chevyman2 wrote:
Well let me say this from a dealer POV. Yes there are times that a dealer will lose money on a sale. Possibly more often than you might think.
Now figure this in. Trade-in value seems low to most customers, however consider this. When a dealer accepts a trade, they generally dont know if all appliances work, if brakes are OK, ETC. They take "your" word for a lot of things. That is why every unit (new & used) goes thru a PDI. Im sure every dealer works about like ours here. Service Dept charges the Sales Dept. for the PDI and any repairs, as well as detailing. A typical PDI will take 8-10 hours and a typical detail (wash, wax, buff, tire shine, windows, interior carpet, dust, ETC) can take 16 hours or more. At a rate of approx $120 per hour. You add up the labor costs. Not to mention each unit gets new batteries at $100 each. Add to that anything else it might need like bearings, brakes, tires, ETC. Yes we add literally $thousands to every single unit.
Sorry to rain on your parade, but Trade-in value is a very high amount to give for most trade ins.
A $120 hr in house labor rate is ridiculous. All the dealer is doing is paying the tech minimum wage, making an in house invoice charging $120 hr for the minimum wage and jacking up their price (and then trying to explain it I guess). 26 hours for a PDI and clean up? Unless they had to replace most components you couldn't start to reach 10hrs on a PDI. The longest I've experienced is about 3..and that was with me videoing the whole thing front to back, top to bottom. 16 hours to wash, wax and detail the interior? Sounds like that shop needs some new faces. And, I don't know that I've been to a dealership that actually hand waxes a used trailer.
