anyone out there have any experience in buying and selling cars for profit? Just curious cause I would like to do this on a small scale someday and was wondering how the best way to do it is. I kinda have an opportunity right now but not sure if its good or not: you tell me

friend has a '95 pontiac sunfire, 2.2L, 185,000 on the clock, and he is gonna scrap it because it doesn't run.

here'* the deal, he said I could have it for $300

issues with car that need to be resolved:

-cat convertor is clogged and is reason car doesn't have power
-starter is going out, turn the key and it sometimes does nothing
-driver door does not lock
-burns some oil, but only upon startup until its heated up
-passenger side taillight is broken
-otherwise the car needs a good cleaning, polish, wax, and a good de-rice-itize because the interior has red velvet stuck to everything with rubber cement.

sound like a decent car to start with? i was planning on just eliminating the cat since its clogged and isn't throwing any codes, it prolly won't either if its not even there... anyone have any info on the newer j-bodies? what do you think i could sell it for, more than say $500?

That'* a lot of work and time plus parts you wont really see much of any profit on it Maybe sell it for $800 after it'* all said and done but you may only see $100 profit out of her. and with removing the cat you may be opening up a new can of worms there with emission testing or vehicle inspections if your or surrounding states do that better to just put a universal cat in it and call her good there. the tail light probably $50 in j/y, drivers door doesn't lock could be the latch or something else simple, then the starter do need the car to run to get any real money for it. the one thing that would bother me is the burning of oil have to track it down and see how much to fix

Please keep in mind this is a personal opinion, but if I was going to spend all that time, effort and money on fixing up a car I would pick something with a higher resale value than a sunfire.

get away from the dime a dozen cars try flipping bonnies resale is there for decent ones same with lesabres and century'*

I would check the blue book value, and then go from there. Personally, I don't see a sunfire having a high resale value. I would buy it for that, fix it, and then drive it myself.

You have to watch it the State has a limit on car sales before you have to have a Dealers Licence,A lot of red tape and you have to have a shop or garage big enough as in Square foot and a offical office.Almost forgot Insurance like $200,000.

I have to agree with people here and say that if you do want to do this, you need to know several things first:

1. The market. What are cars going for in your area and what are their conditions? What is the blue book value in fair condition of the car you are looking at? What options are people looking for?

2. Your Abilities. Can you do mechanical work? Can you detail? Can you do paint work? You will want to find cars that are within your abilities to fix. If you can't do paint, and the car needs paint, that'* a major expense to have a shop do. This is where the "fair" price from above comes in, cause not many people are great at all three, so you'll probably not be selling an excellent or good vehicle (especially with a starting point of $300)

3. Where to get parts. This is also a big thing, is where do you buy you parts, and where should you get parts from. Do you get them from the junkyard? Do you do specials at the local parts place? Do you know someone who can get you a discount, or are you going to be buying enough parts to get a discount yourself? Junkyard parts can be great and very cheap, but sometimes you'll need to try one or two before you get a good one. New parts are nice, but sometimes are expensive.

4. Tools. Do you have all the tools necessary to do the job? If not, do you know someone who does, or do you know where to rent them? If not, are you willing to eat the cost of buying them? Buying them is a big initial hit, but as you do more cars that require that tool, the cost gets off set. But this again, depends on how many cars you are going to do. You will probably want atleast a good set of 1/4, 3/8, and 1/2" sockets, with atleast 3/8'* deep wells, as well as a set of Torx bits, screw driver'*, gasket scraper, compression tester, and fuel pressure tester, as you can check many common problems. A Code scanner would be helpful too, especially if the vehicle doesn't run and you can't just drive it to autozone and have it checked for free.

5. Space. Do you have the space to be able to do this? Many repairs can last over multiple days, or you'll have to wait for parts to arrive. Doing this in the driveway or on the street are not good options in this case. Plus you have to put away all your tools each time you use them. If you do have a garage, do you have a significant other who is supposed to park in that space? Or do you have yard equipment that would get displaced inorder to do these repairs? Do you have space around the vehicle to work on it, and get needed equipment around it (something as simple as a jack handle can be a pain in a one car.)

6. How many. This was mentioned earlier, but some states dictate that if you sell over X number of cars in a year, then you are technically a dealer, and there are a lot of regulations and fees from this. Some people get around this by titling and driving the vehicles for a little bit after fixing them. This again, incurs some more costs, such as title and registration fees, insurance, etc. This is all money that eats into the bottom line profits.

In my experience, you want to look at cars with re-sale values of over $2000 that can be purchased for under $500 if you want to make a decent profit. This gives you room to make fixes to the car. Figure $1000 in repairs and selling for $2000, you make $500 profit. Anything less than this really isn't worth the time unless you don't have much invested.

I have personally bought several cars and "Flipped" them. Some of the best ones were a 97 GTP that I bought for $600, washed and vaccuumed the interior, cleaned up the engine bay, and then sold for $13002 weeks later. I had a 94 Eclipse that I picked up for $400 that wouldn't Idle. I adjusted the idle, sold it a week later for $800. There was a 93 Volvo 850 GLT with a cracked block. Bought for $100, washed it, cleaned up the interior, sold is 3 weeks later for $350. The best flips are those that you don't have to do much to to sell for a profit. And sometimes a lower profit is better than doing the work to get a higher one.

This being said, I have also had some "duds". I had a 89 Sunbird GT turbo convertible. I bought it for $200 stated running. Ended up blowing several holes in the block on the way home and I had to tow it. Sourced a new motor for it, but never got it. Had it 4 months and couldn't sell it whole. I ended up parting it out in the end. I did make money on it, but that'* because I researched it beforehand and knew that some of the parts were worth money. As far as my time and effort to do it, it wasn't really worth the time or profit, which was only like $200-300. I also had a 98 Olds intrigue I bought for $200. It was driven to my house. I knew it needed LIM/UIM gaskets (L36) I spent the time doing the gaskets on it. I also did the EGR and valve cover gaskets. I got lucky and sourced the gaskets on ebay for $25 for the complete set (parts store was $100.) The other parts I got for around $50 at the junkyard. I then noticed that it needed brakes, and the rear brake line was busted. Got pads and rotors at the yard for $20. Once the motor was running, I went to get it out of the garage and noticed the trans was gone. $100 and 8 hrs at the yard later, I had one pulled. Decided not to try to do the trans cause I didn't really have time, so I ended up selling the car with the parts for $500 just to cover the parts I had into it, not including any time.

Right now I am sitting on a 95 Explorer 2dr sport that I got for $150 that needs a starter and possibly a flex plate. Starter is easy. 2 bolts and 4 wires and it'* out and replaced. Flexplate requires the trans to be dropped. If I were planning to flip this (I'm not. it'* going to be a second vehicle to haul parts and lumber with) I would get a starter from the junkyard, take it to Autozone and have it tested (which I have done) and then if it tests good, I would go take the old one out, check the flexplate while I had it out. If it was good, the starter would go in, I would make sure it is running, and then sell. If it was not good, i would slap a for sale sign on it for $600/bo stating the flexplate needed to be replace, but I had a good starter for it (and probably grab and include the flexplate I sourced already) and I would take any offer over $300 that I got on the truck just to move it. The longer it sits, the more time you have that money invested and not working for you.

There is a lot of information here, and I tried to get it as organized as possible. Hopefully this helps you make your decisions on things. I am lucky enough to have a junkyard next to my work, that offers 30 day warranties on all parts, and another non-u-pull that offers 1yr/12k mile warranties on used parts, so I can get a lot of parts for less than new costs with little worry about losing money on it.

Good luck.

Corrected this part.

ok, well, my plan with the sunfire would be to simply bypass the cat. because there are no regulations or vehicle inspections in michigan. I think the door lock can be fixed with some cleaning and lubrication because sometimes it does work. The light is cracked but still functional. I think replacing it would make it look better. So, that leaves me with a starter which is no big deal on the 2.2 (its really easy to change) In the end, the only thing I would need to buy is a taillight and a starter and get a friend to weld up the exhaust and I should be good to go. A good cleaning will do the rest.

Wow. That'* what I call sound advice from someone who has been there and done that. Thanks for taking the time to post that.