Ok the difference is I was using common sense and you are making a production of the whole deal and not taking into account that a conversation in person is different from one on a message board.
If you truly believe that VM believes that a a car with 40K on it is as worth as much as a car with 80 K on it then go right ahead. You win the I am right prize for this thread today.
But what I gathered is for example, hey what is that 4 year old Zorch worth, I don't know $5K, must be worth more then that it has low miles only 40K, na those are not low miles, not worth any more, but it is worth more then the one with 80K over there.
I've read that 15k is average yearly mileage. I have 60k on my car right now and i'ts 4 years old. Honestly I don't know how anyone can drive less than that.
Live about 3 miles from work and spend half your time flying around the world will get you about 3,000 miles a year. That's what I put on my car. Our family hauler averages 8,000 per year. My neighbor who works from his home puts one even less miles.
If I recall, you typically look at nice, higher-end cars. However, the sales rep who took you and your wife on the test drive seems to use the old-school approach and sales cliches. Just curious, which car line was that dealer?
It was in my opinion the lowest, in terms of service, of the "high end" dealers, Acura. The car was the second gen RL and in a moment of weakness I was tempted by a huge, $4K incentive. Paying low $40s for a $50K car was indeed tempting. In hindsight I was glad that I did not buy it and wound up paying much more for something else. I couldn't help but think the guy was old school either, maybe he was used to selling TSXs. The original sales guy was OK. Only thing he did was tell me the car was selling well when I asked him. Everyone with any knowledge knows it was and is a sales dud. That's why the "buy it now before it's gone close" was so annoying.
"It was in my opinion the lowest, in terms of service, of the "high end" dealers, Acura."
Ah, yes. Now it makes sense. I concur. When the original MDX was initially introduced, some people who were cross-shopping the RX300, ML320, or X5 -- were saying the same thing about the Acura dealerships they encountered. There may have been some old school guys who were accustomed to selling the Integra or RSX. Hey! Maybe that's why your 2nd sales guy was saying "Buy it now before it's gone."? Sure enough, the Integra and RSX are gone! :P
In defense of Acura, I generally do like their products, and I received good customer service at both dealerships I visited.
It was a busy afternoon and evening for me. The family that I put riding came back and bought. We got the "ghost" approved but for a lower priced vehicle. Still working on that one. Previous customer moved to Vermont and called to tell me they need a 4wd truck and she was sending her husband over to see me. I thought that would be a heck of a drive and told her I hoped he made it before closing time. She laughed and told me he had stayed behind while she moved up and settled down. He came in and bought a 2003 Tundra. My previous customer that brought her sister to me to get a Prius ended up buying one at one of my competitors because we could not get her the one she wanted and she couldn't wait any longer. Oddly enough she bought a different color which I had on the lot two nights ago Go figure! Anyway she did promise to send me referrals. The lady that test drove the Sequoia came in while I was with the Prius family and wanted to test drive the vehicle with her husband and three kids. I'm going to have to work really hard to sell her this vehicle. She came back with a list of things that need fixing. Mind you, it still has not gone through the shop. According to her it needs brakes, and alignment, new tires, the engine squeaks when you accelerate, the climate control knob rotates indefinitely, and there's scuff marks on the bumper and lots of scratches on the driver's side door. If we can get all that fixed she will buy it for $15k out the door. We own it for $13,400.00 so if we do all that work we are not making any money but we will be glad to get it off the lot as she put it. Ah, you gotta love these people. Mackabee
Before all of the above happened I had a situation come up at work. I would like everyone's opinion. Sales folk and regulars alike.
I assisted a young Navy guy on the 3rd of July. We looked at a Celica and an Acura RSX. He liked the Acura better and wanted to work numbers, wanted to check his credit to see if we could get him financing. He was honest and told me he had little credit and had been late on some credit cards. We hit it off really good and I told him about my time in the Navy and reminisced about the good times. He told me he had a friend that also needed a vehicle and was interested in buying a truck and he would bring him in for me to sell him. The next day is my day off. He decides to come in with his friend and does not call me to let me know. They come in and a salesperson greets them and they tell him they are looking for me. He finds out I'm off and goes ahead and helps them. The next day the salesperson comes up to me and tells me the customers came in and asked for me and he went ahead and showed the friend a truck. I said "Cool. Go ahead and help them out and we'll split the deal." That same day the friend calls me on my cell phone and tells me he was given a price on a 2004 Tacoma 4x4 V6 of $8000.00 I knew the price was out of whack and I asked him for the stock number. He gave it to me and I looked it up on my list and it was way more than $8000.00 He told me he had gotten a loan and I told him about a 96 4x4 v6 with 92k miles with a pop up moonroof, camper shell, tow hitch, clean as a whistle that we had for $10,990.00 He asked me if they would take $9000.00 for it. I told him I would ask but I would doubt it. I got with the used car manager and he told me no way. I call him back and tell him. Today they both come in and my previous customer's husband is on the way so I go and get the salesperson that helped them on the 4th and tell them they are here to see the 96 Tacoma. He ends up selling it and when I go into the sales office I see only one name listed under the salesperson's column. I ask the used car manager (which is not I had spoken with before. He is off today) and ask him why the deal is not split. He tells me the salesperson told him I had never spoken to the guy and he didn't ask for me even though I had notes about my conversation with him and also about him being a friend of the first guy. To make a long story longer, the UCM tells me the GSM is the one that made the decision. I say "I was in his office when the guy called! He heard the whole conversation.!" Things got ugly after that. I'm very patient and mind my own business but this time I lost my cool. We went at it in the sales office and I just walked out and paced the lot until I cooled off. 20 minutes later I get called in to the sales office and I get told by the UCM that he spoke with the GM and if I hadn't calmed down to go home for the day. I told him I was calmed down but if he felt I needed to go home to do what he had to do. I ended up staying and sold two cars, and working on a third one. What really tickles me is afterwards the UCM tells me that it was a nothing deal, a mini, so don't feel bad about it. I just looked at him in disbelief and told him "It doesn't matter to me whether it was a loser deal, a 4k round deal, or whatever. He can keep the whole deal as far as I'm concerned. I don't need the 50 bucks that bad. It's the principle of the thing." What do you guys and gals think? I was wrong to lose my cool. However, I don't like being made a fool of. :mad: Mackabee
You were right to be upset, and yes it is the priniple of the thing that matters. If this is the normal way the place operates, I wouldn't particulary care to work there.
I would say you had every right to lose your cool, your half of the deal was stolen right from you, my question is did you talk to the salesperson that closed that deal as to why he did what he did?
Not cool at all and I think you had a right to be upset.
The past couple of stories have reminded me of some stories of my own.
I have a car show tomorrow though, taking the old 1959 Rover to the Simsbury, CT car show if you are familiar with the area stop by and say hi, so I won't be around all day tomorrow.
Your responses were understandable. You were a witness to dishonesty where you did not expect to discover it. The other salesman is wrong. I'm not so sure if I'd be upset with the managers though. They may not have been listening closely to whatever you heard when it was said. I'd guess that salesman will not be employed much longer if he displays that lack of character a few more times and gets caught doing it.
Only you can decide if losing your cool was the way to go, but I certainly think you were correct to stand up for yourself. Doesn't matter if was $50 or $5k, the principle is the same.
On top of which, if you'd let it go it would have been harder to deal with next time. :mad:
2004 X-Mobile........ 20,000...... 18,000...... Miles 30,000...... <150>
So a 2004 X-mobile opening galves is 20,000 for a car with fresh tires, brakes and in need of minimum reconditioning. It is a nice clean straight car and might represent a car that a dealer has had on his lot for a while and he intends to wholesale it to another dealer.
A car that has some needs would start off at 18,000 assuming average wear and tear along with needing brakes/tires plus some other minor shaping.
The <150> by the 30,000 miles mark means that for every 1,000 miles over 30,000 you deduct 150 dollars from the value. Conversely for every 1,000 miles under 30,000 you add 150 dollars. So you see how a 40,000 mile four year old car is not worth more then average. An average car would have 30,000 miles so we wouldn't pay more for a 40,000 dollar car.
In some cases the average miles for a four year old car would be much less then 40,000 miles or they could be more. It just depends on the car.
He edited the post and removed his comment about my example being "dumb". I did not cut and paste the entire context of his post because I saw no reason to repeat the whole thing.
You are correct, I left it up there for about 2 minutes, came back and saw no one had responded so I edited it. Dumb was to strong of an example to be in type, and I felt "not a good example" fit the spirit of the conversation better. Like I said I edited it quickly long before the 30 minutes that had passed when you replied. I also figured it viloated the TOS here at Edmunds.
Have a great day!!!!! I know I will, I am at work which will give me the opportunity to sell a car, make money, so I can feed my family and they will love me.
Thanks, so would it be reasonable to assume that the baseline valuation is 10,000 miles year with additions and deductions for variations from that amount?
It probably is for an average people mover, but for something more exotic it will be less. It would probably be safest to check for sure if you have a specific vehicle in mind.
Beans and rice on monday and then for a special treat we have rice and beans on tuesday
Actually I am an avid griller and am in the process of building an outdoor kitchen, so there is no telling what I might come up with. I like talking about that more then the car biz becaue it involves food and beer, but I guess that might be a bit off topic
Your comments on the principle of the matter are the exact words that I have used in similar situations. If it's a split, it's a split. Doesn't matter what kind of profit is involved.
Keep selling and keep focused. Quickest way to screw up your head is to focus on it too much. Especially if it isn't changing.
Here Managers get involved as a last resort on the split deal thing. 99% of the time we let the sales people work it out.
Best thing you can do now is make a mental note about this particular sales person and carry on.
I watched a sales person beg another guy to forgive him one time. This green pea skated a senior sales person on a deal and the senior guy said thats fine, but it will end up costing you thousands. After about the 6th customer he nailed this guy on he offered to pay him the money he cost him the first time if he would please let him have his customers back.
Oh grow up. Of course someone would pay more for a 40k car than an 80k car. More accurately, the person buying the 80k car would expect to pay alot LESS. If you have a 48k car and a 40k car,the price difference between the 2 is minimal.
I don't like to either but now since our store has grown so much they post traded inventory online as soon as it gets on ADP. And to top it off the overflow lot is mixed with new and traded inventory so I find customers back there all the time and inevitably they want to look at a trade that has not gone thru the shop. Mackabee
The whole argument came down to whether I had spoken to the guy or not. The salesperson was present in the sales office and I confronted him in front of the managers and he twisted everything around. The used car manager that I had worked the deal with was off so the other UCM didn't understand what was happening and passed it on to the GSM who was busy working deals and made a bad call. I kept working deals with both the rest of the afternoon and didn't bring it up again. I do plan to talk to both the GSM and the GM tomorrow. And as I mentioned before, it's not the lousy $50 that I would make but the principle of the thing. What really bugs me too is this guy came from our prep department and went into sales. He was always helpful, never complained about us bringing a car back to get prepped 30 minutes before closing, etc. What I noticed happens in this business is some people get a taste of good money and they become greedy. I hope I'm wrong because I really like this guy and I have helped him with product knowledge and closing techniques. We'll see what happens tomorrow. Mackabee
It's water under the bridge now. No sense getting by blood pressure up.
This young sailors get paid pretty good! The cars he was looking at are around $17,999.00 and with his limited credit experience I told him it was going to be difficult and he might need a co-signer. I tried to persuade him to look at the Scion brand which would be perfect for a first time buyer as Scion financial would finance him in a heartbeat at a decent interest rate and he would be driving a new car with a full warranty and full of features that are standard and cost more on other brands. But, like one lady told me one time "some kids eyes are bigger than their stomachs". Mackabee
I'll get to the Johnson's later this evening. I'm going to take a nap after I watch Kill Bill 1 :shades:
Exactly it depends on the car. Some cars would have a 10,000 miles a year average baseline some will have less and some will have more.
Also the XXX dollars per thousand factor can vary widely. On something really mass market and low cost it could be as low as 50 bucks per thousand especially if they car is two or three years old and has already taken its biggest value hit.
Other cars could be 500, 700 or maybe a 1,000 dollars per thousand. Just depends on the car.
The real trick is that at a certain point beyond your baseline mileage you cannot do a straight addition or deduction for miles.
That is where the art comes in because if you just do the straight addition for super low mile cars you will pay too much for them. Conversely if you do the straight deduction for a clean high mile car you will blow the guy off and lose a lot of deals.
Well, that helps explain how you might come up with a price to offer a guy who is trading his car in to you, but how does the dealer decide what asking price to put on the car on its used car lot?
Our UCM does several things when she prices a car. First she searches cars.com and autotrader for 75-100 miles around our dealership for comparable cars. She tries to price our car cheaper then any other comparable car in the region.
She can't always do that but she at least makes sure we are competitive.
This is of course after the car has been through the shop and has been given a clean bill of health.
Sometimes this means that for a 15,000 dollar car there might only be 1,200 or less dollars of room to negotiate.
I think our average price, 25,000-35,000 dollar, used car we have less then 2,500 dollars of mark up.
Now on some of the more expensive vehicles there will of course be more markup because there is a lot more money invested in that car. We have used cars that are in excess of 60,000 dollars sometimes. I think the highest price used car we ever sold retail was 75,000 dollars.
We have wholesaled more expensive cars then that though, AMG Mercedes, Turbo 911s, Bentleys etc. because we just don't have the location to try and retail those kinds of cars.
And now we return with the next installment of our latest saga: "Treat them like they are your kin" Tonight's episode: "So much to say, so much to give"
In last weeks episode our hero Mackabee had just gotten off the phone with Gina and had ordered his lunch from a Chinese restaurant. Let's join him and see what develops.
I'm pacing the showroom waiting for my food. As I said before I can't think straight on an empty stomach. My colleague "Lucky" comes over and asks if our lunch is upstairs yet. "Nope, not yet. I haven't seen anyone come in to deliver. I'll call you as soon as they come in. I wonder what's taking them so long? They told me ten minutes" I ask not really expecting an answer. "Ten minutes to cook the food." Lucky says as he walks away. "Well that makes sense." I think out loud. It's taking a long time and I get paged to the sales tower. I figure it must be Jason our GSM. "Mack, I just got off the phone with this girl. I swear she must be crazy!" he says. "Let me guess, Gina?" "Yea, she talked my ear off and wouldn't let me get in a word edge wise." he tells me. "Here, I printed a sheet with the price of the car, the trade value, and the payments for 48 months at 0%." he continues. As I look over the figures I say "So they are not taking the rebate then." and then I notice the trade value is now $1500.00 so thinking I have a deal I grab a clean up ticket and fill it out and give it to Jason to sign. "Oh no, don't clean it up yet. They havent't agreed to the figures. They are on their way now. I told him we would take a second look at their trade." he says. I walk out of the sales office and see a food delivery guy walking in with a bag. "Are you from Chung Lin's ?" I ask. "Yes, you order food?" he asks. "I sure did, what happened? did you get lost?" I ask mostly joking rather than upset. He just looks at me and I give him the money and tell him to keep the change. "Thank you, enjoy your food." he says and leaves. I get on the elevator and head to our lounge and get my plate out. The chicken Hala Mala is really good. I had never tried it before. I call Lucky to tell him the food is here and he's now tied up with a customer so he tells me to leave it up there. Another one of my colleagues comes in and sees my food and asks me where I ordered it from. He gets on the phone and calls in an order too. I finish in a hurry and head downstairs. I start walking to the front of the showroom and see Mr. and Mrs. Johnson getting out of their vehicle. I walk out to greet them with a big smile and see a woman in her mid 30's walking behind them. She's carrying a folder with a bunch of papers in it. "This must be Gina" I state. "Hi. Nice to meet you" she says in a cold tone as she shakes my hand and it feels like a dead fish. "This one is going to be tough" I think to myself and invite them into the showroom. I look around for an empty workstation and sit them down. I ask if they would like some coffee or water and the ladies decline. "I will have some coffee," says Mr. J. "I'll get it. I know where it is plus I also have to visit the men's room." he leaves us and I look at Mrs. J and Gina. "I was told they want to look at the trade again." she says to me. "I believe so. Our second used car manager is here today. Sometimes is best to get a second opinion." I tell her. "Let me have the keys so I can show it to him." She hands me the keys and I get up to go to the sales office and give them to the UCM. :shades: TO BE CONTINUED...........
but how does the dealer decide what asking price to put on the car on its used car lot?
We sticker all of our cars for KBB retail and work from there.
Our internet prices are based on what the competition is doing. You have to be careful because most web sites that we have are cars with (auto trader, car. com, etc) have there search defaults set to lowest price first. So if you are as little as $500-$1000 higher then the competition then your car can get kicked to the 4th or 5th page real quick, and the average consumer they say will quit looking after the 3rd page.
The reason we use KBB for our retail prices is because it is not a number just grabbed out of the sky, it is something the consumer can see in print from an independent source.
It may not be the best way to do it but it is our way.
It is always fun though to see a customers reaction when they ask about the car after seeing it on the net.
For example, they find a car we have on the net and our net price is $9995. They are on the lot and ask what the price of that car is and you rattle off "Sir KBB says that car retails for $12650" "WHAT!!! You got it on the net for $9995"
But if that same car is a MGR's special for the weekend at $9500 the internet price never comes up. LOL
We had a repeat customer come in Saturday, his lease on his F150 had termed and he was here to get a new one. he decided to buy this time instead of lease. It was a 66 month loan with a total of like $3007 in rebates and a I think 3.9% rate.
Any how I get him in the office and I go over the menu with him. As I am explaining the Service Contract to him he tells me that he never buys a service contract. I go through my speel explaining that we include the first 3 years of maintanence to include the 15K and 30K service, written by Ford, labor rates $85PH etc. He says again i don't buy service contracts.
So I do the paper work and just before I print the contract I ask for my standard 3rd time if he is sure he does not want it. He says no again. No pressure, I generally sell through a conversation technique, I talk to you not at you.
Any how, he had mentioned earlier in the conversation he has a 5 year old Harley and had asked me if I think he should put a bed liner in the truck. I told him that if he ever carries his bike in his truck he may be better off with a bed mat.
He says, "As a matter of fact I have to carry it to the harley shop today, I am having transmission problems and an oil leak" I asked him if it was expensive getting bikes worked on and he tells me "I am not worried about it I got a Service Contract on it" :confuse: :sick:
He told me 3 times he does not buy service contracts.
I guess the F&I guy at the harley store had a better pitch then me
Yeah I didn't have a book in front of me so I was doing it all from memory. I rarely do trade valuations by myself anyway since technically only managers are supposed to do that at our store.
We usually end up doing them together along with a couple of phone calls.
For our used cars we will normally put the KBB retail price on the sticker just above our asking price.
Yeah since many used car buyers just seem to be looking for a BIG discount it seems to work well.
You show them the KBB Retail price of XXX and then the our price of XXX-2,000 dollars or whatever. It makes it easier to stick to our list price which we need to do since we don't leave a lot of room to negotiate.
For example out front I have a M3 convertible on the sticker is the Blue Book Suggested Retail price of $42,xxx then our price of $40,xxx. This car has been on the lot for a while and will be wholesaled soon so we have a knock down tag in it for $38,XXX.
Comments
If you truly believe that VM believes that a a car with 40K on it is as worth as much as a car with 80 K on it then go right ahead. You win the I am right prize for this thread today.
But what I gathered is for example, hey what is that 4 year old Zorch worth, I don't know $5K, must be worth more then that it has low miles only 40K, na those are not low miles, not worth any more, but it is worth more then the one with 80K over there.
Live about 3 miles from work and spend half your time flying around the world will get you about 3,000 miles a year. That's what I put on my car. Our family hauler averages 8,000 per year. My neighbor who works from his home puts one even less miles.
It was in my opinion the lowest, in terms of service, of the "high end" dealers, Acura. The car was the second gen RL and in a moment of weakness I was tempted by a huge, $4K incentive. Paying low $40s for a $50K car was indeed tempting. In hindsight I was glad that I did not buy it and wound up paying much more for something else. I couldn't help but think the guy was old school either, maybe he was used to selling TSXs. The original sales guy was OK. Only thing he did was tell me the car was selling well when I asked him. Everyone with any knowledge knows it was and is a sales dud. That's why the "buy it now before it's gone close" was so annoying.
Well said. That discussion was starting to get like a cross examination of a deposition.
Ah, yes. Now it makes sense. I concur. When the original MDX was initially introduced, some people who were cross-shopping the RX300, ML320, or X5 -- were saying the same thing about the Acura dealerships they encountered. There may have been some old school guys who were accustomed to selling the Integra or RSX. Hey! Maybe that's why your 2nd sales guy was saying "Buy it now before it's gone."? Sure enough, the Integra and RSX are gone! :P
In defense of Acura, I generally do like their products, and I received good customer service at both dealerships I visited.
mack
Mackabee
There is a difference and your attempts to stir the pot are not appreciated.
I assisted a young Navy guy on the 3rd of July. We looked at a Celica and an Acura RSX. He liked the Acura better and wanted to work numbers, wanted to check his credit to see if we could get him financing. He was honest and told me he had little credit and had been late on some credit cards. We hit it off really good and I told him about my time in the Navy and reminisced about the good times. He told me he had a friend that also needed a vehicle and was interested in buying a truck and he would bring him in for me to sell him.
The next day is my day off. He decides to come in with his friend and does not call me to let me know. They come in and a salesperson greets them and they tell him they are looking for me. He finds out I'm off and goes ahead and helps them. The next day the salesperson comes up to me and tells me the customers came in and asked for me and he went ahead and showed the friend a truck. I said "Cool. Go ahead and help them out and we'll split the deal." That same day the friend calls me on my cell phone and tells me he was given a price on a 2004 Tacoma 4x4 V6 of $8000.00 I knew the price was out of whack and I asked him for the stock number. He gave it to me and I looked it up on my list and it was way more than $8000.00 He told me he had gotten a loan and I told him about a 96 4x4 v6 with 92k miles with a pop up moonroof, camper shell, tow hitch, clean as a whistle that we had for $10,990.00 He asked me if they would take $9000.00 for it. I told him I would ask but I would doubt it. I got with the used car manager and he told me no way. I call him back and tell him. Today they both come in and my previous customer's husband is on the way so I go and get the salesperson that helped them on the 4th and tell them they are here to see the 96 Tacoma. He ends up selling it and when I go into the sales office I see only one name listed under the salesperson's column. I ask the used car manager (which is not I had spoken with before. He is off today) and ask him why the deal is not split. He tells me the salesperson told him I had never spoken to the guy and he didn't ask for me even though I had notes about my conversation with him and also about him being a friend of the first guy. To make a long story longer, the UCM tells me the GSM is the one that made the decision. I say "I was in his office when the guy called! He heard the whole conversation.!" Things got ugly after that. I'm very patient and mind my own business but this time I lost my cool. We went at it in the sales office and I just walked out and paced the lot until I cooled off. 20 minutes later I get called in to the sales office and I get told by the UCM that he spoke with the GM and if I hadn't calmed down to go home for the day. I told him I was calmed down but if he felt I needed to go home to do what he had to do. I ended up staying and sold two cars, and working on a third one. What really tickles me is afterwards the UCM tells me that it was a nothing deal, a mini, so don't feel bad about it. I just looked at him in disbelief and told him "It doesn't matter to me whether it was a loser deal, a 4k round deal, or whatever. He can keep the whole deal as far as I'm concerned. I don't need the 50 bucks that bad. It's the principle of the thing." What do you guys and gals think? I was wrong to lose my cool. However, I don't like being made a fool of.
:mad:
Mackabee
2020 Acura RDX tech SH-AWD, 2023 Maverick hybrid Lariat luxury package.
The past couple of stories have reminded me of some stories of my own.
I have a car show tomorrow though, taking the old 1959 Rover to the Simsbury, CT car show if you are familiar with the area stop by and say hi, so I won't be around all day tomorrow.
I'm not so sure if I'd be upset with the managers though. They may not have been listening closely to whatever you heard when it was said.
I'd guess that salesman will not be employed much longer if he displays that lack of character a few more times and gets caught doing it.
2011 Hyundai Sonata, 2014 BMW 428i convertible, 2015 Honda CTX700D
On top of which, if you'd let it go it would have been harder to deal with next time. :mad:
I bet it ends up that Mr. Johnson got fed up with his wife and daughter and ran off with the maid. Any takers?
2019 Kia Soul+, 2015 Mustang GT, 2013 Ford F-150, 2000 Chrysler Sebring convertible
BTW, how the hell was a young Navy kid going to buy an Acura
or a Celica on his pay?
Just guess I was born 60 years too soon.
BOLD equal market ready price
Italic equal non-market ready price
2004
X-Mobile........ 20,000...... 18,000...... Miles 30,000...... <150>
So a 2004 X-mobile opening galves is 20,000 for a car with fresh tires, brakes and in need of minimum reconditioning. It is a nice clean straight car and might represent a car that a dealer has had on his lot for a while and he intends to wholesale it to another dealer.
A car that has some needs would start off at 18,000 assuming average wear and tear along with needing brakes/tires plus some other minor shaping.
The <150> by the 30,000 miles mark means that for every 1,000 miles over 30,000 you deduct 150 dollars from the value. Conversely for every 1,000 miles under 30,000 you add 150 dollars. So you see how a 40,000 mile four year old car is not worth more then average. An average car would have 30,000 miles so we wouldn't pay more for a 40,000 dollar car.
In some cases the average miles for a four year old car would be much less then 40,000 miles or they could be more. It just depends on the car.
You are correct, I left it up there for about 2 minutes, came back and saw no one had responded so I edited it. Dumb was to strong of an example to be in type, and I felt "not a good example" fit the spirit of the conversation better.
I also figured it viloated the TOS here at Edmunds.
Have a great day!!!!! I know I will, I am at work which will give me the opportunity to sell a car, make money, so I can feed my family and they will love me.
What do you feed them? :P
Actually I am an avid griller and am in the process of building an outdoor kitchen, so there is no telling what I might come up with. I like talking about that more then the car biz becaue it involves food and beer, but I guess that might be a bit off topic
Keep selling and keep focused. Quickest way to screw up your head is to focus on it too much. Especially if it isn't changing.
-Moo
Best thing you can do now is make a mental note about this particular sales person and carry on.
I watched a sales person beg another guy to forgive him one time. This green pea skated a senior sales person on a deal and the senior guy said thats fine, but it will end up costing you thousands. After about the 6th customer he nailed this guy on he offered to pay him the money he cost him the first time if he would please let him have his customers back.
Of course someone would pay more for a 40k car than an 80k car.
More accurately, the person buying the 80k car would expect to pay alot LESS.
If you have a 48k car and a 40k car,the price difference between the 2 is minimal.
Mackabee
Mackabee
This young sailors get paid pretty good! The cars he was looking at are around $17,999.00 and with his limited credit experience I told him it was going to be difficult and he might need a co-signer. I tried to persuade him to look at the Scion brand which would be perfect for a first time buyer as Scion financial would finance him in a heartbeat at a decent interest rate and he would be driving a new car with a full warranty and full of features that are standard and cost more on other brands. But, like one lady told me one time "some kids eyes are bigger than their stomachs".
Mackabee
I'll get to the Johnson's later this evening. I'm going to take a nap after I watch Kill Bill 1
:shades:
Also the XXX dollars per thousand factor can vary widely. On something really mass market and low cost it could be as low as 50 bucks per thousand especially if they car is two or three years old and has already taken its biggest value hit.
Other cars could be 500, 700 or maybe a 1,000 dollars per thousand. Just depends on the car.
The real trick is that at a certain point beyond your baseline mileage you cannot do a straight addition or deduction for miles.
That is where the art comes in because if you just do the straight addition for super low mile cars you will pay too much for them. Conversely if you do the straight deduction for a clean high mile car you will blow the guy off and lose a lot of deals.
Our UCM does several things when she prices a car. First she searches cars.com and autotrader for 75-100 miles around our dealership for comparable cars. She tries to price our car cheaper then any other comparable car in the region.
She can't always do that but she at least makes sure we are competitive.
This is of course after the car has been through the shop and has been given a clean bill of health.
Sometimes this means that for a 15,000 dollar car there might only be 1,200 or less dollars of room to negotiate.
I think our average price, 25,000-35,000 dollar, used car we have less then 2,500 dollars of mark up.
Now on some of the more expensive vehicles there will of course be more markup because there is a lot more money invested in that car. We have used cars that are in excess of 60,000 dollars sometimes. I think the highest price used car we ever sold retail was 75,000 dollars.
We have wholesaled more expensive cars then that though, AMG Mercedes, Turbo 911s, Bentleys etc. because we just don't have the location to try and retail those kinds of cars.
Mack
In last weeks episode our hero Mackabee had just gotten off the phone with Gina and had ordered his lunch from a Chinese restaurant. Let's join him and see what develops.
I'm pacing the showroom waiting for my food. As I said before I can't think straight on an empty stomach. My colleague "Lucky" comes over and asks if our lunch is upstairs yet. "Nope, not yet. I haven't seen anyone come in to deliver. I'll call you as soon as they come in. I wonder what's taking them so long? They told me ten minutes" I ask not really expecting an answer. "Ten minutes to cook the food." Lucky says as he walks away. "Well that makes sense." I think out loud. It's taking a long time and I get paged to the sales tower. I figure it must be Jason our GSM. "Mack, I just got off the phone with this girl. I swear she must be crazy!" he says. "Let me guess, Gina?" "Yea, she talked my ear off and wouldn't let me get in a word edge wise." he tells me. "Here, I printed a sheet with the price of the car, the trade value, and the payments for 48 months at 0%." he continues. As I look over the figures I say "So they are not taking the rebate then." and then I notice the trade value is now $1500.00 so thinking I have a deal I grab a clean up ticket and fill it out and give it to Jason to sign. "Oh no, don't clean it up yet. They havent't agreed to the figures. They are on their way now. I told him we would take a second look at their trade." he says.
I walk out of the sales office and see a food delivery guy walking in with a bag. "Are you from Chung Lin's ?" I ask. "Yes, you order food?" he asks. "I sure did, what happened? did you get lost?" I ask mostly joking rather than upset. He just looks at me and I give him the money and tell him to keep the change. "Thank you, enjoy your food." he says and leaves. I get on the elevator and head to our lounge and get my plate out. The chicken Hala Mala is really good. I had never tried it before. I call Lucky to tell him the food is here and he's now tied up with a customer so he tells me to leave it up there. Another one of my colleagues comes in and sees my food and asks me where I ordered it from. He gets on the phone and calls in an order too. I finish in a hurry and head downstairs. I start walking to the front of the showroom and see Mr. and Mrs. Johnson getting out of their vehicle. I walk out to greet them with a big smile and see a woman in her mid 30's walking behind them. She's carrying a folder with a bunch of papers in it. "This must be Gina" I state. "Hi. Nice to meet you" she says in a cold tone as she shakes my hand and it feels like a dead fish. "This one is going to be tough" I think to myself and invite them into the showroom. I look around for an empty workstation and sit them down. I ask if they would like some coffee or water and the ladies decline. "I will have some coffee," says Mr. J. "I'll get it. I know where it is plus I also have to visit the men's room." he leaves us and I look at Mrs. J and Gina. "I was told they want to look at the trade again." she says to me. "I believe so. Our second used car manager is here today. Sometimes is best to get a second opinion." I tell her. "Let me have the keys so I can show it to him." She hands me the keys and I get up to go to the sales office and give them to the UCM. :shades:
TO BE CONTINUED...........
Mackabee
Next week's episode: "Make me smile"
:shades:
Check the fine print....
We sticker all of our cars for KBB retail and work from there.
Our internet prices are based on what the competition is doing. You have to be careful because most web sites that we have are cars with (auto trader, car. com, etc) have there search defaults set to lowest price first. So if you are as little as $500-$1000 higher then the competition then your car can get kicked to the 4th or 5th page real quick, and the average consumer they say will quit looking after the 3rd page.
The reason we use KBB for our retail prices is because it is not a number just grabbed out of the sky, it is something the consumer can see in print from an independent source.
It may not be the best way to do it but it is our way.
It is always fun though to see a customers reaction when they ask about the car after seeing it on the net.
For example, they find a car we have on the net and our net price is $9995. They are on the lot and ask what the price of that car is and you rattle off "Sir KBB says that car retails for $12650" "WHAT!!! You got it on the net for $9995"
But if that same car is a MGR's special for the weekend at $9500 the internet price never comes up. LOL
We had a repeat customer come in Saturday, his lease on his F150 had termed and he was here to get a new one. he decided to buy this time instead of lease. It was a 66 month loan with a total of like $3007 in rebates and a I think 3.9% rate.
Any how I get him in the office and I go over the menu with him. As I am explaining the Service Contract to him he tells me that he never buys a service contract. I go through my speel explaining that we include the first 3 years of maintanence to include the 15K and 30K service, written by Ford, labor rates $85PH etc. He says again i don't buy service contracts.
So I do the paper work and just before I print the contract I ask for my standard 3rd time if he is sure he does not want it. He says no again. No pressure, I generally sell through a conversation technique, I talk to you not at you.
Any how, he had mentioned earlier in the conversation he has a 5 year old Harley and had asked me if I think he should put a bed liner in the truck. I told him that if he ever carries his bike in his truck he may be better off with a bed mat.
He says, "As a matter of fact I have to carry it to the harley shop today, I am having transmission problems and an oil leak" I asked him if it was expensive getting bikes worked on and he tells me "I am not worried about it I got a Service Contract on it" :confuse: :sick:
He told me 3 times he does not buy service contracts.
I guess the F&I guy at the harley store had a better pitch then me
I just left it alone.
We usually end up doing them together along with a couple of phone calls.
For our used cars we will normally put the KBB retail price on the sticker just above our asking price.
Thats a good idea!!
You show them the KBB Retail price of XXX and then the our price of XXX-2,000 dollars or whatever. It makes it easier to stick to our list price which we need to do since we don't leave a lot of room to negotiate.
For example out front I have a M3 convertible on the sticker is the Blue Book Suggested Retail price of $42,xxx then our price of $40,xxx. This car has been on the lot for a while and will be wholesaled soon so we have a knock down tag in it for $38,XXX.
2018 430i Gran Coupe
-Moo