CarBuyingTips.com Blog
April 2022
Barrett-Jackson Charity Auction Raises $1.76 Million for Ukraine Aid
Every year, one of our favorite events is the Barrett-Jackson Palm Beach Auction. For an automotive enthusiast, it doesn't get much better than to be surrounded by hundreds of collectible cars, take hot laps in high performance cars and immerse yourself in a sea of automotive lifestyle bliss! Read more>>
April 2019
2020 Shelby Mustang GT500 Pricing, Details Revealed by Ford at Barrett-Jackson Palm Beach
At the Barrett-Jackson Palm Beach Collector Car Auction last week, Ford Performance held its Florida debut of the new 2020 Mustang Shelby GT500, due in Ford dealer lots by the third quarter of this year. Ford claimed this new Shelby Mustang GT500 is the most powerful and aerodynamically advanced street-legal Mustang ever. Read more>>
Extended Car Warranty Costs and How to Shop Wisely
Purchasing an extended warranty for your car is the single most expensive aftermarket product sold to car shoppers. For 2 decades our consumer advocate team here at CarBuyingTips.com has been providing you with guidance and education on smart purchasing of extended car warranties. Read more>>
September 2018
VP at #1 Porsche Dealership Allegedly Skips Town with $2.5 Million of Buyers' Deposits
A local controversy is brewing here in Ft. Lauderdale, around Champion Porsche, who is the number 1 Porsche dealer in the U.S. Coincidentally, Champion is just a couple of miles up the road from our CarBuyingTips.com headquarters, so this added to our shock to learn one of the largest frauds ever perpetrated at a car dealership happened practically in our back yard. Someone call CNBC, this one looks like it belongs on American Greed. Read more>>
April 2018
2012 Lexus LFA Nürburgring Edition sells for record $700,000 at Barrett-Jackson
Rare supercar, one of only 50 made helps set a record for the Barrett-Jackson Palm Beach auction. On a special expanded and record week with $39.4 million in collector car auctions at the 16th annual Barrett-Jackson Palm Beach auction, a very special version of the Lexus LFA supercar settled at a hammer price of $700,000 to the loud cheers of a highly charged building full of bidders, and car fans. Some of you may be unfamiliar with this exotic car and wonder what makes it worth so much. Read more>>
[Updated] CarBuyingTips.com warns RV and boat buyers of fraudulent site VentureAutoConsignment.com using Craigslist, eBay
Internet scam lures recreational vehicle buyers with RVs priced well below market, dupes them into wiring funds. Another escrow fraud site has popped up, posing as a consignment business, and attempting to act as an escrow site (a phony escrow in fact), and doing all this in violation of the law. You might be searching the Internet on Craigslist, eBay and even kijiji in Canada for a used boat or used RV and find one that seems priced way below market. Read more>>
Burt Reynolds Adds Fuel to the Fire at Record Barrett-Jackson Palm Beach Auction
Reynolds presides over sale of 3 rare Pontiac Firebird Trans AMs. Actor Burt Reynolds, known to most of us for his Smokey and the Bandit series of movies, was on hand at Barrett-Jackson's $39.4 million record setting 16th annual collector car auction here in Palm Beach, FL last weekend, creating a fun filled and action pact series of sales. Read more>>
2019 Limited Edition Ford Mustang Bullitt Review
How this new super powered pony is superior to the Mustang GT. Here at Barrett-Jackson's 16th Palm Beach Collector Car Auction this week Ford treated us members of the media to an exclusive guided behind-the-scenes look, showing off the brand new 2019 Ford Mustang Bullitt prototype, led by Ford performance Marketing Manager Jim Owens. Read more>>
September 2017
Buyer Beware: Hurricane Harvey may dump over 500,000 flooded vehicles on the used car market
It is now more important than ever that you run a vehicle history report on a used car! Hurricane Harvey is on track to be the costliest storm ever in the U.S. as Cox Automotive estimated the other day that 500,000 vehicles may end up being flooded as a result of Hurricane Harvey, which would be largest number of storm flooded vehicles we have ever seen. Read more>>
June 2017
CarBuyingTips.com warns RV and boat buyers of fraudulent site VentureAutoConsignment.com using Craigslist, eBay
Internet scam lures recreational vehicle buyers with RVs priced well below market, dupes them into wiring funds. Another escrow fraud site has popped up, posing as a consignment business, and attempting to act as an escrow site (a phony escrow in fact), and doing all this in violation of the law. You might be searching the Internet on Craigslist, eBay and even kijiji in Canada for a used boat or used RV and find one that seems priced way below market. Read more>>
CarBuyingTips.com Warns Consumers How to Avoid Used Car Extended Warranty Mailer Scams
How to determine if an offer to buy an extended warranty is real and how to check the companies mailing you solicitations. It's shocking how only a few days after you drive home with your new used car, these warranty "companies" for lack of a better word, start sending you a cluster of mailings usually as post cards and urgent scare tactic immediate response letters. Read more>>
May 2017
Are Gas Prices Causing Shift to Smaller Vehicles?
While analyzing the auto manufacturer production number for the second quarter of 2017, we noticed an interesting nugget of information that may indicate a shift in consumer demand. A few months ago we published and article showing that consumers were shifting towards larger vehicles. Read more>>
How to buy a used Mercedes or any used car and save 56%
Step into the vortex, learn tricks of the trade as CarBuyingTips.com founder Jeff Ostroff buys a used car. In this in-depth white paper research you'll follow along with me as I go through all the steps to buy a used Mercedes-Benz E-Class E350 sedan with full used car pricing analysis and I layout the best strategies we've been recommending for 20 years. Read more>>
Supreme Court Slams Door on GM's Bid to Kill Ignition Switch Lawsuits
Ruling paves the way for hundreds of lawsuits up to billions of dollars to proceed. General Motors was handed a major legal setback last week by the Supreme Court of the United States, who refused to review GM's appeal of a lower-court decision last year to allow pre-2009 bankruptcy cases over the ignition switch recall to go to court. Read more>>
April 2017
15 Most Notable Cars Sold at Barret-Jackson Auction in Palm Beach, FL.
15 Most Notable Cars Sold at Barret-Jackson Auction in Palm Beach, FL. Everyone loves watching the high end expensive cars bid up into the stratosphere at the Barrett-Jackson Collector Car Auction in Palm Beach. Now that it has wrapped up, we searched through the hundreds of vehicles sold to pull out some real notable specimens, some based on selling price, celebrity ownership and one of a kind status. Read more>>
Burt Reynolds strikes gold at Barrett-Jackson Palm Beach Auction with Cannonball Run Car
Academy Award-nominated actor sold 3 notable cars including Smokey & the Bandit 2 Trans Am. Each time we cover the Barrett-Jackson Auction in Palm Beach, we are always pleasantly surprised with some of the cars or celebrities that show up on the auction block to help push the sale of a car to historic heights. This past Friday we were given a bonus when Oscar-nominated actor Burt Reynolds showed up to auction off 3 cars standing right next to Craig Jackson at the hammer. Read more>>
Edmunds Shows Their True Colors
Visitors have been wondering why they don't see links to Edmunds around our site anymore. The answer is due to a sudden and unexpected revealing of their true colors. Edmunds has always portrayed their brand as being a consumer advocate that helps you find good deals on cars and trucks. Their recent actions reveal that all they care about is the bottom line. Read more>>
Day 2 of 2017 Barrett-Jackson Palm Beach Auction
We are back up in West Palm Beach covering all of the action from day two of the 2017 Barrett-Jackson Palm Beach Auction. Typically the vehicles auctioned on the second day of the auction tend to sell for a bit more because they are more rare or higher end examples. Read more>>
2017 Barrett-Jackson Palm Beach Auction Kicks Off
We are here covering all of the activity in West Palm Beach. The crowds have arrived and the auctioneer's gavel is banging. The 2017 Barrett-Jackson Palm Beach Auction has begun. Read more>>
Barrett-Jackson Auction in Palm Beach starts this week, April 6-8
Burt Reynolds among famous celebrities to appear at the auctioned. For many kids growing up around winter time, when they hear the song "Santa Claus is Coming to Town," they know Christmas time is just around the corner bringing gifts of plenty. Fast forward a few decades and now as adults here in South Florida we eagerly await every April for a different type of music to our ears: Barrett-Jackson Auction is coming to town. Read more>>
February 2017
Lexus and Toyota Owners With Cracked Dashboards Grow Angry Over Lack of Repairs
Frustrated owners blame Lexus for lack of progress, misleading them as they threaten lawsuits. We have been telling you for about 2 years now about the Lexus and Toyota cracked and melting dashboard issues and how these car makers have instituted a free extended warranty to cover the repairs for replacement of new dashboards for all the affected models on the approved repair list.Read more>>
Good reasons not to trade a car you still owe money on
What if the car dealer fails to pay off the existing loan on your trade-in vehicle? Ever since our inception in the late 1990's we have been warning consumers about the dangers of trading in your existing used car when you head out to buy a new car. Unfortunately most car shoppers make very foolish and painful mistakes, among them trading in their existing car when buying a new car, but even worse, trading in a car that they still owe money on. Read more>>
Use Caution: Auto Interest Rates on the Rise
Auto interest rates have been on the rise for a while now. Since November 2016, the average rate is up about a tenth of a percent. That doesn't sound like much but we at CarBuyingTips.com anticipate that they will rise further. Read more>>
January 2017
Buying a new SUV or pickup truck? Oil prices are about to take off
How to use the cycle of gasoline prices to maximize new vehicle discounts. We have all been enjoying lower gas prices the last 2 years, since oil started its gravity free fall plunge south of $100 per barrel in 2014, hitting the low price trough in January 2016 around $26 per barrel. But now some very notable and rare developments have occurred in the energy markets that threaten to shoot the price of gasoline up quite a bit in 2017. Read more>>
EPA Accuses Fiat Chrysler Of Using Deceptive Emissions-Cheating Software
Fiat Chrysler stock plummeted 10% and was halted when news of EPA accusations broke. Well here we go again folks; another car company has now been issued a serious Notice of Violation (NOV) for emissions by the EPA. After I just finished writing the other day about the FBI arresting Volkswagen executive Oliver Schmidt last week, I find myself still writing again on the subject of potentially emissions coming from those pure clean diesel engines we were promised.Read more>>
FBI arrests Volkswagen executive Oliver Schmidt for fraud over Dieselgate emissions scandal
VW executive on his birthday was denied bond by a federal judge. As you know, we are based here in Ft. Lauderdale, FL, where last week we had a major news event, as 26 year-old airline passenger Esteban Santiago allegedly shot and killed 5 people at our local Fort Lauderdale Airport (FLL). With this huge news event going on all weekend, many of you likely missed the other airport news that occurred here also, with a lot less fanfare, and a much better ending, except for the VW executive that got arrested.Read more>>
Trump Effect on Auto Industry Begins
It doesn't matter who you voted for. It doesn't matter if you love Donald Trump or hate him, it can't be disputed that the effect of his election is already causing a ripple effect on the auto industry. Read more>>
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