I hope this is not a repeat of something posted here before. It was sent to me by a friend who is a car salesman. Article written by a writer who works for Edmunds.com (sp) who went undercover as a new/used car salesman at two different dealerships. It's a long read and I found it impossible to stop once I started.
Way to go! Now I can't stop reading!
Amazing...ain't it? I was aware of some of their tricks but to see them all spelled out. I guess I'm not a good customer cause every time they leave me alone in one of those cubicles I get up and start wandering around the place.
JV
96 Montego (Lil' Blue)On Thu, 21 Aug 2003 13:39:09 GMT, JV wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:
I guess I'm not a good customer either. I moved to a place where I could hear the manager and salesman talking in the open office. I didn't like what I heard. The newbie salesman was getting advice on how to play hocus-pocus with the numbers to get a couple hundred extra dollars from me with a trade-in.
The simple solution to foiling a dealer's scheming is to do your homework before entering the dealership and know your top price. AND be prepared to walk away. Otherwise they've got ya. AND read the fine print before and *after* they take a deposit and type up the final sales contract. I've had them slip a couple of things in like A/C tax on a car with no A/C.
"Dave Null Sr." wrote in message news:Xns93DE7D24A8E63mx5yow@206.123.6.7...
Reading that made me appreciate that my first new car purchase was over here in Switzerland. My first fifteen years of car ownership was in used cars, bought privately. The only reason I bought new was because of the particularly honest approach of a few salespeople when I was shopping used cars (that and the fact that new turbodiesels were selling for less than one-year olds... strange). I would be the customer who does as you describe, but even if you are eventually going to get the deal you want, who needs the hassle of going back and forth endlessly? Perhaps it was an exception, but other than the bad clothes, the two salespeople I dealt with here had nothing in common with the story presented (and with the salespeople I got to experience in the past when my dad was buying and I was just a kid along for the ride). Even though I was in the "weak" position of dealing in a foreign language, the salespeople were polite, informative and very up front with their costs and possible rebates. I think I surprised them a little with my first price, but it was not insanely low, but rather simply the price that a particular dealer could offer on one single car her was trying to unload. Once they knew I was informed about the car itseld (I'm a car nut and engineer and made it clear) and realistic pricing, they became friendlier rather than hostile, as I imagine the response would be in many North American dealerships. There was no pressure to buy on the spot, and certainly no premise of a great deal evaporating if I waled out. I did walk out, but promised to call both back, which I did. After one phone call and one fax, we arrived quickly at a price we both agreed to, and a very generous trade-in for my decidedly old and tired Toyota, which is worth basically nothing to them and would have to be exported to Poland. It seems a lot of the process here relies on mutual respect and trust between customer and seller.
Stephen
Just to add in that I didn't walk out initially because of an impasse on pricing, but rather simply I had limited time that day and we weren't 100% sold on the colours he had available. I suspect perhaps that the attitude difference between the N.A. salesmen and the Swiss ones may simply be due to salary vs. commission. Waiters and waitresses here are paid a fixed monthly salary, and tips are a small part of their earnings. I wouldn't be surprised if the car salespeople here are paid a decent wage, with only small incentives for moving more cars.
Stephen
On Fri, 22 Aug 2003 06:44:09 GMT, "Stephen F." wrote in news:3f45bbb9$ snipped-for-privacy@news.unibe.ch:
My first new vehicle purchase was a motorcycle. The salesman went out of his way to give me the best discount he could manage. I got about 14% off when other dealers were marking the same bike up by 10% due to limited availability.
It was a rude awakening when I bought my first new car. I really wanted a Toyota at the time but the dealer was so pushy during the test drive I bought a Honda instead because the salesman threw me the keys and told me to give it a good drive.
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