Rental Car Sales

Is it a good deal to buy a used rental car? Absolutely. OK, I'm biased so don't take my word for it. Do some homework on your own. If I get the time I'll post some links later. The things I usually mention about rental car sales is that when Alliance is selling rental cars we're quite familiar with the history of the car. We've often had the car for years and know that it's been a great car for us. Our customers aren't college students going on spring break but rather people who have their car in the shop. Since the customers usually just had accidents with their cars they drive our cars carefully. Our rental cars for sale always have clean titles and almost always have clean history reports.

Day After Thanksgiving Used Car Sale

Alliance Car Sales is having our first ever "Day After Thanksgiving Sale" this Friday the 28th of November, 2008. Watch the "Used Cars" page for specific models available with no appointment needed. You'll find the lowest prices ever available on more cars than ever. Used car prices for the "Day After Thanksgiving Sale" range from 2999 to 15499.

Why Click and Pull From Sam's Club is a Good Model for Buying a Car

There is a great feature at Sam's Club. It's called "Click and Pull". You just choose the products you want from the website, they pull them for you and have it waiting for you to pickup. Extremely easy and efficient but there's another advantage too that our General Manager here at Alliance Car Sales pointed out. By doing your shopping online you avoid all the impulse buys that you'd otherwise have made while walking around the store.

Think how much you spend every time you go to Target just to buy one or two things. You never get out of there without spending a hundred or so do you? No. And this same phenomenon is the one that car dealers have known for years. If you do your homework before coming to their lot they don't make as much money because you don't spend more by making an impulse purchase based on emotion. Keep emotion out of the buying process and you'll save hundreds or thousands of dollars on a car purchase.

Alliance Car Sales specializes in selling quality used cars at prices most dealers can hardly believe. Still, don't take our word for it. Take the time to study the market and watch out for the games dealers play.

American Cars Still a Great Investment.

How big is the US auto industry? According to Financial Consultant Patrick O'keefe quoted in this NPR piece the US Auto industry is the largest consumer of plastic, glass, steel and electronics in the US. Alliance keeps buying American cars because of our belief in their quality and value.



Many of our customers are friends and family. In fact our biggest customer is my sister's driver's education school APlus Driving School. We know a car purchase is a big deal for our customers and since it's also a big deal for us we want you to have the same confidence we do in the products we purchase and sell.

Compare Our Used Car Prices on Carsoup.com

We're here to give you the info you need to make a decision that is good for you. We figure that if you have the same info we have about the quality and value of the cars we sell you're likely to agree that Alliance is the place to buy a used car. Toward that end we have created an easy way for you to see the models we have available and compare them with a single click on Carsoup.com

Let us know what you think of this idea and if it is helpful and maybe we can make a way to do even more. Leave us a message below.

How Can Alliance Sell at or Below Cost

I figure if it's true it's not hype. But more importantly people must wonder why we would sell at or below our cost. The answer is two fold. We depreciate our cars every month and by having a less expensive car to depreciate we save money. So even when I break even or lose a little I'm still coming out ahead in the long run. Secondly, if the market picks up in the spring like it has every year that I've done this then we'll be able to sell cars that we paid less on and hopefully make up at least part of the losses of selling so cheaply now.

It's a long term solution to a short term problem. That's conservative accounting practices at work and it's how I was taught to do things. As I said to someone today, "Every time I've gotten greedy in my life I've lost money." So eventually I learned my lesson and although I'm still tempted I am constantly reminded to take the slow and steady route and win the race at the right pace.

Oh, and we're not losing money on every sale so don't feel bad for us. If we lived by the old joke addage, "We lose money on every deal but we make it up in volume." then you should be worried and call me right away to set me straight.

Best Time In My Career to Buy a Car

Everyone is worried about the economy, the banking industry and fuel prices right now but in my opinion car prices have never been a better time to buy a car in my 17 years in the business than right now. If you don't have a car right now consider yourself extremely lucky not to be both selling and buying into the market. Same goes for real estate.

As for financing, despite the perspective our bankers told us that they are having a hard time finding people to lend to. People are being cautious and it's freeing up money for other people. I heard about the lowest rate I've ever heard of in my time doing this. 4.5% In a shameless plug I will point out that when banks see the price of our cars and look at the loan to value ratio that a low price helps produce there's a better chance at great interest rates. This is the same reason that we don't recommend GAP insurance. Unless someone has a really high deductible they are often likely to make money on a totalled out car they bought from us instead of being upside down on it.

Don't Take My Word For It: How to Buy (and finance) a Used Car

There are a lot of ways dealers are trained to convince you to buy a car even when it's not in your best interest. I've mentioned a lot of the games dealers play on my website but don't take my word for it. Here is what financial counselor and talk show host Dave Ramsey has to say on how to buy a car. One caveat, he suggests paying cash will get you a better deal. This isn't always true. Dealers usually prefer that you not pay cash because they make a lot of money on financing your purchase. It used to be true that paying cash would save you money because the paperwork involved for the dealer was so cumbersome they'd pay you to avoid it but with the simplicity added with computers that's not so much the case anymore. In some cases a dealer has to pay to get a customer with bad credit a loan so if they could pay cash it would help the dealer.

If you are going to borrow money then shop around. Dealers usually get a cut when you finance through them. Check with a credit union to see what their current rates are. Due to their status as a co-op credit unions don't pay the same taxes as a regular bank and the strip mall located loan operations usually have the highets rates. It's like any business. The higher the overhead the higher the product must cost.

Small Observation on Found Money

One of our driver's mentioned today that he doesn't find loose change in the cupholders and on the floor anymore. He's hypothesized that people are being more careful with their money even to the extent of watching the change left in cars. I'm thinking that's accurate and it fits with the decline in car sales year over year for the industry. For Alliance Car Sales this is probably good news though. With our ability to offer cars for so much less than is typical we expect to see more than our fair share of action even in these seasonally slower and newly pessimistic times.

Will We Be Driving Diesel Soon?

Is diesel finally going to be ready for the hard starting cold of a Minnesota winter morning plus our desire for a clean environment? Listen here for the latest information.

clipped from wamu.org Real Audio Windows Media 12:06The Resurgence of Diesel Vehicles running on diesel fuel were hard to find on American roads in the past two decades. But rapid technology advances are leading to a new generation of so-called clean-burning diesel cars. Tech Tuesday hears from an official at the Environmental Protection Agency to explain the diesel revolution and the new rules which allow diesel vehicles back on the road. Guests Margo Oge, Director, Office of Transportation and Air Quality, Environmental Protection Agency

Hummer vs. Prius; Which is Harder on the Environment?

In the interest of offering some current insight into the latest news on buying and selling a car in the Minneapolis and Saint Paul metro area I'll be posting helpful and interesting information here.

Please feel free to share with me subjects of interest, comments or suggestions.

So to start things off I wanted to offer a very interesting analysis of the infamous Hummer vs. Prius scenario. Is it true that the horrible Hummer actually does less damage to the environment than the pretentious Prius? Listen here.