I'm in the market for a beater. I was referred to a car in Morrie's "Public Before Wholesale" program in my "WTB Beater" thread. Basically they're non-warrantied, cheap beaters at prices comparable to private sale. Is anyone familiar with this program? Good/bad experiences? They have a few cars I'm interested in. I intend to ask the same questions and require a third party inspection like I would with any used car with no warranty. Beyond that, I'm curious if there is a gotcha or other wtf to watch out for here.
yup, i ended up buying a fozz from a privat seller, there are some others out there that seem to be good deals
I believe the public before wholesale vehicles all have something wrong with them. Either cosmetically, mechanically, the rear seat has a huge brown stain, etc... Depending on what is wrong, they can be a good deal. http://www.pb4w.com/
I'm not very confident in my ability to avoid getting fleeced at public auction. I'm sticking to stuff where I can get it inspected first.
"Look" being the operative word. I've inquired on about a dozen possibilities. It would seem proper car maintenance is out of fashion based on the responses to questions about timing belt, water pump and HG on 150k-200k+ Subarus. Still trying to track down that gem. I doubt I'm going to find it at a dealer. So far "dealers" have been shadiest of all. This Morrie's thing looked promising.
I'd use the lack of required maintenance to beat the living hell out of them on the price. Take the money you save and have the maintenance done.
Agreed with bro, there is a forester up north that is cheap and needs a h/g. I think its in the Duluth area
It comes down to how much is saved. If I can get someone to go low enough to make the $1500 in service affordable, I'm all for it.
Cars in the public before wholesale are basically cars the dealership doesn't really want to attach their name to (even though they do, I know.) The car either needs or seemed at time of trade-in to need some repairs or would cost to much to fix to put on the lot. Also may be due to mileage, usually a high quality dealership will wholesale the 100k mile cars unless they are mint and/or hot items. Sometimes they are good deals, sometimes not. My cousin bought 3 cars this way and neither lasted more then a year, and one caught on fire. The prices are usually firm because if they go any lower they already have a wholesaler who will buy it, they just want to see if they can get alittle more before they let it go.
I would give someone at Morries a call, i would like to think that the reason it is so cheap is mainly 167K on the clock as I wouldn't imagine they would want to sell something to the general public with a major mechanical issue, without at least cluing you in on it. I could be also be very wrong as I haven't gone the public wholesale route before but I thought for an 8 week fix it looked promising.
The pricing is similar to what people want for private sale on high mileage scoobs. They're not suspiciously cheap. However... see above experience with how those inquiries are working out.
I know to the general public it sounds bad for selling a car through a dealership, that may have major issues. Usually they don't run the car through their shop (for cost reasons.) It's usually based on the Sales or Used Car Sales Managers opinion of whats wrong with the car, sometimes they might run it through the shop and then find out it's not worth the cost or trouble to fix. Surly, it may be worth the gamble to check one out of the price is right. But their is a reason they have to sign 2 AS IS disclosures and it's not to screw you over, it's to make sure you know what you're buying.
Public before wholesale is morries, and morries policy of 'best price first' means they don't wiggle on the price. That's where I got the probe from. There's a 4x4 tacoma in little falls for 1800 that looks mint. I want it. Lol
Go to bed sir. Although Morries does have a best price first, it has nothing to do with public before wholesale.
Yes it does, at least it did at morries ford right down the block from morries scoob. I bought the probe through that program. Its not hearsay it's firsthand experience.
I don't want to argue with you, but I use to be a car sales manger, public before wholesale means just that. They offer the car to the public before they wholesale it. You are correct about pricingMorries "Buy Happy promise" Which includes no hassle pricing. http://www.pb4w.com/
I think we are on two lines of the same page. The best price first is just a morries thing, and because morries does a public before wholesale thing, best price first applies on morries public before wholesale cars. Lol
To me, their prices are not very competitive and like others have said, all the cars I've driven had some major issues.
Yea, better deals can be had on Craigslist. For Subarus, out of state can be fruitful for bargains. Subaru prices are inflated in MN
Have you gone and taken a look at anything in person for all that stuff they have listed on PB4W? It's all pretty much crap.
I've looked a few PB4W, and some seem decent, some, not so much. From my experience, you can find better deals on private party and can also obtain more history about the car (I can't stand going to dealers, and when you ask for the history, they say...let's pull up the carfax. Worthless). PB4W also seems to remove the "comfort level" that people have with buying from the dealer, as there are no warranties, inspections, etc. They do have good deals though at times!
I bought a Miata from Morrie's PB4W. Do you really want to pay dealership prices for a piece of crap? The deals aren't as good as they look online.
I just picked up an 01 Grand Cherokee off of the Public before Wholesale program. price and mileage were pretty competitive with whats out there for those. Looking on craigslist and autotrader it was slotted pretty much right in the middle. Some had more miles for less money, some had less money for less miles, however I did find the inverse of both situations. Prices seem to be all over the board on Jeeps. When it gets right down to it I found a Jeep my girlfriend likes for a decent price that I didn't have to search all over hell for . It doesn't take too much driving around looking at stuff I end up not liking to eat up any cash saving that I might get.
