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Why do car salesmen exist? They seem to be a big pain in the butt that adds little value.
Best experience I ever had buying a car was the two times my friend who has a dealer number bought me a car at auction and I paid him a flat $500 fee to do it.
For instance I went BMW to BMW dealer looking at cars. Soon as in the door they surround me like vultures. Financing, warranties, marks-up and to get a test drive you felt like you had to blow the salesman and give the manager your first born. I was able to get to see some prices and sit in one or two cars and did not even get a test drive. I got come back on a weekday when less crowded.
Then my friend went to auction. Got me a mint mint one, detailed it, registered it and I sent him a cashiers check and picked it on a Saturday. No stress. $7,0000 less than dealer price. Never saw the car till after I picked it up.
Why who cares. I knew it was mint, under warranty, had car fax and even when I got VIN number night before when auction put up listings I found 30 photos on line from dealer it came into.
My friend left that business and last car I bought I had to do dealer route again. Horrible. Paying way more and dealing with morons.
My favorite moron was I bought a Mercury wagon off him back in 2000 with 8k miles. He found out it was going to auction a day or two before with VIN list. He said it is coming off float so maybe dealer would deal with you. He gave me estimated auction price and told me to offer dealer $500 more. Which was his fee anyhow. So I go to dealer I negotiate on used wagon. He is like $3,500 higher. I finally go look I know the float is up, this is going to auction in 48 hours, you have to pay to load it drag it all the way 70 miles, unload it and sell it and I have the dealer book from this weeks auctions. I am offering $500 bucks more and you save a ton of work dragging it upstate, I will take it now. Guy basically goes ********* I rather drag this thing upstate then give you a deal. If I start giving cars away and work gets out I am screwed get off my lot.
I am like really. So I go upstate. Thinking well that car aint showing up. There were a few other wagons from Hertz that looked good. Then the wagon does show up. I bought it for $8,300 and guy wanted $11,300. My buddy waived his fee since I got him some football tickets. Then for fun I ran it through car wash, detailed it when I got home a bit more. Then that weekend I drove it to the dealership for fun to show salesman and he came out and yelled at me again. Which was fun.
Used car dealers are scumbags in a way. The actually prices of used cars are in "dealer only books" that give up to date info broken down in detail as to what the cars are selling at auction.
The KBB price is a stale price that does not break down pricing well and is inflated. That way when you buy under "book value" a consumer thinks he is getting a bargain. New cars depreciate at a price of $500 a week. Colors and options and miles play a big role in price. Dealer gets details not you.
Why do car salesmen exist? They seem to be a big pain in the butt that adds little value.
I feel it's just a holdover from a bygone era, plus the National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA) has a heavy-hitting political lobby arm in Washington, DC. Just look at Tesla and their direct-to-consumer car sales model on whether or not you even need dealerships and salesmen.
The dealership system is an antiquated relic of a time before the internet. There is no reason why I should have to go to a dealership, deal with smarmy salespeople, managers and finance guys in order to buy a car. I should be able to order one off the internet directly from the manufacturer.
Of course, the dealership lobby is going to fight like hell to prevent this, but dealerships are obsolete for anything besides certain types of service work.
Location: In a little house on the prairie - literally
10,202 posts, read 7,926,708 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by War Beagle
The dealership system is an antiquated relic of a time before the internet. There is no reason why I should have to go to a dealership, deal with smarmy salespeople, managers and finance guys in order to buy a car. I should be able to order one off the internet directly from the manufacturer.
Of course, the dealership lobby is going to fight like hell to prevent this, but dealerships are obsolete for anything besides certain types of service work.
So where are you going to take if for warranty service?
Vehicles today are so complicated that special training and, more importantly something most consumers don't ever think about, special tools that dealerships must provide, and pay for, to keep their franchises. Your local Pep Boy or Canadian Tire will not invest in those.
Tesla works right now because of low volumes. Think what their service centers would be like if there were millions of them on the road and sold EACH year. Would you put up with the waits and delays?
A distributed network is required. That is what dealerships provide.
So where are you going to take if for warranty service?
Vehicles today are so complicated that special training and, more importantly something most consumers don't ever think about, special tools that dealerships must provide, and pay for, to keep their franchises. Your local Pep Boy or Canadian Tire will not invest in those.
Tesla works right now because of low volumes. Think what their service centers would be like if there were millions of them on the road and sold EACH year. Would you put up with the waits and delays?
A distributed network is required. That is what dealerships provide.
That's the only major holdback. Sure I would like to be able to purchase my car online but we all know there are bound to be recalls and TSB's. A factory trained dealer would be the only place to get these issues serviced.
'All Cash' and 'Personal Check' are in no way the same thing. They will still need to run your credit, and definitely will at least call the bank to check for current funds.
As for cash vs financing, some dealers will turn down a cash buyer if the numbers won't work in their favor, ie they dropped the price too much.
Banks around here won't do that, my guess is they won't do that where you are either. So it is risky to take a check, they'll probably only do it for in-state buyers. Out of state people will most likely have to bring certified funds or cash. Or they (pay for) and use a check verification service.
I do think its funny that people still believe buying with cash will all of a sudden make a dealer drop a car price an extra 4-5-6 grand or whatever crazy number they have in their heads. When you finance, the bank will wire the funds to them within 2-3 days. That time is not worth them dropping the price any more and as others have said, they the finance office is a profit center for them.
I've never heard of a dealer too stupid to pass on a cash deal because of the profit they give up though. That's just fantasyland internet fodder.
I don't even really focus on selling cars honestly, I just focus on making sure every person coming in has a fantastic experience with me on the store, I talk to people like they're my best friends - joke around but make them feel very comfortable - as a result, I sell about 20-30 cars a month
With that being said, I rarely negotiate for more than 10-15 minutes. Most of my deals are done very quickly - some customers pay MSRP and I make 500-1500 dollars, other times they haggle to nothing and I make $100 mini. I'm very good at my job so customers like me and they're willing to pay a little more to buy from me - this results in me being very high in the store in terms of gross profit generated.
And that is what I question. If that person that you made 1500 dollars with found out 30 minutes later that the next person only made 100 dollars with you--that would make a fantastic experience with both Customers?
Personally I don't want to be treated like your best friend, I want a honest, fair price with no games attached. I am coming in to make a business deal, not to make friends. I am pretty good at playing the game. I hate the game I have to play when buying a car. Hate it---and I rarely use the word hate.
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