Hey Cool Car Fans,

A friend of mine sent me this amazing video of a motorcycle race called the International Isle of Man TT (Tourist Trophy) race, which is the most prestigious motorcycle race in the world.  The Isle of Man is located in the Irish Sea between the islands of Great Britain and Ireland, within the British Isles.

This race is held annually, the circuit is on public roads on the Isle of Man and unlike the Tour de France bicycle race, where spectators end up on the road, they have to make sure nobody is on the road for this race or they would be dead.  I was told that everyone in this video who crashed survived, which is hard to believe. The Music: Moby – Extreme Ways.

I embedded the video here at CoolCarGuy.com from Video Bash and it’s called The Spectacular T.T. Motorcycle Road Race.  The video is a little over four minutes long and I had to watch it several times because it’s absolutely amazing. If you’re into going fast, you will love this video. These guys are crazy and the video is extremely cool. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

The Spectacular T.T. :Motorcycle Road Race brought to you by Free Videos

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Auto Consultant – John Boyd: The Cool Car Guy

John is an auto consultant with his license at a car dealership in Denver, Colorado. He can help you save time and money on any make or model, new or used, lease or purchase – nationwide! Call or email John about your next vehicle! jboyd@coolcarguy.com or Twitter @coolcarguy

Hey Cool Car Fans,

As The Cool Car Guy I have been buying, selling, trading, consigning and leasing vehicles for people around the country for the past seven years.  I have my salesperson’s license hanging on the wall at a local car dealership here in Denver, Colorado.  I’m very selective about the company I keep in this industry that has such a “great reputation”. This article is not going to make a number of used car dealerships very happy, but I believe the truth will set you free and save you money.

Once in a while, I will have a client who contacts me that they went to their credit union to get approved on their own and their friendly loan officer recommended that they go to a local “buying service”.  Unfortunately, what the consumer doesn’t know is that there are no real “buying services” per se’, but they have been recommended to go to a car dealership that is no different than any other car dealer in town.  What makes them a “buying service” is the fact that this car dealership, that has been “highly recommended” to the buyer by the credit union, has an “arrangement” with the Credit Union.

The arrangement usually goes like this:

A decision maker at the credit union has been contacted by a dealership that “specializes” in working with Credit Unions.  How do they specialize?  Each time the credit union refers one of their clients to the dealership, the dealership will in turn give a commision or what some may call a “kickback” to the credit union for sending their clients to them.  This can turn into additional income for the credit union at the expense of the consumers, who are not fully aware of the commission and the “arrangement”.  Let’s face it, there is no free lunch and the only way the dealership can pay the commission to the credit union, is if they build it into the price of the vehicle. Unlike banks, are not credit unions supposed to look out for the best interest of their “Members”? Let’s see if that is true based on the following situation.

I delivered a vehicle last month to a buyer who worked with their credit union to get financing, but wanted a vehicle that a client of mine had me consign for them.  While I was there, I said to the loan office, “Hey, here’s some of my cards in case you have anyone looking for a vehicle and I’ll be happy to assist them for you.”  Her response was, “I can’t do that, but I wish I could because so many people know you.  I can only recommend “XYZ Car Dealership” because of the arrangement our credit union has with them.”  I said, “Really?  How much are they paying you for each referral?  Fifty dollars, a hundred dollars or more?”  She said, “I’m not at liberty to say.”.   Now I ask you, does that seem like a good deal for the Member?

The arrangement also usually means that the dealership will allow the credit union to underwrite the loan and they will not shop it for the client with other lenders.  Why would they?  They don’t want to jeapordize the “arrangement” that they have with the credit union by getting the person a better rate at a bank or other credit union.

I don’t operate this way.  I give people movie tickets out of my own pocket when they refer someone to me because I think it’s a much cleaner transaction for all parties involved.  I’ve had people refuse to refer people to me unless I paid them $250 for a referral and they instead refer them to other “brokers” – lol.  On the contrary, when I handle the financing for a client, the bank or credit union is often paying me a commission to put the loan with them, rather than the other way around.  They are going to give me the best rates possible because they know that I may not place the loan with them, unless they give me the best rate for my client and it makes sense for everyone involved.

Besides the credit unions that take an incentive for referrals to car dealerships, bankruptcy attorney’s often take even much larger commissions for sending their clients to car dealers.  That again is going into the cost of the vehicle, that could be used for reconditioning or getting someone a lower interest rate, mechanical repairs, etc.  Many of these dealers will not even recondition or properly check out the vehicles before sending them down the road.  I’ve had some of these people contact me, after the fact, and they are in a worse financial position with their vehicles than before they filed for bankruptcy.

So before you just hop into a deal with a car dealer, make sure you know what you’re getting into and who else is on the take for your transaction before you sign on the dotted line.  It’s always Buyer Beware when buying a motor vehicle, especially a used one.   Once you buy it – you own it.

That’s what makes me different as The Cool Car Guy.   I recondition vehicles, check them out with third-party safety inspections by certified mechanics, I make sure that the person getting the vehicle is getting the most bang for their buck, I don’t give “kickbacks” to anyone and I still earn a fair profit in the process that my clients are happy to pay me for my personal service.
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Auto Consultant – John Boyd: The Cool Car Guy

John is an auto consultant with his license at a car dealership in Denver, Colorado. He can help you save time and money on any make or model, new or used, lease or purchase – nationwide! Call or email John about your next vehicle! jboyd@coolcarguy.com or Twitter @coolcarguy

Hey Cool Car Fans,

Last year I was contacted by a guy in Denver who wanted to sell his 2005 Dodge Neon SRT-4 that he had purchased almost 6 years ago, when his Father owned a used car dealership.  He really had a hard time parting with it and changed his mind and then decided last month it was time to sell it and move on to a different vehicle.

It didn’t take very long for me to move this vehicle for him and he had it priced to sell at just $10,500.  I had a number of calls on it right away, but like most of these fast cars, many of the people who called on it were not able to get financed.  One couple from Colorado Springs called me though and they decided to trade in their Jeep Liberty and get the Dodge Neon SRT-4 as the daily driver for the husband.  They were thrilled to get it and are not the proud owners of this unique vehicle.

One of the benefits of the Dodge Neon SRT-4 is that it gets great gas mileage for being a fast little car.  It gets as much as 30MPG on the freeway, while still pushing 230hp under the hood with the 2.4l turbo-charged motor.  This vehicle was only manufactured from 2003 to 2005, so they are becoming pretty rare.  In fact, one of the mechanics that checked it out for me said that he would buy it back from my new clients when it has 200,000 miles, which was pretty wild.

Like the Subaru WRX, Subaru WRX STI, Mitsubishi EVO and other high performance cars, this vehicle has a “cult” following.  I was talking with another auto broker earlier today and he said, “I can’t believe you sold that Neon?”, but he didn’t know this vehicle and how unique it is.  These vehicles have a following, but you have to be aware of some of the issues that they have with them before you buy one.  You have to make sure they are the right car before you start putting down $10,500 only to find out you need another $2,000 or $3,000 to make the vehicle “right”.

Enjoy the photos and if you see this vehicle driving down the road in Colorado Springs, you’ll know that you saw it here first on CoolCarGuy.com.

Cool Car Guy Rating: Affordable Fast

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Auto Consultant – John Boyd: The Cool Car Guy

John is an auto consultant with his license at a car dealership in Denver, Colorado. He can help you save time and money on any make or model, new or used, lease or purchase – nationwide! Call or email John about your next vehicle! jboyd@coolcarguy.com or Twitter @coolcarguy

Hey Cool Car Fans,

I have a client who contacted me about helping him sell his 1999 Porsche Boxster cabriolet.  The Porsche Boxster is a mid-engine roadster built by Porsche. The Boxster was Porsche’s first road vehicle since the 550 Spyder that was originally designed as a roadster.  It’s a super cool car and in really good shape, especially for a Porsche around $10,000.  The miles are a bit high, but that’s why it’s priced to sell.

The first-generation Boxster (the 986) was introduced in late 1996 as a 1997 model; it was powered by a 2.5 litre flat six-cylinder engine. The Boxster’s name is a portmanteau of the word “boxer”, referring to the vehicle’s horizontally-opposed or “boxer” engine, and the word “roadster”, referring to the vehicle’s two seat capacity and convertible top. It will do 6.9 seconds (6.7) as a manual transmission with 201 horsepower @ 6000 RPM and  Gas Mileage City 17/Hwy 24 , which makes it a great commuter car.

I read some of the reviews on this vehicle over at Kelly Blue Book and out of a 148 reviews, this vehicle rates a 4.8 out of 5 by owners of the vehicle.   One of the vehicles had 142,000 miles on it and the owner was talking about how much he loved his Porsche Boxster.  The original MSRP on this vehicle was $41,000, so you get a ton of bang for your buck at a quarter of the original price.

On one site, that gave the Boxster a 4.5 out of 5 rating, one of the owners wrote the following…

He brings up a great point about the fact that most people who are not car enthusiasts really don’t know the difference between a Porsche 911 and a Porsche Boxster.  The also don’t know that Porsche is a two-syllable word.

Cool Car Guy Rating: Super Cool

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Auto Consultant – John Boyd: The Cool Car Guy

John is an auto consultant with his license at a car dealership in Denver, Colorado. He can help you save time and money on any make or model, new or used, lease or purchase – nationwide! Call or email John about your next vehicle! jboyd@coolcarguy.com or Twitter @coolcarguy

Hey Cool Car Fans,

This month I have had three people contact me about consigning or trading their Jeep Wranglers and the offers I’ve been getting lately have not been very strong.  Which is quite odd for Jeep Wranglers, especially the four doors that are becoming even more popular, since historically they tend to do extremely well in Colorado.

Earlier today I was talking with a buyer for a Jeep store in Colorado and he explained to me that they have been taking orders for the new 2012 Wrangler that will be getting some major changes for this coming year.  Therefore, the bids on the Jeep Wrangler have been lower because of the new and improved model that is coming out.  The Jeep Dealers don’t want to get stuck with used inventory that they can’t move when people are going to want to upgrade to the better vehicle for not much more money.  The biggest change will be the amount of horsepower that is in the new Wrangler, which will be now getting the all-aluminum Pentastar that has 285 horses and 260 lb-ft.  This engine will provide Jeep enthusiasts with more horsepower, more torque, and better fuel economy.  What Jeep owner wouldn’t want those benefits?

Previous models have had the iron-block 3.8-liter V-6 that put out 202 horsepower and 237 lb-ft, so we are talking about a significant increase in horsepower and torque for this new bad boy.  In addition, the six-speed manual will be the same as before, but they are scrapping the four-speed automatic and going with the five-speed that is already found in the Grand Cherokee’s five-speed. All the rest of the major mechanical features (axles, suspension, steering, brakes), the body, dimensions, and structure are pretty much the same going forward.

MotorTrend has a great video and wrote a really good review of the 2012 Jeep Wrangler.  If you’re interested in reading their review you can click on this link.  Jeep.com is still marketing the 2011 Jeep Wrangler, but it should be worth the wait to get the 2012 for sure.  If you would like to order one, have me get lease numbers for you or help you financing, just send me an email or give me a call and I can assist you in tracking down the right vehicle.  I don’t expect there will be much savings on these initially, as they are filling the pipeline, but I can see if I can assist you in getting what you want and shop your trade for you, if you have one.

Cool Car Guy Rating: Extremely Cool

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Auto Consultant – John Boyd: The Cool Car Guy

John is an auto consultant with his license at a car dealership in Denver, Colorado. He can help you save time and money on any make or model, new or used, lease or purchase – nationwide! Call or email John about your next vehicle! jboyd@coolcarguy.com or Twitter @coolcarguy