Broken-down jeep sparks Metro Vancouver bidding war, reflects local market frenzy

If you’re one of the many people in the market right now to upgrade your car in the Vancouver area, good luck finding something. The ongoing global chip shortage and inflation is making it challenging for people to find what they need.

CityNews spoke to Molly Etherington, who lives on the North Shore. She recently sold her 2008 Jeep Wrangler, which does not work and needs thousands of dollars in repairs. She says she posted a very honest ad on Facebook Marketplace asking for $7,000.

Etherington says within an hour she had at least 60 replies with people hoping she’d choose them as the buyer.

“People were sending me pictures of cash, physical pictures of holding cash, which I wasn’t sure what to think of, so to say we were overwhelmed was an understatement.”

The car was sold and off her property within a couple of hours.

“The highest offer I got was for $8,800 and I didn’t accept that offer. The one I went for was a guy who actually ended up offering me [the] asking [price]. The reasons I went with this guy is for one, he was one of the first people to ping me. Two, he said he owned a flatbed truck and that he could be at my house immediately and he also offered to send me a pin so I could track him coming to my house so as to not be confused with anybody else, so I found the guy to be really thorough and in a sea of offers, I just kind of grabbed on to him and went with it.”

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Etherington says the buyer offered to pay her a few different ways, including cash. She says when he showed up, he paid her in full and tossed in an extra $200 as a thank you for choosing him.

She says, overall, it was a positive experience but says there was one point when things really escalated.

“I gave my address to the gentleman who I sold it to and to one other guy who was I talking to simultaneously, not having finalized it with either of them at that point and while we were waiting for the gentleman to show up who eventually did take it, another guy showed up at my door and had money in his hand. There was desperation, like he was in a race against time. I think that’s why the man sent me the pin so I could follow him coming to my house. When I wasn’t answering every single message, people were like, ‘Where are you?’ ‘Why aren’t you answering me?’ ‘Please message me.’ Definitely desperate.”

Despite making a little bit of a profit, with that extra $200, Etherington suspects she could have made closer to $10,000.

“Also, having never done this before, I wasn’t interested in bartering with people or it taking a long time. I just kind of wanted the whole thing to be done and I definitely got my wish.”

The dealership experience

The desperation Etherington saw is being backed up by Aman Sandhu, sales manager at Applewood Nissan Surrey on Fraser Highway.

He admits he has next to no stock and any vehicles he can get on his lot, is almost always already spoken for.

“Customers know there are no cars and even dealers know there are no cars available to sell to the customer. Right now, even me as a manager, I try to buy as many cars as possible and I’m buying it over the market price because there is no other option for me to run my business. So, I have to pay extra money and top dollar for trades. And again, if I’m paying extra money for the trades, then also I have to make maybe extra couple thousand bucks on a trade or on a deal.”

In addition to the chip shortage, he’s also blaming, in part, inflation, which is forcing the price of pretty much everything to go up.

“You can see in the market right now cars are listed over the asking [price.] If you can buy a new car at $40,000, cars are actually listed for like $45,000 or $46,000. Even if you do a factory order, you can buy at that same price, but people don’t want to wait, they just want the car right away and they’re paying extra money for a car.”

He’s not surprised people are this desperate but says the situation they’re in is a little unexpected. “I don’t know how many pre-orders, like how many car pending deals are in the pipeline right now and I’m not sure how we’re going to get all of those units and how I’m going to deliver all those cars.”

Sandhu says right now he’s getting about six new cars a week.

“I’ll probably get another five or six cars next week and that’s also pre-sold. Whatever I’m getting for us in the next month or two, it’s all pre-sold. Nothing is available unless some customer backs out then I can probably ask another customer who’s after that in the line-up. And used cars, I’m trying to buy every single used car because I don’t have much inventory, maybe 40 or 50 [vehicles.]”

He says it’s tough to meet demands when customers are seeking something particular for their needs. “I’m trying to get everything, whatever is the cheapest for my lot, so I can satisfy our customers.”

Sandhu says what’s happening right now is affecting both customers and dealerships across the board because any extra costs they incur, will eventually be passed along to consumers. “I’m trying to make money for our business, and it’s really hard right now. For sales people who are on commission, they cannot sell cars and they’re suffering the most because of the inventory issue.”