Important Information about Driscoll Motors - Selling Pre-Owned Cars in Austin, Texas

Founded in 1980 by Michael Driscoll, Driscoll Motors is a locally owned family business located on a large 6-acre lot with a 13,000-sq/ft showroom facility at 10301 Burnet Road in Austin, Texas (13 blocks north of 183 or 3 blocks south of Braker Lane, see map).
Driscoll Motors is a dealership whose primary business activity is the wholesale brokering of used vehicles between car dealers throughout Texas, but  unlike most wholesale brokers WE DO SELL VEHICLES TO THE PUBLIC! Our knowledgeable buyers search the southwestern United States for the finest vehicles available so we see and broker literally hundreds and hundreds of late model (primarily 4 years old & newer) import and domestic cars, trucks, SUVs, and vans each and every month...a large percentage of which are still covered by Factory New Car Warranty. We are a Better Business Bureau A+ Accredited business, licensed by the State of Texas, and bonded for your protection.

OUR PRICING:
Due to the primarily wholesale nature of Driscoll Motors' business, most of the vehicles listed on this website are priced at what we expect to get for our vehicles from other dealers (with some exceptions due to the severe used vehicle shortage and the high gas price's affect on the economy car market, see Market Info section below), consequently many individuals like yourself have found outstanding vehicles at bargain prices without the stress and hassle of having to negotiate to get a good deal. At Driscoll Motors you will not be pressured in any way, our prices and the quality of our vehicles speak for themselves. We do not employ traditional inexperienced commissioned sales people, pushy sales managers, or high-pressure business/finance managers. You won't be subjected to a "Tag Team" sales approach, you will be dealing with one experienced and knowledgeable person from start to finish. Unlike most other dealers you will get direct and honest answers to your questions, we don't answer your questions with "closing questions" like most retail salespeople will do. We may not give you the answer that you WANT to hear but it WILL be an honest answer. We don't "sell" vehicles here, we help people to buy them!

 

 

BTW: Most of our current year model through 2-year-old vehicles were program cars (program cars are primarily former rentals). These vehicles came from the same sources and are the same vehicles that you will find on the franchised GM, Ford, Chrysler, Toyota, Nissan, and Hyundai/Kia dealer's retail used car lots. All program vehicles have been properly maintained and typically have had a relatively high percentage of highway use. For the most part you will find that these vehicles are in very good condition although you can expect that they will show a little above average wear (particularly inside), some of them may have had cosmetic paint work, and most of them will have been smoked-in (this will apply to ALL program cars sold at EVERY dealer).

FYI: We consider "Excellent Condition" to be an over-used and overly-broad term to describe a vehicle's condition, we don't use it. On our website we have broken-down "Excellent Condition" into three categories; Like New, Very Nice, and Nice. We also use the term "Exceptionally Nice" to describe a vehicle that we consider to be in better than very nice condition for it's age but not like new because it is more than a couple of years old. Other descriptive terminologies that we use include; Very Good (above average or clean), Good (average), Fair (below average), and Poor (rough). 

 

Prices listed on our vehicles DO NOT include TT&L (6.25% state sales tax, 0.2% county ad-valorem tax, $33 title transfer, $69.25 license/registration & temporary tag, $28.75 state safety/smog inspection if needed, $50 documentary fee, plus any other applicable statutory fee required by the state of Texas at the time of sale). YOU are responsible for paying these fees, they are NOT negotiable, and we are REQUIRED BY TEXAS LAW to collect them (unless you are licensing and titling the vehicle outside of Texas, then you will only have to pay the 0.2% county ad-valorem tax and $50 documentary fee on top of our selling price). FYI: NOBODY lists prices that include TT&L!  

 

We DO accept trade-ins. After you have settled on a vehicle that you would like to purchase from us, trade-ins with clean titles** (no salvaged/reconditioned or flood titles) that run & drive are welcome and evaluated at wholesale market value IN-PERSON ONLY (we will not give "Ball Park" figures by phone, e-mail, or without visually inspecting the vehicle in question...sorry). If you still owe a loan balance on your trade-in you will need to bring us an exact up-to-date "Net 10-Day Payoff" and your loan account information when you visit. Please note, if you choose not to accept our trade-in offer on the spot, we reserve the right to change or retract our offer at any time. If you do not owe a loan balance on your trade-in you should locate your title and bring it with you when you go out car shopping. You CAN NOT trade-in your vehicle if can't produce a title for it!  

We DO accept TCEQ Aircheck Texas Drive a Clean Machine Assistance Program trade-in vouchers issued by Travis & Williamson Counties subject to the following conditions: DO NOT visit or call us until you are in ACTUAL PHYSICAL POSSESSION of the Aircheck Texas voucher, and you are pre-approved for your own outside financing (or paying cash), and you have chosen a specific vehicle in our inventory priced at under $35000 with under 70000 miles that is a 2009 or newer car/van/suv/hybrid, a 2010 or newer truck, and listed on TCEQ's approved vehicle list here:
http://www.tceq.texas.gov/assets/public/implementation/air/ms/2009a_tier2bin5_vehicles.pdf.
If you have had the voucher for several weeks check to make sure that it has not expired. Also, be aware that the name(s) on the voucher is(are) the EXACT name(s) that MUST appear on the title of the vehicle you are purchasing, check with your lender to make sure that this is OK with them. After you have met these requirements we handle TCEQ transactions on weekdays (M-F) only. Please bring your TCEQ documents and title with you when you visit.

 

 

Just before coming here be sure to contact Fred Riscen or Wade Greco to check on the current availability of the vehicle you are interested in. It doesn't matter who you talk to when you call or come here since we do not work on a traditional commission basis. Our phone number is 512-454-5800 (Fax 512-821-3844) or you can email using driscoll@austin.rr.com. Be sure to list your CORRECT e-mail address for a prompt response. BTW: We DO NOT sell our e-mail or customer lists and you WILL NOT get any spam or annoying phone calls from us, EVER (other dealers will pester you NON STOP after you visit them until you demand that they stop). We respect your peace and privacy. 

Note: We will not respond to any e-mails asking for a discount, making us an offer, or asking for a "sight unseen" trade-in value...sorry.

Because of the wholesale nature of Driscoll Motors' business our inventory turnover rate is very high (2 to 3 times higher than the average retail used car dealer), especially on the most highly sought-after vehicles! The only real disadvantage to doing business with us is that quite often you won't have very much time to "think about it". If you take too long to visit us or make up your mind, don't be surprised if the vehicle you want is gone when you decide to purchase it! This is especially true at the present time because of the used vehicle shortage. 

FYI: The vehicles on our website tagged with a yellow "PENDING" are (99% of the time) already sold. Also, if a vehicle is missing from our website it is gone from our lot.

We regularly send a portion of our vehicles to auction, as a wholesale broker selling vehicles at auction is one of the things that we do as a function of our normal business activity. Also, we occasionally have to send vehicles out to have warranty work and other repairs performed. These vehicles are removed from our website when they are gone and they will reappear on our website if/when they return. 

We don't currently have any vehicles available that aren't listed here on our website but our inventory changes daily (we never know in advance what we have coming). We do not locate vehicles to fill special requests...sorry.

 

Before visiting us please pick out AT LEAST ONE vehicle that you are genuinely interested in considering for purchase. We will not usually have time to walk you around our lot and show you every vehicle that we have available or concentrate on trying to "sell" you something. Besides, it is not our place to try and tell you what you like or what to buy. You are certainly welcome to come here and browse but be advised that you will usually be on your own.

When you come to visit please don't get upset if you are not immediately waited-on (particularly on Saturday after 12pm), we have a very small staff and we are often times VERY busy. If you are not greeted outside on our lot, please come inside and make your presence known to our receptionist. Also, be advised that we will not interrupt you while you are talking to someone on your cell phone. Please don't come here if you will be in a big hurry, you need to be prepared to be patient! Do not come here on Saturday after 12pm with the intention if purchasing a vehicle and taking it home with you unless you have made arrangements with us in advance.

 

Attention Parents: If you are unable (or unwilling) to have your young children sit quietly for 20-30 minutes while we conduct business (we know that this can be difficult), do yourself and us favor by leaving them with a baby sitter for a couple of hours when you come here. Please don't be offended by this request (we have families too), car dealerships can be very busy and dangerous places to bring over-active children.

 

IN CONCLUSION:

We realize that the way we do business will not appeal to everyone. Some people actually look forward to the "negotiation battle" and the satisfaction that they have achieved some sort of "conquest" over a dealer. Many of these people like to brag to everyone about how they "outsmarted the dealer" on the last vehicle that they bought (and will typically lie about what they paid for it).  If you ARE this type of person PLEASE DON'T COME HERE! Also, if you know a person like this please don't bring them with you! Anybody who honestly believes that they can beat a car dealer at their own game is delusional, the average car dealer sells more vehicles in a week (or two) than most people buy in a lifetime! 

If you are the type of person that has a problem with people that "Tell-It-Like-It-Is" (like this homepage does) then you probably won't like us, but if you would rather have a tooth pulled than have to deal with the false/deceptive advertising, the lowball & bait & switch games (see *FYI above), evasiveness, back-and-forth to the sales manager routine, and high-pressure tactics that typically accompany shopping for a vehicle... then we think that you will enjoy doing business with us. After reading our home page you will know EXACTLY what to expect when you come here. Most people find this empowering, refreshing, and very reassuring (especially after they have been to a couple of super-aggressive retail dealers). In person you will find that we are very consumer friendly and very easy people to do business with, as long as you don't attempt to circumvent the way that we do things or try to play games with us.

 

We apologize to those of you who feel that the tone of this homepage is too harsh or abrasive. This page has been deliberately written this way to get your attention and drive home the message that we don't have the time or patience to deal with any nonsense or game playing. You don't HAVE to like or agree with everything that you have read here, it's a free country and everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but even if you don't like what you have read here you'll have to admit that it takes a lot of guts for a car dealer to lay all of their cards on the table in writing on the Internet for the whole world to see, you won't find another dealer that does this!

 

 

Check back on our website regularly for new inventory arriving daily (tomorrow we may have the vehicle that you are looking for), description/specification updates, and occasional market (price) adjustments. Our website is updated on a real-time basis but it can take up to 5 days for any changes to propagate to the other websites that carry our vehicles  (such as AutoTrader.com, Cars.com, Yahoo Autos, carsforsale.com, Edmunds, KBB, NADA, MSN, EasyAutoSales.com,  vast.com, CentralTexasAutos.com, carsmagazine.com, Automotive.com, Motor Trend, HowStuffWorks, Pickuptrucks.com, Autoguide, ConsumerGuide, CarSmarts, Craigslist, eBay, etc. etc.).

If you haven't already noticed, the USED vehicle industry is experiencing a severe supply shortage and because of this, late model used vehicle prices have gone way up! Toyota & Honda minivans, reasonably priced crew cab pickups, and inexpensive economical student/commuter vehicles are all in especially short supply and commanding disproportionately high prices. If you find a dealer that has a large inventory of these desirable used vehicles you can be sure that they paid (and are charging) a LOT of money for them! The USED vehicle business is NOT NEARLY AS BAD as the media would have you believe. If you listen very carefully to what the media is saying you will hear that used vehicle SALES are down, which is technically correct, but it is NOT due to low demand it is due to a lack of supply. For one thing, Central Texas has not suffered from the economic downturn to the same extent that much of the country has. In fact, the slight economic downturn here has actually INCREASED used vehicle demand and there is always a VERY healthy demand generated by the large number of students living in the area. The demand for USED vehicles in Central Texas is VERY STRONG and we are not having any problem whatsoever selling our vehicles, our biggest problem is OBTAINING enough nice used vehicles to sell!

On the demand side, most people who NEED vehicles are buying used instead of new. Late model used vehicles are a MUCH BETTER VALUE because the total cost of ownership is markedly lower. Savvy/educated shoppers know this and even though some of these people may have bought new vehicles in the past, the majority are not doing so now!    

On the supply side, used vehicles have to come from some place, people have to trade them in somewhere and very few people are trading-in nice late model low mile vehicles right now, they are hanging on to them. Some of the more popular new vehicle models are also in short supply which magnifies the problem because a lack of new vehicle availability means a lack of new vehicle sales and a lack of trade-ins. As a result, the supply of the kind of used vehicles that most of us want to buy is very limited. 

It is a well known fact that NEW vehicles have not been selling well, it has been headline news nearly every day for 4 years. The recent upward spike in new car sales has not helped the used vehicle supply either because most of the current buyers have been holding off for quite a while and have been forced to buy because they finally wore-out their old cars, so most of the current buyers do not have desirable trade-ins. You might have also noticed that some dealers are advertising... "We will buy your trade-in even if you don't buy from us". They are doing this because of the used vehicle shortage. They need used vehicles to sell and they may not have anything available that you want to buy from them. BTW, we also buy clean low mile late model accident-free used vehicles from the public. 

If you are waiting around for used vehicle prices to fall due to the economy, this just isn't going to happen any time soon. Combined with the fact that so many people are holding on to their late model low mile vehicles, many of the big manufacturers suspended their leasing programs 4 years ago and the rental car companies have decided to hold on to their cars longer, so very few late model low mile "program cars" are coming to the marketplace. Yet another problem affecting used vehicle availability on a LONG TERM basis is the fact that (relative to 07 and earlier sales) new vehicle sales have been down 20 to 60% (depending on the make & model) for the better part of 4 years. Used vehicles have to have been sold new to begin with in order to become used! In addition to the current shortage of 1 through 3 year old used vehicles, in the following years (4, 5, 6, etc) there will continue be a 20 to 60% shortage of 2008 through 2011 models. All of these issues combined are going to create HUGE supply problems for the used car industry over the next few years and will continue to result in MUCH HIGHER used vehicle prices for all of us! According to a recent article in Automotive News (our automotive industry bible) the used vehicle shortage will become MORE severe over the next two years and will not begin to turn around until sometime late in 2013! Industry experts are also predicting that used vehicle inventories are going to shrink to historic lows this spring and summer. We hope that they are wrong. While you are car shopping you will certainly notice the used vehicle shortage, our inventory for example is down to a FRACTION of the 200+ vehicles that we normally stock! The prices we are having to pay (and charge) are higher than they were two years ago for the very same vehicles, the miles are significantly higher, and the overall quality of available vehicles has deteriorated noticeably. As a result, we are having to purchase vehicles that we wouldn't normally consider just to have something to sell (so is everyone else). This situation is not likely to improve to any great extent until the media stops disseminating "Doom & Gloom" every day and consumer confidence improves to the point where people begin purchasing new vehicles in large numbers again. Consumer confidence is always lower during a presidential election year.

 

What all of this means to YOU is that you may not be able to find the EXACT late model low mile used vehicle that you are looking for at a reasonable price. If you need to stay within a tight budget it would be wise to be a little bit more flexible and open minded about the vehicle that you might consider purchasing, especially if you NEED a vehicle right away.

 

Regardless of the economic environment or fuel prices, Austin Texas and Driscoll Motors are NOT among the best places to find nice, clean, wreck-free, late model, low mile, well equipped Japanese economy vehicles with automatic transmissions for WHOLESALE prices under $10000 (particularly Honda Civics or Mazda3s) and good reliable economy cars for under $5000 are non-existent. Vehicles that fit this description don't exist on dealer lots in or near a big city with well over 100000 college & licensed high school students living in the area (particularly during the May-June graduation, July-September back-to-school, and December holiday periods), a very large Asian community, TCEQ voucher buyers from two counties, unsettled fuel prices, and the nations largest ARMY base only 75 miles to our north (when the solders are rotating-in from overseas they come back in fairly large numbers and over 75% of them buy a vehicle within 30 days of their return). These high demand vehicles are nearly impossible for brokers like ourselves to purchase on the open wholesale market for reasonable prices and resell for very much (if anything) under full "retail book" prices and still make a little profit. FYI: Finding descent used car for a student in the Austin area for a reasonable price can be a REAL challenge given the current used car shortage and competitive demand from the large number of students living in the area. The ONLY real source for the under $5000 cars are from private individuals. BUYER BEWARE on these cars! You absolutely MUST pay to get one of these vehicles checked out by a competent mechanic. You will understand why after you have had a few of these checked out.  

 

Something else to keep in mind while you are car shopping... The "blue books" don't buy or sell vehicles! Neither KBB or NADA have ever sold us a vehicle or written us a check for one. In the real automotive world, a vehicle is worth what someone is willing to pay for it. The books have have been an almost useless value guide over the past 4 years because of the effects that unsettled fuel prices, the miserable supply situation, economic uncertainty, volatile/unpredictable demand, and AutoCheck/CarFax history reports are having on the used vehicle market. In fact, the books have been SO FAR OFF that dealers don't dare use them, only lending institutions and insurance companies are really using them these days. As far as most dealers are concerned the books have become irrelevant.

Some of our vehicle's prices may not appear to be "great deals" relative to their "book" values and some of our vehicle's prices will look like they are "too good to be true". This is typically due to real time local market conditions (current supply & demand in central Texas), rapidly changing fuel prices, the relative rarity/scarcity (or lack thereof) of a specific model vehicle sometimes in a specific color or with hard-to-find equipment, and/or the extremely high or low demand for certain types of vehicles at certain times of the year. The demand can be particularly high for Hondas, Mazdas, Toyotas & Nissans or almost any reasonably priced economy car in nice condition during certain times of the year in a college town (May-June graduation, July-September back-to-school, and December holiday periods). "Book" values do not reflect these (and other) variable/volatile market conditions and NEVER reflect short-term market trends or localized supply and demand issues. In fact, right now some of the most desirable Japanese economy cars (and for that matter almost ANY economy car in good condition with reasonable miles), Sienna & Odyssey minivans (YES MINIVANS, they are IN AGAIN BIG TIME!), and reasonably priced crew cab pickup trucks are actually selling for very close to (and in some cases even OVER) full "retail book" prices to other dealers at the wholesale auctions! Even though some of our vehicles may not seem like great deals relative to their "blue book" values (and frankly some them are priced at "retail book" because we couldn't buy them cheap enough to offer them at "wholesale book" prices), when you shop and compare you will find that they are still comparatively good values at our Driscoll Motors prices and because of their high quality.

 

FYI regarding the current financing/credit situation: In most cases, unless a person has outstanding ESTABLISHED car credit and a good working relationship with a lender (usually a Credit Union), no money down loans are almost non-existent these days and negative equity loans are not happening at all (this is one of the reasons why new cars are not selling well). Depending on your lender and your debt-to-income ratio, unless you have an A+ credit rating (a credit score above 730) you should be prepared to come up with at least the TT&L fees. In some cases with lower B & C credit ratings or if you don't have established car credit you may need to come up with as much as 20% to 30% down with some lenders (in cash and/or trade-in equity). Also, some lenders who are offering very low interest rate auto loans will require at least 20% down regardless of how good a person's credit rating is. Individuals with a D or lower credit rating (under 600) will be very lucky to get financing anywhere except a Buy Here & Pay Here "We Finance, No Credit Check" in-house note lot and you WILL need a SUBSTANTIAL down payment if you want to buy a half-way decent vehicle.

 

**NOTE: In car business language,  "clean title" and "clear title" mean two entirely different things! When you are car shopping you should know the difference. Having a "clean title" means that the vehicle DOES NOT have a salvaged/reconditioned, flood damaged, or manufacturer buy-back lemon law title (these are also known as "branded" titles) and can be financed. Having a "clear title" only means that the title does not have a lien on it (or that any previous lien has been released) and the title is negotiable. A vehicle can not be legally sold unless it has a clear title. Some scammers advertise a clear title on a vehicle that DOES NOT have a clean title! You will frequently see this on Craig's List ads. ALL of our vehicles ALWAYS have clean and clear titles.