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With roughly 50,000 square miles of public lands, Idaho has a lot to explore on road and off. If you’re looking for a vehicle that handles well in off-road or hazardous road conditions, you have two options: all-wheel drive and four-wheel drive. Knowing the benefits and drawbacks of each feature can help you make the right choice. more All-Wheel Drive: The Safe Commuter All-wheel drive sedans provide better road traction than their two-wheel drive cousins. These days, you’ll have a tough time finding an SUV without all-wheel drive. Some manufacturers, like Subaru and Audi, integrate the feature into sedans as well. This feature is meant primarily for on road use and helps vehicles gain more traction on slippery surfaces. “With all-wheel drive, if you have a tire that slips, more power will be transferred to the other wheels,”  said Maverick Automotive Technician Craig Wingate. Wingate, who’s been a professional mechanic for 15 years, said all-wheel drives are a safer option when driving in winter conditions. “When I have people come in looking for a vehicle and they’ve never driven in snow, I recommend an all-wheel drive,” he said. All-wheel drive vehicles also perform well in certain off-road conditions, especially if they have the proper tires and clearance, but they should be viewed as a superior road alternative to two-wheel, especially during hazardous driving conditions. Four-Wheel Drive: The Offroad Adventurer Four-wheel drive isn't meant for on-road, but it makes for a superior off-road experience. Unlike all-wheel drive, four-wheel drive isn’t on all the time and must be initiated by the driver. Once initiated, the front and rear driveshafts are locked together so the front and rear axles rotate at the same speed. In rough, off-road terrain like mud and gravel, increased torque is transferred to the ground on both back and front wheels, helping you navigate tough obstacles. Wingate said he recommends 4WD for “off-road application” since the feature can cause uneven tire wear and front end damage when used on dry roads with good traction. “4WD is great for getting off-road when you’re doing things like hunting,” he said. Purchasing a four-wheel drive with a locked differential or having one installed can make a huge difference in those hairy off-road situations. A locked differential allows torque to be transferred from an unused wheel on the front or rear of the vehicle. For example, if you find yourself stuck with one tire off the ground, a locked differential will transfer all of the torque to the grounded tire, allowing you to escape and live to get almost stuck again. Fuel Economy and Maintenance As far as gas mileage is concerned, you’ll pay more at the pump since all-wheel drives and four-wheel drives are heavier due to their additional components. Both also use more energy to move, since power is allocated to all four wheels. Maintenance and parts cost more with both options. Both need more parts for repairs than do old-fashioned two-wheel setups, and subsequently both cost more for regular maintenance due to the increased number of parts. Limits It can be empowering to drive either an all-wheel drive or four-wheel drive in conditions like snow and ice, but increased traction and control does not mean your vehicle can stop or turn with any more efficiency. Increased stopping distance and slower speeds should be the standard for all drivers on slippery surfaces, regardless of their vehicle capabilities. False confidence in an all-wheel drive or four-wheel drive vehicle/s performance can have disastrous consequences. Check out this AWD vs. 4WD video by Engineering Explained for a more thorough overview of both systems.

Yurts have been used for shelter for thousands of years due to their weather resistance and insulative capabilities. Note: Yurt availability and amenities may be affected by COVID-19. Weekends bookings fill up quickly, so plan your trip in advance. Yurt Overview The word yurt is of Turkic origin and describes a portable round tent covered in animal skins used by the nomadic peoples of central Asia like the Mongols (who actually call them gers). more Yurts have been in use for thousands of years because they insulate well and hold up to high winds and snow loads due to their superior wood framed engineering. During summer, yurts can easily be adapted to suit hotter temperatures. Modern yurts are generally built on wooden platforms and covered with canvas or tarp, with a plexiglass dome to allow natural light to enter, and for stargazing at night. Yurt hosts will offer a variety of amenities, so check the details before you head out to ensure a good time in Idaho’s beautiful winter landscape. Yurts Near Boise Idaho City Backcountry Yurts If you’re looking for some winter exercise on nordic skis or snowshoes within an hour of Boise, check out one of the six backcountry yurts managed by Idaho Parks and Recreation. Located in the Idaho City area, these yurts were constructed for the outdoor enthusiasts to enjoy during every season. All six yurts cost $115 per night and allow up to 6 occupants. Four of the yurts (Stargate, Hennessy, Skyline, and Rocky Ridge) are dog friendly. Reservations for the yurts must be made at least 48 hours in advance and weekend bookings are the toughest to land, so plan ahead. Yurts can be booked on the Reserve America website. If you’re feeling lucky and want to book without 48-hour notice, call DeEtta Peterson via landline (208) 514-2418 or cell (208) 781-2296. Parking for each yurt is located in lots north of Idaho City off Highway 21. Park N’ Ski permits are required in lots with trail access from Nov. 15 through April 30. The Boise County Sheriff’s Office fines unpermitted vehicles up to $100. Parking directly on Highway 21 is not allowed. You can purchase a Park n' Ski permit on the Idaho State Parks and Recs website or buy one from one of these local vendors. Winter weather can be severe, so avoid storms and make sure you and your companions have appropriate winter gear and knowledge of the trail systems and yurt sites. Check out Idaho Parks and Rec’s Winter Yurt Manual for detailed information about parking, access trails, and yurt locations. Yurts Near McCall Payette Lake and Little Payette Lake are great places to fish and explore when booking a yurt in the McCall area. Blue Moon Yurt Nothing beats a well-crafted meal after some vigorous exercise. Get the blood flowing and relax after with a trip to the Blue Moon Yurt in Ponderosa State Park near McCall. Visitors trek to the yurts via nordic skis or snowshoes on groomed trails lit by tiki torches, then experience a group multi-course meal with international culinary delights. Due to COVID, Blue Moon Outfitters are offering outdoor dining options on their heated, open-air deck, set off the ground among the pine boughs. Blue Moon Yurt takes reservations in advance for their October 2020 season and, according to their website, is announcing plans for the 2020 winter season by Nov. 1. Lick Creek Yurts Experience central Idaho’s abundant powder and breathtaking scenery at the Lick Creek Yurts, hosted by Payette Powder Guides. With 30,000 acres of pristine snow and an elevation of nearly 7,000 feet, backcountry skiers and snowboarders call this place heaven. The Lick Creek site features two yurts, a wood-fired sauna, and outhouse, so skiers can relax after a satisfying day in the snow. Access to the site is no joke. Visitors hitch a ride in a heated snowcat, which traverses 12 miles of Forest Service road. Each skier or snowboarder is allowed up to 75 lbs of gear and are dropped off right next to the yurts. Access to the yurts via snowcat and rental costs $960 roundtrip for up to eight people (an additional $60 per person for more than eight). The Payette Powder Guide website doesn’t list rental prices, and they couldn’t be reached at the time of writing. Check out their website for contact info and specific info about their guided trips and avalanche education courses. Yurts Near Sun Valley Booking a yurt near Sun Valley means spectacular views of the Pioneer, Whitecloud, and Sawtooth Mountains. Sun Valley Mountain Huts The Sawtooth Mountains are considered by many to be the crowning jewel of the Gem State. The guides and hosts at Sun Valley Mountain Huts combine the majestic scenery of the Sawtooths with world-class backcountry skiing and snowboarding. The six available huts sleep between 14-20 people, depending on layout, and are placed in breathtaking locations with spectacular views of the Sawtooth and Pioneer Mountains. The yurts contain cooking amenities and a wood-fired sauna for city luxury among nature's splendor. Each hut costs $400 per night for up to eight people, and $50 per additional guest. Additional kids aged 6-12 cost $25 per night. Hut Meisters, which are mandatory for any first-time visitors to any one of the six yurts available, guide outdoor junkies to each yurt location. Meisters go over the yurt amenities and cover current snow conditions and stability for skiers and snowboarders for optimum safety. Meister rentals are $300 for all yurt locations but one location - Boulder Yurt - which costs $200. If carrying gear isn’t on your checklist, hire a porter to carry up to 50 lbs to your yurt for $225 a day. Groups can also hire snowmobile services starting at $600 for up to six people to tow in people and gear at three of the six locations: Coyote Yurt, Tornak Hut, and Pioneer Yurt. Check out the Sun Valley Mountain Huts website for booking and more detailed information. Galena Lodge Yurts Located half-an-hour north of Ketchum on Highway 65, Galena Lodge serves as a stopover for hikers, snowshoers, backcountry and nordic skiers, and sightseers. Visitors can enjoy a hot meal and tasty beverage and recharge their batteries for the next adventure, but they can also rent one of the four yurts available. Three of the four yurts - Senate View, Star Perch, and Honeymoon Yurt - are located on a ridge near the lodge and can be accessed via snowshoes or nordic skis. The Miners Yurt is located at the top of Senate Meadows (about 30 minutes away on skis) and is next to the Jenny’s Way Nordic Trail. Make sure to buy an $18 Nordic pass if you plan to ski in. Star Perch and The Miner’s Yurt sleep eight people while Senate View and Honeymoon Yurt sleep four. Each yurt is solar power and has a propane stove with fuel for cooking. Cooking utensils, coffee, firewood, and games are stocked at each location. Firewood is also available, but must be split for use. Star Perch yurt has a wood-fired sauna nearby for extra relaxation opportunities. The cost of booking one of the huts runs $200 per night, except the Honeymoon Yurt, which costs $150. Galena Lodge does host dinners, but not nightly, so be sure to check their schedule and pack plenty of your own grub just in case. A pull-behind sled is provided by the lodge for each rental and snowmobile service is available for an extra fee. Dogs are allowed only in the Honeymoon and Miner’s Yurts during the winter season. For booking and additional information, see the Galena Lodge website. Yurts Near Stanley Booking Williams Peak Hut is an opportunity to get some excellent views of the winter Sawtooth Range. Williams Peak Hut Located high in the northern Sawtooths, Williams Peak offers excellent back-country powder for all skill levels. Operated by Sawtooth Mountain Guides, the two 16 foot and 20 foot yurts are stocked with wood stoves, a kitchen, cooking utensils, and bunk beds. The yurts sleep 16 and include firewood, solar lighting, outhouse, and sauna. You’ll need to pack food and snow gear. Private rentals cost $440 per night up to eight people, with $50 additional cost per extra person. A $260 first-time hut orientation fee is charged for new visitors. Groups who’ve been before can waive the fee if they have a leader who has completed a Level 1 Avalanche Course. To access the Yurts, visitors follow a summer trail 5 miles up 1,600 feet of elevation into the Sawtooths with great views along the way. No snowmobiles are allowed on the access trail, so get ready for some exercise. See the company’s website for detailed information. Eastern Idaho Yurts Harriman State Park Yurts Travelers on their way to or from Yellowstone National Park may want to consider booking one of the two Cygnet and Wyethia yurts in Harriman State Park. The yurts sleep 6, cost $55 per night or $385 per week, and feature amenities like: -Woodburning stove -Indoor picnic table -Two bunk beds (two-person futon on bottom and one-person single mattress on top) -Propane stove and lantern -Raised porch with sky views -Drinking water access -Nearby toilet and wood supply If you love wildlife access, the two yurts are located in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, one of our Earth’s last, nearly intact ecosystems in the northern temperate zone. Depending on the season, yurt visitors may get a glimpse of elk, moose, sandhill cranes, trumpeter swans, and/or black and grizzly bears. Book a stay at one of the yurts or get more information on Reserve America. Privately Owned Yurts If you already have a destination in mind and don’t see any openings from any yurt hosting companies like the ones listed above, check for yurts privately hosted on AirBnB. There are several listed in various parts of Idaho, especially in scenic and mountainous areas. Be Prepared Regardless of who you rent from, make sure you have the proper gear and provisions, especially if you must snowshoe or ski into the backcountry to reach the site. Check the weather forecast before you head out on your winter adventure and pack tire chains if you don’t have a vehicle equipped for travel during winter conditions.

Your car or truck lease is about to end. For the past few years, you’ve been essentially renting a reliable vehicle. But now, you have a choice to make. Should you get a new lease? Buy the car or truck you have been driving? Just turn it in? You have four options. more Trade in - get a new lease, Turn your lease in, Buy your leased car or truck, Sell your leased car or truck. No. 1: Trade In - Get A New Lease Odds are good that you leased a car in the first place because you wanted a low monthly payment. If you purchased an $18,000 car at an interest rate of 4.9 percent, you may expect to pay something like $340 per month for five years. Leasing a similarly priced car could produce lower monthly payments. In August 2020, Honda, for example, was offering leases ranging from about $250 per month to $270 per month for a 2020 model year Civic LX sedan. If you are willing to continue to make monthly payments without owning the vehicle, you can simply get a new lease. There will be some fees associated with the trade in, and you may need to pay for additional miles or repairs. Getting a new lease can be a good option if your leased car or truck is in great condition and under the allotted mileage. No. 2: Turn In Your Lease Simply turning your car in is “probably the single most popular option, and it's the one fraught with the most surprises,” said Eric Prothro, an automotive industry veterian, in a video about ending your lease well. “Every single lease has a thing called a disposition fee,” Prothro said. “It might be as low as $395 or it might be as high as $895, but there is a disposition fee. That means just to turn the car in, you pay a fee.” “Now, heaven forbid you’re over on miles because you signed a contract with 15, 20, 25, 30 cents a mile. So if you’re at 20 cents a mile and you went over 10,000 miles, there’s an additional $2,000 check you’re going to write,” Prothro continued. Review Your Lease Agreement Before you simply drive up to the dealership and turn in your leased car or truck, you should probably review your lease agreement. Do you have a disposition fee as Prothro suggested? What was your mileage allowance? If you’re over on miles, what will you have to pay? Also, are you required to pay for scratches, dents, or any other cosmetic damage? Frankly, there are going to be lots of times when simply turning in your leased car or truck will make the most financial sense, but you should invest a few minutes to understand if you will have to pay any fees and how much those will be. If you have taken good care of your leased vehicle and you have not gone over the allotted miles, turning in a lease will not be terribly expensive. No. 3: Buy Your Leased Car Or Truck When your lease ends, you are able to simply buy your car or truck. If you have cash, you can pay the residual value and collect the title. If you don’t have cash to invest in the vehicle, you can finance your leased car or truck just like you would finance any used vehicle. There are, perhaps, two scenarios when buying your leased car or truck can make sense. The Residual Value is Low The residual value could be relatively low. In Idaho, for example, three-year-old Toyota Tacoma pickup trucks are in high demand. If you happen to have a lease on a Tacoma, there is a chance that it is worth more than the residual value. Thus, buying it, even if you have to finance it, might mean that you will pay less than if you bought an identical vehicle used from a dealership. Turning in Will Be Expensive A second scenario that makes buying out a lease attractive is when you would have to pay a lot to turn it in. Let’s imagine your lease has a $895 disposition fee. Plus, you’re 10,000 miles over and have to pay $2,000 for mileage. Oh, and the car needs new tires and has come scrapes and scratches, so you have to put out $1,600 to make these right. Turning in is going to cost you something close to $4,500. If you don’t have $4,500 handy, you may need to simply finance the residual amount and keep on driving. No. 4: Sell Your Leased Car Or Truck You may not realize it, but you can sell your leased car or truck and pay the residual value. This makes sense when the vehicle is worth more than its residual value or when turning in or trading in your lease would force you to spend a lot of money in fees. Let’s return to the Toyota Tacoma mentioned in the section above. If you had a lease on a Tacoma, and that leased truck had a residual value significantly below its fair market value, it might make good sense to sell it for a profit. In fact, this is just the sort of vehicle the private party buyer and consignment managers at Maverick Car Company love to get. There are at least three ways you can sell your leased vehicle. Sell it yourself. List the car or truck on Craigslist, Facebook Marketplace, Ebay, Let Go, and similar marketplaces. You will be able to get private party value for the vehicle. Sell it to a dealership. Maverick Car Company, Carmax, and many other car dealers will be happy to buy a good car or truck coming off of a lease. Leased vehicles typically have low mileage and will, usually, be about three years old. Consign it. You can also have a dealership sell your vehicle for you. In some cases, you will get more for the car or truck, and you don’t have the hassle dealing directly with the buyer. If you’re interested in vehicle consignment, you may want to watch “Will Auto Consignment Work for You?” a Maverick Car Company live stream from May 2020.

The best time to buy a car or a truck is when you need it and can afford it. But that is probably not the answer you wanted. When someone searches for "when is the best time to buy a car" he or she is probably looking for a deal —a way to save money on a very large and important purchase. And, frankly, if you’re buying a brand new car from an old-school, high-pressure dealership, seasonality can play a role in price. So, in this article you’re going to find two answers to the question of when to buy a vehicle. more First, we will provide the sensible answer. This one will focus on your finances, needs, and having a good dealership relationship. Second, we have included some of the old-school, deal-hunting time periods for your consideration. Sensible Car Shopping The 2013 film, Wolf of Wall Street, is not something we recommend at Maverick Car Company. We are more of a family-friendly business, and this movie from director Martin Scorsese is filled with bad language, drug use, inappropriate situations, and worse. Nonetheless, we mention it here because of one scene that helps to illustrate our point about the best time to purchase a car or truck. The film’s protagonist, Jordan Belfort, who is played by Leonardo DiCaprio, is putting together a team of salesmen to help him sell worthless stock to unsuspecting customers. Most of the candidates have no real sales experience and have, in fact, previously worked as drug dealers. The group is sitting around a table together discussing the stock opportunity. To make a point the Belfort character hands a pen to the best natural salesman in the group, a drug dealer named Brad, who is played by Jon Bernthal, and tells him to sell the pen. A screen capture from the film shows actors around a table while Brad sells the pen. Brad handles the pen for a moment and says, "would you do me a favor? Write your name down on that napkin for me." "I don’t have a pen," DiDaprio’s Belfort replies, having just give a the writing implement to Brad. "Exactly, supply and demand my friend," Brad says. The point is that you don’t need to buy a pen, or a car for that matter, until you actually need one. And while it might make sense to stock up on pens that cost a dollar or two, there is no good reason to impulse buy an SUV or sedan just because it is on sale. Again, the best time to buy a car or truck is when you need it and can afford it. Affordability Many financial experts suggest that you spend no more than 10-to-15 percent of your pre tax monthly income on transportation. That includes auto payments, insurance, maintenance, and fuel. Thus, if you earn $5,000 per month ($60,000 per year), your total monthly transportation expenses should not exceed $750. At $50,000 per year or $4,166 per month, total monthly transportation expenses should be $625 or less. In addition to the monthly expenses, you should also be prepared to make a down payment. In December 2019, Autotrader’s website recommended making a 20-percent down payment on auto purchases to avoid ever being "up-side down" in your loan. "Making a healthy down payment has several advantages that benefit you throughout the whole term of your loan," according to Autotrader. "With a loan, the bigger the down payment as a percentage of the value of the car, the closer you are to owning the car outright, which is the most financially secure position to be in with your car —in short, you’ll be gaining equity in the car. For example, if you make a 20 percent down payment rather than a 5 percent down payment, you’ve offset more of the depreciation hit, you’ve lowered your monthly payment, and you can probably afford to have a shorter term on your loan meaning you’ll own your car sooner and you’ll pay less in interest no matter what rate you negotiated." While 20-percent might be the goal, at a minimum, you are going to want $1,000 or so before you think about purchasing a car or a truck. Need You don’t want to purchase a car or truck, unless you need it. If you just bought a car last month and it is providing you with good, safe, and reliable transportation, you probably shouldn’t buy a new vehicle this month just because the local new car lot is having yet another big sale. Auto purchases are a big deal, and they are something you should try to plan and schedule. So, for the third time in this article, let us say that the best time to buy a car or a truck is when you need it and can afford it. Dealership If you expect buying a car to be a high-pressure confrontation, you are doing it wrong. Yes, it is true, that high-pressure salesmanship used to be common in the industry. But it doesn’t have to be that way. The dealership you work with can become a resource for you. It should be able to provide you with services, information, and help at any time, not just every few years when you make a purchase. To make this point, here are five customer reviews from Google about Maverick Car Company. Sara and Alex James "Hands down, buying a truck from Maverick was the best experience we’ve ever had at a dealership! We’ve been looking for the right truck for a couple of months and Maverick had exactly what we were looking for. We didn’t have much time and we had our 11-month-old son with us, but Brady promised to get us in and out as quickly as possible. Even with getting financing we were out the door within an hour and twenty minutes —fastest car buying experience ever! We loved the no pressure, straight to the point attitude Brady had to make sure we could make the deal quickly. Thanks again for helping us find the perfect truck!" Kyle Phillips "This is the only car company I will ever buy from again. We bought a truck two days ago. We had been “just looking” for quite some time. I found a truck on their website that I wanted. Went in and test drove it. Heath helped us and was amazing. Not pushy and was completely transparent with us from start to finish. Unfortunately, we were not able to get that truck, but went back the next day and got another truck. Again, Heath was amazing. In fact, everyone that we came in contact with there was extremely friendly and made sure we were being taken care of. I was impressed that I received an email from the owner to see if there were any problems with our experience with them. I have already told friends and family to check them out when they need a new vehicle." Matt Capell "What can I say…great people, great owner, great service. I have them do work on my cars several times, and have a great experience each time. I'm very happy with Maverick, and you should consider using them or buying a car from them. Like I said wonderful local business, doing the right things in the community!" Vanessa Redmond "This is seriously the best dealership experience I’ve had. Nobody here was pushy at all. They even let you test drive alone. After a couple weeks of back and forth texts with JP to get more info on a car I really liked, and what could make it happen, I bought today. Austin, the Finance Manager, took the time to honestly, and sincerely, explain how I could come up with the little extra in my monthly payment by writing out things I spend money on to see where I could save more. Austin also spent more time calling banks to find me the best APR and talked to the owner to get me more on my trade in. JP even let us take the car out, once more by ourselves, to get lunch so I could discuss further if it was do-able. When we came back, still no pressure, the signing was quick and painless. I was able to buy my dream car with a payment I could afford —they also gave me a very fair deal on my trade in." Jeanmarie McAvoy "I found this hidden gem of a company after being sourly mistreated by another dealership. I feel it was meant to be. I had seen a few cars online. I wanted to go look around town. I was able to look around for a bit to see what I was interested in, I was not "attacked" the second I got out of my car. NO high sales pressure! Very laid back and comforting. It was an awesome experience!! Crystal and Jeremy are great! Even after the sale they did a follow up with me to make sure I was content. Customer service at it's finest." Deal Hunting If you’re still convinced that you need to try to find a "deal" on your next car purchase, and you are willing to put up with a high-pressure dealership, there are some times of the year or even days of the week when new car dealers typically offer discounts. Sundays & Mondays Several sources, including U.S. News and World Report, cite a 2016 TruCar study which found that "shopping on a weekday will offer a better chance of getting a deal, with average savings hovering around 8 percent. Shoppers that buy a car on Monday have saved as much as 8.1 percent, which is the best average savings among all days of the week." More recently, TruCar claimed that Sunday was the best day of the week to buy a car. "In the states where dealerships are open all week, Sundays see much higher savings compared to the rest of the week. However, many states don’t allow vehicle sales on Sundays. In fact, only about five percent of vehicle sales occur on Sunday. In those states that don’t sell on Sunday, there isn’t much variance in the best day to purchase." The Beginning Of The Month Contrary to popular belief, car dealers are not typically panicked to "make their sales figures" at the end of the month, or so at least that is what investment website, The Street, reported in a 2014 article on the topic. Citing TruCar, The Street said "that consumers paid the highest average amount for vehicles on the 31st day of the month —$31,545. That's $843 above the $30,702 average that people paid during the study period for car purchases regardless of date." In contract, according to the article, "people who buy cars at the beginning of the month make out the best." The End Of The Model Year Many sources also suggest that you purchase new vehicles at the end of the model year. The thinking is that dealers and manufacturers are likely to discount vehicles more deeply when they "roll over" and become a model year old. While there are certainly no shortage of year end sales, new cars always take a hit in value the moment you drive home with them, and waiting a model year only makes that hit a bit larger.

In a YouTube Live Stream video recorded on May 21, 2020, Shawn Gower from Boise, Idaho-based Maverick Car Company answered several questions about what vehicle consignment is, how it works, and why it is a good option for many folks who want to sell a vehicle. more A full transcript of the presentation is below. Video Transcription Hello & Welcome Armando Roggio Welcome. I just want to thank you for joining us for today's presentation, Will Consignment Work for You? This is a Maverick Car Company's second how to presentation. Second live presentation that we've done in the month of May. And frankly, this is the beginning of what we hope will be a series of useful and informative presentations related to vehicle owning, buying, and selling. And actually, one of our most important guests I see is actually coming on right now. Diana DeJesus Hi. Armando Hi, we did start the livestream. So we are rolling. Diana All right. Armando As I was just telling the audience that's watching us that today's presentation will be in question and answer format. The guy doing the answering is going to be Shawn. Shawn, tell us about yourself a little bit. Shawn Gower Thanks Armando. My name is Shawn. I run the consignment program here at Maverick. I'm a car enthusiast who has owned, bought, sold, traded, bartered my fair share of vehicles. I'd say probably too many at this point in my life. But I've been at Maverick Car Company for a few years, wore a few different hats prior to jumping into the consignment department. And I'd say I truly found my home here in this department. I'm enjoying what I'm doing here. Armando And he does a great job of it, folks. There will be three of us, if you will, asking questions. Starting with Diana. Diana, will you take a moment and introduce yourself? Diana Yeah, so don't mind me. I'm going live on my Instagram too. Hi everyone, I'm Diana. I'm the founder of Instagram page and brand called Boise Bucket List. And I'm very excited to talk about consignment and I have some audience questions, and I cannot wait to share them with you so you can learn about consignment. Armando Awesome. And then next I'll also have a few questions for Shawn. And for the record, my name is Armando, I am a writer, marketer and developer, and I help Maverick Car Company with its marketing and obviously with its live streaming. And finally, the last group of questions will come from our live audience on YouTube and with Diana on Instagram, and we'll be reading those probably at the end as they come up on YouTube or on Instagram. Again, we are new at this. So it might be that the only people watching this live are the three of us, but if you are watching it live and you want to ask a question, we would really encourage you to do so. Diana, do I need to give you a minute to get going there on Instagram? Diana Yes, I have about four or five people tuning in now, and I'm going to make sure they can ask a question... I'll put a hand up if I see any particular questions about that. Armando Awesome. I was going to point out, I guess, since we're waiting a little time there as Shawn and I were going on, he was concerned about having that printer in the background, and I'm kind of in the attic dungeon here at Maverick. And so I told him not to worry about the printer. Diana No, I think people get that, we're just hanging in there working from home right now or wherever our spaces. Armando That's it. So, let's go ahead and get the Q and A started if everybody's ready. Is that good? Diana Yes. Shawn Yeah, let's do it. What's In It For The Dealer? Armando Okay. So I'm going to ask the first question. So I have a car, I want to sell it. I'm thinking about consignment, but I don't necessarily understand what's in it for you, Shawn. Why does a dealership, any dealership, your dealership want to sell my car for me? Shawn That's a great question. Well, I think first and foremost, it gives us an opportunity to do what we do best and that's help people get the opportunity to meet, we call them friends or sometimes clients, I guess, but we would like to refer to them as friends. And it gives the dealership an opportunity to sell vehicles that we have a history of, and I think that's super important. A good case in point, we just recently sold an Audi actually three days ago, and it was awesome because the gentlemen that's purchasing it, had a lot of questions about it and I was able to help the sales team by answering and just explaining very simply, hey, this vehicle is being sold. The gentleman's actually pursuing his commercial pilot license. It's an extra vehicle and he doesn't need it anymore. It's been sitting and that's why he's like, "Why is it so clean?" I said, "That's just who the guy is." So I was able to explain that and that helped out. Obviously, as you know, we're in business to make money. So we do make money on the consignment program as well. But I think it's important for folks to know with our program specifically, that if we don't sell your vehicle, we don't make anything. And so we we're really, really confident in what we do, and we show that by investing our money, our time upfront with the hopes to the end result of having a sold the vehicle. What Is Vehicle Consignment? Diana All right, so consignment. So we talk about it and I know a little bit about it for those who are tuning in you might know. I've heard of it for when it comes to clothing consignment. I've gotten my fair share of clothing, at consignment stores in Boise and beyond. So break it down for us Shawn, what exactly is vehicle consignment? Shawn Well, another good question. I've had people say that, in fact, I can't tell you how many times I've called folks back, got a call and they say, first words, "I've heard of clothing consignment. How does cars work?" Virtually, it works the exact same way. The short answer I give folks is you're allowing a professional to sell something for you. We do this every single day, that's what business is built on, it's selling vehicles. So, bringing it to us ensures that it's going to be done and done ideally without you having to... Same reason you dropped the clothes off at a consignment clothing store or furniture. You don't want to deal with it. You drop it off with us, we handle it from start to finish, and ideally you get a phone call and pick up a check. Diana Oh wow. That's ideal. Phone call, check. Nice. Shawn And real quick to point out one more thing on that as far as consignment goes. Vehicles specifically, vehicles and houses are typically your two biggest purchases, and the financing component for us on the consignment is a big thing. You get people come in here and they owe 30,000, $40,000 on a car and they say, "Hey, I'm having trouble selling this." And typically, it's a financing thing with people not wanting to go to their own banks. And so having the ability to get folks finance same day and have them drive off of the vehicle helps immensely as well. Vehicle Consignment Save Vs. Vehicle Consignment Diana We got some good audience questions already. Shawn Oh, man. Diana So, do you want me to ask now or wait until the end? What do you think? Shawn I'm good either way, we can go to the questions you have. Armando Yeah, go with it if you want. Diana We have an audience question from Christina, Stina, hi Stina. How often are their vehicle consignment sales? Can a regular customer, like let's say she wanted to come in with her husband buy a car at consignment? And how is it different from buying a car on auction? Shawn That's a great question. So buying one of our consignment vehicles, when you come into the dealership, it would be no different than buying one of our traded in vehicles that are on our lot. It's the same process from start to finish. The big difference again being is when someone has those specific questions on a vehicle. We have a little bit more history on those consigned vehicles than we do on the vehicles that are on our lot. But there's no set dates for our consignment sales, they're for sale on our lot, just as our other inventory is. Diana Awesome. Thank you. Armando Hey, can I add something to that? We're starting to send out a weekly newsletter as well. And the weekly newsletter today featured a vehicle that is a consignment vehicle here in our lot. So from a marketing perspective and from the dealership perspective, we treat consignment vehicles just like we would a car that arrived here in some other way. In fact, sometimes better because Shawn does have the backstory. Is Automobile Consignment Renting? Diana Cool, we can't wait to hear more about the backstory. So keep staying too, because we have more from Shawn. So that's a little transition into what I was going to ask too. I had an audience question about, is it like renting? The concept of renting a vehicle, how does that differ? Is it renting your consignment or what does that mean? Shawn And again, it's no different than how we do it with our regular vehicles. There are special instructions at times with some of the higher-end vehicles, but ultimately we make sure they have a valid license, valid insurance, and that they're here to actually pursue a purchase of a vehicle, not just here to see how fast zero to 60 is in a Tesla. Diana Good. That's good to know in case someone wants to consign their Tesla, they have faith and there's clearance to drive it. That's great. Shawn Absolutely. How Long Does Vehicle Consignment Take? Armando Shawn, you mentioned how long it takes to go zero to 60 in a Tesla. I have a sort of a how long question. How long does consignment take? If I had my car on Facebook Marketplace for a month and it's not selling and I bring it to you guys, how quickly will it sell with the dealership? Shawn That's probably my favorite question, because I think I get it about five times a day. So really, it just comes down to this. It depends on how realistic you are with what your expectations are as far as pricing goes. In short, we do our best to get someone as close to the private party value for the vehicle, if not a little more at times, sometimes a little less, depending on the market. If you had your vehicle on Facebook Marketplace for a month, I would look at where you had at price wise and be able to give you a good idea of, hey, this is a good price and you should have been able to sell it so on and so forth. But for us, our timeline it varies because we use so many different avenues for marketing the vehicle and honestly, our reputation alone, we get a lot of walking clients just have repeats referral clientele. So our timeline is a little bit, I would say better than those of just posting a picture on Facebook and hoping for the best. Quick story, if I may, just to kind of give you an idea. I had a gentleman, it's been a week and a half, brought in a 2018 Rubicon. It's lifted has all this trick stuff on it. Super nice Jeep. And I went out and talked to him about consigning with us and we went through it and the books didn't really apply to this vehicle because it was built up for SEMA shows. And so I said, "Well, what do you want for it?" And he told me, he said, "Hey, I want around 53 to $55,000." And I honestly kind of chuckled because I was like, wow, that's... Okay, well, I'll be honest. That's kind of uncharted waters on a Jeep Wrangler, but I think it deems it, looking at the books and everything. And so I asked him, "Have you been trying to sell it on your own?" And he said, "Actually I had it somewhere for two months prior to trying to sell it." And I said, "Okay, so I'm always up for a challenge." So we talked price a little more and then I said, well, we're going to do everything we can to market and get this thing out there and see. Within two days we had three leads on it and four days into the consignment it sold. I mean that's a $55,000 Jeep Wrangler. So I'd say we do better than you on your own, typically. Diana Okay. So let's repeat that again. Armando Makes sense. Diana To those who are tuning it a little late. Let's repeat the timeline again, just in case someone couldn't hear it. So they dropped a very tricked out Wrangler, people get like, what can I get that? You said, how much it costs or you were selling it for. So you got all the photos, which Maverick does, and we'll talk about that in marketing, but the moment it's on the lot, what was the timeframe of it being on Fairview? Hey, look at that car. And then its selling. Let's talk about that. Shawn It was bizarre. It actually came on the lot. Funny enough the first gentleman looked at it, came in to look at another Jeep saw it back here getting photos and behind it under our awning here, and was like, can I drive that? Absolutely. And in that first 24 hour period, we had three people seriously interested and then it sold on day four. It's pretty amazing honestly. So that happened to a week and a half ago, two weeks ago, the Audi I touched on earlier today, it actually is the first vehicle thus far that went on the lot last Friday morning. It was on the lot at about 10:00 AM and it's sold at four o'clock. Diana What? Shawn Yeah, that was pretty cool. He's like, "is that a record?" And I said, "I think so." When I called him and let him know, he was pretty excited. So I'd say we're doing pretty good. And the difference being is that was a 16, $17,000 vehicle versus a 55,000. So with everything going on in the world today, I would love to say I have a really good gauge on what's happening in the industry, but I mean, ultimately it seems to me there's a level of normalcy back that we're pretty happy with. How Can You Feel Comfortable With Automobile Consignment? Diana I love normalcy, yes. All right. Well, I feel like I have more of a little normal situation. From my high school vehicle that got me through law school. And then when I had to get a second vehicle, when I lived in Maine, I leaned on the men in my life. I don't like using gender, but that's who I actually leaned on. So, the whole buying or selling a car process to lease on the car, just a lot of fear behind that. So me being a woman and those who are tuning in who have their own experiences with car dealerships and selling and that engagement with the potential seller, how does consignment help ease that fear, mitigate some of those challenges we feel with selling our vehicle? Shawn I have to say, I think this is my favorite question, because I've had folks on the phone that have been extremely timid. And I'd say the short answer to this is, Maverick does business the right way. It just, ultimately, it doesn't matter if you are a single mother with three children or a car guru, at the end of the day, the numbers are the numbers. We're extremely transparent about that. We show you the numbers. If it's something you're not certain of, we say, "Hey, take these home here. They are. Think about it." I've even had folks come in and say, "Gosh, I was really hoping to get a little bit more." And I say, "well, why don't you give it a shot selling it private party? I'm happy to help you write up your ad even." And I've done that, and give them some coaching and advice on how to do that. And I've had people literally leave here and call me the same day and say, "Yeah, I'm good. I'm just going to bring it in." I've had folks try it and be successful. So we're here to help however we can. We treat every single person that comes to the door, the exact same. So it doesn't matter who you are, the program is the program, and we do it the right way every time. Diana Yes. And for me, I'll be happy to drop off the vehicle. You sell it. I show up and say, I get a phone call, say, what a check? Thank you so much. I like that feeling, leave it to the experts as I like to say. How Does Automobile Consignment Work When I Still Owe Money? Armando Shawn how do the consignment work if I still owe money on my car? Shawn Well, it honestly work's the same for you. It just adds a step on the back end for us. But honestly, I would say close to 70, 75% of the folks that come in with consignment vehicles owe money on their vehicles. And so we deal with that every single day. It's not a big deal at all. It's kind of funny. I'll put that in the same box as, people say, "Hey, should I have my car cleaned before I bring it to you?" Or, "Do I need to pay off the loan before I bring it to you?" And neither of those are true statements. We can handle everything here. Is Vehicle Consignment Limited To Just Cars And Trucks? Diana I like that. So we're in Idaho, not only do we have vehicles, we have a lot of people here who have toys. You have the RVs, you have the razors, you have motorcycles, all these different modes of transportation and for fun. Do you only consign vehicles or other motor type of things? Shawn Great question. So as of now it's vehicles, cars and trucks. But I could definitely see in the future. I've had enough calls for motorcycles and RVs to where I could see us being who we are, wanting to see if we could add value and help folks out. I could see us transitioning into it a little bit more, but right now we're trying to really master the car and truck industry, vehicle industry. And then we'll go from there. How Are Automobile Consignments Marketed? Diana Oh, that gives them a stay tuned part. Stay tuned. I'm on Instagram Live. Hi, everyone on YouTube. And I'm no one to shy away from marketing. Which leads to my next question. How does marketing come into play with your consignment vehicle? What platform do you utilize? I know we have Armando here who can answer that too. But if someone were to have their vehicle consigned, how would it be marketed? Shawn You guys are killing it. I love these questions. These are good. These are ones that I get every day. So it's awesome. But there are a few in here that I haven't. So we use all major online car shopping sites, thecars.com, CarGurus, Autotrader, Craigslist, Facebook, Instagram, and I'm sure there's a few others I'm forgetting. But I say, think of it this way. You're getting the full benefit of a dealership marketing department. And marketing strategies are ever changing, and we adapt to the market. It's a lot more than, as I said earlier to Armando, it's a lot more than just an ad on Facebook or Craigslist, if you will. Diana I like that. I've seen the ads. For those who follow Maverick on Instagram and Facebook, the genius behind that is Mr. Armando himself. If you haven't followed then, this is my plug because I love Instagram obviously, but you see the vehicles and how they look and you can imagine yourself in them. I saw that white Rubicon. Obviously you took it down, but I saw it and I was like, "Ooh, that's quite the car." So when it makes you stop and say, ooh, that's what you want. Shawn And I have to say, shout out to Jessica who does our photos, she's phenomenal. Diana Oh, she's behind that marketing team. I love them. Shawn She's so good. Armando I don't know if this is the right format, but I will maybe a preview of what is to come. I will tell you that future vehicle pages on Maverick will include video, that's coming. And it's possible that we're going to use a flying drone to shoot those, so coming your way. Diana Wait a minute, you talking about... Wait, is this an exclusive insight into... Will I Have To Lower The Price For My Car? Armando Hey, I'm just going to move on to the next question. Hey Shawn, is there ever going to be a chance as I'm consigning with you that I'm going to have to sort of lower my asking price at some point? Shawn Fabulous question. Ideally. No, but there are times when that is necessary. But that being said, it never comes as a surprise and give you an example of that. If someone comes in and I'll use the Toyota Tacoma for an example, and they come in and we're looking at the market and I say, gosh, well I'll say it's your car Armando, and I say, "Armando, I think we could realistically sell his truck rather quickly if we get 24 to you and price it accordingly. But I think you could get as much as 25, and I'm happy to start there, but we got to see how the market plays out two weeks from now, if we're not getting the interest that we're looking for, the click throughs and the things that we look to gauge how things are going, then I might call you and ask you for that." And then it gives you the opportunity actually to say, "You know what? I don't want to leave any money on the table. So let's try that. That sounds good." So yes, you will, but it will be something that, again, it's not going to be a surprise call from me. It's going to be something that you're expecting, and so we talk about that upfront, if that makes sense. Diana Transparency, of course, I love that. Why Does Shawn Love Consignment? Diana I love to affiliate myself and learn from those who are experts. Like I said earlier about me selling a car, I had to go to the experts. And Shawn, by you answering these questions, and it's clear that you have all the enthusiasm about talking about cars. Can you tell us, why do you enjoy this part of car consignment? And do you have any particular stories of, you shared the one about the Rubicon and the Audi, but what you enjoy most about this role and if you could shed light on maybe how your background influenced that. Shawn Yeah, absolutely. First and foremost, I love working with people and I like to help wherever and however I can. I think this program going the way we have it going now, it's an opportunity to show the community that we do in fact, do things differently here, and that's through and through. And it's also an opportunity for me to make a friend, which I've actually made quite a few, believe it or not just doing this. Diana I believe it. Shawn And I would have to say probably my favorite thing is making that phone call with someone that's either they've had their vehicle for sale for a while, they've had it here and it's been a financial burden, and we're able to get it sold for them. And being able to call them and say hey... I did have a couple that was trying to buy a home. In order to buy their house, they had to get rid of this vehicle. And so being able to do that and do it in a really quick manner, and then make that call, I was more excited. I was literally watching across the way for the folks to walk out with the keys in their hand so I can make the call, and then I just ran outside and called. And I think I was more excited than they were, but they later did say, "Hey, we were a lot more excited. We were almost just shocked, and you were so fired up that we were like, is everything okay? Yeah, I'm good. Everything's good." But yeah, in short, it's pretty awesome to get to do thing, what you genuinely like to do. And it's helping people for me, and I get to do that every day, and I love it. Diana You and the whole team. Shawn Absolutely. Diana Shout out to Freeman. Freeman's Is not really into the whole Instagram being on video. Armando That's not his gig. Diana That's not his gig, but for those who have gone to Maverick and you would pop in, you will see him sometimes, maybe his wife, but that is the Maverick way. How A Sales Team Helps With Automobile Consignment Shawn If I have time, I do want to add something else. One more value to the consignment program that I don't know that gets enough attention. The reality is that our sales team is amazing and they come to me when a consignment comes in and they actually ask me, "Hey, Shawn, what's going on with that Audi? Can you give me a little backstory on this? I have a client." So they're already starting to try to sell your vehicle before it's even on the lot, and that is not a joke at all. They're awesome. So I just wanted to say that because although I get the vehicles sold, I'm not actually the one selling them. I'm bringing them in, ideally pricing them right, and giving the right information to the team to have them be able to do their job and do what they do best. Diana So they're storytellers. They love to hear the stories, which I can attest to that. So when I dropped off the 4Runner, I told, is it Crystal? Shawn Yeah. Diana I told Crystal, Crystal, I'm dropping off Stormy. And she's like, and I told her why it was named Stormy. And she was so, I get high of people who want to know about stories, so she was so eager to learn about Stormy's, like her name, where it came from. So I saw that with Crystal and somebody that I met just randomly, also felt that from Crystal. That's one of many of the sales team. But storytelling is the jam. All right, so for those who are trickling in, I don't have any questions, but please comment, if you have any questions for Shawn and for Armando, we're on live. So I will be able to tell them if you have a question, so just don't be afraid to post. Someone said, thank you for doing this live. They really appreciated the knowledge. Wrapping Up Shawn Absolutely. Thanks for tuning in. Armando I guess I'll add this and then we should probably, unless we have some more questions, come to a close, but this is something that we want to keep doing at Maverick, which is to answer questions. So as you comment, whether it's with Diana or with us on YouTube, tell us some of the other things you'd like us to cover. If you have questions about the automobile industry, we'd be more than happy to do a Q and A like this covering just about any topic. One of the topics probably want to know, as Shawn mentioned he has owned many cars. The man has had, is it 50 personal vehicles? Is that true? Shawn 53. Diana 53? Shawn 53. Armando No one's counting though. Shawn My wife is actually counting. I actually say, "I don't know. It's like 25." She's like, "It's 53 to be exact." Diana Oh wow. She is exact. Armando So, you know what Shawn's really telling you is that you can sign your car, if nothing else, he'll buy it. Shawn There's a good chance. There is a good chance. Diana Awesome. Armando No, just kidding. Well, listen, I don't have any more questions over here on the YouTube side, if there's nothing else on the Instagram side, I think we should just say thank you for everyone who did watch us live. Diana Thank you. Armando And if you have, please do comment even in the future comment, and let us know if there are things we can cover for you. Thank you so much. Diana Good bye. Armando Everybody have an awesome evening. Shawn Thank you all. I appreciate it Armando. Diana Have a great weekend....Now leave the meeting.

Buying a new car rarely makes good financial sense, according to several (if not most) financial planners and industry experts. "Friends, I do not want you to buy a new car," said self-made millionaire and co-founder of AE Wealth Management, David Bach, in a 2018 interview with CNBC. Why is buying new so bad? more Rapid Depreciation "Here’s why. Buy a brand new car —it smells good— but drive it off the lot and it drops in value by 30 percent," Bach said. Not everyone in the industry would agree with Bach’s 30-percent estimate, but everyone agrees that a new car is a bad investment because it depreciates so rapidly. Financial services journalist, Greg Lewerer, for example, estimated that a new car would depreciate about 25 percent in one year and about 46 percent in three years. If you owned that car for five years, it would lose 63 percent of its value. Thus, according to Lewerer’s article, if you had paid $34,968 for a new car in 2017, it would be worth about $12,938 by 2022. Thus, your vehicular asset lost more than $22,000 of its value. By comparison, if you had purchased the same car when it was three years old, you could have paid approximately $18,882, again according to Lewerer. Financing Makes It Worse "Most people borrow money to buy that car," Bach said in his CNBC interview. "Why would you borrow money to buy an asset that immediately goes down in value by 30 percent? Don’t do it." The truth is that most people borrow money to buy any car, new or used. And some have argued that new cars can have lower interest rates. While this is true, a lower interest rate rarely offsets the depreciation. Thus, financing a new car only makes your investment worse. "You can buy a brand spanking new mid-size sedan for $25,000. I'll use round numbers for this example, so it's easier to follow. You don't have enough money to purchase the car outright, so you decide to take out a loan. Let's say your credit is decent, and you get an interest rate of 3.5 percent, with a $3000 down payment, and $1000 on the trade in of your '98 Subaru Forester with 250,000 miles and a head gasket that won't make it to 251," wrote Freddy "Tavarish" Hernandez, in a 2014 article for Jalopnik. "The average length of a car loan, as of , is just over 60 months, but let's round to 60 for simplicity's sake. Let's also take taxes out of the equation, since each state varies. Per month, you'd be paying $382.02 before tax. It's a nice, affordable number, and exactly why people get stuck in these predatory loans. When you extrapolate that figure over 60 months, you'd pay $26,921.20 for that $25,000 car," Hernandez continued. It Costs More Finally, new cars simply cost more. Compare a one year old Ford F150 with 18,000 miles to a new F150 with otherwise identical features and the year-old-truck could be as much as 25 percent less.

When it is time to trade-in your current truck or car for a newer one, you want to make sure that you can get a good price for that trade-in. And there are a few things you can do to help. more Maintain Your Car Or Truck Getting the most for your car or truck as a trade-in starts when you buy it. One of the most important things you can do is maintain it. "Staying on top of regular maintenance items such as oil changes, tire rotations, brake jobs, and other preventive measures will increase your car’s value by extending its lifespan," wrote Matt Smith in a CarGurus article. "Be sure to document all maintenance and repairs in your car’s service manual. If you always have the dealership you bought your car from handle maintenance work that same dealership should be your first stop when it comes to trading in that vehicle. A dealer that is familiar with the work done on the car will be more inclined to provide a favorable valuation." Get It Inspected A good dealership will want to inspect your car or truck when you trade it in. They will send it to their mechanics and put it up on a lift. The dealership needs to estimate how much it will have to invest in repairs before it can resell your vehicle. When you get your car or truck inspected ahead of time, you will know what to expect. You won’t be surprised if, if the dealership says you need new tires or an engine repair. This doesn’t mean you should try to fix everything. "People sometimes try to fix dents on their cars or throw on a new set of tires, thinking it will significantly add to the value of their trade-in. This seldom works. The dealer can usually fix flaws and put on new tires for substantially less than you can," wrote Ronald Montoya in an Edmunds article. Again, the benefit of having an inspection done before you get to the dealership is information. It is not intended to create a to-do list of things to fix. Wash Your Trade-In When you ask a dealership to accept your truck or car as a trade-in, you are essentially asking them to buy it. If you were going to sell a vehicle private party, wouldn’t you wash it? Vacuum the interior? Make sure it doesn’t smell like your Labrador Retriever? "Want to sell your car quickly for a price that’ll leave you feeling satisfied? Giving it a thorough cleaning—inside and out—can translate into hundreds more dollars in your pocket," wrote Jeff S. Bartlett for Consumer Reports. "Dealers like clean cars because there’s little they need to do to get them ready for sale. And buyers gravitate to them because they like the idea of driving off in a car that looks like it has been well-maintained." Have A Price In Mind Lastly, you should do a bit of research. Try to decide how much your truck or car is worth as a trade-in. To do this get estimates from websites like: Kelley Blue Book Edmunds National Automotive Dealers Association Carfax Remember there can be a significant difference between the private party value and trade-in value of your truck or car. In this context, you want to have an idea of its trade-in value, understanding that a dealership will need to invest some money for repairs, etc., and that the dealership will also need to make a reasonable profit when they resell your trade-in. Pick A Good Dealership It can be very hard to get a real trade-in offer from a car dealership that negotiates on price. This is because you never really know if they are giving you a good price for your trade-in or simply jacking up the price of the vehicle you want to buy in order to "show you" more for your trade. Instead, consider working with a dealership that offers a good price to everyone. Then, when they value your trade-in, you know it a real offer.

When you apply for an auto loan many financial institutions will look at your ability to purchase, the car or truck you want to buy, and the amount you want to finance relative to the vehicle’s value. While there is no single formula that all banks and credit unions use to evaluate an auto loan application, these three criteria or factors are the most important, according to Austin Cegnar, finance manager at Maverick Car Company in Boise, Idaho. more Ability To Purchase The loan officer at a bank or credit union wants to be confident that a borrower has the ability to pay back the vehicle loan. This “ability to purchase” will be based on the buyer’s: Income stability – how long he or she has been in a job or owned a business, as examples. Outgoing expenses – the buyer’s total monthly expenses as a percentage of total gross income. Personal credit history – the combination of credit score and history. The Vehicle The car or truck you want to buy makes a difference in how a bank or credit union evaluates your car loan application for at least two reasons, including how likely you are to complete the loan term and how much the vehicle is worth. Loan Completion Banks will consider how likely the car or truck being financed is to either breakdown or be traded in before the end of the loan’s term. This is why some lenders have relatively higher rates on older vehicles with high mileage. To understand why this is important, remember two things. From the bank’s perspective lending money has an inherent risk. There is the chance a borrower won’t pay. Bank’s offset this risk by making a profit on the loan via interest. Vehicle Value How much a car or truck is worth, also makes a difference when you’re applying for an auto loan. Financial institutions have costs associated with lending money. When someone borrows $30,000, the bank or credit union expects to earn more than enough interest to offset both the risk (mentioned above) and any of its fixed costs. But if the loan amount is only $3,000, it might not make financial sense for a bank or credit union to offer the loan at the same terms. Ratio Of Amount Financed Finally, most lenders only want to finance the actual value of a vehicle. Banks and credit unions use sophisticated software to determine the current value of a car or truck. This valuation is based on the car’s vehicle identification number (VIN) which identifies its powertrain, trim packages, and similar, and a careful consideration of any accessories or additional equipment. Let’s imagine that we have a hypothetical buyer, John, who wants a vehicle that has a current value of $14,000. The dealership’s asking price is $13,795 which is slightly less than actual value. When sales tax and documentation fees are added, the total cost of the vehicle comes to $14,950, which is about 107-percent of the vehicle’s current value. A bank may make that loan based on John’s creditworthiness, or it may ask for money down. Putting $1,000 down in cash, lowers the amount financed to $13,950, which is less than the car’s current value. This lower’s the bank’s risk and may provide better terms for John. Getting Approved For Your Auto Loan Now that you recognize how a financial institution evaluates your car loan application, you should have a better idea of how much you can spend on your next car. If you would like more specific information, including understanding the difference between a soft or hard credit pull, please contact us at Maverick Car Company. We are glad to help.

Changes in technology, new customer expectations, and personal integrity have transformed many segments of the automotive industry, so much so, that some "Best Price" dealerships really are no haggle and trustworthy. For example, at Maverick Car Company, we value integrity in price above all else, and have four specific principles —including integrity— that guide our car and truck pricing philosophy. more Unfortunately, this is not always true for every car dealership that claims to offer its "Best Price" or promises "No Haggling." But for the most part, auto shoppers can, in fact, trust "Best Price" dealerships and stop haggling or negotiating on car prices. Before we explain why this is the case, let’s take a moment to consider how we got to this point. Bad Car Salespeople After decades of high-pressure sales, lies, and con-artist-style persuasion techniques, car salespeople had earned a very bad reputation. So much so, that they became a cultural stereotype. As evidence, consider Robert Zemechis’ 1980 film, Used Cars. The dark comedy shows off some of the car industry’s worst practices. This is evident even in the movie’s trailer, which begins with text moving across the screen like the opening of Star Wars. "At last, a controversial new motion picture that dares to deal with a serious contemporary problem which every man, woman, and child must come to grips with at least once in their lifetime…" the scrolling text read. The movie trailer implies that bad car salepeople are a "serious comtemporary problem." Next, a lemon appears. It is so close you can see the dimples and divots on its skin. You hear car salesman Rudy Russo —played by a young Kurt Russel— say, "They don't make them like this any more. Why don’t you go ahead and sit inside, go ahead. "There is new upholstery and just 27,000 miles, and we just gave the engine a complete overhaul yesterday. Go ahead, kick her over." We hear the engine. It sounds like someone gargling sand. It won’t turn over. A second time the engine whinnies. It won’t turn over. A third time, we hear the engine struggling. It is weaker now. A fourth time, and it simply dies. An enthusiastic Russo says, "Isn’t that the quietest engine you’ve ever heard in your life?" Next, the trailer shows us a series of "sales." Each time the salesperson says, "trust me" as a shopper drives away in a car while its door falls off, its rear bumper drops in the mud, or the tailgate gives way. The bumper falls off of a car as it leaves Russo's lot in the Used Cars movie trailer from 1980. As exaggerated as the trailer was, it still represented how folks used to feel about car sales folks. What Changed? At the beginning of this article, we said that car salespeople (and the dealerships that employ them) had changed and that so-called "Best Price" or "No Haggle" dealerships were trustworthy. This begs the question, what changed? What transformed an industry and a profession? Litigation First, bad car salespeople and bad car dealerships got sued. In fact, in the movie Used Cars mentioned above, as a further example, the dealership is under fraud investigation. Litigation is a powerful tool to limit or discourage dealership fraud. Put another way, good business folks understand that they cannot cheat their customers without consequences. The Internet The rise of the internet had led to unprecedented price transparency and an eruption of business rating and review websites. Both of these trends helped to improve the car sales industry. For example, now, if you wanted to shop for a used Ford F150, you could look on the Maverick website. You could visit Autotrader, Cars.com, or CarGurus. You could also look at dozens of other dealer websites, Craigslist, Ebay, and more. The truth is that if a dealership jacked up its prices artificially, you would know it the moment you compared those prices to every similar vehicle shown online. Thus, "Best Price" dealerships simply understand that you will have no problem finding a fair price for any vehicle, so why not show you, the customer, the very best price right from the beginning. Price transparency has really eliminated the need to haggle over price, and dealerships that are haggling might have something else to hide. Next, as mentioned above, it is also very easy to rate and review a dealership. Every time you search for a dealership on Google, for example, the search engine shows you how other shoppers rated the dealership. If a dealership was acting badly, Google would know. In early September 2020, Maverick Car Company had earned a 4.8 overall rating across 490 reviews. Professionalism As litigation and the Internet pushed bad actors, if you will, out of the industry, good business people came in. "Best Price" dealerships like Maverick, employ real professionals. These are folks who might have as much experience in customer service or retail sales as they do with car sales. Our salespeople are not paid a commission based on how much the dealership makes when you buy a car, so they have no incentive to "put" you in a particular vehicle or encourage you to spend more. They are professionals just like any others. For all of these reasons, you should really be able to trust your local "Best Price" used car dealership.

Craigslist has thousands of used car and truck listings and can be a great place to find your next vehicle, but, Craigslist is also an ever-changing marketplace populated by honest folks, licensed car dealers, inexperienced sellers, and downright crooks. This implies that you should approach the Craigslist classifieds with something of a plan, and what follows are nine tips to help you find and buy a used car or truck from Craigslist. more Tip No. 1: Use Filters When you look for a car or truck on Craigslist, the results you see are listed in chronological order. Thus, you see the most recent listing first. And unless you really have no idea what you want, just slogging through the listings page-by-page isn’t likely to lead you to your next vehicle any time soon. Instead apply filters to narrow your search. "Craigslist users have the option of limiting their search to include dealers, private sellers, or both," wrote Andrew Wendler in a February 2019 Car and Driver article about this same topic. "If you're the type who prefers the convenience of a one-stop shopping experience, you'll want to restrict yourself to dealer listings. Often, they can provide in-house financing options and warranty coverage as well, and eliminate the hassle of scheduling meetings with individual sellers. On the other hand, adventurous types who find the chase just as exciting as the catch might get a kick out of poring over for hours and then driving for two hours to snag the ‘perfect’ vehicle. Still, the ‘both’ setting can be handy when looking for an older commuter car or winter beater, although most dealers tend to stick to late-model iron." In addition to filtering for private sellers and dealerships, you can also select: How far away the car or truck is, How much it costs, Its make and model, Its model year, How many miles it has. Tip No. 2: Estimate The Value Once you have narrowed down your Craigslist search to a few target vehicles, take a moment to estimate the value of each one. To do this, you have at least three options. Services like Kelley Blue Book provide an estimate of the fair market value of a car or truck in your area. You can use services like Kelley Blue Book (KBB) to get an estimated fair market value. This should give you an idea of what the vehicle is worth, but you will need to take into consideration any upgrades or extras the seller may have done or added. You can check automobile marketplaces like Autotrader, Cars.com, and CarGurus. On these classified marketplaces, look for similar vehicles selling in your area. Most of these listings will come from dealerships, and dealerships almost always price their vehicles at fair market value, since they know everyone will be looking online. You can call someone. If you’re planning to finance your purchase, your bank or financial institution will also be able to look up a fair market value for you. Tip No. 3: Avoid Poor Listings The quality of a Craigslist ad can tell you a lot about the seller and the car. As the Shift Blog noted in an October 2016 post, watch out for Craigslist vehicle ads that: Are "suspiciously short...with numerous misspellings, all caps, and a general lack of details about the car." Have only one or two photos or that have blurry photos. Today anyone who can use Craigslist can also use a mobile phone to take several good quality photographs. Thus the lack of good pictures is a strong indication the post could be a fraud. Tip No. 4: Call The Seller Talk to the seller on the phone before agreeing to meet. Photo by Taylor Grote. Fraud and scams are a significant problem on Craigslist —as they are on many other classified websites. In fact, a few years ago, Jason Lancaster, who was the editor of AccurateAutoAdvice.com, wrote that on Craigslist you should "assume that the person selling the car is a con artist unless it's a licensed dealer." Of course, this won't always or even often be the case. The point is to be careful. To this end, "use the phone to your advantage and ask the big questions before you drive," wrote Car and Driver’s Wendler. "Are there any check engine lights on? Do you have the service records? How many owners? This also gives you an opportunity to pick up on the seller's character. Do they sound composed or sketchy? There's nothing worse than carving an hour out of your busy schedule to drive across town only to be greeted by a seller who says, ‘Well, I was just kinda throwing out a feeler, not sure if I really want to sell it at this point.’" In addition to avoiding scams and getting answers to the questions Wendler recommended, consider getting the vehicle identification number (VIN) and ensuring that it has a clean title. Tip No. 5: Meet On Neutral Ground "It's generally accepted that it's the buyer's responsibility to go to the seller. That said, asking the seller to meet you at a mutually agreeable location is not out of the question; if the seller agrees, make arrangements to meet at a public space, preferably one with lots of credible witnesses or foot traffic," Wendler wrote. Many other industry experts agree. While it could be a convention to go to the seller you need to make sure you feel comfortable going to the seller’s neighborhood and that you feel good about the seller. If not, only agree to meet in a neutral public place. Tip No. 6: Get An Inspection Here is an idea, ask the seller if he or she will meet you near your local garage or favorite mechanic’s shop. If you’re considering purchasing a car from a private seller, you want to have that vehicle inspected. This is going to cost you something like $75 to $150 dollars in some cases, but it is a lot better to spend money on an inspection than to purchase a car for $7,500 only to find out that it needs $2,500 in repairs almost immediately. Tip No. 7: Take A Test Drive There is a scene near the end of the 2019 film Ford vs. Ferrari wherein Carroll Shelby, who is played by actor Matt Damon, watches a potential customer get out of a car after a test drive and say how much he liked it. Shelby whispers to himself, "you drove it for less than an hour. You can’t tell after an hour." Matt Damon plays Carroll Shelby, who, it would seem, thought an hour was not enough time for a test drive. The point is that you will want to test drive any vehicle you plan to buy, and it should be a reasonable test drive that lasts more than just a couple of moments. Before you get in a car to test drive it, make certain it is registered and insured. It can also be a good idea to snap a photo of the seller's ID. Tip No. 8: Make An Offer If you’re dealing with a private seller or a dealership that negotiates (versus a best price dealer, see, for example, Maverick Car Company’s pricing philosophy), you will be expected to make an offer that is probably lower than the vehicle’s asking price. At the same time, it should not be your goal to try to nickel and dime a private seller. In fact, many, if not most, private sellers will simply become annoyed with you and sell their car or truck to someone else. "When negotiating, try not to be too emotional (or rude) and be able to explain your reasoning with facts," said the Shift blog. "For example, you can use information gleaned from the inspection to help support your case for a lower price. If the car needs a $300 brake job, you can see if the seller will accommodate for that in the price. Or, if the seller has the car priced well above book value ...you can see if they are willing to reflect that discrepancy with a lower price." "That said, don’t let it ruffle your feathers if they don’t want to come down on their price. It’s their car and they are not obliged to do so." Tip No. 9: Don’t Pay Cash Bringing cash money to a Craigslist meeting can be less safe than other ways of paying. "When it comes time to trade green for pink, consider using your personal bank. In addition to being the home turf for your money, banks generally have a notary public on staff who can witness signatures and emboss the bill of sale or other paperwork with their all-important official seal," wrote Wendler. "Building a sound paper trail is a great way to protect yourself in any transaction, so don't be afraid to ask the seller to take a certified check if the selling price is more than a couple of grand."

You’ve made a decision. It’s time to sell your car or truck. You’ve done all of the right things too, like having a mechanic give it a once over and having it detailed top to bottom. You need one last thing...a great Craigslist ad. Fortunately, you are in luck. Maverick Car Company in Boise has sold thousands of cars and trucks. The company has mastered the art of Craigslist car sales, and like a martial arts sensei training future black belts, we have put together the top 5 Secrets of Writing a Great Craigslist Car Ad. more 1. A Picture Is Worth 1,000 Words So admittedly, this article is supposed to be about "writing" an ad, but when it comes to selling your vehicle pictures can tell a great story. The cars and trucks Maverick Car Company lists on Craigslist typically have between 20 and 24 photos. The goal is to provide —visually— as much information about the vehicle’s condition as possible. Here is our recommended shot list. Consider taking a clear, high-resolution picture of your car or truck from all of these angles. Exterior 45-degree angle from the back facing right, 45-degree angle from the back facing right, 45-degree angle from the front facing right, 45-degree angle from the front facing left, 45-degree angle from the back facing left, Profile (from the side) facing right, Profile facing left, Front head on, Back head on. Interior From the driver’s side with the door open, If there is a backseat, shoot it from the driver’s side with the door open too, From the passenger’s side with the door open, If there is a backseat, shoot it from the passenger’s side with the door open too, Shoot the inside of each door, Take a picture of the trunk, hatchback, or truck bed, Take a picture of the instrument panel, Get a picture of the radio or infotainment console. Additional Photos Capture pictures of optional equipment, Show pictures of damage. You also want to ensure that your photographs are of a good quality. Don’t worry, you don’t need a special camera, a good smartphone should work fine. Here are a few photo-taking tips. Have plenty of light. Take your photos when there is plenty of light outside, but not when it is so bright that there are lots of shadows. In many places the early evening is a good time. Be focused. Make sure that pictures are in focus and clear. If it looks blurry, don’t use it, take another one. It is better to take 100 photos to get 20 good images, than to post an out-of-focus picture. Don’t include your thumb. Lots of Craigslist sellers will cover a car's license plate with their thumb or finger. Instead, if you’re worried about sharing the plate number online, take five minutes and remove the plates before you take pictures. You can easily put them right back on, and the resulting images will look significantly better. 2. Include Specifications & Accessories Your potential buyers will try to find out if your price is right. To do this, they will use an online tool like the Kelley Blue Book or the NADA. And, frankly, this is one of the reasons that specifications and a list of accessories are so important. For example, on June 24, 2020, we visited the Kelley Blue Book website and compared the private party value for a 2017 Toyota Tacoma Access Cab with only default options versus one with additional options included in the estimate. The "default" Tacoma showed a private party value of $18,673. When we added the vehicles specific specs and accessories, Kelley Blue Book estimated the private party value at $19,738, or more than $1,000 more. If your Craigslist ad didn’t include your vehicle’s specific specifications and accessories, some potential buyers will think you are overpriced and either ignore your ad altogether or show up prepared to offer much, much less money. Here are several specifications to include in the description section of your Craigslist ad. Year, Make, Model, Title status, Vehicle identification number (VIN), Trim package, like LE, SE, TRD, or similar, Transmission type, Engine, i.e. 3.0L Diesel Turbo V6 240hp 428ft. lbs. 6 Cyl, Mileage, Body type, i.e. SUV, sedan, etc., Drive type, i.e. AWD, Fuel type, think diesel, gas, electric, Estimated Miles per gallon or electric vehicle range, Color, use the official name. You will also want to include a list of any significant accessories or upgrades. If you added a hitch, tell folks. If you upgraded the tires, let shoppers know that too. Don’t be shy, provide as much information as possible. 3. Include A Detailed Description Car dealerships have something of an advantage when it comes to selling a car or truck on Craigslist. No one questions the dealer’s motives. They know that a car dealership is in the business of selling cars. Private party sellers don’t have that luxury. A buyer looking at your car or truck ad on Craigslist will want to know how you used the vehicle and why you are selling it. They might even be concerned that you want to get rid of it because you know it has some serious mechanical problem you are hiding. You can ease these concerns with a detailed description that explains how you used the vehicle and why you are selling it. Be transparent here. If the vehicle does have known issues, mention them. 4. Write A Descriptive Title As an experiment, go to Craigslist and compare the typical title that a car dealer uses to the title an average private seller writes. Here is what you will be likely to find. Typical dealer’s title: 2014 Audi Q5 Diesel AWD All Wheel Drive 3.0 quattro TDI Prestige SUV Typical private party seller’s title: 2014 Audi Q5 Car dealers, like Maverick, use these longer, more descriptive titles for three reasons, (1) they provide more information to shoppers, (2) they better describe the vehicle, and (3) data shows that they are more likely to be clicked and opened. 5. Use HTML Markup Hypertext markup language or HTML is used to help display websites, including Craigslist. And HTML gives you the ability to change how your description appears. One of the most significant examples is in how you list your vehicle’s specifications. Let’s build a nice-looking specification list using three simple HTML tags that are permitted in Craigslist posts. Bold Text First, let’s create a title of sorts using a <b> tag. This tag makes text bold in your Craigslist ad. <b>SPECIFICATIONS</b> The bold tag has two parts. The opening tag is a “b” surrounded by a less-than and greater-than character, <b>. The closing tag is the same “b” with a forward slash (/) in front of it, </b>. All of the letters or numbers between the opening and closing bold tags will be shown in bold in your Craigslist ad. Thus, SPECIFICATIONS. Unordered List Next let’s create a bulleted list of specifications. In HTML lingo, this is called an unordered list. Like the bold tag, the unordered list has two parts, an opening tag <ul> and a closing tag </ul>. In the example below the dots (...) simply mean something would go in between the tags. <ul>...</ul> List Items Within the unordered list, we want to include list items. We indicate a list item with these <li> opening and </li> closing tags. Here is one way we could show the year, make, and model. <ul> <li>YEAR: 2014</li> <li>MAKE: Audi</li> <li>MODEL: Q5</li> </ul> This HTML will produce a list, similar to this one. YEAR: 2014 MAKE: Audi MODEL: Q5 We can also place a bold tag inside of a list item tag. In this example, the words "YEAR," "MAKE," and "MODEL" will be rendered in bold. <ul> <li><b>YEAR:</b> 2014</li> <li><b>MAKE:</b> Audi</li> <li><b>MODEL:</b> Q5</li> </ul> The result in your Craigslist ad would be similar to the following. YEAR: 2014 MAKE: Audi MODEL: Q5 Add a new list item for each of the specifications from number two above (there are 14 of them), and you will have a specification list similar to this one (with more list items). <b>SPECIFICATIONS</b> <ul> <li><b>YEAR:</b> 2014</li> <li><b>MAKE:</b> Audi</li> <li><b>MODEL:</b> Q5</li> </ul> You don’t need to be a web developer to make simple HTML tags work in your Craigslist auto ad. Instead, you could use just the three tags described above to list specifications or features and make your ad a lot more readable. If you do want to know more about HTML for Craigslist posts, check out two resources. The list of permitted HTML tags for Craigslist posts A HTML guide at describes many tags Good Luck If you have checked out your vehicle mechanically, had it detailed, and written a great Craigslist post, you are well on your way to selling your car, so good luck. If you would like more help selling your vehicle, Maverick Car Company does accept some cars and trucks on a consignment basis. If your vehicle is less than ten-years old and below 100,000 miles, we may be able to help. Please visit our auto consignment page for more information.

In a YouTube live stream on May 5, 2020, the team at Maverick Car Company in Boise, Idaho, described three tactics for lowering your vehicle payment. These could include trading down to a less expensive vehicle, refinancing for a lower interest rate or longer-term, or consigning an extra vehicle. more A full transcript of the presentation is below. Video Transcription Hello & Welcome Armando Roggio Hello. Welcome. I do want to thank you for joining us for this presentation. This is the first time that Maverick Car Company has offered a how-to seminar, if you will, and the first time we have tried a live streaming event, so I hope you'll be patient with us. We were just, as we were preparing, talking about our various backgrounds. Austin and I, I'll introduce us in a second, are both at the dealership right now. We actually have some customers down there. I was going to go into our center office and have a nice window in my background, but I am now upstairs in the unfinished section of Maverick, so I have a great background. Austin looks good and then Shawn, who I'll introduce here in a second, too, was telling us about the artwork he has in his background for today's presentation, I think courtesy of his family. We had the idea for this presentation, frankly, because of the coronavirus, or perhaps more accurately, how the coronavirus has impacted us as a nation, a state, and individually. Some of our customers asked us how they could lower their automobile payments, and they have a lot of reasons for this. Some were furloughed. The stay-at-home order impacted their employer or their business. Others just wanted to have more room or margin in their finances. One customer wanted to apply for a new home loan and needed to shed a car payment. We thought, given that we help folks lower automobile payments all of the time, that we could share some of the ways that you can do it, and we tailored our list of things to include, the techniques, if you will, to things that would make sense in the wake of COVID-19. Introductions Armando Now before I go too much further, I should introduce myself and the two gentlemen who are joining me for this presentation, and hopefully you can see their names right there on the screen. My name is Armando Roggio. I have about 25 years of marketing and promotional experience. I've worked in some local companies you may know, including Micron Technology and D&D Supply, and I am now marketing for Maverick Car Company, and because I know how to run the live streaming software, I am here. Fortunately for you, I do have two subject matter experts with me. Austin has been part of Maverick Car Company's leadership team since shortly after their expansion and as a finance manager, he works directly with clients to accomplish their purchase goals and with lenders to secure the best purchase options he can for Maverick's customers. Austin, please say hello. Austin Cegnar Hello. Thanks for having me, Armando. Armando Yep. Shawn manages the consignment program for Maverick Car Company. He has owned over 50 vehicles personally and knows a thing or two about trading up and trading down, buying and selling, and as the advocate for the customer or the consumer, Shawn is always looking for ways to improve the Maverick client experience and he genuinely loves what he does and loves working with people. Shawn, say hello. Shawn Gower Hello. Thanks for having me, Armando. Yep. Thank you guys for for being present. A few minutes ago, Shawn was asking if we could just do this another night, so I do thank you for being here, for knowing stuff and for caring. I also wanted you, those watching us, to know what to expect from this presentation and discussion, so I put together this really fancy slide for you right here. Agenda Trade down Refince Sell Your Vehicle Armando We're gonna go and try to touch on all these topics in no more than about 20 minutes total, including the time that I'm taking right now to make these introductions and share this agenda with you. Trade down, that's moving from a relatively more expensive vehicle to a less expensive one. Refinancing, just like you would with a home mortgage. There's some lower rates possibly available out there, and then you could sell an extra vehicle, which is the ultimate payment reducer, if you will. After our presentation, we do also want to take some questions you might have. We're going to be saving about ten minutes for those questions, so please do you know chat them in right there along with the video as you think of them and just know that we will be saving those probably until the end of the presentation. I should say that the goal of this presentation is not to provide a definitive or comprehensive how-to guide for each of these payment-lowering tactics. Rather, we're going to try to reintroduce you to each of these and provide you with enough information and insight to know if this is something that you want to pursue. I said reintroduce because I don't expect this to be the first time that you've heard about trading down, which is just, again, trading your current vehicle for a less expensive car or truck, nor do I think it's the first time that you've thought about refinancing or selling. Instead, Austin and Shawn and I just hope to shine a little more light, if you will, on each of these topics. Trade Down To Lower Your Car Payments Okay. Moving along, I recently wrote a description of trading down for some social media posts that we did, and frankly, I did a decent job. Here's what I said. When you go from driving a relatively expensive vehicle, imagine a massive SUV with seating for a soccer team or a sports car that goes 0 to 60 faster than a speeding ticket to cruising in a more practical sedan or truck, you are trading down. Austin, how'd I do? How would you define trading down for our audience? Austin Armando, I think you're spot on. There's a couple of different reasons why somebody might do that, but trading down is going to be moving from one model to another model, can't afford it. An example, we had a client who traded down from an SUV that they had, fully loaded, originally purchased it for about a $70,000 price point, and wanted to get into something that didn't have as much of a loan on their monthly budget, so I think a lot of times what people are thinking of when they're thinking trading down is they have to take a sacrifice, and while that might be the case and that might be the best decision for them financially, in this case, that client was able to trade into something that had just as many features in it and still were equipped with the leather and seating functions and sunroof, and what a lot of folks would consider to be nice vehicle, so it wasn't the case for them. They just moved into something that was going to free up some finances for them. Armando I want to talk a little bit about the ways trading down can lower automobile payments, because when I think about buying a vehicle, I often think about it as adding an expense, not reducing or lowering an expense, but in fact, it is possible to make a vehicle purchase and lower my monthly automobile expenses. Shawn, would you mind getting us started? Talk to me about how trading down might reduce my monthly payment. Shawn Absolutely. Before I get started, I wanted to let everyone know, this is my first time on this live stream thing so I did us all a favor and made some bullet points to try my best to stay on track, and I gave Armando and Austin free reign on whipping me back into line so I stay on the course, but yeah, absolutely. There's so much, when you first asked me if I would do this, absolutely. I had 50 different ways to do so, and how simple trading down is, but then I realized in this current time, the COVID-19, how many people I know personally that it's affected and kind of wanted to step back just a bit before I get into that and say, the thing that we're seeing as a lot of people wanting to trade their vehicles. They're, as Austin said, a $40,000 or $50,000 vehicle. This seems to be just a very common thing, for a lesser vehicle, but then we're also running into people that have no pay for the last month and it's over-extended themselves, and so they're doing it from a practical standpoint as opposed to just the money. It's like, "I'm stepping back." I think that's something that we're good at helping people with. The reality is that everyone, every situation that we're seeing at this point in the dealership, people looking to do this, be it the person who came in and wanted to trade a Q5 in but still needed all-wheel drive, enabled to get into a Forester. Yeah, they don't have the bells and whistles, but it's not permanent. That's what we kept telling them. This isn't permanent. This is what you need. It's a need versus want right now. Really, the big thing with trading down, and I'll have Austin touch on this in a bit, a bit more, but it's, of course, the price, the number. The price tag, if it's $40,000 and you're rolling your $40,000 vehicle into a $15,000 or $20,000, essentially, your payment should be less, but there's so much that goes into that, because every situation's unique. How much money did you put down on your $40,000 vehicle? What do you owe on your $40,000 vehicle? There's so much that goes into it, and rate, your interest rate, your term, all those come into play, and Austin could touch on that probably a bit more than myself. Austin Sure. I think you hit on the big ones. Price point's going to be one of the largest influences on what somebody's monthly obligation requirements. A great example of that, if you're purchasing a $100,000 home, typically you're going to have, your monthly outgoing is going to be less than if you're purchasing a $300,000 home. That's the easy one. A few other ones that are not necessarily directly related to lowering payments would be overall debt obligations. We have a handful of clients here that are moving to the Treasure Valley. We see more people moving here. It's an influx. It's happening each day, so for a lot of those folks, their motivation is not necessarily going from one car payment to a lower car payment. Their motivation is just to free up debt and reduce that expense from a $45,000 car down to a $25,000 obligation. Shawn touched on a couple of things. Newer cars, of course, this may not be as much common knowledge as well. Newer cars will typically give you the most flexibility on what you'd like to set up for your monthly payments, and also going to give you the most flexibility or the most advantage, I should say, based on interest rates. Armando Austin, as you mentioned interest rates, obviously, which is going to play an important part in our next payment-lowering technique, refinancing, it made me think about the fact that I guess payments, etc., etc. I guess I want to talk about one of the major concerns with trading down, which is negative equity or being upside down in my vehicle. Could you take a minute and describe negative equity, and is it a deal killer for trading down? Austin Sure. Negative equity, some people, negative equity is owing this much on your car, more on your vehicle than what it is worth, and before I answer your question, I think I'll preface that with, I think the most common feeling that people have when they are in negative equity is just the, "Oh, my gosh. I'm the only one." Because we've done this for so long, I can very comfortably say you're not. We work with clients every day who are trading vehicles that they owe more than what we're able to value them at. There's a handful of other things that are going to come into play with that. No, it's absolutely not a deal killer. For the majority of the clients that we see, it's an absolute possibility. The big things, it's going to be a case by case scenario. It's going to largely be on the shoulders of borrower history, but overall, you're able to make up for these things in a handful of different ways and you're trading in negative equity and adding something on top of your loan. You can play around with some things to help alleviate that and maybe even help stay in some of your monthly budget or the same monthly payment that you've had. There's also sales tax programs that come into play when you trade in a vehicle. In most states, you are able to utilize the sales tax saving help away at a portion of that. I think Shawn would be able to add to a handful more things on that, but really, case by case is going to be big one and largely depending on what you're trying to purchase, your current history, and maybe if you are a member of current credit unions or have great relationships with them. Shawn Yeah, absolutely. I will say, just to confirm, I guess, that the majority of folks that do come in, I would say it's probably more than 50% would trade a vehicle, do carry some negative equity. I don't know the exact number, but I can tell you from a consignment standpoint, I've had folks come in recently that are trying to get rid of that extra car or whatever it is, and same scenario. They have a car that they owe $33,000 on, and it's worth about $30,000. Not the end of the world. They're able, fortunately, they had savings. They're okay because in the end, if it's going to cost them $3,000 to get rid of $30,000 in debt or $33,000, so they're happy, but as Austin was saying, I truly believe that every one of those situations are case by case. You cannot. I would love to say, "Here's the magic formula. Plug this in, and this is what it'll look like." That's just not the way it works, but we're happy to look at each and every individual's case. One thing I would like to say, kind of from a personal standpoint and from things that I've learned is take the time and step back and acknowledge and realize what got you in this situation to start with, because much like our toilet paper shortage, I would say that people jumped the gun and more or less freaked out. It was like, "Everyone's buying toilet paper. I'm going to buy it, too." That doesn't necessarily mean that people are trading their cars or trading down. That may not be the absolute best case for you or the best scenario for you. Really, take a step back, and that's something that we're able to look at. Did you trade something in last time? What got you here? Let's figure that out and then see how we can truly help you, really help you going forward and not just for the next three months, because three to six months is not long. Is this going to help you for a year or two years down the road? Planning long-term as opposed to, right now, my payment will be $100 less. Great. Unfortunately, it's $100 less, but it's for 84 months instead of the 60 you're at right now. Is it really less? That's something just to kind of take into consideration. That's my thoughts on that. Armando It makes sense, and I like that you mentioned the toilet paper shortage because we did think about a toilet paper promotion where you could get free toilet paper when you traded down, so I think that would be good. Shawn It's not too late. Refinance To Lower Your Car Payments Armando Gentlemen, I- it's not too late. I told the folks watching that we would keep this initial discussion to about 20 minutes, so I do want to move on to refinancing. With refinancing, I'm not getting a new or different vehicle, am I? Austin No. No, you're not. You may be getting a lower payment. Overall with refinancing, similar to a mortgage, you're recalculating the terms and that's as simple as it is. You're taking maybe a 15-year mortgage and turning it into a 30 or a 30-year mortgage and turning it into a 15. It's the same thing with a car. There's a lot of talk about interest rates, which I think is important to know what you qualify for. I believe that it's important to never pay too much, especially since banks have a lot bigger buildings than most of our homes. The honorable mentions that I make, though, is that that's not the only thing that's going to make ... and make up your monthly payment. Oftentimes, overlooked are the length of time that you're financing for and that's going to have the largest impact, along with price, on your monthly outgoing, your monthly payment on that car. The way that works in that whole business world or the mortgage world is 15-year is more money than a 30-year, which I think that makes a lot of sense. Same with car payments. A three-year loan term is going to be a larger payment than a five-year loan term, and once you really get a grasp on that, I think it's important to recognize, why would I go with a three-year instead of five? Those are going to be largely determined by who you're working with as the lender and their flexibility on that, but also the model year of your car. Newer cars qualify for better terms. That's the flexibility I was talking about earlier. That means that instead of being stuck with this three-year, paying it off in three years and have to make this large payment, you may be able to stretch that out to five. You may be able to stretch that out to six. I've seen as long as seven-year loan terms that give you a lower monthly mandatory obligation. ... the government sends you money or maybe you're jumping back to work, that sort of thing. Interest rates are lower, though, and I don't think that's something to ignore. Shawn and I were talking about this one earlier, too. You can discuss that? Shawn No, yeah. That's what we were saying. When you look at interest rates, especially for used cars or used vehicles, they're approaching if not even hitting, I didn't verify this, but definitely coming close to an all-time low and that's something that maybe I should verify but I've seen rates in the low 2's, whatever it is, advertised. I'm like, "Wow, that's insane." It's awesome. At the same time, when you start talking about refinancing a vehicle, I don't think many people really sit down and use a loan calculator or whatever it may be, but two or three percent less, two or three percent less on a loan, on a refi, could change drastically. Obviously, we know that on a home loan, but even on auto loans. It's something that's worth people looking at. Armando It's interesting. I was going to say, I'm sorry. Go ahead, Austin. Austin No, go ahead, Armando. I interrupted you. Go ahead. Armando No, I was just going to say it's interesting that you mentioned the two or three percent, because one of the things I learned as we were preparing for this presentation was that consumer auto loans, the loans we're discussing, are closely tied or related to the prime lending rate, which has come down a lot, as Shawn mentioned. Last year, April of last year, the prime rate 5.5%, meaning that folks with the best credit ratings were getting car loans at around that rate and this year, right now, I checked this morning. The prime rate is 3.25%, and that's a huge difference. In fact, that's the couple of percentage points Shawn was just talking about. While we did talk about terms and other things, am I right that the fact that interest rates are this low could make refinancing a good idea for some people right now? Austin Absolutely. That's full circle on the conversation that we were talking about earlier this week. Even if you had bought a car earlier in 2020, even if you purchased a car recently in 2019, even if you've got great credit or nothing has changed, it's still a great idea to revisit that. Again, case by case scenario, you may have locked in the best terms at full swing, but oh, my gosh. If you were leaving the opportunity to put $30, $40, $60, $100 a month back in your pocket, wouldn't you want to do that? There's a lot of talk about it. There's a lot of advertising for buying a brand new car in order to get great interest rates. That's just not the case. A lot of times, folks can go right back to their local credit union or even the lender that they're working with on their current vehicle and talk to them about the programs that they have. That alone is going to make a difference, absolutely. Shawn Yeah, and in regards to refinancing, there's a lot of things, kind of what I was talking about earlier. I know it's all case by case and I'm going to say that probably throughout this entire conversation, just for the simple fact that, again, there's no algorithm that says, "This is for you" or "This isn't for you." It's, we've got to talk to you and see your picture, but the other thing with refinancing is that you have the ability. We've all seen how quickly you can go from feeling pretty secure to feeling, have a lot of uncertainty in life, so going through with a refinance, be it through us or whomever, looking at the idea of adding a warranty or a service contract to that refinance, doing it at that lower interest rate and just, again, it's something where you can just essentially control what your outgoing is. That's something that's really important to folks. There's times like this that you can't control your incoming because things happen, but ultimately, setting yourself up now for the future, again, by making sure you're protected so you don't have those $1500 bills that come out of nowhere, so to speak, that you weren't expecting. It's important. Austin If you really look at everything as far as we say incoming and outgoing, there's all sorts of verbiage out there in the world, but you have two different kinds of things that you're going to have in your life as far as function. Those are going to be assets. Assets make you money, and those are also going to be liabilities. Liabilities are things that cost you money. An asset would something that pays for your monthly expenses each and every month. Your job or your income, for instance, would be an asset to your family, but vehicles, cars can, will always will be a liability. You're not just looking at the purchase price of the vehicle. We all know that we have to buy the car in the first place, but you're also touching a plethora of other things that you're going to pay for. Gasoline is one of those, good old rural drive country here, and that means that gasoline can be a huge expense for a lot of guys here. On top of that insurance, you've got maybe monthly payments. You have maintenance on the vehicles, oil changes, brake pads. Largest thing is repairs with cars, and you'll get a check engine light or you'll get a bunch of things lighting up when everything is terribly wrong, but most of the time, you don't get a huge heads up on when stuff is going to happen. Having a vehicle service contract really is just protecting your budget, same as making sure that, just like anything else that we'll probably plan for in our life, if you wagered out $400 for something, oh, my gosh, is it going to feel uncomfortable when we start paying $600 and $700 and $800 for that thing that we just budgeted for. A vehicle service contract just, simply put, to your point, Shawn, does exactly that. It takes care of the repair. You have a copay or a deductible, if you will, and it gets the vehicle back on the road. Shawn No, and to even add to that, the idea of doing even the prepaid maintenance, and there's a lot of groups out there that offer that. It's something as simple as, if you're prepaying for, and that could go into a refi as well, but having your oil changes, your tire rotations, all your basic maintenance taken care of. What we've found in the times that we do this is that people that pay for it, they use it. They typically, if your car is, it's like going to the dentist or doctor. I'll use a dentist, because I recently started going to the dentist more religiously. All of a sudden, you don't have these big surprises. It's like you know, I had a cavity starting, but not bad enough for a filling. Same idea, if you're getting your car serviced, it's, essentially, you're going to have an idea if something's going on. You know what? Next time you're in here, we're probably going to need to look at tires, but it's not a surprise. You've got a belt showing on the inside. Again, it's not a surprise, and I think that, with everything that just happened, if I could go back and say anything, is just preparing yourself. These are all things that we all know we need to do, but they're not on the forefront of everyone's mind. I think it's important for people to realize, during this reset, what can I do to stabilize myself, my family, my budget? This is a really good way to go about that. Armando Makes sense. I am watching the clock a little bit, and so I'm just going to try to sum up, as we move on. Interest rates are low right now. You have lots of term options and when you refinance, you can not only lower your car or truck payment, but you might be able to protect your budget, if you will, with a service contract or with prepaid maintenance. Is that correct? Shawn Yes. Austin That's all correct. Sell You Car Armando All right. You're both nodding. That's good. Let's move on to the last section. Back, all the way back in 2017, the US Department of Transportation released some figures or data around how many cars or trucks there are in the United States. This is actually the most recent data available, and it showed that a typical American household had 1.88 light passenger vehicles, so unless that is counting my son's broken down Isuzu as a .88 of a vehicle, what it really means is that many families have more than one car. That is particularly true here in Idaho. You can see that. That very same data showed that for every 1,000 men, women and children in the state of Idaho, there are 1,122 vehicles. Again, that means that many families, many families have two or three cars, and frankly, selling one of those is the ultimate form of car payment reduction. Shawn, if I want to sell my car, what are my options? Shawn I'd say your top three answers or options, I should say, would be sell it to a dealer, sell it private party, Craigslist, Facebook, the old sign in the road on the side of the highway, or you could sell it via consignment, which is, I think, new for a lot of folks. We'll talk about that a bit more in a few, but I guess we'll just go through each one of these and maybe give the upsides and maybe some things to caution you on as you do them or consider them, I should say. Selling to a dealer, I feel, is probably the quickest. It just, essentially, is. You pull up whichever dealership you choose, a few different, ideally. You say, "I would like to sell my car." They typically could cut you a check the same day, and you're done. Now, downside to that is you're probably going to get less than you wanted, and to be fair, as someone that buys vehicles from people at times, you have to understand that depending on the vehicle, that dealership is then taking on all the responsibility for the reconditioning, the conditioning, total mechanical condition of the vehicle and then has that, again, as a liability, now has to sell that vehicle as well. There's no guarantee on return or when the return's going to come. I think keeping that in mind, but ultimately, that's a way to really quickly get rid of a car. Again, going back to what I said earlier, I believe this comes down to, it's situation by situation. If you're someone, "I need to get $10,000 today because X, Y, Z. I own my car outright." That might be your best bet, but I think there are better options out there for folks, private party is one that I think would probably be a better option to at least try prior to doing that. That's my take on it. Austin, what do you think? Austin I think you're spot on, too. Private party for, at least in Idaho and those northwest markets, can make a lot of sense to people. We have a lot of clients who tried to sell things private party. They either had bites on it or they didn't, and then they move forward accordingly. The most important thing is, again, going back to the things that you've touched on, Shawn, be honest with yourself about your situation. If it doesn't affect you and it's not going to impact your life and your day to day operations and family and your overall lifestyle, your well-being to carry that liability, to try to sell that car on your own, then do. If it is, be honest with yourself about that, too. Where are you going to be at in two weeks, if this doesn't sell? Is your lifestyle going to change? Dealers, of course, they're going to take the car in. Their goal is to recondition it and make it presentable, advertise it, and they've got to pay for that advertising, and sell it for a profit. Naturally, there's going to be a margin that they need to build in in order to do what, essentially, you're trying to do. Again, being honest with yourself. If you're at high risk or really don't want to be outside of your home right now, maybe having a bunch of people coming over to drive your car doesn't make sense, but for most of the people that we work with, at least giving it a run for a couple of weeks can, and it absolutely has, a lot of people. Shawn Yeah, and consignment. Armando, as you mentioned earlier on, I manage our consignment department here at Maverick, but truth be told, I used the program as a consumer, client prior to actually running the program, and I can tell you that it worked, and it worked well, and that's not a sales pitch. I'm just letting folks know that ultimately, it's kind of that, I guess you could say, middle ground. It's not for every vehicle, but ultimately, if you have a vehicle, what we find is when people start breaking that $10,000, $15,000 range and you're getting above that, trying to sell that on your own is tough. Not very many people have that cash in hand, and we're able to offer all the payment options. We're able to do financing on the spot, and we're able to get folks in the car. What that looks like from the consumer or the individual consigning the vehicle is, they're going to ideally try to get closer to that private party number, so they're still getting what they're wanting to get without having the answer the calls, answer the emails, meet people at Walmart parking lots or wherever it is they want to meet them, depending on who called and how they called them and so on and so forth. Ultimately, I think the consignment program or a consignment program works really well for most situations. I've encouraged folks in the past, said, "Hey, try it for a few weeks on your own, private party, and if its' not what you want to do, and it's not working, give us a call." It's been good. It's been a good way. Those are really the main three ways that come to mind, and we could probably go into consignment a bit more detail, but I'll leave it at that. Questions Armando Sure enough. Shawn and Austin, we have gone a bit over our 20 minutes, like ten minutes over that we had logged for this discussion, so I do want to move on to the questions, but I do also need to take a minute to reiterate what we've discussed so far. Our goal was to reintroduce you, those watching, to three ways that you can lower your monthly automobile payments. Our suggestions were to trade down to a less expensive vehicle, refinance the vehicle you're driving now and perhaps even protect your budget with a service contract or prepaid maintenance and then number three, sell an extra vehicle, maybe consigning it to get the ultimate form of payment reduction. With that, I do want to read some of our questions. We've had a couple come in. The very first one I want to tackle is from Bill. Bill says, "I have an expensive SUV. Would like to downgrade, but I don't want an old, unreliable car. Are there good cars that are less expensive? Any suggestions?" Austin Shawn, I'll start on this, but I'm sure you've got lots to share as well. Rewinding to reliability really is going to be based on a couple of things. We live in a world that, we are so fortunate to be able to do some research or at least have access to information that are going to give us some insight. Those don't have to come from dealerships any more, though they oftentimes do, because that's what we're immersed in. That's what we do every single day. The information out there, there are a lot of times when Consumer Reports, for instance, is going to come from people who own that car. How has their experience been? First and foremost, doing a little bit of research on what it is you're wanting to replace that with, and the second part of that is doing business with a reputable place. If you're not going to go out and seek out a vehicle for yourself, if you're not going to go out private party and try to purchase something, then working with a dealership or a business or maybe even with a mechanic that is reputable, and will be honest ... . I don't believe in today's world, with as many options as we have out there, that trading down ever means having to sacrifice, necessarily having to sacrifice reliability. Shawn, do you have anything more to add to that? Shawn I agree, and again, I keep defaulting to the situation by situation, but my first questions would be, why the larger SUV? Is that something that, do you need a Sequoia? Do you need a Yukon XL? Is it family-related? Is it, hey, I'm towing my boat and I like to have enough space for my stuff? I think a lot of that would come down to the questions, but to touch on what Austin was saying, I don't think you have to sacrifice for liability, but I do think there's ways, there are ways to go about that. Again, Consumer Reports, looking at vehicles, having inspections done, third-party inspections and to be able to confirm the mechanical condition of the vehicle you're looking at. I would want to ask Bill a few questions, just clarifying questions to really figure out what he's looking for, see if we could point him in the right direction. Armando I do understand that, right? Talking to Bill or anyone would help you to identify the specific needs for the vehicle, and you could put them in something reliable, but I also want to help Bill out here on this chat. If you were looking at a vehicle, you know he's coming from an SUV, what are some vehicles that you might recommend? He says expensive SUV. Are we talking about a 4Runner, or are we talking about going all the way to a Subaru? What do you guys think? Shawn Yeah. I think you nailed it. Again, it's tough, because I can appreciate that, but yeah, what's he driving? Expensive SUV? Is he driving an Escalade? There's a lot of, do you need the third row? It's a lot of different SUVs come to mind, but I'll always say I'm not sponsored by them yet, but I'll always say Toyota anything. You really can't go wrong. Anything Toyota, Honda. Again, I would need to know more about what exactly he's doing with it. Is it a commuter? Is it around town? Any of those vehicles work, any Toyota 4Runner, the third row, if that's what's needed. Honda Pilot, does he need as big as the Sequoia? I'm not sure, but there's a lot of them out there. Austin Yeah, big time, and to add, touch on the point that we were making earlier, I think some of the most reliable vehicles out there on the roads are the ones that other people pay to fix, that service contract companies pay to fix. Even if a vehicle has, it's coming up on the 100,000 mile mark, maybe it's less than that. Maybe it's just barely out of manufacturer's warranty and it's 60,000. Having a service contract on a car, a lot of times, ... overall. If you've got your maintenance taken care of and you're coming back to the dealership to hopefully prevent problems from happening and you have a service contract to cover it if everything does go wrong, then you're just that lucky person. It still is going to alleviate that stress, and you're not going to come out of pocket for large expenses and you're going to guarantee go back to a certified shop and a certified center to get those repairs done, maybe not sacrifice the budget repair on some of these backyard that might only last a few months. Armando All right. I'm going to go on, with that, to our next question. Is there an age limit on what I'm able to refinance? My car was older when I got it a couple years ago, and I had a hard time finding finances. How about older cars and refinancing, gentlemen? Austin That's a fun one. Every, in my experience, every bank is going to be a little bit different with that. First and foremost, it's how old is old, and how many miles do you have on that car as well? I've seen cars that were only a handful of years old that had over 200,000 miles on them. It's going to be hard to refinance, no matter what you do. If you do have a good relationship with your lender, I think that's the very first place to start. If you maybe don't have a relationship with them or maybe have never had, but just made payments with them, visit the dealership that you purchased it from or somebody else that you feel comfortable going to. Dealers do have refinance programs and they do push more volume than you do, guaranteed. They process more auto loans every single week than you've probably had in a lifetime, so we are able to leverage that, and a lot of other auto groups are able to leverage that in order to get better terms for their clients and pass along another good relationship, piggyback off of that relationship. Specific answers, bank programs go back as far as 2003. On my side, I have some lenders who don't even specify on year. They look at things as a case by case scenario as well, so a handful of different ways to do it, but formally going direct to get that information rather than speculation. Armando Just so I can say that again, basically you said some will, some lenders will go case by case, even if it's older, but you definitely have a 17-year-old vehicle that you could get refinanced. Is that what I heard you say, Austin? Austin On my side, on my side, I'm going to be limited all the way to 2010 for a refinance through the dealership, but individuals out there can go into certain credit unions and ... that will finance all the way and refinance all the way back to 2003, yes. Armando Okay. I guess this might actually be a little bit of prognostication, and I don't know if you want to do that or not, but obviously, this is a live stream on May the 5th, 2020. In the state of Idaho, we're just starting to open up some businesses again after a lockdown, and there's a lot of people already saying that we're coming into a recession. Do you think we're going to see an increased tightness, if you will, in the auto loan market? Is it a good time now to, if you need to trade down, if you need to refinance it, do that in anticipation of maybe a little bit tightening of market or do you not see that as being an issue or concern, either one of you? Shawn I'll say this, just real quick. I can't speak to the, for the auto industry, but I can say in, I've got a good source that in home loans, there's definitely some tightening down on cash out refis and things of that nature, so I wouldn't be surprised if it trickled over into auto, but I don't know if Austin's seen that or if it's something that he has any insight on at all. Austin Sure. I think in times of plenty, everybody's a little bit more relaxed, and in times that are tighter, people typically get more frugal, and banks are not an exception to that. Dealers may not be an exception to that. Here's what I can say we do see. First and foremost, vehicles out there that are sitting on dealerships' lots, they own those cars. They pay for those vehicles, and it's guaranteed they do not want to have them there. They'd rather you have them at your home, so that's going to be a huge motivating factor right now, to yes, absolutely pull the plug on something or make a move on something before we ever get there. I think it's difficult to predict what the market's going to do in three, six and nine weeks down the road, let alone three, six and nine months down the road, but what we do know is auto loans are pretty well the most flexible and the best interest rates that you're going to get. Vehicles sitting on dealership lots are incredibly aggressively priced, and there's a surplus of vehicles that are going through auction and they keep getting rented over and over and over again without having purchases on them. That's because dealerships or individuals who own them want to get this price for them and they're only being bidded up to this amount. That means that potentially, the market's going to be even going up from here, so yeah. Absolutely a good time to at least look into it and looking at what options you have and decide if it makes sense for you to pull the trigger on something right now. Closing Armando Awesome. Once again, I do want to thank you for joining us for this presentation, those of you watching. I mentioned at the beginning of this, this is our first attempt at a how-to presentation and our first attempt at live streaming, so I hope it was helpful to you and valuable to you. Please let us know if you liked this presentation. If you happen to be watching on YouTube, subscribe. Leave a comment. Anywhere you watch it, if you wouldn't mind, send a text message to this number and tell us how we did. You could start it off by saying, "Presentation," and then let us have it. Were we terrible? Were we good? What else would you like to see as we do future presentations? We're going to try to do these on a regular basis, so thank you to everyone who has been watching. Shawn and Austin, thank you for participating in this. This is new for you, I know, and really enjoyed having you guys on. Shawn Thank you, Armando, very much. It was awesome. Ausin Likewise. I really appreciate you guys. Armando All right. Well, everyone, thanks again. Have a very good night. About This Presentation Maverick Car Company is a used car dealer in Boise, Idaho. As a service to everyone in Idaho and on the interest, we created this presentation to try to offer some help. If you enjoyed this presentation, please look for more on the Maverick Car Company YouTube Channel.