Car Culture Shock

A man from Lake Place, of 1932 and 1980 winter Olympics fame, was selling his Outback to buy an enormous Ford conversion van. I was surprised. This was a rather notable deviation from the pattern I was becoming familiar with. He explained that he had discovered an after-market kit that he could install in his new diesel van that would permit it to run on vegetable oil. In particular, he intended to run his new van on fryer oil discarded by local restaurants. He had already lined up several fuel sources and was ready to make the leap to cost free commuting. I wondered aloud about the environmental impact of running a vehicle on french fry oil, and he sited US government studies proving the clean emissions, and demonstrating the efficiency. Needless to say, subsequent conversations with others have raised my suspicions.

But the real evolution in my car buying process can be credited to eBay. As I progressed toward car ownership, I had repeatedly been referred to eBay, not necessarily as a place to buy a car, but as a good reference point for ascertaining value. Again and again sellers recommended I check eBay to get a better sense for how price related to model, year, mileage, extras and condition. Even dealers used eBay as the barometer for what vehicles are worth. I was fascinated, so I headed off to eBay.com to see what I would find.

Although I had made a few purchases on eBay over the last couple of years—fly-fishing equipment and antique fountain pens—I was not well acquainted with “The World's Online MarketplaceÔ”. I was shocked to discover that almost 25,000 automobiles were available for sale on eBay Motors on any given day. And with the top bidders pushing auction prices on some collectables near to a million dollars, I realized that this was the real deal. People were actually buying and selling cars online. Amazing!

My research took on a whole new dimension. I had entered the virtual realm. It was fascinating. Although it struck me as riskier to some degree, easier to pass off a lemon for example, it was also considerably more welcoming. More customer-centric. Gone was the charming but slippery car salesman. Suddenly I was the one directing the process. I could contact sellers directly rather than dealing with a middle man, and I could ask questions and request additional photographs and search titles and even go off to test drive vehicles on my own terms. And I was increasingly impressed with the efficiency of this marketplace, not just in streamlining the sales process, but in actually creating a used car marketplace large enough to promote market efficiency. The enormity of the marketplace and the auction format created a value-driven exchange. Revolutionary!

I began following Subaru Sport auctions, tracking the buyer trends until I felt like I was ready to begin bidding. Initially I was hesitant, an overly anxious bidder, letting auctions slip from my grasp after carefully verifying that the vehicle was what I wanted. I was regularly surprised by the high prices that Subaru Outbacks (all models) demanded as auctions entered their final days. And I was repeatedly bested by bidders who slipped marginally higher bids in during the final seconds. As time went on and I became more familiar with the auction mechanism and more familiar with the beast I was stalking, I became bolder. I learned to bid more strategically, more aggressively.

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