Yeah. It really sounds like someone put lipstick and a prom dress on a pig.
Generally, two year old cars don't make it to auction, unless they're part of an estate sale or something. If this car got traded to a Toyota dealer, he'd have it detailed, do any needed repairs to it, and put it on his lot with a warranty or "Certified Pre-Owned" or summat. If it got traded in at, say, a Chevy dealer, he'd sell it at wholesale to his buddy across town who runs a Toyota dealership, perhaps in part exchange for this very nice two year old Chevy SUV that just got traded in. Or he might just try to sell it himself, out of the "used" end of the lot.
The exception to this is "fleet sale" cars like rentals. It's why a 2yo Crown Vic is worth less than half of a new one--it's because so many ex-rentals hit the used-car market at that age. And ex-rentals or ex-corporate-fleet cars generally get sold at auction.
So for this car to go to auction, it'd' almost have to have been something with a bad history. Anyone with access to CarFax want to run the VIN through it? I had a Carfax account when I was car-shopping back in december but I let it expire.
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Generally, two year old cars don't make it to auction, unless they're part of an estate sale or something. If this car got traded to a Toyota dealer, he'd have it detailed, do any needed repairs to it, and put it on his lot with a warranty or "Certified Pre-Owned" or summat. If it got traded in at, say, a Chevy dealer, he'd sell it at wholesale to his buddy across town who runs a Toyota dealership, perhaps in part exchange for this very nice two year old Chevy SUV that just got traded in. Or he might just try to sell it himself, out of the "used" end of the lot.
The exception to this is "fleet sale" cars like rentals. It's why a 2yo Crown Vic is worth less than half of a new one--it's because so many ex-rentals hit the used-car market at that age. And ex-rentals or ex-corporate-fleet cars generally get sold at auction.
So for this car to go to auction, it'd' almost have to have been something with a bad history. Anyone with access to CarFax want to run the VIN through it? I had a Carfax account when I was car-shopping back in december but I let it expire.