FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS-

1- Do your cars come with any warranty?
All of our vehicles are sold as-is. We do have service contracts available at an additional cost, through Cars Protection plus on most vehicles in stock.

2- Do you have buy here pay here or in house financing?
We do not have Buy here pay here financing. We do have several local lenders, a credit union and one National lender, that we can use to try to get you the best financing options, based on your credit qualifications.

3- Are your vehicles inspected?
Each vehicle is state inspected. While most of our vehicles for sale will pass state inspection, we occasionally will sell a project vehicle with a state rejection sticker. If that is the case, we clearly mark all reasons for the rejection.
We not only state inspect the vehicles, but we have local mechanics go over non state inspection related issues (check engine lights etc..) and either repair them or disclose what we know is wrong. We also allow and recommend that you take our vehicle to a local mechanic of your choice for a pre-purchase inspection. We want you to know what you are buying.

4- Where do you get your cars?
Most of our vehicles are new car dealer trades, that are sold through various auctions. We search a several state radius to acquire the best inventory we can for our customers.

5- Do you sell salvage vehicles?
As a practice, no we do not. We occasionally may get a trade in vehicle with a salvage title or find one at the auction that is too good to pass up, with a salvage title, but we normally try to avoid those. If it does have a salvage title, it will be disclosed very thoroughly in the vehicle description.

6- Why do you not have classic cars when it's in your name?
When we first formed our company in 2015, we were going to have a secured lot that would allow us to have classic vehicles. That deal fell through in the last minute and we had already formed our LLC. We decided to keep the name, just in case we ever did get a location with the security to carry them.

7- Why do some of your cars have a lot of miles?
Our goal is to sell vehicles in the $3,000-$12,000 price range. Many newer vehicles, especially trucks, will have to be higher mileage to fit in this price range. We have each vehicle looked over by independent certified mechanics, to be sure we have the best vehicle available at a very fair price.

8- How often do you update your website?
Our website www.competitioncarsandclassics.com , automatically updates every night at around 3am.

9- How often do you get new inventory?
We search for new inventory daily. We have local auctions and online auctions that cover the entire country that we use, but most of our inventory is from the east coast due to shipping cost.

10- Why are your descriptions so different than other used car dealers?
I try to do my vehicle descriptions the way that I would want to see them. I try to be the eyes and ears of the customer buying the car. I want my description to be as if you had hired me to inspect the car. I would rather someone come in and look at a vehicle and say it's much nicer than you described, than to say why didn't you tell me about that. Long before I was a dealer, I drove 8 hours one way to look at a vehicle that was grossly misrepresented. I was very angry and frustrated. I left reviews on every site I could for that dealer. I don't want that to ever happen to a customer of mine. You will get the most accurate description I can give, each time, with every vehicle we sell. We want to be the most trusted and recommended used car dealer in Salem, Virginia.

You Have The Power

Have you left us a Google review? ????

?

Car dealerships seem to be on every street corner. What sets them apart? Why should you consider buying from this one and not that one?
Customer reviews will paint a picture of that Dealerships overall reputation. Over 70% of potential customer look at those reviews!
So, when should you leave a dealership or specifically, our dealership a review?

Of course if you have ever purchased from us you have the right to review us but, 

What if you’ve never purchased from us? 

Here are some facts- 

1- Many negative reviews come from people that never did business with a company.  Maybe they visited the business, got poor service and left without buying (acceptable reason). 

Maybe they didn’t check the businesses hours of operation and were upset that they were closed (not an acceptable reason). 

There can be legitimate reasons why it’s OK for a person to leave a negative review to a business they’ve never purchased from and many are just that. 

2- You also do not have to have purchased anything from a company to leave a positive review. If you’ve had a good experience with them and not bought, it’s ok to review. If you like the way the company operates, it’s OK to review them. If they’ve answered your questions in a timely manner by phone or email, it’s OK to review, if they serve your community well, it’s OK to review. An honest review is the important thing. 

3- It’s 10x more difficult to get good reviews than bad. When a person is dissatisfied, they make a point of finding ways to voice their displeasure. When a customer is happy, seldom do they have the same motivation to leave a good review as the upset person does a bad one. For every good review, there are probably 20x or more happy customers that didn’t take time to leave a review. For every bad review, there is probably 2x as many dissatisfied customers. 

4- If you get only one 1 star review, it takes four five star reviews to get your rating back over 4 stars. 

5- Google rewards businesses that have a good quantity and quality of reviews by giving better search engine visibility and search rankings. Google wants their search results to be most beneficial to the searcher. A good rating with many reviews makes Google believe your business is very relevant to the searcher and a more reliable business. 

6- Google reviews with comments are the most helpful. An estimated 70% of customers look at a businesses online reputation.

7- Believe it or not, even negative reviews can be good for a business. A negative review can give a business an opportunity to publicly respond and state their case. If they failed the customer, admit to it, apologize to the customer and offer the customer another visit to correct the problem or they can state their case of why the customer was unreasonable. Most times it’s more beneficial to the business to keep customer blame out of the public view, but there are instances where a business should stand up for themselves.

A negative review can also be a snapshot to the business owner of areas of weakness in their business or to problem employees. While the review may hurt their rating, in the long run, it can help their business. 

8- The business response to a negative review is often more powerful than the negative review itself. Potential customers want to know that the business cared enough to respond and look to see how professional the response is. People understand everyone and every business makes mistakes. It’s the question Is it habitual and does  the business care enough to address the issues. 

9- Fake reviews- Sometimes you can look at a review and tell it is not real. Sadly, some competitors will leave another business poor reviews to help their own cause, and on the opposite spectrum, some businesses will have every family member they know leave a good review. Reviews should be honest and informative! 

They should be made to assist the public in deciding whether they would want to do business with the company, and as a scorecard to the business owner to judge what they are doing right and how they can improve on problem areas. 

10- If there is a small business you like and believe in, even if you haven’t purchased from them, it is OK and welcome that you review them. You can state in your review “ I haven’t purchased from them but I like….” As I stated, honesty and real information, is the best benefit to potential customers, the business owner, and to the Google search engines. 

I’m in a few Car Dealer groups on Facebook, and I’ll sometimes see someone ask for everyone in the group to give them a review. 

I do not approve of this nor do I want false or fake reviews good or bad. But if you have been a customer or you are a potential customer, if you follow our page and like or dislike what we do, if you have something good or bad to say about our business, a truthful and honest review is greatly appreciated! 

We are not perfect, our cars are not perfect and we do not have the expectations of a 5 star rating. Truth is, when selling cars in the $3,000-$12,000 range, some things out of our control are going to happen. Cars can break down, we can’t get everyone financed, and at times we may be short staffed. It all does happen. But, we do our best to provide affordable, reliable vehicles with an upfront and realistic description of what we know about a vehicle. We work hard with local lenders to get the best possible financing available for your credit qualifications and we are just a husband and wife team with no other employees, so you always deal with the owners. 

Now go review your local small businesses! 

We would be honored, if you would consider doing so for Competition Cars and Classics! 

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Winter is near and Competition Cars and Classics has your four wheel drive truck ready!
Best selection of used trucks in Salem with rock bottom, low, upfront prices!
Ford. Chevy, Dodge, Nissan and Toyota trucks in stock in 4x4 and 4x2 models!
Come and see why Competition Cars and Classics has won the "Best Used Car Dealership" award two years in a row by the Readers Choice awards of the Roanoke Times!
For your used car, truck or SUV needs, be sure to shop Competition Cars and Classics, located at 610 W. 4th. St. Salem, Va. 24153, or call us at 540-404-4298.
Find us online at www.competitioncarsandclassics.com

The Roanoke Times, SW VA Living Magazine has announced the results of the Readers Choice awards for 2021!
Competition Cars and Classics wins the Gold Award for "Best Used Car Dealership" for the second year in a row!
Second place was Jones Car Company, also of Salem, and Third went to Brambleton Imports in Roanoke.
Also in this years vote was a "Best Car Salesperson" award. Kenny Martin, of Competition Cars and Classics in Salem, took home the Silver in that category!
The Gold winner was W.J. Altizer of Haley Toyota of Roanoke, and the Bronze went to Darren Yeatts of Magic City in Roanoke.
We are excited and very honored that so many people have the confidence to place their vote for us! We would like to thank everyone that voted for us, it means the world to us!
Congratulations to all the winners!