for sale again?

Obvious one that i can think of is:

-Interior/Exterior Detailing

anything else?

Do they add any fuel additives into the car to make it perform "like new"

[Jeff-TheBiz]

Not that I am aware of.. I know they have to do a Safety and Etest.

I remember years ago, someone told me to put a higher/lower viscosity oil in if I wanted the car to sound better.. can't really remember.

In any event, if you are buying used, get your own mechanic to do a once over.

[dentinger]

ok, i traded in a used '92 civic, with mods.
would they have just auctioned that car off or....?

[Jeff-TheBiz]

Dealers don't really auction it, it cost money to auction a car. Just like Ebay.

They would sell it to one of their regular wholesalers.

No way they would keep a car like that for their lot. unless it had like 30,000km on it..

[dentinger]

oh there is no way in hell the kept my car....
its was a death trap :chuckle

no seat belt buckles, the seats werent firmly bolted to the ground, it wouldnt pass an E-test, the rear seats didnt fit right, it had a B16 swap, and a stock D15(or 16?) ECU,....i could keep going....
pretty much, i paid 5400 for it, and sold it to mazda for 1500 less than a month later... i kinda wish i woulda just parted it out..

[Vario]

Most dealers, send the off lease cars out of country (second world), the next batch are auctioned off within the city.

Non-lease cars are usually auctioned off. The really REALLY popular and clean ones are kept on the lot especially if they got a good deal out of it.

[nicker]

I think most dealers will wholesale it off to one of those little coner dealers you see. That is unless your car is a very nice car that is newer and it good shape and I think it helps if it is the brand the dealer sells.

[hotgo]

Most are just sold to wholesalers... unless it's almost new. Dealers rarely have older vehicles on their own lots.

[PierreB]

At the dealership I work at, we use wholesaler for cars that are not home brand (Mazda). They are usually gone within the next 3 days.

And for cars that are home brand, we inspect the cars and see what repairs the cars require before putting it back to sale. We usually change the front or rear brakes if they are due while we inspect the car. The price is then changed upon what repairs have been done.

If a car require too many repairs, a wholesaler will take it off our hands.

As for exterior detailing it really depends what is required to be on the car, I did see one time a car being repaited on some spots to be sold.