From Chapter Six:
 
All I Really Need To Know About the Car Business
. . . I Learned in High School Economics (Almost)
 
“There is no such thing as absolute value in this world.
You can only estimate what a thing is worth to you.”
 
—Charles Dudley Warner
Author & Editor (1829–1900)
 
"...I have attended car auctions where franchised dealers brought brand new, limited edition models to the block. The most memorable was a red Dodge Viper. This particular auction was in Connecticut, so it drew dealers from a wide range of states from Pennsylvania to Maine. A few buyers who pilot their own private jets hail from even greater distances. The auction’s expansive metal Butler building houses twenty active lanes. These all run simultaneously,offering everything from virtually totaled high-mileage wrecks, which sell for few dollars, to the occasional Lamborghini or Ferrari.
 
"However, this Viper brought the auction to a virtual standstill, as dealers from every lane followed the car in to see how high it would go. The vehicle sold for twenty thousand dollars over sticker price. Now mind you, only dealers were allowed onto the grounds. So this wasn’t some rogue private collector with the winning bid. This was a dealer most likely acting on behalf of a collector, or one intending to wholesale the car to another dealer (who had a collector in his pocket).
 
"My point is this: The dealer was going to own the car for twenty grand over MSRP, mark it up, and sell it to a buyer at a profit. Today however, Chrysler and Dodge dealers are going out of business. A hundred Vipers on each of their lots could not save their dealerships. That’s supply and demand at work.
 
"There is too little profit margin in today’s new vehicles for dealers to create demand. Dealers can and do create the perception of great savings, but there’s not much meat behind the story without the factory’s help..."