Dealers say state’s sale will hurt used-car market

? Some auto dealers worry that the state’s plan to unload hundreds of underused vehicles will hurt the used-car market in northeast Kansas.

More than 700 state-owned cars, trucks and vans will be available for sale to the public at Forbes Field from Feb. 5 to Feb. 19. Gov. Kathleen Sebelius announced in November that the state would sell off the vehicles and purchase far fewer new ones to help save $8.6 million.

Stories published in the Journal-World in summer 2003 raised questions about the state’s fleet, which has one vehicle for every five state employees.

R.R. Anderson, owner of Anderson RV Sales in Topeka and a longtime car dealer, estimated the state sale would hurt the used-car market in the region for two or three months.

“There are 105 counties in Kansas,” he said. “She should give everybody a chance.”

Though the Kansas Department of Administration was aware of the car dealers’ concerns, agency spokesman Caleb Asher said the state had to sell the vehicles in the most efficient way possible.

“The cost of taking them around the state was too great,” he said. “So we decided to keep them centralized in one spot.”

Asher said the state wasn’t competing against local car dealers.

But Don McNeely of the Kansas Automobile Dealers Assn. said in a Jan. 22 memo that “a strong argument can be made that in fact they are competing with a certain segment of the retail automobile industry.”

While state law requires dealers to sell vehicles with a warranty, the state is selling the vehicles “as is.”

“They (the state) should play by the same rules,” Anderson said.

The domestic cars, trucks and vans are priced at National Automobile Dealers Assn. prices and aren’t negotiable, Asher said. Vehicles for sale include a 1999 Ford Taurus with 95,376 miles for $3,975 and a 1995 Cavalier with 81,767 miles priced at $2,725.

A complete listing of vehicles is posted on the Kansas Department of Administration Web site.

Last year, about 12,000 new and used vehicles were sold in January, February and March in Shawnee County, according to a rough estimate by Steve Neske, financial economist with the Kansas Department of Revenue. Neske said the car sale likely would bring many buyers to Topeka.

Local units of government and nonprofit agencies have been able to buy the vehicles from Jan. 5 to Feb. 5. After the general public gets its chance from Feb. 5 to 19, any remaining vehicles will be sold to auction companies.