clevrname
Well-Known Member
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Being that this is a relatively new site, with a completely new generation of Civic, everyone is out shopping for their new Civic, or other vehicles, I figured I would throw in my two cents, for what it's worth, when it comes down to the car buying experience, some dos, some don'ts, and just some facts that most people do not know about.
I figured I will do this process from start to finish. I am going to attempt to just show everyone what goes on behind the scenes....
Now, you start. You're going out to the dealership today to "look" at cars. You pull up on the lot and notice the small flock of hawks just eyeballing you like prey as you park your current vehicle. First, if your vehicle is cleaned extremely well, the salesman is going to automatically assume that you're a good customer. You've cleaned your vehicle, possibly to get a good trade value. The number one pet peeve to all salesmen when they come to greet you and welcome you to their dealership, is the standard reflex objective of "i'm just looking". Please do not do this to your salesman. We understand that you're looking, but remember it is their job to make sure you are given the perfect presentation of their product and answer any questions possible. If you don't want to be hounded as soon as you pull up, then go look when the dealership is not open. Most salesmen are bored 80% of their day with nothing to do, when they see a customer pull on to the lot, it is similar to dangling a steak in front of a dog that hasn't eaten in 48 hours.
The next step goes back to things most are taught as a child, a little kindness and respect, will get you a long way. Remember, if you do decide to check out the "numbers" on this vehicle, your salesman is going to bat for you with the manager. If you are rude to your salesman, you will pay the price, and if they are good at their job, you will never know. So you take the vehicle out for a drive, some people prefer to go alone. I, personally, do not let my salesman put customers on a test drive by themselves. The number one reason being you do not know this car, nor do you know the person. It's like letting some random guy in the walmart parking lot, you just met, take your car for a quick spin, around the block alone, just to see how he likes it. Also, you may have some questions while on the drive, let the salesman go with you, makes everyone's life easier. Again, it is the salesman's job to make sure you are 100% satisfied with your visit to our dealership, therefore, if you think the car is making a crazy noise, or not accelerating properly, he/she can address your concerns while on the test drive.
Ok, so you decide you like the car and you want to buy it. You decide to enter the dark land, aka the showroom. I want to start with a few things that people think get them ahead, but really it throws them behind:
Understand this, the vehicle wouldn't have that price on the window if the manufacturer didn't think it was worth that in the current market. Remember, the more you haggle the price on the dealer is ultimately hurting you in the long run. Dealership data is often fetched, as far as new car sale prices, to determine trade in values, and things of that nature. If you decide to beat the dealership up, you are only devaluing your own vehicle down the line. Also remember, any kind of rebates are also devaluing your car. If you're looking at a vehicle with a crap ton of rebate, the manufacturer has issues them do to increased supply, to attempt to move units.
Back to the price. Of course it is every salesman's dream to sell a car at full MSRP, for you to finance with them, buy aftermarket product, and extend your factory warranty. However, we all know this is not the case with most customers. We as Americans, in my opinion, have been somewhat brainwashed into getting the last word. The satisfaction of knowing you got that car for $2000 off the sticker price is just overwhelming to a lot of buyers. It gives you the sense of accomplishment and a great deal. If you've been rude to your salesman, you best believe he is telling his/her manager "This guy is a complete *******, he will probably kill me in a survey. I'm completely fine with not discounting the car at all." Hopefully, if this is the case, you wouldn't have even come inside because at this point, you're really both wasting each others time.
My advice, ALWAYS save your trade for last. If you're going to be trading in a vehicle, then dealers look to make their money here. Most will want to see the trade first, so they can figure out how much they can either under/over allow for the trade, to in turn offer you a killer discount on the new vehicle, to entice you to buy. If you plan on beating your dealer up, then save the trade for the end. When your salesman comes back with your buyers order and your crazy low price, just mention that maybe you will go ahead and trade the vehicle in to save you the time and hassle. However, you CANNOT let them know this before hand. If you have beat them up on the price, best believe that they are going to try and steal your trade from you. Have a decent knowledge of the market and what you believe your vehicle is worth. Remember with KBB, a good price on a trade for dealers is fair trade in, 85% of the vehicle i trade in are normally about 1000-2000 below this value due to reconditioning costs.
After your trade is appraised, then you can drop the i've decided to go ahead and pay cash deal. That is really going to set them off, but now you have locked in figures and your good to go. If you are financing, make sure you check with your personal bank/credit union PRIOR to going in. Most people feel 3% for 60 months is a good rate now a days for people with great credit. I will let you know I currently have some lenders offering .9% financing on new cars. Dealerships make a lot of their money here. We sell you the loan at 2.9%, then a bank buys it from us for .9%, and we make 2 points in rate. If you let the dealership know from the get go that you've already got financing, they will do their best to match or beat your banks rate, that is the truth. They are paid also for referrals, which they get for most loans they sell, so being able to secure financing helps dealership profit.
My last thing I must say is Surveys. If you honestly did not even want to breath the same oxygen as your salesman, then please don't even complete the survey. If you beat them up on price, then were pissed with how long it took, that is no ones fault, but your own. Please do not survey the dealership bad if you got a killer price and it just took a little while. Most sales surveys are read in weekly meetings aloud to the staff. If your salesman got a bad survey, they are humiliated on a public scale. I am not saying this is how all dealerships work, but majority, from what I have seen, believe in making you look bad, so that you will hopefully do better.
So this is the end of my endless rant about car dealerships. I know a little bit of everything and I really don't' think I could ever hit all of what I do know in one sitting. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask in here and I will do my best to answer your questions. Anything else you may want to know, ask away...... Now that i've attempted to tell you the basics, I'll try and run this class of Car Sales 101....
I figured I will do this process from start to finish. I am going to attempt to just show everyone what goes on behind the scenes....
Now, you start. You're going out to the dealership today to "look" at cars. You pull up on the lot and notice the small flock of hawks just eyeballing you like prey as you park your current vehicle. First, if your vehicle is cleaned extremely well, the salesman is going to automatically assume that you're a good customer. You've cleaned your vehicle, possibly to get a good trade value. The number one pet peeve to all salesmen when they come to greet you and welcome you to their dealership, is the standard reflex objective of "i'm just looking". Please do not do this to your salesman. We understand that you're looking, but remember it is their job to make sure you are given the perfect presentation of their product and answer any questions possible. If you don't want to be hounded as soon as you pull up, then go look when the dealership is not open. Most salesmen are bored 80% of their day with nothing to do, when they see a customer pull on to the lot, it is similar to dangling a steak in front of a dog that hasn't eaten in 48 hours.
The next step goes back to things most are taught as a child, a little kindness and respect, will get you a long way. Remember, if you do decide to check out the "numbers" on this vehicle, your salesman is going to bat for you with the manager. If you are rude to your salesman, you will pay the price, and if they are good at their job, you will never know. So you take the vehicle out for a drive, some people prefer to go alone. I, personally, do not let my salesman put customers on a test drive by themselves. The number one reason being you do not know this car, nor do you know the person. It's like letting some random guy in the walmart parking lot, you just met, take your car for a quick spin, around the block alone, just to see how he likes it. Also, you may have some questions while on the drive, let the salesman go with you, makes everyone's life easier. Again, it is the salesman's job to make sure you are 100% satisfied with your visit to our dealership, therefore, if you think the car is making a crazy noise, or not accelerating properly, he/she can address your concerns while on the test drive.
Ok, so you decide you like the car and you want to buy it. You decide to enter the dark land, aka the showroom. I want to start with a few things that people think get them ahead, but really it throws them behind:
- "What's your best cash price?"
- Dealerships make money on referrals for financing. Most big dealerships sell all of their loans to their manufacturer, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, etc. The second you mention "cash price", they are automatically looking at no money in the back-end (finance/warranty/aftermarket department). This HURTS you. Most managers think, I need to hold all gross possible so I can make decent money off this car.
- "I want your best price so I can shop around"
- This is downright rude. If you're unhappy with your salesman, then this is the best thing to say to them. This automatically leads a salesman to believe they have not done a good enough job presenting themselves to you. It's a great confidence killer. They now know they have wasted 2, 3, or even 6 hours of their time demonstrating the car to you and you don't even like them. If you did, you wouldn't be shopping around.
- "So and so dealership offers oil changes, state inspections, etc. for the life of the car"
- That is wonderful, why didn't you go to them first? There is obviously a reason. Whether you didn't like the service you received at that dealership, or just haven't made it around to that dealer, this does nothing but make the manager think you will battle them on price with that dealer, and depending on the market in your area, kill all of your credibility.
Understand this, the vehicle wouldn't have that price on the window if the manufacturer didn't think it was worth that in the current market. Remember, the more you haggle the price on the dealer is ultimately hurting you in the long run. Dealership data is often fetched, as far as new car sale prices, to determine trade in values, and things of that nature. If you decide to beat the dealership up, you are only devaluing your own vehicle down the line. Also remember, any kind of rebates are also devaluing your car. If you're looking at a vehicle with a crap ton of rebate, the manufacturer has issues them do to increased supply, to attempt to move units.
Back to the price. Of course it is every salesman's dream to sell a car at full MSRP, for you to finance with them, buy aftermarket product, and extend your factory warranty. However, we all know this is not the case with most customers. We as Americans, in my opinion, have been somewhat brainwashed into getting the last word. The satisfaction of knowing you got that car for $2000 off the sticker price is just overwhelming to a lot of buyers. It gives you the sense of accomplishment and a great deal. If you've been rude to your salesman, you best believe he is telling his/her manager "This guy is a complete *******, he will probably kill me in a survey. I'm completely fine with not discounting the car at all." Hopefully, if this is the case, you wouldn't have even come inside because at this point, you're really both wasting each others time.
My advice, ALWAYS save your trade for last. If you're going to be trading in a vehicle, then dealers look to make their money here. Most will want to see the trade first, so they can figure out how much they can either under/over allow for the trade, to in turn offer you a killer discount on the new vehicle, to entice you to buy. If you plan on beating your dealer up, then save the trade for the end. When your salesman comes back with your buyers order and your crazy low price, just mention that maybe you will go ahead and trade the vehicle in to save you the time and hassle. However, you CANNOT let them know this before hand. If you have beat them up on the price, best believe that they are going to try and steal your trade from you. Have a decent knowledge of the market and what you believe your vehicle is worth. Remember with KBB, a good price on a trade for dealers is fair trade in, 85% of the vehicle i trade in are normally about 1000-2000 below this value due to reconditioning costs.
After your trade is appraised, then you can drop the i've decided to go ahead and pay cash deal. That is really going to set them off, but now you have locked in figures and your good to go. If you are financing, make sure you check with your personal bank/credit union PRIOR to going in. Most people feel 3% for 60 months is a good rate now a days for people with great credit. I will let you know I currently have some lenders offering .9% financing on new cars. Dealerships make a lot of their money here. We sell you the loan at 2.9%, then a bank buys it from us for .9%, and we make 2 points in rate. If you let the dealership know from the get go that you've already got financing, they will do their best to match or beat your banks rate, that is the truth. They are paid also for referrals, which they get for most loans they sell, so being able to secure financing helps dealership profit.
My last thing I must say is Surveys. If you honestly did not even want to breath the same oxygen as your salesman, then please don't even complete the survey. If you beat them up on price, then were pissed with how long it took, that is no ones fault, but your own. Please do not survey the dealership bad if you got a killer price and it just took a little while. Most sales surveys are read in weekly meetings aloud to the staff. If your salesman got a bad survey, they are humiliated on a public scale. I am not saying this is how all dealerships work, but majority, from what I have seen, believe in making you look bad, so that you will hopefully do better.
So this is the end of my endless rant about car dealerships. I know a little bit of everything and I really don't' think I could ever hit all of what I do know in one sitting. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask in here and I will do my best to answer your questions. Anything else you may want to know, ask away...... Now that i've attempted to tell you the basics, I'll try and run this class of Car Sales 101....