this post was submitted on 29 Jun 2025
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[โ€“] [email protected] 4 points 1 day ago (1 children)
[โ€“] [email protected] 11 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I've only bought two new cars but don't consider the depreciation a scam, it's something everyone knows is going to happen going into it so although I feel I made a bad choice doing it, I don't blame the dealership. The high-pressure bullshit is also to be expected, sadly.

Used, OTOH, is an absolute scam. On trade-in, they make number adjustments to get the used car basically free and on the sale-end, they dress it up, tell the buyer that it's been through a 5,000 point quality check and sell you whatever got bought at auction or traded in. They get even scammier if you finance through them. I've seen 16% interest rate for a buyer with an 800+ credit score.

The whole thing is predatory in nature.

[โ€“] [email protected] 4 points 22 hours ago* (last edited 22 hours ago)

True. I wish someone had warned me off of used car dealerships.

To add to all your points, maybe one car in 100 is a lemon (has something seriously broken), but 100% of lemons eventually get traded to car dealers for trade-in value.

I feel like the odds of getting a lemon new or private sale aren't bad. But the odds of getting a lemon on a used car lot skyrocket.