I’ve been checking prices on https://www.offleaseonly.com/ and noticed that I can get a solid 2-3 year old vehicle at 3-4k below market value. With the right vehicle, I could probably ride the flat line of a depreciation curve and get out a smoking deal compared to a lease.
Anyone else ever thought of doing that?
Does anyone have good depreciation data resources?
Kudos to you, I would not buy a car there, but it’s your money, your prerogative.
I’ve seen their vehicles pop up a lot on Autotrader. It really depends on what vehicle you’re targeting, and where you’re based. Certain brands have a much shorter warranty so you’d be safer with a CPO in some situations. For any vehicle, especially used, I’d want to be able to fully check the vehicle out so if it’s not close to you it’s a risk to travel far.
Having read a few things about people here putting on used tires on their vehicles and various tricks to not pay wear and tear costs you’d need to have low expectations or really know what to look for.
They seem like just another dealer that buys cars from auctions. Check the Carfax on their vehicles. I looked at 5 cars and 4 of them have been involved in buybacks or accidents.
I wound NOT buy a car there. I got sucked into the prices and then as Jon mentioned check all the Carfax reports. There either lemon buybacks, rebuilt, rental cars or been in accidents. I wouldn’t give them half the price thier advertising. To each his own tho.
Well I wouldn’t mind buying a former rental just like folks are willing to lease loaners. Especially since the manufacture warranty is still intact. If you select the right car, you could potentially sell it in 1-2 years when the warranty is up to Carvana/Vroom or trade-in for nearly the same price you paid for the vehicle.
You could put the money you “saved” every month (from riding the flat line of the depreciation wave) into your next vehicle and upgrade each time.
And even if that website (offleaseonly) isn’t the best place to buy cars, the points being is that a quality off-lease car purchased/financed from auction might be better bang for your buck over time.
I’m sure there are quality CPO auction brokers out there.
Can you show us an example of a car with that potential from that website? Why would this dealer leave money on the table?
I think this is a stretch. They’re not going to sell you a car undervalued where you can profit on it in 2 years as you expect, especially since you’ll be at minimum owner 2. Each owner lowers the value of the car too.
I mean, I could potentially be a millionaire in 2 years when I win the lottery too.
Dealer issues aside, this is neither worth the time, or the effort, unless you plan on keeping the car for several years.
The chances of coming out ahead and next to nil. You may do better than a lease, but it is huge risk (warranty, service, market when sold) and a lot of effort (reselling, prepping).
Lease’s allow you to manage time and money.
I looked at 6 vehices on their site. 4 of them had been in accidents. One was a former rental vehicle and one a Corporate Lease. My assumption is that most “cherry” off lease vehicles are picked up by a franchised dealer. If it is truly an “off lease” vehicle it isn’t going to be a top pick. Also - don’t underestimate what a former rental vehicle or accident does to the actual value.
Comparing leasing a loaner to purchasing a former rental vehicle is a huge stretch. The loaner will most likely be turned in at the end of a lease whereas a former rental you are stuck with the repair costs (and there will be repair costs).
The OEM warranty remains intact only when scheduled maintenance is done on time. Doesn’t have to be done at the dealer but it has to be done, and if push comes to shove for warranty work you’ll have to provide evidence.
I’ve seen former rentals with 15, 20, even 25+ K miles and nothing on the car fax regarding maintenance. Good luck finding receipts even if they exist.
Loaners from Benz, BMW etc with sub 10k miles are different because no scheduled maintenance has been missed
This 
A loaner with 5k mikes on the clock that has been driven by a person who already has an expensive car cannot be compared to a run-of-the-mill rental car with any relevance.
Doesn’t mean a rental car will let you down, but not the same arena at all.
I’ve looked into the Carfax for some of the non-accident models and noticed all the ones I checked had regular maintenance on the report.
If it’s a high end luxury vehicle, with regular maintenance, no accident history, power train warranty still intact, at 3-4k below market value I would definitely consider driving it for a year or two and then selling to a vroom/carvana company.
I’ve already entered the VIN for some of these cars into Vroom and noticed they would purchase for 1-2k over purchase price. And that’s a non-negotiated offer so it takes the hassle out of the history of the vehicle.
Hypothetically it makes sense. However I wouldn’t buy from a place that apparently sources from the bottom of the auction barrel. There are a couple places like that in the tristate. They’ll always show up in searches with the lowest prices. Often they are cars with prior damage that hasn’t been reported on carfax
Well if you can buy from given and turn around and sell to vroom now why not just make that your new hobby. Easy money
Maybe if I had a wholesale dealer license so I could easily manage the paper work of transferring the title from the company I bought it from to vroom.
But in my situation, I would have to pay tax on the title, go to the dmv, register, then sell it to vroom.
Seems like a big hassle.
[edit]: and lower margins because of having to pay tax as a retail customer
Where do you think vroom is getting their cars?
Good point, most of the Vroom’s I looked at for 2017/2018 Nissan Armadas were fleet or rental vehicles.
Offlease Only has a brilliantly deceptive name. I’d wager less than 1% of vehicles on their lot are private owner, offlease deals. I’ve checked dozens of vehicles over the years and almost all of them are via auction, have an incident or both…