Lars Sahlen, September 9, 2026

Lars Sahlen

When I was 18, I started working for a parts department. It was my very first job, in Sweden — delivering parts and picking parts and helping out with that. I did that for about three years. Then I was in sales for parts. And back in Sweden I had my own business reconditioning cars for five years. Then I moved to the States, and I started working for CarMax a couple of months into coming to the United States. I worked for CarMax for 15 years.

Lars Sahlen

I started as a sales consultant selling cars for about six months. Then I became a sales manager, for a year and a half. I moved over to the service department, worked as a service advisor for five years. Then I was a service manager for a new car dealership with CarMax, a five star Dodge Jeep dealer. Did that for two years, and then they sold that part of the business and wanted to focus on used cars.

Lars Sahlen

After that I went on the road and I wrote standardized work — lean, because we adapted the Toyota lean way — and I traveled around the United States to different locations. I did grand openings, wrote standardized work for the reconditioning process, and I worked in conjunction with the store team, including buyers and purchasing managers.

Lars Sahlen

After I did that, then I was a production manager, and I worked together with the purchasing team for the vehicles that we purchased, to review the condition of them: what we were going to recondition, what we were not going to recondition, cost basis on each and every vehicle. Also I helped informing and educating buyers on what to look for in different vehicles. Then I was promoted to operations manager. That was the 15 years with them.

Lars Sahlen

After that we moved to Fort Collins, and I took a job as a senior service advisor for MINI. Did that about a year. Then I got another job as a buyer, for a Ford dealership, for about a year. And after that I was able to get a store management job in Fort Collins, so I took that. I was a store manager, about a year.

Lars Sahlen

Yes, yes, I do.

Lars Sahlen

Even to this day, when I look at a used car, I look at it: does it have frame damage? Has it been painted? What are some of the defects that come with each and every car? I know what to research. I know what to look for. I know what to stay away from. I still look at a used car the same way I did when I was working. It affects my purchasing decision if I buy a car for myself.

Lars Sahlen

Yeah, of course. I go out and walk around the car probably in 30 seconds to a minute, and I know more about that car than if you would look at it for an hour. Because when you go to auction and you have a lot of cars to look at, you need to be fast. But that takes years of experience to get to that point.

Lars Sahlen

When I have more time, I can research the data behind the vehicle. I know what book to look for. I know where to get the information. I know how to look for a car if there's frame damage. If it's had frame damage, I know if it's been painted. I can see things. I can research the background to it, using the Carfax or other data.

Lars Sahlen

I can look at 20 cars really quick and say, I don't want that, I don't want that — but here's five cars that I'm interested in. I'm going to dig in deeper to it.

Lars Sahlen

Most people don't understand what cars can look like after a collision. And dealerships can buy cars and they don't care if it has had frame damage, flood damage, extensive hail damage, and they have replaced a lot of panels in the car. And they try to not tell the customer. It's all up to the customer.

Lars Sahlen

I think that's something CarMax at the time was one of the first to come out with — to say, we don't sell cars that have frame damage, we don't sell cars that have flood damage, we don't sell cars that have had extensive damage. And the education process was time-consuming, because most consumers don't understand what that means. They don't understand that if the car has been in a severe collision and been set up to be straightened out, it will never be the same car, and that later on they might have a lot of problems that end up costing them a lot of money.

Lars Sahlen

No, this is definitely companies, especially if you're looking at buy-here-pay-here dealers. The auction classifies cars. They have green light cars, they have yellow, and they have red light cars on the auction.

Lars Sahlen

Green light cars have not had frame damage or severe collisions. The smaller dealerships buy the red lights because they're cheaper, but they don't necessarily disclose that to the customer — they leave that up to the customer to find out. But the price difference on the auction is way different. So it's definitely not just in private sales; it's at dealerships as well.

Lars Sahlen

That is correct. Either you need to have the knowledge yourself, which would take a lot of research and knowing what to research — and if you don't have that, it's very difficult. Or go to a trusted dealer that does not sell that type of vehicle.

Lars Sahlen

First of all, people forget the tax on trading. If you trade a car and you buy a car, you only pay sales tax on the difference, and people tend to forget that. So you have a tax savings when you trade the car in to a dealer.

Lars Sahlen

Second of all, when you trade your car in versus selling it privately, the buyer of that car will not know who owned the car before. You will not get a call back saying, hey, my car broke down, or this and that happened. When you leave the car with the dealer, then it's the dealer's problem. It feels a little bit more safe and secure doing it that way.

Lars Sahlen

No, not necessarily. It depends on the car and the price. The amount of people that have $20,000 in cash to pay for their car is not the same as through a dealer. So trade your car in, get the tax savings, and finance that new purchase at one dealership — it's convenient. And you don't have a problem with someone knowing that you owned the car before. It's safer, it's more secure than if you sell it privately.

Lars Sahlen

Most people come in, they get an appraisal, they may not like the appraisal. They say I can get more if I sell it privately. And then they come back three weeks later — they tried to sell it, but they didn't have any good luck, and they still want to get the car that they want. They're done with their car, so to speak, in their mind, and they're looking forward to the next purchase. And a private sale can be taxing, because people are calling, they ask them questions.

Lars Sahlen

It's someone who asks you to ship the car to them because they are not able to come and look at the car. But the price seems okay, and they're going to send you money through a check or through certified funds — and then it turns out that the money doesn't exist, and the bank takes the money back. You have now lost your car and the money.

Lars Sahlen

So you've got to be very, very careful nowadays when it comes to those types of private sales. That's more and more prevalent even today than it was even five years ago.

Lars Sahlen

When I sold my vehicle privately, it was a vehicle in the price range where most people had cash — I think it was $3,000, because it had a lot of miles on it. I did Facebook Marketplace. I never met them at my house. I was in a place where we could meet, there were cameras. It took up some of my time.

Lars Sahlen

But I was not interested in trading the car — I didn't know what I wanted to buy after this, so it was different. And I know what to say and how to sell it, because I sold cars. If I had a car that was $30,000 or $20,000, that would be different, because then the tax savings if I traded it in would be significant. Sales tax on 20 or $30,000 is quite a bit compared to $3,000.

Lars Sahlen

If their car is in that price range and they feel comfortable having to deal with people that they don't know, meeting them at specific places — okay. But if they have no vehicle knowledge and they feel it's a burden, there is no reason to take those chances for that kind of money. You're better off taking it to a dealer and doing it in a more secure way.

Lars Sahlen

Maybe up to seven, $8,000. That's where I feel the range goes for where people can come up with cash. I think when you're looking at 10,000 and above, people are going to have a hard time coming up with cash. People that have that kind of cash, they probably have more than that, and they're going to go to a dealer. They're not going to go to a private seller. So I would say somewhere between seven, $8,000. After that, then I'd go to a dealer.

Lars Sahlen

The title work — how important it is to put your name correctly. For example, if the title says the name of the husband, and then it says 'or', and then the wife — that could be either one. But if the title says John and Elizabeth, both need to be present to sign the title. And people don't understand the importance of that.

Lars Sahlen

A dealership that is dealing with title work and dealing with the DMV on a daily basis, they know those regulations. They know the state law. Some states have a mandatory warranty on a used car — you have to give a warranty on it. Not every state does, but they know the law where you're buying the car, and they're following that.

Lars Sahlen

You also are a little bit more protected when you're buying a car from a dealer than from a private seller, even if they do say it's as-is, because they need to mark that off on the paperwork and on the window sticker. So it either comes with a warranty or it does not, and it needs to be marked as-is so you know for sure. There are a few things that dealerships are held responsible for that you're not, as a private seller.

Lars Sahlen

People don't understand the ramifications of some of the paperwork that they signed when it comes to a lease agreement. If you're in a lease agreement, it's very, very costly to break it before the lease is up. It can also be very costly when you break the lease if you haven't taken care of a leased car. You have open lease, you have closed lease. Most of the leases in the United States are closed leases, so you know what they are going to pay you for your car — their market value — but they can deduct for unusual wear and tear, and that can be very costly when it comes to lease returns.

Lars Sahlen

Being upside down on a vehicle is very difficult for people to understand. Even though the car is worth X amount of money, your loan — because you might have rolled negative equity into your vehicle from the previous purchase — you now owe much more than the car is worth.

Lars Sahlen

We traditionally have a saying in the industry: if you're buying a car and you are not rolling negative equity into it, just financing the car and putting some money down, not very much, maybe 10% down — you're still going to have to pay on that car for three years before you break even.

Lars Sahlen

The first thing to look at is the miles. You look at the age of the vehicle and the miles. And miles are miles — I know private sellers say it's only highway miles. Miles are miles.

Lars Sahlen

A two-year-old car that has 16,000 miles, versus a vehicle that is the same age at the auction that has 30,000 miles — that is going to be the biggest difference. Then you look at condition. You look at the condition of the vehicle, but you also look at: has it been painted? Has it been in a collision? Is there frame damage to it? Those all play a part. But the biggest thing is the age of the vehicle, and then the miles on the vehicle.

Lars Sahlen

It's not as much as you think. You get a little bit more, but it doesn't affect it that much. Usually when you do your evaluation, you look at the trim level in the book that you're using or the data program that you're using. You're not comparing an EX model with an LX model. You look at an EX model Honda Accord with the amount of miles that you're having. So you're not looking at an LX model, because each vehicle with each trim level has its own valuation.

Lars Sahlen

That their vehicle is not special. I can go to an auction and I can look at 50 of the same vehicle model. I can go to an auction, I can buy your car for a wholesale price. Very few cars would I look at and say, yeah, that's a special type of car — if you have really low miles on it, extremely good condition, okay. But for most people it's going to be just bread and butter. I can go out and I can buy that car all day long at an auction.

Lars Sahlen

Yes, for sure.

Lars Sahlen

A lot of people have an accident in the car. They get the vehicle fixed, which they should do, and then they don't want the car, and they sell it — and they don't think that we are able to see that they fixed it. And we devalue the car. We say, well, this car has been in an accident, we can read the report, and we are going to evaluate the car because it has been in an accident.

Lars Sahlen

Most reputable dealers, the bigger dealers, are going to say this is not a vehicle we're going to sell to the consumer. We're going to sell it at an auction, because it doesn't meet our standards. So when someone comes in, we appraise the car, we look at the history, we see that it has had frame damage. We're going to evaluate the car based off of that — that this car is going to be a red light car at the auction. The customer might think it's a green light car value, but we look at it and say no, it's a red light value.

Lars Sahlen

Well, it's two different things. That dealer will buy your car that day. You accept that offer, you walk away with that money, or you walk away with a new car. It's a solid offer that they will pay for your car. The price that you're asking for, you may or may not get. That is two different things. One is a solid offer to say yes, we're going to do this. The other one is a wish — wishful thinking, that I want this.

Lars Sahlen

And that's why a lot of people come back to you after three weeks, because they feel that their car was worth more, and when they try to sell it on their own they realize that nobody's buying it for that.

Lars Sahlen

Right, because they don't put their reconditioning into it. They don't have the warranty that they have on it. They don't have the paperwork behind it.

Lars Sahlen

One lady came in and she wanted to trade her car in. It turns out she was upside down in a lease, because she traded her old car in and she was upside down. That dealer had rolled her old money into a lease, and she had a 60 month lease, and she was two months into it, and she owed a lot, a lot of money.

Lars Sahlen

When I explained everything and I showed her the numbers, I showed her everything — the only option she had was to keep the car and pay for it for another four years. She was crying, and she was very upset, because it was never explained to her what the dealer would have happened. And when she came to me, and I explained what they've done, and the paperwork, and how much they rolled in — the best thing for her financially was to keep the car for another four years and keep paying on it.

Lars Sahlen

In this case she didn't roll it into a new loan. She rolled it into a lease, so she was basically stuck. And they talked about payment with her. What is your monthly payment going to be? That's all they talked about. They didn't talk about what she's going to owe. I don't think she even knew that she was leasing the car at that point. She thought she had a loan, but it was a lease.

Lars Sahlen

It's all over the dealers. There are dealerships that are shaping up a little bit better, but I would say you've got to be very, very careful. They talk about how much do you want your monthly payment to be. They play with the interest rate. They play with your trade-in. They play with all the numbers, but they do all that to make your payment fit. They're saying, okay, we can't do 48 months, we can do 60 months, 72 months, 84 months. And they don't talk to the consumer about that. They only talk about one thing: I can get you a payment for the amount that you want. What they don't tell them is how long.

Lars Sahlen

Buying a used car, but even buying a new car — you have to be extremely sharp when you walk in, to look at the price, the trade-in, the finance rate. We divide it in four pieces. We look at the interest rate. We look at your trade-in value. We look at your down payment. We look at your monthly payment if you're financing. It is worth it to look at all those things.

Lars Sahlen

It is worth going to your credit union or to your bank to be pre-approved, and then all you talk to the dealer about is the price of the car. What is the price of the vehicle? And that needs to be on a buyer's order, in print, including dealer fees, because some dealers charge $1,000 or more. They tag on dealer accessories without you knowing it. So having a buyer's order for the final price of the vehicle — even if you want to finance with the dealer, you go in and you negotiate the price of the vehicle, you ask to print the buyer's order, and when you see the price of the vehicle, then you say, okay, what kind of financing do you have?

Lars Sahlen

All that knowledge is very, very difficult for a buyer who is not in the industry to know. But it's also something that the dealer that you go to traditionally are not going to disclose to you. Most dealerships, they're getting paid a percentage. The sales consultant gets a percentage off of the car, so they want to sell you a car that is 30 or $40,000 rather than $10,000, because they make more money selling a car that costs more.

Lars Sahlen

So finding a dealership, or someone that sells cars, that does not get paid a percentage — and finding a dealership that is upfront and saying this is the price of the car, this is the price of your trade-in, this is your interest rate, and this is what it's going to be. My recommendation for someone that doesn't know is to try to find a bunch that wants to do ethical business.

Lars Sahlen

Yeah. What they owe and what the car is worth are two different things. That has nothing to do with each other. The market value of the car is the wholesale value that the dealer can go to the auction and buy that car for. If I can go to the auction and buy that car all day long for a certain price, why would I pay you more?

Lars Sahlen

Well, they go outside and they look at the car and say, okay, that car I have — the same car, you have that on the lot, it's priced $3,000 more than you offered me. And yeah, that's because I have reconditioning cost. I have all kinds of things in it. I'm selling it for retail. I'm buying it for wholesale. You don't.

Lars Sahlen

There is a saying in the business: you don't make the money on the car selling the car. You make the money on the car when you buy the car.