Selling My Car

By Al Chambers

I just sold my wonderful car because there suddenly were so many reasons to do so. This is one of those rare stories concerning decisions and money, where everyone involved came away satisfied.

This is the first time in more than 40 years, which is when the Chambers family returned from 11 years living abroad, that we now depend on just one vehicle. It was 1978 when we first became suburbanites.

So far, so good, after about ten days. It will be a new opportunity for good planning and communications for Alice and me and also a chance to rent Zipcars when needed.

Let me ‘fess up at the start that we were advantaged, because as a Ford communications executive, I was entitled, first as an employee and then as a retiree, to company lease cars. That included the right to buy a vehicle at the end of the lease, at a favorable price. Yes, it was a good perk, even more so because during the lease, Ford owned the vehicle and covered insurance and maintenance.

I never thought of myself as a Lincoln person, but we ended up with the 2017 MKZ car as the replacement for a hybrid I had ordered, which became unavailable because of a supplier issue on the hybrid battery.

The Midnight Sapphire Blue sedan was a winner from the start and confirmed my continuing preference for cars over trucks, crossovers and SUVs. This was at the same time that the nation, including, no doubt, many of you, were switching from cars because of the higher driver seat. Women were the leaders in this major change in product preference. When our lease was up in January 2020, I did what was called “tagging” the vehicle, which meant the Lincoln was ours and at a good price.

Usually, a writer doesn’t tell the ending of a story this soon, but when we sold the MKZ, with just a bit of negotiation, we received exactly what we had paid (not counting tax). If somebody had suggested that might happen back in 2020, I would not have considered it remotely possible.

We all know that vehicles lose value non-stop from the day you buy them. In today’s market, however, because of computer chip shortages and other supply chain issues, reasonably new but nonetheless used vehicles are in unprecedented demand.

Some of you may have seen recent announcements from the giant automotive companies that their sales of new cars plunged between 15-20% in the First Quarter. In contrast, earnings guidance was projected higher because of strong price increases on the limited number of new cars available. For nimble dealers, costs were down and large margins in the suddenly booming quality used car business are keeping them going. Yes, it is a sign of inflation, but it’s also supply and demand working just the way capitalism intends. It seemed the right time for us to cut back, which we possibly should have been doing, anyway.

Another rubric is that it is almost never a good idea to sell to a dealer except as a trade-in. But this time, it was. The folks at Ann Arbor’s Varsity Ford dealership were looking for cars such as ours and offered a price that took into account that they would need to replace the scraped front bumper and check out everything else, but would still realize a large profit on the resale. The new owner, probably a younger senior, would own a top certified car with an attractive warranty. Dealer Sean counseled that I could almost certainly sell the Lincoln myself at somewhere near the midpoint between the dealer’s buy and sell without replacing the bumper.

I wasn’t keen to meet and greet unknown people coming over to test drive our car nor to spend the time and money on the bumper. It was another example of how Covid changed our attitudes.

The pandemic is very much part of this entire story. We had taken only one extended road trip, visiting family and friends on the East Coast in 2018. That proved our MKZ handled well and was comfortable. When we bought the car off the lease in 2020, it had low mileage and no problems. Two months later, on March 11, the coronavirus risk changed our lifestyle. By this March, when we decided to sell, we had added only about two thousand miles, so the car was super low mileage (16,500), as well as being single owner vehicle with no accidents. Everything else needed to be certified at a high level by the dealer.

In the midst of the discussions, our son’s stalwart 2008 Mercury Milan, which initially had been our lease car, signaled that it was ready for major repairs, which were not worth doing. Taking into account what I had learned, I offered Jonathan a terrific deal to buy our car. He considered it seriously, but said he just didn’t think of himself as a Lincoln owner and went out and purchased a 2020 used Ford Fusion from Varsity Ford. It is slightly smaller and not as well appointed as our almost luxury Lincoln, but built on the same platform. He, too, thinks he made the right decision and is genuinely excited about his almost-new wheels.

As for the Chambers, we still have a Ford Edge as a lease car, which also has been a very good vehicle. The lease has been extended twice because Ford suspended its lease car program. The company needed its limited supply of new vehicles for retail customers. If and when the auto business returns to what was previously called normal, my guess is that we might tag and buy that vehicle and try another round. The Edge has done well and also will have low mileage.

As you can tell, we have had quite a ride adjusting to, and we think benefiting from, previously unknown disruptive circumstances.

We welcome your comments below.