[lumberjim]

I see a couple worthy deals a month, I guess... If I were so inclined, I could probably trade my way up to a new car within a year.

There is a thing called 'curbing' though. This is when a salesman gives a customer the value the dealer is giving, closes the deal, and then offers to buy their trade on the side for slightly more than that plus the tax credit they would have gotten. He then sells the car privately for a profit. If this is done on wholesale cars only, there's no harm to anyone but the wholesaler, who is not employed by the dealer anyway, so who cares.... It's when the operation begins to take retail - able units away from the dealer that it is considered stealing.

That profit is lost to the dealer. I got my old motorcycle by buying a 99 jeep for $2k, putting $300 of repairs into it, and selling it for $4800. It just kind of happened that way though...