Car sales tricks

If you are in the car business and you are good at it, you can make a good living. I work for a store that has seven new franchises all at one location. We are Ford, Lincoln, Mazda, Volvo, Aston Martin, Lamborghini and Maserati. Our owner treats us very good and expects us to treat his clients very good. I run a department and this month so far we have sold 30 vehicles. 13 of those customers are repeat customers. You don't get that kind of business by lying and cheating customers. You get it by treating people good and taking care of them but still making a fair profit. For whatever reason, people think if a dealership makes a profit they are crooks.
 
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I do my homework. I know what I am going to pay/spend. Truck before last I spent a bit of time with the game, wrote my price on a piece of paper and slid it across the table. I told them that is OTD and no “other” extra costs. Got down to the paper work, I signed several and had them stacked in front of me. One of the last ones was a couple hundred more than I had written down. I asked very politely if these figures were correct. The answer was “yes”. I said you are sure one last time, yes again. Tore the whole pile into pieces.

The salesman was ticked and said your going to drop the whole deal for a few dollars. I said no, you guys did that.

A week later I got a phone call. They were ready to do my original offer. I mentioned something to the effects of what about my pain and suffering. Full tank of fuel and three free oil changes, I had another truck.

I make up my mind I keep it when I am spending my money.

My soon to be ex dil car lots love them. Champagne taste on a beer budget. If one of her friends gets a newer car than her she can’t deal with it. She is so upside down in the one she has now it is ridiculous. The girl went to four dealerships before she found one that would sell her one. She will end up paying about 65K for a 30 k ride. She is happy as long as she has low
payments.
 
Another thing that I just thought of. You have to be a pretty good dude just to be a licensed car sales man. The state checks you out from top to bottom just as if you were getting a concealed carry permit. You can't have any domestic violence charges, any felonies or any DUI's to get a sales license. Then the dealership is going to do a background check on you and probably even check your credit. I had to let a guy go the other day because of a few minor driving infractions because our insurance wouldn't let him drive our cars. He wasn't even a salesman. He was just my assistant.
 
Originally Posted By: jsh
My soon to be ex dil car lots love them. Champagne taste on a beer budget. If one of her friends gets a newer car than her she can’t deal with it. She is so upside down in the one she has now it is ridiculous. The girl went to four dealerships before she found one that would sell her one. She will end up paying about 65K for a 30 k ride. She is happy as long as she has low
payments.

That's not because of the dealership, that's because she is not a smart buyer and probably has bad credit. Banks will only finance so much depending on the value of the vehicle. If she is paying 65k for a 30k ride, it has to be because of a very high interest rate.
 
the problem is luckydog... while you might be at a good dealership, with bosses who appreciate their customers... those sadly seem to be relatively few and far between.


MANY folks get totally dicked around in their car buying experience.


i wont ever buy a used car from a independent lot, and most of what i've looked at on branded dealerships is overpriced crap too.

at this point in my life, the only thing that going to get me on a dealer's lot is if i were in the market for a 100% new vehicle - because of how i've been treated in the past by every sales a-hole i've dealt with.

just one standout example of the nonsense i dealt with recently..... when i was car shopping last year, one of the vehicles i went to go look at they never even declared it had any SES lights on the listing. This was on a branded car lot, not independent small lot. Thankfully i have a bluetooth scanner and when i hooked it up the vehicle had 7 different SES codes... for a truck - a 4x4 crew cab canyon - they were asking north of 10K for. they hadnt even bothered to give the truck a tuneup, or remove the animal nest from between the fender and the master cylinder under the hood. not one of the pictures showed the 30+ cig burns in the seats and carpet.

in this example - i had a scheduled appointment that i put $100 down (fully refundable) to hold the vehicle till my appointment the next morning. when i got there they couldnt find the keys and were actually trying to slim-jim the door open to see if someone locked them inside. Took them an hour to get a new key cut at the main new-car dealer/service center on the other side of the property.

I *almost* felt bad for the sales guy (he didnt setup the appt, etc.. he was just the hook riding the desk that morning) when i walked in without ever moving the car from its parking spot and threw him the keys. That is of course only because i showed him the screenshot of the SES reader i had on my phone and watched his face sink when he saw how they set him up to fall too.

wasted half a day driving (it was close to 2½ round trip) and getting screwed around waiting to test drive the truck and it was the ONLY body-on-frame 4x4 truck/suv they had on the property that was under $11,000 so they couldnt even show me any other vehicles to look at that were what i was searching for.



so yea.. while you may have a boss who respects their customers... many of them out there are not really terribly interested in the repeat business game. which makes 0 sense...
 
Plant.one you do understand that it is the law that if the dealership knows of anything wrong with a vehicle that they have to disclose it in writing. There has to be a carfax in every used car deal signed by the sales associate and the customer. The kind of stuff you guys are talking about was going on 25 or 30 years ago. You just can't get away with crap now days. Especially not with social media. At least not in the state of Colorado.
 
Dude, I agree with you. People should treat any profession with respect. Especially when a consultant or salesperson can help you save a large sum of money. His main task is to find you a car that will fit your individual request and at the same time at a good price. I tried to make the most of the dealer's help when buying my own car. This is how I managed to find my favorite car, which I am insanely happy with. So if you want to make your search for a car easier, https://www.jdmbuysell.com/jdm-importing-tips/how-to-import-a-car-from-japan/ can help you. In any case, you should additionally study all the information about car sales on your own.
 
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Originally Posted By: LUCKYDOGPlant.one you do understand that it is the law that if the dealership knows of anything wrong with a vehicle that they have to disclose it in writing. There has to be a carfax in every used car deal signed by the sales associate and the customer. The kind of stuff you guys are talking about was going on 25 or 30 years ago. You just can't get away with crap now days. Especially not with social media. At least not in the state of Colorado.

sorry for bringing up an old post, i never saw your reply origionally i guess.

i promise, my experience wasnt 25 or 30 years ago. it was summer/fall 2018. at a Chevy dealer. and they didn't get away with [beeep]. i walked out the door without even test driving the POS. they know they lost a potential customer forever with that little stunt too.

unfortunately here in Michigan - the only things dealers are required to disclose is mileage and title status (salvage, etc). everything else is caveat emptor. we are 100% a "buyer beware" state. which is why i carry my Bluetooth OBD reader with me when i'm shopping.
 
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