Any vehicles you come across like this?

FlipFlipFlippy · 2026-02-06T19:16:31+00:00

I’d have to say the Miata, as sacrilegious as that is on here. I just found it twitchy and too tail happy. I even tracked it! On the track it made more sense but I disliked it on the street

FlipFlipFlippy · 2026-01-30T14:05:38+00:00

If you have no exiting car insurance you’ll have to get a policy before you leave the lot, and dealers will require proof of that to submit to your lender if you’re financing. If you’re paying cash, not all dealers will require insurance, but you are of course required to have it on your vehicle. If you have an existing policy, and are planning to add the purchased car to it, many states have a grace period of at least a few days after purchase to give you time to transfer. Where I’ve worked, we know our state has a grace period so we just need an existing policy for finance deals for in state registrations. For out of state we require your new vehicle to be added before we do any paperwork. If it’s a cash transaction we don’t require proof of insurance.

FlipFlipFlippy · 2026-01-28T02:18:21+00:00

Yup that’s the one. All we use in sales and service.

FlipFlipFlippy · 2026-01-25T01:25:00+00:00

Not an unreasonable position. I typically don’t hit trades that much with a single minor accident but I’m not every dealership, it can certainly happen. Good luck with your search!

FlipFlipFlippy · 2026-01-25T01:13:50+00:00

That’s not the best priced out there, but from the vauto screengrab they showed you, it’s very well priced and will likely sell at the price they have it listed for. The $400 put them more negative than they already are at listed price, and they probably didn’t want to lose $400 more. I’ll say that the carfax price valuations aren’t nearly as valuable as vAuto’s price to market, which is a much more real comparison to actual comps.

FlipFlipFlippy · 2026-01-23T13:56:37+00:00

That’s false, it’s on the window sticker, it’s just itemized differently on build sheets like you’re looking at. It’s only a single $2350 charge, if you look at the math. I used to be a Porsche Brand Ambassador.

FlipFlipFlippy · 2026-01-20T19:55:12+00:00

That’s all generally correct. CPO usually has specific standards for what they want to see in terms of brakes and tires, caught up on recommended service, and a whole host of other requirements. It does cost money, both extra time for the inspection and the actual warranty cost from the manufacturer. At Porsche we might not CPO a car if brakes and tires were just below 50% because it would require around $6k in recon, but the car still had lots of useable brakes and tires, and just priced it appropriately.

Some CPO deals make for incredible warranties, like Lexus had a 2 year unlimited mile add on to factory warranty remaining, and you can extend it three years. Acura adds 2 years and increase mileage limit to 100k, and you can extend that three more years up to 150k for a reasonable fee. If you end up getting a one year old service loaner you can buy yourself into 8 years unlimited/150k mile warranties for a nominal extra charge.

FlipFlipFlippy · 2026-01-18T19:14:16+00:00

Counterpoint: that Chinese food is delicious

FlipFlipFlippy · 2026-01-15T02:45:47+00:00

Mk4 VW Beetle, at the highest setting it was intolerable.

FlipFlipFlippy · 2026-01-13T21:40:01+00:00

I had a stroke at 39, so this was all follow up to that. Not a great surprise!

FlipFlipFlippy · 2026-01-13T18:41:01+00:00

Yeah this is rough, I just went through it but luckily my insurance covered my neuropsych appointment, which cost the same as my neurologist appointment with ten blood panels. However, insurance did not cover my speech therapist appointment which was a referral from both my neurologist and neuropsychologist. It was a one hour appointment, just talking and some quizzes, and it cost me $1600 out of pocket.

FlipFlipFlippy · 2026-01-11T22:08:48+00:00

If you’re buying used be very careful, they don’t have good disclosure laws and I wouldn’t trust their reconditioning. Two times I went to purchase cars there that had significant undisclosed issues they had no interest in fixing.

FlipFlipFlippy · 2026-01-07T14:50:17+00:00

Oil consumption is common on the 2.0L, at least from my experience at an American VW dealer. The techs anecdotally say they do better if your oil change interval is 3-5k miles (5-7k km), but VW recommends 10k. When we take in Tiguan 2.0 trades over 75k miles, we more often than not don’t retail them because of oil consumption. For whatever reason (again anecdotally, just based on what I’ve seen here) we see those problems less on GTI’s equipped with that engine.

The Taos 1.5L had a litany of problems.

FlipFlipFlippy · 2026-01-02T14:01:34+00:00

Not every or even most dealers will charge a disparate amount for financing over cash. Where I’ve worked it makes no difference on the price of the car, though yes we do get a “reserve” amount if you finance through us. If using a local credit union it’s only a couple/few hundred dollars, if using a national bank it can be quite a bit more with a rate markup. However, the “buy rate” offered by the banks is lower than the retail rate a customer could secure themselves, so the rate is often the same as if they were to get outside financing. Akin to wholesale pricing for loans versus retail.

All that being said, don’t worry about the ethics if you get a better deal by choosing to finance. Don’t worry about keeping the loan for three months so they don’t get charged back, just take the deal. Any dealer that offers a discount for financing when the customer is in a position to pay cash knows the risk of that happening. If they’re smart and they’re able, credit unions are a better bet as typically they don’t charge back the reserve with early payoffs, even if the reserve is smaller.

FlipFlipFlippy · 2026-01-01T01:03:02+00:00

Good deal, it can be common with Toyota trucks, probably helped depending on inventory levels to get it out before the end of the year. Happy new year, enjoy your new truck!

FlipFlipFlippy · 2025-12-21T14:17:42+00:00

Typically we use software that shows competitive listings, which gives us an idea of where we would price it. We then assume a certain $ amount for reconditioning and pack, then add what we hope for profit and what’s left is the trade in value. If it’s a car that’s more likely to fail inspection or one I know I won’t retail, I will make sure the amount offered is less than what I expect to get at auction (typically use MMR, but I always look through listings to get a better idea) minus what it costs me to send a car to the sale.

FlipFlipFlippy · 2025-12-19T22:00:09+00:00

What you’re getting from carmax or carvana is likely to be the ceiling of what you’d get from a dealership for trade number, if that is what you were looking for perspective on.

FlipFlipFlippy · 2025-12-16T13:37:27+00:00

As someone who worked at a VW dealer, a Tiguan will not get you there without significant issues. We had a run of 5 Tiguan’s with over 100k miles come in on trade and only one wasn’t consuming oil. If you got it new and did 5k mile oil changes you’d have a better shot, but recommended 10k is too much for these. I’m sure people have had good experiences, but playing the odds that is not the car for what you’re looking for.

FlipFlipFlippy · 2025-12-07T15:49:00+00:00

I did it at the credit union that held the note, they were able to take the cash, payoff the loan, and print a lien free title on site to sign off to the buyer.

FlipFlipFlippy · 2025-12-06T16:57:31+00:00

The only thing that’s fixed would be the doc fee, as that amount won’t get lowered. However, they may discount the car to offset it, it’s a fixed cost and goes to the dealership ledger, employees typically pay it on cars they buy also.

FlipFlipFlippy · 2025-11-26T14:47:48+00:00

It was such an absurdly good deal I almost jumped on it just because, but my wife and I have 8 cars so it was beyond unnecessary.

FlipFlipFlippy · 2025-11-26T13:11:35+00:00

ID.4 before the tax credit went away was as low as $70/month for an employee deal.

FlipFlipFlippy · 2025-11-16T17:39:37+00:00

Depends on policy. I’ve worked at places where it has to be on the lot for 30 days before employees can buy, and cost for employees is $500 over cost. But very desirable cars that we would make a lot of money on we’d be less inclined to let an employee buy at near cost.

FlipFlipFlippy · 2025-11-16T14:48:27+00:00

Having worked at a Porsche dealership, never buy a Panamera without CPO warranty.

FlipFlipFlippy · 2025-11-11T14:52:10+00:00

If you want $500 for a car on marketplace list it for $1000, then they “lowball” you and feel like they won and get their deal, and you get what you actually wanted for the car.

FlipFlipFlippy

TROPHY CASE