This is our 167th AutoBrag Deal Of The Day.  What we’ve done is searched through www.autobrag.com and discovered certain vehicles being sold for considerably less than market prices. Usually, the dealerships are using these “loss leaders” as a way to gain more business.

We found a 2009 Ford Focus SE 2dr Coupe (2.0L 4cyl 4A) from Apple Ford Inc

The lowest Internet Price: $12,630.00
MSRP: $16,875.00
ePrice: $12,630.00
Savings: $4,245.00
% OFF MSRP: 25.16 %

Why Is This The AutoBrag Deal Of The Day:

The average wholesale price for a used 2008 Ford Focus SE 2dr Coupe with 9,996 miles (average) is $10,500.00. If you were to buy this new car at sticker price of $16,875.00, after one year, your depreciation would be roughly 37.78% of the vehicle’s value or $6,375.00 over the 12 months or $531.25 per month. That does not even include the money you lose on sales tax and registration!

If you were to buy this specific 2009 Ford Focus SE 2dr Coupe for $12,630.00, you would be able to drive it for one year and trade it in or sell it at wholesale market for $10,500.00. That means that you would drive a new car for one year and pay $2,130.00 or $177.50 per month (not including taxes and fees). The depreciation for the period of one year would be 16.86%.

If the car was sold via private party the price would be about 5%-10% higher than wholesale. That means that you probably would sell this car for about $11,025.00 (5% over wholesale) to $11,550.00 (10% over wholesale). That means that you would drive a new car for one year and pay $1,605.00 to $1,080.00 or per month that would be $133.75 to $90.00 (not including taxes and fees).

Using AutoBrag’s Deal Of The Day, the Dealer eats 66.59% of year one’s depreciation based on wholesale market for the same vehicle.

For disclosure purposes WE DO NOT receive compensation from Apple Ford Inc; we are just trying to save car consumers time and money.

Crash Test and Rollover Ratings for the 2009 Ford Focus 2dr Coupe.

How To Kick A Scammy Car Dealer In The Nuts

While we spend a lot of time on this site talking about the importance of writing a good complaint letter, of finding the executive contact info, and cc’ing letters to appropriate regulatory bodies, sometimes the best way to win is to stop playing Mr. Nice Guy and start playing hardball. In the book “Unscrewed: The Consumer’s Guide To Getting What You Paid For”, the author’s first story is about how he himself got screwed, and then unscrewed, on the first car that he bought. Here goes: 

“I replied, “What do you mean? You advertised the special. The sale representative should have told me about it! It’s just not fair.” “That’s our policy. I’m sorry.” “It’s a bad policy,” I said, for lack of any other words, and hung up the phone. I was livid. I’d just been screwed out of $1200… Something had to be done.”

That day, Burley typed up a notice and printed out tens of copies. He went to the dealership manager’s office, who continued to try to stonewall him and refer to their “internal policy”. Burley opened the envelope and placed the flyers in front of the manager. “What do you intend to do with those?” he asked.. “Mr. Smith,” I said coolly, even though my hands were sweaty and shaking, “at this point, it doesn’t really matter to me whether I get my money back or not. I am going to exercise my First Amendment right to stand on that public sidewalk in front of your dealership. I’ll hand one of these flyers to anybody walking onto your lot. I’ll be carrying a picket sign with the same message.”

The notice said: “AKAMAI MOTORS LIES TO ITS CUSTOMERS! They advertised a car at one price and then sold it to me for $1,200 more. For details, please call Ron Burley at [redacted].” I continued, “I’ll bet that, in just a handful of Saturdays, I can convince a couple of dozen people to shop elsewhere. It could end up that, by not paying me what’s due time, you lose ten times that much in future business. It won’t put any cash in my pocket, but I’ll feel a lot better about things. What do you think?” Mr Smith returned to let Burley know that bookkeeping was cutting his check at that very moment and he could pick it up on his way out. NICE!

 Burley could’ve filed complaint letters and made calls up the management food chain, he could’ve cc’d letters to the Attorney General and the FTC, and maybe even eventually been forced to take the dealership to small claims court, where he would’ve won, as it is actually the law that merchants have to honor their advertised price. Instead, he chose a direct course of action that in broke the problem down to terms that any simple business could understand.