All this talk about honesty from car dealers is making me a bit sentimental for the job.
What's the truth and what's a lie? Technically, any car can be taken to a car show, or be ready to show, even if it's a rusted-out POS. My car will never be a perfect scoring show car, or win lots of trophies, but I still enter it in every car show that makes a request of me, and if the concourse guys don't like it, screw them.
I remember when I was working for Ford, and our dealership, along with every other dealership, proudly claimed to be "The Number One Ford Dealership in North Florida!", which made me wonder how can every dealership be number one? When I asked that question of management, I was told "as long as you can document that you sold more of something than anyone else, you can make the claim." So if one dealership sold more yellow F-150 STXs than any other dealership last month, they can claim to be the Number One Dealership, just not how they're number one at just one aspect of selling. It's not a lie, but not the whole truth either.
What folks need to realize with TTB and similar dealers is there is no way for them to make sales based on the cars they carry. They make sales based on price, not the vehicle, which is the way most used cars are sold because the value of a used car is 100% subjective and arbitrary and the statement that a car is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it is correct. One time we had a truck on the lot that had been listed in the auto shopper mag at 11,999, but the numbers on the windshield read 9,999. We got a call from a guy asking if the truck was still there, and I told him yeas. And he asked about the 11,999 price, and I told him I thought it was still good. I went to check with the used car manager, and he said "tell him we'll take 11,999", and then he got some new number decals and changed the windshield to 11,999. Was that ethical? Some would say no, but the reality was had the guy come to the lot first, he would have saved $2,000. Instead he tried to minimize his risk by calling first, and he lost $2,000.
This is why if I were TTB, I wouldn't list prices either. You can have someone with a price in mind of $30,000 and another with $20,000 for the same car, so why limit yourself? Since you're selling price and not the car, if someone calls in and is thinking 20K, you can work that deal, and if they call in thinking 30K, you can work that deal too.
As for condition, I wholly agree that not listing all the problems a vehicle has is deceitful, but folks, especially newbies, need to realize no dealer can order a 73 Road Runner or 69 Charger from the factory. Whatever cars are for sale are whatever is available for sale after being used and sitting around for 50+ years. About the only way to get a top-notch, fully-restored, vintage car is to buy one at auction or from a collector. The cars these dealers are getting are mainly old project cars that have been sitting around in one state of repair or another. If they were really nice, they would be selling at an auction, if they're selling at TTB they were too rough for an auction and were too risky to sell at one. TTB is going to be no better than anyone else. If they come across a really nice car, it's going to auction. If they find a beater, it's going on the lot. As long as you realize that going in, you won't be disappointed.
