The games car dealerships play
- Post a car that they don’t actually have.
- Had an appointment Thursday morning. Guy calls me 15 minutes before to confirm I’m still coming in, I said I’m on my way. The moment after I roll onto the lot, I get a call “I wanted to tell you over the phone before you got here [acting like a nice guy] the car got sold. We have many great cars, I can show you them!”
- Dealer fees, prep fees, reconditioning fees. Anything that isn’t the price of the vehicle + sales tax + registration/title
- Creating and reinforcing an environment in which consumers focus on getting the fees. They give you what to focus on, distracting you from the rest. In other words, missing the forest (car price + fees = total cash) for the trees (oh no, the horrible fees)
- Dramatically cross out and highlight things on paper
- Fresh shiny tires – lipstick on a pig
- Ask “When will you come in too look at the car?”
- “We’re already so far off from the original price” as if the original price had any foundation
- Gas tank will be filled up
- How do you “feel” ? Congrats!
- Having “finance” guys
- Claiming they can sell for more at the auction. Then just do that if it was so easy
- Using other listings as evidence. Listings online are biased because only the cars that haven’t sold can still be found online. So they must be over priced. Search the car/mileage you’re interested, filter down to anything that’s > 5 days old, and take off some amount. Don’t go higher than that.
- It’s only $100. Okay say that 10 times and we’re at $1000. Also that goes both ways, if it’s only $100, just sell it. Why should I pay more when you can charge less?
- The whole “I’m just the sales guy, i’ll bring him [pricing manager] the price”
- Have you sign your initials if you make an offer. This isn’t that nefarious because it’s a good way to identify serious buyers. I just find it cringey
- Look at what comparables are by private sellers on fb/craigslist. Those would be just slightly higher than what dealers are offering