Some auto shops start off as just that, but when they repair a vehicle and the customer refuses to pay they take possession of the vehicle and try to sell it. They also can get good deals (for them) on something they can fix at cost and then flip if the customer would have just scrapped the vehicle. The small auto shop in my hometown would have like 6-8 vehicles for sale at a time for the previous reasons mentioned or just found decent deals on things like craigslist. It could be as simple as a longtime customer just chatting them up and saying I need a $xx vehicle for my kid, can you help out.