Ask the Best and Brightest: Have You Ever Met an Honest Car Salesman?
I’m working on a piece entitled “Five Reasons Why Car Buyers Will Avoid the Cash for Clunkers Program Like the Plague.” Sneak peak: people trust car dealers about as far as they can throw an M1 Abrams tank. I know that several of our Best and Brightest are living la vida locomota by selling cars to suspecting punters. But I can honestly say that I have never met an honest car salesman face-to-face. Charming? Yes. Knowledgeable? Absolutely. But every last man Jack of them oozed obfuscation. The best of the breed, who shall remain nameless, avoids issuing outright lies with a simple yet effective technique: he ignores any question that requires a negative reply. Seriously. He says nothing. Unlike Mr. Piven, whose latest cinematic effort seems carefully designed to lower public opinion of a profession that couldn’t go any lower (both the opinion and the profession itself). But truth is sometimes stranger than fiction. Have you ever met an honest car salesman? And if you have, are you sure he wasn’t playing you for a fool?
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With all due respects to Mr. Lang et. al... Nope. That includes my "prior self".
Yes...and then I woke up. Seriously though, I have only dealt with one honest car salesman. I bought my nissan from a close family friend who got all of the profit knocked of and got the car for me as close to wholesale as he could. He had the service guys fix any issues that came about soon afterward. If I know he isn't always honest because he showed paperwork on similar cars he sold to customers for a comparison on price.
I have a statement, then a question; I find it intensely fascinating that many people associate a good salesperson exclusively with price. "who got all of the profit knocked of and got the car for me as close to wholesale as he could" "the salesmen chimed up and said they’d sell us the GXE for the loss-leader ad price plus the retail price of the GXE package (several hundred bucks to add alloys, bigger tires, better stereo, strut brace)." "special interior trim that would have cost us $400 if we had requested it. The dealer said that if we were ok with it we could have it for free" "The buyer knows the best price is the price you paid for it. The unknowns are the price you paid, and also the markup/profit margin. $100? $1000? Can the price come down?" "I research invoice, hold-back, customer incentives and manufacturer to dealer incentives before I go in. I never have to have the car or buy a hot model. Deal with Internet or fleet department if they have one. I identify the car I want and tell them I will pay $500 over invoice minus hold-back and incentives and am firm about the offer." I find that there is a disconnect here. It would seem that our market (US/Canada) has become so price conscious and competitive, that we're squeezing each other for every last penny. Is this sustainable? I'm curious as to how new manufacturers (TVs, cars, whatever) view our market. Sure there's volume to be had here, but if you make $0.05 on a product, you have to do some serious volume. Interestingly, I've noticed that car dealers make on average about 10% profit on a new car. Sometimes less. So, on a $30,000 car, this is $3,000. Discount the car $1,000 and the average salesperson will make 25%, so $500. Dealer makes $1,500. Have you ever looked at the markup in furniture, eyewear, appliances? sometime 50% - 75% is not uncommon ... yeah, we shop those too now because of the internet. They will all come down eventually. Can our retail market handle this kind of battering all the time? This is why Wal-Mart rules and small town business fails. Did you know that Costco isn't allowed in Europe? Think about it. Again, from an economics standpoint, is this sustainable? I dunno...
In reply to kornjd I guess after reading your thoughtful comments I have come to the conclusion that I really don't need the salesman. The dealership could have an order and service department and manufactures could have a local site that might serve a 10 mile radius or 100,000 people where you could test drive their models. The car could be delivered to the local service department prepped and then picked up. I am the one who commented “I research invoice, hold-back, customer incentives and manufacturer to dealer incentives before I go in. I never have to have the car or buy a hot model. Deal with Internet or fleet department if they have one. I identify the car I want and tell them I will pay $500 over invoice minus hold-back and incentives and am firm about the offer.” In retrospect any energy I expend is basically to go around the salesman to the person who can approve a sale at a given price.