Quadcammer

I have been looking on ebay, autotrader, cars.com, even mb's own used car website, and approximately 98% of cars sold by dealers are from an auto auction.

I don't understand why so many would have to go to auctions. Some of the cars look great, have low mileage, normal color, but they can't be sold retail?

I don't get it...

Oliver

Lancelot

Maybe it's because the sticker price in the showroom is never what they're gonna get for it anyway, and with auctions the dealer doesn't have to bother with trade-ins. They want to SELL their used cars, not to trade them in for even older used cars...

mv420xx

i agree with the above, but i also own a diesel so there a little harder to find low mileage well maintaned cars. i also think the 211 was a huge update so all the people that had the 210 to begin with sold them to upgrade. so far my 210 has served me really well. but i do like the new ones. so my plans are to keep this car for awhile till im ready to upgrade...

sosh

Dealers cherry pick their retail sales cars from trade ins and lease returns. Only the best are kept and the numbers must work for them. The W210s are old cars the newest being an 02 which is 5 to 6 years old at this point. With the lower prices of old cars the profit numbers are lower and they cost as much or more to resell than a newer model (W211). In addition buyers for older cars in many cases are of such a financial/credit situation that they cannot be financed by conventional means and thus go to auction where they are sold to dealers with much lower overheads, lower standards and have means of financing bad or marginal credits. Their repo rate is also much higher and many of these dealers actualy make more money with the repo/resale than a new car dealer actually makes.

slk55lvr

That summed it up pretty well. Most Franchise dealers focus on selling CPO and warranty cars less than 5-6 years old. The sub 20k mercedes market is left to the many highline used car dealers, as the overhead model for a big dealership just doesn't work for these kind of cars.

Quadcammer

Good info thanks.

So are the auction cars generally in worse condition then the dealer cars?

RobertG

that depends on many factors like high milage,accidents, buybacks ,etc.

Air Marshall Eldritch

Oliver, you may have my W210 for cheap. I have decided to move on to E55 now, and my baby needs a home.

KINGGLORY

I have noticed this as well. I was bidding on a car from the local dealer and drove it the same day. I was playing the salesman until the auction ended. I figured beat the Stealership with some of their own tricks. Anyhow, I bought in person for much better then the online ending.

seeksbcdestroy

Its all about location, an E320 4-Matic is going to be more popular here in NY as opposed to Florida. So when a dealer from Florida gets a vehicle of that sort, they will attempt to sell it retail at first (if they are a retail dealer) then most likely ship the car up north to Manheim PA which is the largest auction here on the east coast. It gets purchased at Manheim (profiting the wholesaler) then it gets sold retail where the car is more popular.

I purchased an off-lease E320 4-Matic with 70k for $10k wholesale (mint mint mint condition), there are some sweet deals out there.

Musikmann

I think all dealers have slightly different criteria upon which they base what goes to auction, and what goes on their own pre-owned lot.

I traded a 1998 E430 with 125,000 for what I have now, and they made no attempt to hide the fact that my old E430 would become an auction car. At about the same time I made my deal, they accepted a 1999 E430 with 60,000 with fewer options than mine had, and it went right on their lot.

I know of another exclusive M-B dealer that keeps the 100,000+ cars "in the back" and sells them pretty cheap.