2011, unsure if he sold it?
When SB found it, the guy that had it in 2014, bought it from Ritchie Brothers Auction in 2011.
Good morning Missy and all!
I have a close family member who owns a large car dealership and friends who have smaller ones.
Imo he traded his truck in either for a new one or a used one. It can even be a dealership that only deals in used vehicles.
What the dealer does is try to sell the traded in vehicle, but if it sits on the lot, say for 90 days, without selling, every car dealer I've known will then take it to a car auction to offload it.
Anyone can come to these auctions along with a certified dealer, and have them bid on any vehicle they want to purchase for themselves or for resale.
Vehicles auctioned can only be taken to be auctioned, and sold by a licensed car dealer.
If they find one the dealer will bid for them up to their max bid they have told the dealer they are willing to pay.
In fact at times I've helped my family member drive some of the vehicles to the auction house that is going to go up for auction.
Depending on the size of the dealership they may have 20 or 30 or even more to auction off. It's usually held once every month.
I imagine this is what happened here too with Merritt's truck. The poential buyers at the dealership may have thought it was way over priced or it had too much wear and tear.
The dealer has already made most of their profits anyway at the time of the trade in so they just try to get rid of the vehicles at auction to get them out of their inventory.
Imo, most definitely he traded it in, and it didn't sell, so off to the auction it went like many others. Lol
Someone bought it when it was run through the auction.
Jmo