Ultimate Bargain
Dealership sells cars for $1 on Black Friday — but what's the catch?
Houston car dealership Sterling McCall Toyota will hold its sixth annual "Slicer Sale" on Friday where cars are priced for as little as $1.
Pete DeLongchamps, the dealership's vice president of public affairs, told the Houston Chronicle that the annual event on Black Friday is an exciting way to clear a few hundred used cars off the lot and has become a hit with customers and even employees. "We added additional inventory and we have a pre-determined list of cars that will be sold at low prices," DeLongchamps told the newspaper, although he did not disclose which cars will be sold for $1.
Three vehicles will be priced at $1, 10 under $1,000 and 50 below $10,000.
Used car manager Dan Minner told Automotive News that on Friday morning he and his team will grab black markers and walk through the used car lot marking windshields with special one-day sale prices. Three vehicles will be priced at $1, 10 under $1,000 and 50 below $10,000.
"There's a crowd following you around, and it can be 50 to 200 people," Minner said. "If you mark a car $1, they go crazy. But if you mark one that they think is too high, you hear moans and groans."
While the dealership, located at 9400 Southwest Freeway, doesn't open until 7 a.m. on Friday, there is usually a significant contingent camping out while they wait for the sale to begin.
It works like this: Prospective buyers sit in the front seat of the car they want among the ones in the sale and wait for it to be priced. If they are satisfied with the price, then they have the first chance to buy it. (A customer drove off in a Saturn last year for only a dollar, however this did not include the applicable taxes and registration fees that come with buying a car.)
If the customer in the front seat is not happy with the price then the right to buy transfers to the person in the passenger seat, and so on.
Typically, 35 to 40 percent of the store's used car inventory — 250 to 300 vehicles — is sold that day because the cars are "very aggressively priced," Sterling McCall general manager Jerry Bush told Automotive News.