Did you recently take on (or consider) a loan of 84 months or longer on a car purchase?
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Stories from the Sales Frontlines
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You will not go broke, but you have to be patient. Most Audi buyers are 30 days from purchase from the first time they step in a dealer. I would suggest getting a 6 months (minimum) to a year at a VW store to get some experience. I really had a great advantage over others who started here, because the customers are very similar (just more money)
Sell what ever you want, because if you have a desire to be successful and are passionate about what you sell you will make money!!! Every so often dealers flood the floor with sales people and I still sell my 10 cars with 4 or 8 people on the floor, because I have a plan every month.
I love BMW but the culture there sucks. They sell on prestige and image, where audi sells on performance quality and passion.
Why not? It would show a passion and excitement for the product you are selling. Which is sure to carryover to the customers via increased sales. i.e "WOW, this guy sure is crazy about Audi's...maybe I should buy one"
Heck, take your musical instrument and walk around the sales floor and lot playing your greatest hits. Good way to drum(no pun)up some business.
What about Betulas from Sams Club? :-)
Wow...money must *not* be important to you. :-)
I've worked commissioned sales jobs before, and there were times I wouldn't have traded it for any other job I've had. You're talking to people, you're being social, and if you're making sales, there's no bigger legal rush. But in the down times, it's boredom and frustration, combined with people at their stupidest, or looking to take advantage of you in every possible way.
Read Confessions of a Car Salesman on the Edmunds site if you want one view of what it's like being out there on the front lines.
Not everyone's experiences will be the same, but it's an entertaining read.
That is why I was very specific about "made in Germany", no "licensed by Birkenstock" crap.
It's wierd, i've been a touring musician for about 10 years. I still love it but at the same time i'm a little burned out. I don't think I'm really going to quit anytime soon but I seriously have a life re-evaluation moment every time some bonehead monitor guy throws about 110db of 2k feedback in my in-ears. I've sold shoes, drums, and soccer jerseys for commission out of high school and I've got some stories about those fields believe me. I think car sales can be an art form. I know some people that do it that are just so great at it. I think it's an honorable profesion that's been given a lot of black eyes by some bad apples. I think car shoppers are ok, just given some black eyes by unrealistic cheapskates. I sure would like to try it for a while. I think I'd have a blast.
LOL...That makes as much sense as me saying that I would like to be a professional poker player for awhile. I think that would be a blast also....... until I go broke.....which would not take too long, by the way.
Definetly have that kind of attitude about life which can be a good thing.
Not trying to discourage you but to be forewarned is to be forearmed. I wish you luck.
2011 Hyundai Sonata, 2014 BMW 428i convertible, 2015 Honda CTX700D
They have a 2005 Chevy Equinox and I was totally expecting about 6-7K in negative equity...definate deal killer. My customers are from the Phillipines and have worked herd for the past 5 years to get good credit.
Now it's time for another baby and the Equinox just doesn't have the room for Mom/Dad/6yr old and newborn...and NO ROOM for any family that visits.
The purchase for a 60 month loan and the negative equity was more than $250 more per month than their current payment. 72 month wasn't that much better.
I explained to them about Honda's leasing program, and that's the route they chose. Bottom line, they get the Odyssey EXL/RES and pay $25 per month less than their Equinox.
My customers are very happy.
Leasing is a good way to ditch the negative equity and keep or lower monthly payments.
It is not a pretty payment but for 900 bucks a month with all taxes included you could make 10,000 grand of negative equity go away in just 24 months if you leased a ex-service loaner LR3.
The $10K isn't going away.. They are just paying it every month over the term of their new lease..
But, the $10K is money that is already lost... you can either pay it off while driving your current car, or pay it off while driving a new one..
If you can get a really good lease deal, you might not be any worse off... Unless you plan on trading out, before the lease is up..
I don't recommend rolling negative equity... Usually, because the negative equity comes from trading too often, and doing it one more time doesn't help to break the cycle of dependency..
I call it "kyfdx's 12-step program to kicking the car habit". :surprise:
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And don't undersell your love of Audi, at least not with the Audi dealership. Product knowledge will be one less thing they have to train you on, and will put you one step closer to the floor. Tell the hiring manager "I don't know why everyone isn't driving an Audi", or words like that. That's the kind of enthusiasm that sells you *to* the manager.
But first, as I mentioned earlier, look at what other people are driving. Are there other Audis on the road in your area? Because there's only so much you can do as the salesman; eventually it comes down to the car, and how people perceive it. (In San Jose you see a ton of them. The dot-boom was very good for Audi, and the resurgence of the tech industry is helping as well.)
Because while there's a lot to be said for doing a job you like, there's also a lot to be said for making money at your job.
I really don't know what I'm going to do. But I'm defiantly not going to make any rash decisions. There aren't many Audi's in Houston however. lot's of bimmers, and Lexus. Tons of Big trucks.
We basicly told this guy to stay in his car cause he was buried way too deep in it. He said he really wanted out of the LS, it was a 2004 with 50,000 plus miles, so we figured out a way for him to do it.
Basicly we came up with the best way to do something really stupid.
Roll all of the negative equity into a car we could sell below invoice on a lease that was highly subsidized so the effective interest rate on his lease was less then the rate on his current loan.
He got out of a car that was out of warranty, was already having problems and being rear wheel drive sucked in the snow.
He did a very high mileage lease, about 20,000 miles a year I think, but since the LR3 offers a 50,000 mile warranty and pre-paid maintence for the length of the warrany as well he would be fully covered for the length of the lease.
Doing the high mileage lease did push his payment up close to $1,000 a month but that was with all taxes including property taxes in and only a couple of grand for start up fees.
-juice
Pretty easy to do when you buy an american car, or some european ones, that depreciate fast. He had a five year note on that LS only but down a couple of thousand dollars not even enough to cover his taxes and then proceded to drive nearly 25,000 miles a year.
If he had driven a more normal 12-15k he would have still been upside down but not nearly as much.
Agreed, but I'd guess most people aren't aware of their true position until they're sitting at the desk at trade-in time.
They should either keep the car, or buy a more affordable used car until they can get back in the black.
-juice
2011 Hyundai Sonata, 2014 BMW 428i convertible, 2015 Honda CTX700D
I'm just saying... :P
2024 Jeep Grand Cherokee L Limited Velvet Red over Wicker Beige
2024 Audi Q5 Premium Plus Daytona Gray over Beige
2017 BMW X1 Jet Black over Mocha
It's sometimes really hard to be not judgmental about people's decisions and motivations - I know we don't know everything, but if one gets 10 grand upside down and then moves to a lease "to keep payment down", it is pretty much proven case of being financially retarded.
2018 430i Gran Coupe
-juice
I flat out told him that what he was doing was the dumbest thing he could do but if he was going to do it this was the smartest way to do that dumb thing.
2018 430i Gran Coupe
Let me put this another way. If VISA sent you a new charge card, that had a $2,500 balance on it, even though you didn't buy anything with that VISA card, would you want to pay the monthly charges?
No the best way to get out of negative equity is to keep the car. By switching over to the lease all you are doing is basically paying the lease PLUS a payment to pay off the negative equity over the course of the lease.
2011 Hyundai Sonata, 2014 BMW 428i convertible, 2015 Honda CTX700D
If it was a balance transfer with very low APR attached to it, it may be OK.
2018 430i Gran Coupe
Many leases are highly subvened so your effective interest rate might be lower and if you are smart you go with a short lease which forces you to pay off the negative equity faster. It is a little harder to roll out of lease then a traditional finance purchase which helps as well.
Rather, you are just financing that amount over X years. Not really any different than if you took out a bank loan for the 10K (in that example) and used it as an additional DP to pay off the hole you were in.
So, for that LR obove, if the normal lease is $700/mo, and this guy is paying $1000/mo., he is paying an extra $300/mo. 300x36 = 10,800. So, the 10K didn't go anywhere, it just got financed for 3 years.
Now, the lease does make sense if it is at a highly subsidized interest rate, since you pay less interest, but you still pay the pricipal amount.
Still not a good idea if you are just trying to get out from under a neg equity loan, if that is the only reason you are doing it, but it does make sense if there is a valid reason that someone has to get into a different car (and no, "because they want it" is not a valid reason!).
2020 Acura RDX tech SH-AWD, 2023 Maverick hybrid Lariat luxury package.
This is where people need to be able to make the distinction between "need" and "want". Most times when people need something they just mearly want it. Now while I don't know all the particulars I would be willing to bet that it was a want not a need.
If you don't have the available cash, then this is a very good way to get the job done.
If you don't have the available cash then maybe you should be keeping the car and not burying yourself deeper. Sometimes sacrifices need to be done. Secondly if you don't have the available cash maybe you shouldn't have gotten such an expensive car.
2011 Hyundai Sonata, 2014 BMW 428i convertible, 2015 Honda CTX700D
In my particular example this guy was driving 25,000 miles a year previously but had recently made some changes to keep his mileage under 20,000 miles a year.
Ok so in one year he would have about 75,000 miles on this car and probably be just as much upside down. That does not include any upkeep expenses on the car because it was out of warranty and having problems.
By rolling into the lease he kept his monthly car expenses pretty much fixed. He has his lease payment which includes all taxes. He has insurance and gas costs thats it. Rovers have prepaid maintence and the warranty covers him for everything else. He would probably run through brakes once in the front and back and probably one set of tires.
He more then cut his interest rate in half and did not actually extend the time he was paying off the neagative equity since he did a short 24 month lease. Remember he was about two years into a five year note so he will actually pay the negative equity off about 10 months sooner I think.
2011 Hyundai Sonata, 2014 BMW 428i convertible, 2015 Honda CTX700D
The trick was the LR3 we were selling him was a former service loaner that we could sell for several thousand dollars below invoice.
The car had a 43,000 dollar MSRP but we sold it for like 37,xxx. We sold the car for a little over 46,000 since his negative equity was close to 10,000 dollars.
It was also the best solution that fit what the customer wanted to do, because they didn't want to just keep the car. And when it comes down to it, you have to do what the customer wants, because they'll just go someplace else until they find a place that will give it to them.