A Car Dealer's Scientific Guide to the 10 Worst Used Vehicles - Yahoo Autos (blog)
As an auto auctioneer, a remarketing manager and a part-owner of a wholesale auto auction, I’ve seen thousands of cars come and go through the auction block during the course of each year. The overwhelming majority of the time, cars and trucks considered reliable in their early days would draw the strongest bids at the auctions. However, once that specific vehicle is sold by the survey participant, there’s no access to the history of the vehicle. As the average car owner typically keeps their vehicle for five to six years, a lot of data disappears. Because there is no tracking service covering the problems in these vehicles, the 10-year-old vehicle that everyone assumed had great reliability will at times have terrible issues. Consumer Reports’ database goes back 10 years, but the average car and truck is now 11. 4 years old. So I decided to test my personal experiences with used vehicles by using data from auto auctions and the problems dealers themselves disclose. As a frequent buyer and seller, I started my study with what I consider the key quality question for most car owners: “At what point does my car become so undesirable that I am willing to accept a wholesale price for my vehicle. Source: www.yahoo.com
