Donny Gath, Southern California Ferrari Maserati/iLuxCars.com, and Lamborghini Newport Beach (both new and old) have been under investigation for some time.
I've bought several cars from iLuxCars.com and EVERY SINGLE ONE I've bought was not "as described". My stores have needed to do a charge back for EVERY SINGLE car I have ever received from their BOGUS "system". The last one I purchased I had to send them a copy of the lawsuit I was planning on filing against them if they did not make things right in order for them to make it right.
In addition, we've bought a few cars from iLux (hit the "target price") and not received them, only to be told, "Yeah, they didn't get the car." Yeah right, more like someone stepped up another couple thousand bucks and because they are a bunch of scam artists they sold me out.
There are several problems with iLuxCars.com/Southern California Ferrari Maserati / Lamborghini Newport Beach:
1) They buy and sell each car themselves. Any trade that's submitted at a reasonable price, they'll buy themselves and then list it with their generous profit built in.
2) The cars that aren't initially cheap enough for them to buy themselves still get listed, but with iLux's generous profit built in. And by generous, I mean the cars are no longer anywhere near wholesale. It's surprising how small a world it is and I think iLuxCars.com forgets that dealers talk and sometimes even post their trades/inventory on other sites. I've seen cars on iLux anywhere from $4-38k MORE than I've either been directly offered by the dealer or seen on another site.
3) This profit they want to make means trying to sell through iLuxCars.com is aggravating at best. If you turn down their initial low-ball offer
(They guarantee that they will give you one of their LOWBALL offers in 5 minutes, or less, so that way you're supposed to think your store's car is worth WAY LESS than it really is (the intent of this is for it to help allow them to try and pretty much steal your car at a song for one of their own stores),
You can still post the car for other members to bid on. If you know what you need for the car you're selling, a "target price" is set. Problem is, iLuxCars.com still wants their pound of flesh regardless. Say you have a car trading in that you need to get $100,000 for. You submit that to iLux, but they post it on the site with a $106,000 "target price". You never see your own vehicles the same way they are posted to other stores outside your own "dealer group" on the system, so you don't know what bids are being made (unless you call a friend at another store outside your own dealer group). Even if the car gets an offer of, say, $104,000 through the system, they won't pass it on. You end up not selling your trade-in or inventory because they're not making enough!
4) There is no consistency. Each member has an individual log in and prices vary /- from time to time. Again, it's a small world and we ALL talk, a lot. I've even heard of dealers in the same city seeing "target" prices vary by up to $1,400. WTF for? Really doesn't inspire confidence in the transparency of the whole system.
There have been 10X as many cars that I've tried to buy by hitting the "Target Price" that have suspiciously gone "poof". Or, MUCH MORE THAN LIKELY I WAS JUST SOLD OUT!!!
If you want to buy an exotic through an auction format for your stores, you best stick with eBay, Manheim, or list format; ThaList. They're MUCH MUCH more transparent! There are reasons that Donny Gath, iLuxcars.com, Southern California Ferrari Maserati and Lamborghini Newport Beach (both new and old) are under investigation for unfair and fraudulent business activities. When these reasons fully surface you will be glad that you steered clear from these people and organizations.
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