GM "Ambushes" Private Sellers To Hype CPO
GM's press release begins with a rhetorical question: "What would happen if you turned more than 20 undercover film and surveillance professionals loose to show the potential drawbacks of buying a used vehicle that is not manufacturer certified?" And then, without a trace of irony, "the results were not at all surprising." The General dispatched actors posing as car buyers– complete with hidden cameras and release forms– to "ambush" [their words] and embarrass [ours] private sellers with "questions that private party used-vehicle sellers often don't want to hear." During one close encounter of the heinous kind, the actor asks an unsuspecting seller if he can install a phone in the seller's home so he can call for roadside assistance any time, day or night. Other private sellers were harassed about "things like financing and courtesy transportation." "We even bought one of the cars and then tried to return it a few days later with a three-day, 150-mile guarantee," bragged copywriter Jim Hagar.
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ZoomZoom, Two wrongs don't make a right. If you are actually serious about your idea, at least make sure that you are doing it at a lousy dealer. I have actually done business with dealers that were good folks. And by that, I mean actually good, not just good compared to other dealers.
Is this supposed to be like those commercials where all of the NYC restaurant patrons were fooled into thinking they had real pasta, but instead were eating pasta from Pizza Hut? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vF4FtWghQAw I thought about getting angry over the idea of some cpo rep 'ambushing' a car sale, but then again, I've dealt with worse. Lowballers, folks who leave underhanded comments to the effect that I'm smoking something if I think my car will sell at the price I was asking for, vultures who circle around waiting for me to get frustrated part it out... Personally, I think you people get too angry over the silliest things. If this was really happening, you'd hear stories about this on an internet forum, and not a press release. But then again, if you believe these commercials to be actual events, then I suppose you also believe a VW Beetle with a heavy German accent flirted with two women in a dealership and talked them into buying a Jetta.
Lots of venom here and I'm not sure why? If you want to spend more money for the warranty coverage you get with a Certified vehicle why not? If you don't have enough bucks and want to take your chances go ahead....you get what you pay for. If folks don't understand what Certified offers, this seems like an interesting way to find out. The private sellers all seemed OK in the end. I'll bet they all got paid, and all signed a release or they wouldn't be on the site.