In the 1980’s, wood-sided station wagons were all the rage. But the early 90’s ushered in a new era in family transport. Trucks like the Ford Explorer, and Jeep Grand Cherokee managed to win the hearts of American drivers with their “high-up” driving position, and truck-like utility. As a result of this popularity, the price of a used SUV has usually been pretty high.
However, with the increase in gas prices, full, and mid sized SUV’s have actually started to drop in price. While family-haulers like the Ford Expedition and Chevrolet Suburban provide enough room for an entire soccer team. Their abysmal gas mileage have caused them to fall from grace in suburbia.
Instead, buyers are opting for more economical cross-overs like the GMC Acadia and Toyota Highlander. These car-based SUV’s offer a truck that gets better gas mileage, without sacrificing the people-hauling capability that made the SUV popular in the first place. As SUV’s have become more popular, large and mid-sized SUV’s like the Chevrolet Tahoe, and Ford Explorer have started to drop in price. This is very apparent at the Seattle car auctions.
The auto auction is where car dealers go to dispose of their trade-ins and excess inventory. And, there’s a lot of SUV bargains to be had, if you know where to look.
Basically, the auto auctions work like this; people who’ve decided to switch to a CUV will trade in their gas-guzzling Toyota 4Runner for a discount on their CUV’s purchase price. Their dealer then has to either sell the trade-in, or send it to the auction.
With things the way they are in the economy, these mid size, and full size SUV’s don’t sell as well as they used to. So many dealers are forced to auction them off to recover their money.
The typical used vehicle on a dealers lot is marked up around $3,000. However, if you pay the $500 fee and get your SUV directly from the auction, you’ll probably wind up with the truck of your dreams, and save around $2,500.
