Car Salesman Confidential: Buying New vs. Buying Used

Deciding Is Harder Than It Once Was
A lot has changed since I first started selling cars in 2004. In those days, I was working at a Nissan dealership, and every Altima S I sold came standard with seat belts for all passengers and two front impact airbags for the driver and passenger. That was it. Dual curtain airbags (or "overhead airbags") and side impact airbags in the seats were not standard. They were part of an optional package that cost about $1000, if I remember correctly. Antilock brakes were also an option, which added $800 to the price of the vehicle. So to get ABS and a full set of airbags, you had to shell out an additional $1,800. Not surprisingly—or maybe it is surprising when you think about it—very few customers opted to pay the additional $1,800 to get those safety features. And if you had two Altimas sitting side by side, which were identical in every way except for the safety package, the average customer would pick the car that didn't have the extra safety features every time because of price.

from Motor Trend Blog http://ift.tt/1QeROVp