Cars are merchandise.

They are also, according to one’s individual tastes and opinions, unbelievably fun, a necessary evil, cool looking, a cause of global warming, status symbols, problematic, fast and powerful, overcrowding our cities and highways, exhilarating, dangerous, the objects of a seemingly unending American love affair and an indelible part of our culture.

They are still merchandise.

As is true with all merchandise, there is no one way of merchandising it. (Is the "Tuesday Morning" approach to retailing the same as "Bed Bath and Beyond"? Not at all - yet they both sell the same type of goods). Likewise, our approach to selling cars is not like that of the traditional car dealership. Here's a brief explanation of how we do it.

Our approach to moving used cars is much like that of some popular discount clothing stores you know. To start, we make certain to stock plenty of fresh, quality merchandise. (Indeed, we have so many recent year used Volkswagens in stock at all time that we are the #1 seller of Certified Pre-Owned Volkswagen cars in the nation). Secondly, our cars are sold using a prescribed, time sensitive procedure.

- Each car is placed into inventory clearly tagged with a fair market price. No price negotiations are necessary in order for you to get a good deal - each car as priced is already a good deal.

- If, after 30 days, a car remains in our inventory unsold it gets a mark down tag (assuming we have some room to discount). The already good deal just got better.

- If, after another 15 days, the car is still unsold it is marked down a second time (again, assuming we have room to discount). The already good deal just became unbelievable.

- If, after another 15 days, the car is yet unsold it is quickly removed from our lot and sold at auction. Fresh merchandise is brought in and the whole process begins again.

This prescribed pricing and time sensitive sales method means that you, the buyer, will always get a good deal on a quality Boardwalk used car (no agonizing hardball negotiating necessary), and, on occasion, you even might stumble upon an absolutely great deal because you walked in at the right time (like, day 46). What’s not to like?

All of our used Volkswagen vehicles are Volkswagen Certified Pre-Owned cars. Each has been thoroughly mechanically checked out and brought up to like-new condition. Plus the original manufacturer’s warranty has been extended 2 years/24K miles beyond its original mileage/date. So a car with, say, 15K miles on it that originally sold in June 2006 and therefore had a warranty end of 50K miles/June 2010 (whichever comes first) instead now has a warranty end date of 74K miles/June 2012! What a deal!

The process here is very different. Dealers buy new cars direct from the factory at a fixed wholesale price and then are free to resell them at any price they deem profitable. Of course, the competitive marketplace pretty much determines what a dealer can and cannot expect to charge for his new cars.

All VW dealers pay the same price for new vehicles. There are slight regional differences (VW adds a regional advertising and port prep fee into each dealer Invoice and the advertising fee varies slightly from region to region*), but otherwise all dealers in the US buy new cars from the factory at the same price.

Any astute shopper can go to Edmunds.com or ConsumerReports.com and see that margins on new cars are very slim; typically 3% - 5%... or less. So will we discount a new Volkswagen for you? Of course. But will you get $5,000 off MSRP? Heck no - the gap between MSRP and invoice on a Jetta SE (for example) might be $1,100 at best. So how do you get a "good deal" on a new Volkswagen?

The first way we can assure you of a good deal is by not making you work for it. I mean, do you really, really, really want to engage in the old "What's it gonna take to earn your business today?" negotiations dance? I thought not. So how about this?

1). Actual vehicle invoice, +

2). $1.00 (it's symbolic, yeah, I know), -

3). Any factory incentives that may be in place (usually there are no cash incentives from VW, but from time to time that changes) =

4). Your Sale Price.

Invoice + $1.00.** Simple as that.

Now, can you get a new VW for cheaper? Yeah, honestly, you can. If you want to spend days going from dealership to dealership, spend hours fielding phone calls from one salesperson after another, spend additional hours pitting one dealership against another going back and forth, back and forth, all in the quest of getting "a better deal" you will eventually find a dealer who caves and knocks off an additional few hundred dollars. Really. But that's it. There's no big margins in these cars so VW dealers really have no ability to deep discount them. Anything below invoice comes directly out of the dealer’s pocket, so if you grind him down (or he craters and takes himself down) to a below invoice price it's a loser sale that barely makes enough to cover the salesman's commission. We have to ask ourselves, what's the point?

The second way you get a "good deal" is by buying a Volkswagen. No kidding. I realize they are not perfect; VWs are machines and so occasionally they develop problems. And every now and then a less-than-stellar copy gets out of the factory, but, really, that is not the norm. From annual appearances on the IIHS "Top Safety Picks" list (in every vehicle category, too) and Kelly Blue Book's "Best Resale Value" awards, to Edmunds.com owner reviews of 9+ on a scale of ten, the list of awards and recognitions given to Volkswagen in just the past 3 years alone is staggering. If you have not yet driven a Volkswagen, check it out.