Bark's Bites: What You Want To Buy Isn't What They Want To Sell You

Mark "Bark M." Baruth
by Mark "Bark M." Baruth

Imagine that you were a buyer of fine art. Not THAT kind of fine art, mind you—I’m not talking Seurat or O’Keefe here. Just some private collection pieces for your home, maybe in the range of $1K-$10K. Something a little unique and different, maybe not something the masses would enjoy. It might take a little bit of art education to truly appreciate it, but you are capable of appreciating it more than most.

Now, imagine that the only place you could buy them was in a Thomas Kinkade “Painter of Light” store, right next to prints of barns and horses and lighthouses. Now, imagine that the sales reps at that store don’t really want to sell you the higher end paintings, because buyers of that sort of thing are notoriously difficult to deal with, and they don’t really make any money on them, because the artists demand most of the profit. They’d rather just make their commission selling to the ignorant masses who want a touching portrait of Aladdin and Jasmine flying over Agrabah.

That’s what it’s like to be a guy who wants to buy something other than a CamCordima at any non-exotic franchise dealership in America—or maybe more importantly, what it’s like to be a guy trying to sell one.

Recently, I had the chance to rap with the manager of a Mazda dealership in a larger metropolitan area. I asked him, “So, excited about the new MX-5?”

He gave me a very corporate answer like “Yes, we are thrilled to experience the new SkyActiv technology in all of its radiant glory…” But then he said something very telling.

“Of course, it’s not a high volume model. And the margins aren’t going to be great. Even better, we get to deal with all of the ‘Miata’ crowd who want a discount for being in this club or that club or for having owned a Miata for 20 years.”

I had a similar experience again when speaking to the GM of a Ford store about the new GT350.

“Yeah, I think I’ve got a brochure around here somewhere if you’re interested. Excuse me, there’s a fleet customer here who I need to speak with.” I don’t blame him. If I had the chance to sell a few flatbed trucks or Transit vans to a corporation, I doubt I would spend any time talking to the guy who’s waxing poetic about the rumble of a flat-crank V8, either.

I spoke with another gentleman recently who was a partner in a independent used car lot. He told me about a beautiful 2013 E350 Sport 4Matic that he sold to a customer, and how finally getting rid of that car was going to enable him to go buy TWO used trucks at auction that week. “Those things we can really make some money on,” he excitedly shared with me. “People are still afraid of car payments in this economy. It’s much easier for me to move a few used trucks that I can get people into $210-220 payments on than these high-end cars. Those cars have two kinds of customers—over-educated pricks who come in here and tell me how much I paid for the car and how they don’t think I should be allowed to make any money on them, and then the people who don’t have any ability to actually pay for them.”

It’s a tough pill for automotive enthusiasts to swallow, but swallow it we must. Our business really doesn’t matter very much to car dealers. The cars we drool over are often headaches for them—they are often the most viewed car on a dealer’s website, which means that they have to field endless numbers of phone calls and emails about them from “buyers” whose credit isn’t good enough to rent a Popsicle stand, much less buy a performance-oriented car. As a result, a high-dollar, rare car will often take up a semi-permanent residence on a car lot, taking up precious floorplan dollars that could be used to acquire vehicles the dealer will move several times more often per year. And for most modern, sensible car dealers who have given up on the idea of the four-thousand-dollar front-end profit on cars, that’s what matters most to them—how quickly can I turn this car into money that I can go buy another car with?

That being said, the B&B of TTAC are a practical bunch. We often discuss how the most popular articles on this site are not about the launch of some exotic car, but of a new mid-sized CUV or family hauler. We have written more words about the previous-generation Toyota Camry than Melville wrote about whales. Even so, we can be a finicky bunch. We’re convinced that Car X would totally sell like hotcakes if only Manufacturer Y would be smart enough to bring it across the Atlantic for us. Then we go and mock anybody who is stupid enough to buy a new car and, God forbid, finance it.

Is it any wonder, then, that the dealers prefer the poor, ignorant masses, seeking their late-model mid-sized sedans?

Mark "Bark M." Baruth
Mark "Bark M." Baruth

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  • Atl6090 Atl6090 on Feb 05, 2015

    My Dad is the prick that has perfect business credit, usually leases or buys two vehicles at a time, every two years. He will break a salesman (gopher) until the guy that really makes the decisions shows up. He has even walked out the door with a manager stopping him to bring him back in. Its uncomfortable as hell, but I'm always happy with the payments. Most recently a 2014 Tundra (insane equity in those things), and a 2013 Sienna off the lot. The guy has owned/leased anywhere from 2-10 cars since he was 16 from working his ass off. One of his favorite lines is, "you can make money on the next guy, just not me." My Dad is an a hole sometimes, but I love him.

  • Japanese Buick Japanese Buick on Feb 07, 2015

    I'll cop to being part of the problem here, especially given the MX-5 example. When I bought my 2012 MX-5 to replace my 1996 Miata, I started with the "email a bunch of dealers" trick. But since I wanted was very specific with my request, none of the dealers I emailed had it and they all started pinging around for one. Which caused a mini-bubble in blue 6MT PRHT GT MX-5s with tan leather in my region. Any that had one (very few) would refuse to trade them to other dealers I guess because they figured I would eventually come their way and they could get the sale. One dealer who responded that they didn't have it but would work with me quickly figured I was the guy who knew exactly what I wanted and knew more about the car than they did. Their solution to the potential time suck was to ride once with me to verify that I could really handle a stick, then they threw me the keys to one that was similar to what I wanted and told me to take an extended test drive and be back with it before closing time and if I wanted to buy they would find what I wanted. They had to trade to another state for it and I bought it from them for cash for a fair price that they made money on but not a killing, and the day it arrived I was in and out of the finance office in minutes.

  • CanadaCraig VOTE NO VW!
  • Joe This is called a man in the middle attack and has been around for years. You can fall for this in a Starbucks as easily as when you’re charging your car. Nothing new here…
  • AZFelix Hilux technical, preferably with a swivel mount.
  • ToolGuy This is the kind of thing you get when you give people faster internet.
  • ToolGuy North America is already the greatest country on the planet, and I have learned to be careful about what I wish for in terms of making changes. I mean, if Greenland wants to buy JDM vehicles, isn't that for the Danes to decide?
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