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I recently purchased a car and took my time doing so. I visited many dealers and talked to many salesman. I am going to list a few key things I found in my experience. I'd like feedback of car salesmen or former salesmen on why things are the way they are, or why they do the things they do.
1. I looked online, found a car I wanted and then could email / text the place. I'd say 9 times out of 10 they wouldn't provide any sort of price at all unless I called them. It's odd that they have the email us for price, text us for price box but then just flood my inbox with requests for my phone #.
2. Even when I did finally give in an call them because I really wanted the car they'd still the majority of the time not give me their "best price" over the phone. They gave me the ole, "you need to come in and take it for a spin then we can chat!". I knew what I wanted and what I was willing to pay but they won't negotiate over the phone.
3. Why do some salesmen prefer losing a customer completely over providing info via email, text, or phone? A few guys, I pushed hard for a price before I came in since they were over an hour drive away and many simply told me "Sorry, no can do. Unless you come in and chat, we can't provide a price." They were fine to just not deal with me.
4. I know the answer to this one already but I just want to rant about it a bit. I found a car I was ready to buy for say $10k online. The actual price said OUR PRICE $9999! I go in, test drove it, loved it, and said can you provide me the out the door price? They came back and it looked like this:
$10,749 (lost $750 "cash discount" because I was not financing the vehicle)
$1,200 (Tax tag title etc.)
$300 (Dealer fee??)
$1,500 (Unremovable accessories they say they "Have to add on to every car that comes in")
_______
$13,779 total on a 9999 car.
I said this is ridiculous, as I lose 750 for paying cash, have to pay for all their crap accessories etc. After attempting to walk out and nearly being physically restrained they said ok we will give you the car for 9999 plus tax tag title and lose the accessory fee, dealer fee, and theyd give me back the 750 for paying cash. So in the end they offered it for the advertised price. But I was so annoyed they made me go through this exercise that I walked saying I don't appreciate their tactics. (rant over)
Mainly looking for comments on why these places refuse to deal outside of face to face. It's 2017. People don't like driving to a place just to talk price. We have the world at our fingertips now.
FYI I'm not saying I didn't have any positive experiences, as some of the salesmen were really cool. The bad definitely did outweigh the good though. I eventually did find a good salesman that gave me an exact price over the phone. I test drove the car the next day and paid cash.
Yeah some dealers simply don't talk price unless you are there in person. I would guess that they probably waste a lot of time providing information to customers over the phone and never get a sale. They would rather spend time with hot leads which would be you in the dealer.
When I shopped my last car most dealers gave me the run around on the phone. My local dealer (10 mins from me) emailed me a quote and was also very responsive to text. He was under 25 years old...so maybe he was bending the rules. I bought from them...there were no gimmicks. Price, taxes, fees...I had to sit through the whole up-sale process of warranties and special tire insurance but it was easy to just click no.
I recently purchased a car and took my time doing so. I visited many dealers and talked to many salesman. I am going to list a few key things I found in my experience. I'd like feedback of car salesmen or former salesmen on why things are the way they are, or why they do the things they do.
1. I looked online, found a car I wanted and then could email / text the place. I'd say 9 times out of 10 they wouldn't provide any sort of price at all unless I called them. It's odd that they have the email us for price, text us for price box but then just flood my inbox with requests for my phone #.
It's why they are called "salespeople" and not receptionists. Granted, the title is not worthy of many.
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2. Even when I did finally give in an call them because I really wanted the car they'd still the majority of the time not give me their "best price" over the phone. They gave me the ole, "you need to come in and take it for a spin then we can chat!". I knew what I wanted and what I was willing to pay but they won't negotiate over the phone.
I no longer sell cars and things have changed since I did but rarely would I negotiate over the phone. It makes it to easy for you to buy elsewhere.
Quote:
3. Why do some salesmen prefer losing a customer completely over providing info via email, text, or phone? A few guys, I pushed hard for a price before I came in since they were over an hour drive away and many simply told me "Sorry, no can do. Unless you come in and chat, we can't provide a price." They were fine to just not deal with me.
The only time I would ever consider discussing price is if someone was a long ways off. Even then........most go to their local dealer and say "dealer A over in the other county offered it for X" and they end up buying it local.
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4. I know the answer to this one already but I just want to rant about it a bit. I found a car I was ready to buy for say $10k online. The actual price said OUR PRICE $9999! I go in, test drove it, loved it, and said can you provide me the out the door price? They came back and it looked like this:
$10,749 (lost $750 "cash discount" because I was not financing the vehicle)
$1,200 (Tax tag title etc.)
$300 (Dealer fee??)
$1,500 (Unremovable accessories they say they "Have to add on to every car that comes in")
_______
$13,779 total on a 9999 car.
Walk out the door in this instance every time. It's not a dealer you want to deal with.
Quote:
I said this is ridiculous, as I lose 750 for paying cash, have to pay for all their crap accessories etc. After attempting to walk out and nearly being physically restrained they said ok we will give you the car for 9999 plus tax tag title and lose the accessory fee, dealer fee, and theyd give me back the 750 for paying cash. So in the end they offered it for the advertised price. But I was so annoyed they made me go through this exercise that I walked saying I don't appreciate their tactics. (rant over)
I don't blame you. Yes, despite me saying everything I said in the first few replies I completely understood that things like this is why people HATE going into a dealership. Not all are like this but the ones that are make it bad for the rest.
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Mainly looking for comments on why these places refuse to deal outside of face to face. It's 2017. People don't like driving to a place just to talk price. We have the world at our fingertips now.
You do so there really is little reason to drag dealer after dealer into the buying equation. Dealers are advertising most cars at low profit margins. (new cars are not a dealers main source of income.....used and service is).
Search online.....find the best price (make sure to read the fine print). Take the number into your local dealer and ask them to do a bit better. If they do, buy it and don't fret that maybe you could have saved another $100 by driving two hours away. You aren't really saving anything. Your local dealer is the one you will take it back for warranty service and they are more likely to make sure you are inconvenienced as little as possible if you bought the car from them.
There are always exceptions to everything but in general........this is my advice.
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FYI I'm not saying I didn't have any positive experiences, as some of the salesmen were really cool. The bad definitely did outweigh the good though. I eventually did find a good salesman that gave me an exact price over the phone. I test drove the car the next day and paid cash.
Great.....now you have a good starting place the next time you buy a car or to recommend to your friends.
3. Why do some salesmen prefer losing a customer completely over providing info via email, text, or phone?
Because if they give you their "best price" in writing, you can take that to a different dealer, and say dealer x is giving me this, what price can you give me
Because if they give you their "best price" in writing, you can take that to a different dealer, and say dealer x is giving me this, what price can you give me
Yes, that's possible. But if I live 200 miles away, how else are we going to get the deal done?
I recently bought a used vehicle where one dealer was jerking me around on the price so I walked. The salesman was doing fine, but the guy(s) in the back room weren't bending. The car I was looking at had been there since last August, the salesman even told me they have trouble moving cars with manual transmissions and he didn't know why they weren't letting me have it at the price.
I got a phone call a few days later from a "sales manager" there asking if I was still interested and where I needed to be to come back in a pull the trigger on the car. I told him that I went and bought elsewhere and he seemed surprised, as if they had a monopoly on the car I was looking at. He said the dealer I bought at never gives anyone a decent deal, but I got roughly the same vehicle, sans a few fancy options, for $4k less. I told him that they have too much competition in the area to be trying to rip people off. I see the OP is in Los Angeles, there are literally several dealerships for any given brand of car within a half hour drive (in good traffic), I would have walked.
Immediately ask for the "out the door" price. Cash or finance.
Exclude fixed costs such as state tax(and city,county if applicable), registration, tags/plates.
If they can't give you that price in 15 minutes just walk away.
There is no such thing as dealer prep or documentation fees. That is all made up. But if they "must" put that in - just have it included in the "out the door" price.
15 minutes tops. Then move on. It is up to you if you wish to give them your real name and real address.
Sometimes I do give my cell phone number but that is my spare cellphone (Tracfone) that I leave in glove box. All of my vehicles have a spare Tracfone in glovebox. Phone and one year of service is about $80.00 on Tracfone.
You have to be prepared to walk.
Of course you can give your real name, address, and phone number if you think there is negotiation room.
One new vehicle I looked at - I did get telephone calls for 3 weeks. At the end of the month the dealership caved and I got my price for the vehicle that I wanted. For me though I used a fake name. I only gave my real name when I went into the financing department.
AND after the deal was struck and total price agreed to - I went to the finance office and showed my GM Points card and obtained an additional $3,000 off the "out the door" deal price. Never mentioned my GM MasterCard points to anyone except the finance person. And the salesman couldn't have known my GM MasterCard points as I never gave salesman my real name.
i don't like to deal with car salesperson either, but to a certain degree, i understand where they are coming from. at the end of the day, car dealerships need to sell cars and make a profit from selling cars. if they are being 100% honest and frank with you, and give you their rock bottom price, you take that offer to another dealership, the other dealership beats the offer by 50 bucks, what does the car dealership that gave you the offer get? nothing!
as humans, no matter what we have, i think the majority of us always want more. if the dealership is willing to give you the rock bottom price, are you going to agree to buy the car no matter what the rock bottom price is? i won't, b/c i want to see if i get an offer better than the rock bottom offer that i just received. You can call that greed or ambition, but i think thats just human nature.
when i bought a car last yr, the dealership that i emailed back and forth with wanted me to visit the dealership in person, b/c i wanted to buy the car, so i did. when i went to the dealership, i gave me them an offer and told them if they were willing to honor that offer, i was going to buy the car on that day. the dealership didn't even want to give me a counter, instead, they started trying to sell me all those upgrades which i didn't want. i ended buying the car at $575 more than the price that i offered from another dealership.
dealerships always say bring me an offer and i will beat it by $500. the reality is no dealerships, at least around the area that i live, is willing to give me a reasonable offer in written form and let me take that offer out of their dealership.
Last edited by some1livesinamerica; 04-24-2017 at 12:37 PM..
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