From a father-and-son deal that turned into an argument over trade values and payoff math to a wild one-star review to live auction bidding where a $400K decision happens faster than you can think— this is what the business actually looks like behind the scenes.

Here’s how it played out. 

This started as a clean father-and-son type of deal.

Dad’s on a McLaren 720S, trading a rare Range Rover SV Edition 2. Son’s trying to buy a 2025 BMW M3 with the Kyalami buckets, trading in a Mustang. Two cars going out, two trades coming in, everybody’s smiling. It should be easy.

But Dad’s pushing for more because he’s buying two cars. He wants 160 on his Range Rover, but I’m pulling comps and telling him straight: I can’t get there. Jean’s already been burned on these kinds of units – he’s had had two similar cars and lost $50K on each.

Then the dad drops the real problem: he owes $68K on the Mustang.

He wants $40K for the Mustang. Which means even if I give him his number, he still has to bring $28K to the table just to get out of his own payoff. Or roll it into the new deal and make it uglier. He makes a comment that the BMW is only five grand less than a brand new one.

We step aside and have the honest back-room conversation: this is a thin deal. A “do we really want to do this” deal. Somebody even says it: “This is kind of depressing.” Because it is. There’s no big win here. It’s just math and stubbornness.

So we do what we always do when the back-and-forth starts getting stupid. We come back with one number and we make it simple. 

155 and 40. Yes or no.

No back and forth. No ten-counteroffer marathon. No hostage negotiation over five grand.

He takes it. Done deal.

A guy puts in an offer $10,000 back of our asking price. We decline it. Not even in a dramatic way. Just a simple: no, we’re not doing that.

Why? Because we already have a real customer on the car… at full price.

So what does he do? He leaves us a one-star review claiming we were “rude.”

Not because we lied. Not because we sold him a bad car. Not because anything actually happened. Because we didn’t take his lowball offer.

A declined offer isn’t bad service. It’s just a declined offer.

If you’re the kind of person who drops a one-star review because you didn’t get $10K off, you probably weren’t a customer in the first place. 

We were bidding on a 2025 Porsche 911 GT3 RS with 19 miles on it. Clean, basically new, the kind of car people assume you have to buy if you get a shot.

With fees, we’re staring at $390K+. I throw in a bid at $391K, already knowing I’d have to sell it around $420K to make the numbers work. On paper, it sounds doable. In real life, it’s razor thin.

The auction’s ending, I’m tired, and Jean sends the kind of vague text that means one thing: Try to go home. And I know what that actually means: trying to go up in price. 

Next thing you know, we’re at $394K, and that’s before shipping it from California to New Jersey. Now the car’s basically at $400K all-in.

So I start doing what actually matters—checking reality. I call my Porsche guy. I check listings. There are other 2025 GT3 RS cars online for $410K–$415K, some with more interesting specs. Same car. Same story. No shortage.

My Porsche guy tells it to my straight: this isn’t a win, this is a slow mover waiting to happen.

Everyone loves to talk about owning a GT3 RS. Nobody wants to talk about being buried in one.

At $395K, maybe you think about it. At $400K+, you walk. Because there’s nothing special about this RS versus the next ten coming down the pipeline.

So we passed.

If you know of a 2025 GT3 RS Weissach Pack with a 320 sticker, reach out. 

A transporter we’ve been using for a while was unloading a Jaguar F-Type R we had just taken on trade. As he’s lifting it off the truck, he doesn’t clear an overhead sign. The sign comes down and crushes the front end of the car. Bumper destroyed, glass cracked, pillar damaged—the whole thing looks totaled.

And yes, the transporter has insurance. And fortunately this was a just $40,000 car. Still a lot of money, but survivable. If this had been one of the six-figure cars sitting on our lot, I’d be a lot angrier. Every dollar tied up in a claim is a dollar you can’t put back into the business.

Transport damage is one of the most underrated risks in this business. I’m so sick of transportation issues. It’s terrible. 

If I’ve learned anything it’s that protecting the business is #1. We deal with fraud all the time. People really think they can just walk into our dealership and try things. We record everything, we look at everything, and when something feels sketchy, it usually is. We caught a washed title with a lien in like ten minutes. It wasn’t hard but you have to be paying attention. That’s why we use Mavsign. Check it out here.

Here’s some advice from my dad to start your week: “Don’t forget your health when you fill your pocket with money.”

Have a great week guys. Links below.

💰Get Cash for Your Tesla
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