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no haggle pricing?

Right on cue... (Did I call it?) ;-P

We already /DO/ do this at the grocery store or home improvement store - but they are set up as a 'fixed price' system that is very difficult or impossible to override the prices at the register. So when we see the prices at Home Depot or Kroger/Ralphs are too high for our tastes, we just walk out and take our business over to Lowe's or Vons/Pavillions and buy our stuff at the proper price.

The vendors we walked out of either figure it out and get their prices in line with the marketplace, or they go broke.

There might be a dozen grocery stores in your town ranging from supermarkets to convenience stores, or three to four hardware or home improvement stores in the same range of sizes, all selling the same basic items. But there's only one car dealer for any one make. The only exception being major metropolitan areas.

Some dealers will sell a car at a low profit point IF the customer pushes them hard - but if they walk in as a "Barefoot Pilgrim" waving $5,000 over MSRP sticker for immediate delivery on the 'hot car of the month', you certainly aren't going to turn it down, are you?

Of course not! The guy who wants to get a decent deal is just going to have to wait till all the stupid people waving around wads of cash have gotten their new cars, and the demand cools down a bit.

You complain at only making $3,000 gross on a $35,000 wholesale car sale - that's a bit under 10%, which is a LOT of markup for a big-ticket item. What the heck are you complaining about? Real estate agents are fighting over customers to get business at a 3% commission rate. General contractors on remodel jobs can only mark their sub-contractors prices up 10% at the most, many are less when the job is big or times are tight.

And if a car dealership prices themselves out of the repair and maintenance market, smart people will go somewhere else unless they have a warranty issue. I always shop around between dealers and independents for that work, and some dealers are in line with the rest of the market, some are not.

There are always some people who think "Damn the Cost, Factory Service Only!" and that's how some dealers manage to get business even if they have radically overpriced service bays.

It's a free market. You are free to try and "maximize profit on every sale" and we are free to maximize value received. But don't cry crocodile tears when us customers figure it out.

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Reply to
Bruce L. Bergman
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There are scrupulously honest dealers out there, but they are rare. Most exist in small towns where word gets around quickly, and if they rook too many people the word gets around and business dries up. Or the state regulators move in and shut them down.

But in big cities? Even if they don't outright steal from your pocket, they steer you toward /their/ finance company where they get a commission kickback, or to /their/ extended warranty insurance company where they get a commission on each sale, sell you on the "Monthly Payment" to hide the actual price and interest rate...

And it's worse when the dealerships are corporate owned, and they control several thousand locations. They pay people just to cook up new "revenue enhancement methods and procedures".

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Reply to
Bruce L. Bergman

You did, but I think he has a point

O_O That sounds like a hassle - will you really save enough to make up for the inconvenience?

I doubt many folks would take as hard a line as you did

Orlando is a major area...

Well haggling was not an option with that Scion, but we usually don't let them skunk us for more than we think the car should cost.

LOL Bitter? Just a tad.

But can you really compare contracting to a car?

Ya think?

I insist on dealer maintenance (Oil change, tuneup etc), but mechanical work is done elsewhere, if I can get it.

oh boy

Natalie

Reply to
Wickeddoll®

Yep, exactly right. Have had friends ready to buy the car, had luckily previously crunched the numbers, they didn't match, figured out why, then made the dealer fix it. Its alot harder for the dealer to get away with it when purchasing with cash, as compared to financing or leasing, because there are alot more numbers to deal with.

Reply to
dc

Ah, capitalism, thy name is car dealer

Natalie

Reply to
Wickeddoll®

"Wickeddoll®" wrote in news:42913bb4$0$6828$ snipped-for-privacy@news.free.fr:

Or maybe those prices are already as low as they can get? Grocery stores make between 2% and 3% net profit. Oil companies make about 8% or 9% net.

A hammer or a can of corn is not remotely comparable to a car or house.

Grocery stores, gas companies, and hardware stores sell commodities. Simple things that do not change much over the years, and which sell in very high quantities. Commodities are things that end up getting the price stuffing beaten out of them over the years, since people _DO_ do exactly what Bruce says they do. Advertising hastens the process, which is why advertising is a very good thing.

Were this not so, grocery stores would make margins more like that of organizations that makes their money from copyright laws, such as software companies and movie studios. Their net margins are more like 25%.

The challenge for commodity makers is to try to make their commodities seem less commodity-like. Branding, advertising, image, and little things like "secret spices" all allow commodity makers to attempt to charge more and thus make a bigger margin, but even then there will be a ceiling beyond people will be unwilling to pay a premium for a fancy commodity. A can of Green Giant corn may sell for ten cents per can more than house-branded corn, but never for a dollar more.

Motor vehicles, houses, or other complex, expensive items carry costs and charges that can vary wildly, and where the sellers might be making their money in ways you can't see. Ever bought industrial machinery or tried to rent commercial space? The flexibility of autombile pricing is a pale shadow of machinery or space prices.

Reply to
TeGGeR®

That's because there's no sales tax in New Hampshire.

In most, maybe all, states that have a sales tax, you pay it when you register the car, no matter where you bought it.

In fact, in Connecticut, and possibly other states as well, if you buy __anything__ out of state and don't pay sales tax (perhaps because you had it shipped), you have to pay the CT tax. It's called a "use tax" and you must file it with your 1040 in April.

Reply to
kgold

Heh. This is true anywhere. I know of a local Toyota dealer that is so ruthless that they will ream you ten times over if you are stupid enough to use their financing department.

Of course, Credit Unions are the solution to this. Walk in with a check, drive that GM or whatever home.

Reply to
Joseph Oberlander

One point - 3% of 400K is, well, a reason to fight over the customer ;)

Reply to
Joseph Oberlander

I know...but the property taxes kick your ass. We lived there for 11 years.

Interesting - but it didn't cost very much when I registered. Maybe there's a hidden cost, since the dealer did the paperwork.

Well, I bought this Scion in Florida, which has horrendous sales tax, so I guess I'm boned either way.

Natalie

Reply to
Wickeddoll®

I looked at the agreement very well. The interest was the lowest one available, but of course I mean within their finance department. Hubby will take a look at it when he returns soon.

But being a military family, credit unions are a hassle, as most of the time they only have branches in their area. When hubby retires, we may use a CU, since we'll stay put.

Natalie

Reply to
Wickeddoll®

Good point!

:-)

Natalie

Reply to
Wickeddoll®

Do you like having the lights on at night, a furnace in the cold and fans or AC in the hot? And cold beer (or soda) and cold food in the refrigerator? Is someone in the family using medical devices like an oxygen concentrator or CPAP? That's a No-Brainer to me... ;-)

If you buy a good quality portable generator like a quiet enclosed Honda or the like, and take care of it, it's good for 20 years at least. My Army Surplus 10KW generator (PE-95-G, Willys "MB" 134-CID

4-cyl flathead) is past 60 years and still going... Spare Parts can be a pain, but that's a given.

But when it finally dies, I can get a 40KW on the same size trailer.

Do NOT buy one of the open-frame air-cooled "contractor models". No matter how many promises the box makes, the damn things are so noisy when running they will drive you nucking futs. You don't own enough cord to put them far enough away to be quiet - and if you do, then you're /really/ annoying the neighbors.

Odds are, it'll get used or loaned out a few times a year at least - if nothing else for tailgate parties, running the concession stand for the kids' soccer/baseball/football team, campouts, running power tools at the far end of the lot when you don't have 600' of cord...

Run Sta-Bil in the gasoline, put on an engine hourmeter and do oil changes annually or every (100*) hours. (* Or as the book says.)

If you want a "whole house" generator in the 10KW - 60KW range, buy an enclosed generator already on a trailer with fuel tank and ready to go, like a MQ (Multiquip) WhisperWatt. It's like investing in a new Toyota, but it's a solid investment - they make models that have stick welding capabilities so you can kill two birds. And most do 3-phase and multiple voltages in case you want to rent it out or use it for work.

If you buy now, you can shop for a deal. Or like you said, if you wait for the first tropical storm to form and get named, the prices will double overnight. And they'll all be gone by the end of the day.

We even got signs in California stores last year stating "Due to the hurricanes, the availability and selection of generators is limited."

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Reply to
Bruce L. Bergman

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