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Bucks Blog: Used Car Prices Vary by Market, Analysis Finds

February 18, 2013 by Leave a Comment

A used car for sale in Miami.Joe Raedle/Getty Images
A used car for sale in Miami.

The city where you buy a used car can make a big difference in price, a new analysis finds.

CarGurus, a car shopping Web site, analyzed listings for about 3 million cars in large metropolitan areas to see how prices varied. A market was defined as an area within a 50-mile radius of the city center, to see how prices varied.

The analysis found that the less-expensive markets tend to be the most heavily populated urban areas, where there are more car dealerships and thus more competition, said Langley Steinert, founder of CarGurus. Costlier areas, in turn, tend to be smaller, less competitive markets.

The vast majority of listings on CarGurus are from dealers; it’s not certain that cars sold by private sellers would follow the same trend. But since private sellers also try to price their cars competitively, it’s “probable” that the trend is the same for those cars too, the site says.)

The analysis was based on an “instant market value” for each vehicle, a price estimate that CarGurus calculates using its own formula. The formula factors in the car’s make, model, year, mileage, trim, options, accident history and the listing’s specific location. CarGurus then used the average prices in each metropolitan area compare with the nationwide average. The study excluded cars from model years before 2000.

The analysis found that Miami topped the list of “most affordable” markets, followed by Cleveland; Rochester; and Detroit. (Next on the list came Stamford, Conn.; Akron, Ohio; Buffalo; Toledo, Ohio; New York; and Minneapolis.)

The most expensive cities are Jackson, Miss.; Seattle; Montgomery, Ala.; and Little Rock, Ark. (Followed by Knoxville, Tenn.; Mobile, Ala.; Fresno, Calif.; Memphis; Wichita, Kan.; and Lincoln, Neb.)

Compared with nationwide prices, used cars in Miami are nearly 7 percent less expensive on average, while those in Jackson, Miss., are 9 percent more expensive — a difference of about 16 percentage points, the analysis found.

What are consumers to make of the data? After all, even if you can find a car in a cheaper market, is it worth your while to travel a long distance way to pick it up?

Mr. Steinert conceded that it was unlikely to make sense for someone who lives in, say, Seattle, to travel to Miami just to save money on the price of the car. But the findings do suggest that when searching online for a car, you should widen your potential search area as far as possible beyond your local ZIP code.

When searching car listings on CarGurus, for instance, the default distance the tool uses is 75 miles — about an hour’s drive. But you could double that distance, to 150 miles, and still be within a reasonable drive to an area with potentially less expensive cars.”At least, drive two hours,” he said.

Before driving that far, however, he has some tips: First, try to make sure the car is actually there. Some dealers may advertise a car at a potentially attractive price to draw traffic, but you may find it’s been “sold” when you arrive.

Then, if you do decide you want to buy the car, always take the time to obtain a vehicle history report (from a service like CarFax, for instance). The reports run about $40. Also, pay a local mechanic to examine the car for potential problems. If you do those things, he said, you’ll greatly lower your risk of getting a lemon and you’ll save significant money by buying used.

Have you ever purchased a car far from where you live? How did it work out?

Article source: http://bucks.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/02/18/used-car-prices-vary-by-market-analysis-finds/?partner=rss&emc=rss

Filed Under: Your Money Tagged With: , ,

It’s Scotch, but the Owners Live Elsewhere

February 15, 2013 by Leave a Comment

Nowadays the family’s Glenfarclas malt is produced in a modern, highly automated plant that exports it to the United States, Taiwan and other countries. But the profit returns here to the valley of the River Spey in the heart of Scotland’s whisky country. And that repatriated money is what makes Glenfarclas such a rarity.

“Within a 20-mile radius of where we are now, there are 35 distilleries,” said Mr. Grant, the director of sales at Glenfarclas. But only a handful of the operations within that 30-kilometer radius remain in Scottish hands. The rest are owned by big multinationals — most notably Diageo, based in London, and the French company Pernod Ricard — which book their profits and employ many of their staff members elsewhere.

In fact Mr. Grant, 36, says he knows of no other whisky maker apart from Glenfarclas that has its sales and marketing operation based at the distillery in this scenic part of Scotland. Though he says relations with the big non-Scottish players are good — they buy some of Glenfarclas’s output for their blended whiskies, after all — Mr. Grant notes that what sets his family’s company apart is its place in the community and the fact that “we’ve been here forever.”

To be sold as Scotch whisky, liquor must be produced in Scotland. The rest of the business can be elsewhere, though, and it often is.

Non-Scottish companies control about four-fifths of the £4.2 billion, or $5.6 billion, global market for Scotch, which is being driven by growth from emerging economies. The United States is still the biggest export market, by value, at £600 million in 2011. But Scotch whisky exports to Brazil grew 48 percent that same year, those to Taiwan 45 percent and to Venezuela 33 per cent, according to the Scotch Whisky Association.

John Kay, a prominent economist and former economic adviser to the Scottish government, says that too little of the money from those exports ends up in the Scottish economy.

He has proposed a £1 “bottle tax,” levied on all Scotch production, which would be paid by the distillers. The precise value of such a tax is hard to predict, but the Scotch Whisky Association says that about 1.3 billion bottles were exported in 2011 and it estimates that foreign sales make up 95 percent of the market.

But much of the monetary benefit goes to governments that slap duties on the product wherever it is sold.

“A lot of money is being made out of this product by foreign governments and foreign companies,” Mr. Kay said. The bottle tax, he said, would be a way to keep some of that money in Scotland.

With a referendum looming next year on Scottish independence, the idea has prompted a new debate about the country’s economic assets. It has even prompted comparisons between the North Sea natural gas and oil extracted from Scotland’s coastal waters and the Scotch spirit distilled on its heather-covered moorlands and windswept islands.

Whisky supports about 10,000 jobs in Scotland, including those of people working in bottling plants, and in total about 36,000 in Britain across the whole of the economy, including haulers and packaging companies, the Scotch Whisky Association says. But the distilleries themselves are not big job creators. Although the most modern ones operate 24 hours a day, they tend to employ no more than a dozen people.

Patrick Harvie, member of the Scottish Parliament for Glasgow responsible for enterprise for the Scottish Green party said it was “good to see others starting to question the benefits to Scotland of allowing our national assets to be controlled by global corporations.”

Mr. Harvie drew a parallel with a debate over the tax liability of corporations, including Starbucks, that use their multinational status to reduce corporate tax bills. Diageo says that it pays about 18 percent of tax on its profit on average but does not say where it does so.

“Our most famous whisky brands are registered abroad and the owners’ tax arrangements are less than clear,” Mr. Harvie said.

Article source: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/16/business/global/its-scotch-but-the-owners-live-elsewhere.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

Filed Under: Global Business Tagged With: , ,

You’re the Boss: Taking the Bait: On Prix Fixe, Sustainable Seafood and Restaurant Economics

May 26, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Start-Up Chronicle

Here are some comments from all over the country and all over the culinary map. I am grateful for the responses to the posts about prix fixe policy, the talkative owner and the restaurant itself. It may be impossible to please all the people all the time, but all the people who take the time to write please me all the time. Thank you.

“Sustainable seafood” (an oxymoron) with a side of foie gras (torture). This place has a bizarre notion of ethical eating. The Berkeley restaurant Gather does a much better job of living up to ethical ideals. Top quality vegetable preparations (not seafood from our decimated oceans or force-fed duck) should be the cornerstone of any sustainable menu. – Shannon, Oregon

Shannon,
For the record, Gather serves smelt, yellowtail tuna, albacore, anchovies, lamb sausage, young chickens, and Prather Ranch beef burgers. All of which are sustainable or organic. (Yellowtail is not actually tuna, but in the jack family, which is sustainable.)

Restaurateurs like this ought to think about sustaining a decent degree of gastronomy. They’re living off of naïve, inexperienced and uninformed customers who let them tolerate being, in essence, force fed and kept in a culinary straitjacket. –Robert Brown, New York, N.Y.

Dear Mr. Brown,
The sophisticated, well-traveled and well-heeled guests who frequent Southfork Kitchen would be very surprised to hear that they are, in fact, unbeknown to them, uninformed, force fed and straightjacketed.

We had the Prix Fixe a few weeks ago and LOVED it. We thought the food was exquisite, on par or better than any restaurant in a 50 mile radius. But it was not a cheap date our bill with tax, tip, and one of the least expensive bottles of wine was over $200 for two people … the restaurant fills a real fine dining niche that is not being served out here, and I think they will do very well in the summer months. — Joe T, Sag Harbor, N.Y.

Joe T.
So glad you enjoyed yourself. Thanks for sharing.

Add me to the tally of people who will not set foot in the door in the first place if my only options are a large (and not inexpensive) meal in the dining room, or a few food choices in the bar. — MHM, N.Y.

MHM,
The food served at the bar is from the same chef and served in the same ambience with the same service. The bar menu includes appetizers, entrees and desserts. Or the prix fixe.

Thank you very much for not adding the supplemental items. I find that extremely tacky. If I’m paying $n, I don’t want to have to spend an extra $10-$x dollars on the supposed best item on the menu. The amuses/petit fours make the meal that much more special, more enjoyable. — D. Whitman, New York, N.Y.

Dear D.W.,
You are very welcome.

I was skeptical of your 100 rules at first, but maybe there’s something to be said for #7 (No jokes, no flirting, no cuteness.), #8 (Do not interrupt a conversation. For any reason.) and 69 (If someone wants to know your life story, keep it short.) – Michael, Washington, D.C.

Michael,
The rules were for servers, not owners. Part of my job is allow the servers to do their jobs by fielding questions and explaining our philosophy to inquisitive guests.

It’s interesting that you are directly quoting a conversation that took place when you weren’t actually present. – ruth, providence

ruth,
Many a fine history book has dialogue written by people who were not actually in the room or on the battlefield to hear those conversations. My source, however, is pretty reliable — my wife, Dr. B, is a psychologist with a knack for listening and remembering conversations verbatim. Especially when they took place only two hours before telling me about them.

Most Americans are unhappy if they don’t get a gut-rupturing amount of food. A fixed-price menu gives them an excuse to order an appetizer AND dessert. – Joanne Aberdeen, Md.

Joanne,
If you are saying that prix fixe is a public service, thank you.

Keep in mind that an average is just that: an average, nothing more. You can raise an average check by reducing the below-average instances, or by raising the above-average instances; pursuing the latter would seem better for business in most cases. Training staff to sell more bottles of wine, perhaps? – MrB, Chicago

Mr. B,
Training a staff to sell more bottles of wine is exactly what we do not want to do at Southfork Kitchen. Up-selling is a downer.

Bravo, Bruce, I’m proud of you– a real post with real information and I didn’t feel like I had to read through a French novel to find it — mhf, Houston, Tex.

mhf,
Merci. Je pense.

I am afraid you are risking losing good repeat business that comes in every week for a soup and a drink to be replaced by more fickle higher ticket diners… I am especially concerned in the Hamptons. Many customers might want something lighter. Maybe go prefix on weekends only. – BD, New York

Dearest BD,
It is nice to have someone worry about us. We have discussed doing the prix fixe on weekends only in the off-season, but we are going to run with this for the summer and see where it takes us.

1. It’s not rocket science. 2. Is this a new industry inventing the concept of dining? 3. Prix Fixe only? 4. For “ages” the concept was a Prix Fixe offering as ONE element of a creative menu… 5.He who focuses only on the average ends up delivering just that…an “average” product or experience. – BQ, Philadelphia

BQ,
You really equate focusing on the average check to creating an average meal? This may not be rocket science, but your thinking is decidedly astral.

Bruce, I think what you’re doing is smart. You’ve recognized you have a dollar amount you need to make per seat to cover costs (and try to make a profit)… The fact that you created a bar menu for patrons who want a lighter bite gives everyone an option. – Kris, PDX

Kris PDX,
Thank you, Kris. (Do you live in the Portland Airport?)

In France, cheese is usually an option for dessert, and i am a fiend for cheese. I don’t eat pastries for dessert … and so it is an imposition to expect me to pay for a creme brulee, or whatever. – anne, Washington, D.C.

Bonjour anne,
We have a cheese plate — five cheeses from Mecox Bay Dairy — served with local honey and fruit preserves. You are welcome to have that first or last or in-between.

This is an interesting piece on restaurant economics, something that many diners — including myself — know nothing about. In short, it would be nice to know whether the sustainable seafood/local food ideas are worth the extra cost and whether diners really appreciate the effort. – PorscheGuy, East Coast

PorscheGuy,
It is an interesting question and one that deserves a full post. In short, yes, local organic produce costs more and tastes better and supports our neighbors and is healthier and well worth the effort and the cost.

When my wife and I consider dining, we expect to spend some money, and we might be limited in this respect so we choose restaurants carefully. You wouldn’t see us often, Bruce, but if the experience were to be as good as it promises you would have received extremely grateful customers, your staff would be complimented and handsomely tipped, and we would heartily recommend your place to everyone we know. — Fideles, new york, ny

Fideles,
You sound like great guests. We look forward to serving you. Semper Fi.

Bruce, this may be the best move you have made so far. I applaud it for one basic reason; it shows that you are concerned with the economics of the restaurant. You don’t have to be all things to all people. If some find it too expensive, so be it. People will always want a bargain…If $55 covers your costs and you keep having a full house go ahead and raise it to $65, $75 or $100. Find what the market will bear. Maybe you would rather be 80% booked so you have room for walk-ins? — Shylock, Virginia

Shylock,
What a great idea! Thanks. Right after Memorial Day, we’ll raise the prix fixe to $68.

Article source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=2a5e7a154b591f8d25c57daf96093121

Filed Under: Small Business Tagged With: , ,