Stories from the Sales Frontlines

dino001

Those with side-by-side doors and bottom drawer freezer definitely cost more than $1200 even without door icemaker - even non-premium brand names.

lrguy44

We shopped it hard and paid $1800 at the Depot for our side by side bottom freezer with water, ice and maybe martini dispensers.

british_rover

OMG do you have to argue about everything? :confuse:

lrguy44

Did you get my e-mail? I have more to add from home.

snakeweasel

Sorry looking back on the posts I did say bank, I should have put Credit Union. It does guarantee that you won't get a better deal at the dealer through them.

Again that doesn't mean the dealer can get a better rate from another institution.

snakeweasel

Just bringing up some facts.

You do notice I don't comment on most things here.

lrguy44

Here most of the Credit Unions belong to a broker group - Dealers give the customer the same rate as the CU and make a small reserve. The broker buys the loans and the dealer does the contracting. The CUs love it because they can employ fewer buyers and have less paper work. There are about 75 Credit Unions we can use. We can even sign people up to join many of the CUs.

snakeweasel

This credit union is strictly for state employees and is a credit union in name and in fact.

Most credit Unions are credit unions in name only and operate more like banks. One credit union here only requires you to be living north of the south pole. The banks have challenged this in the past, not sure what the result was.

lrguy44

The banks lost that challenge with narrower CU membership criteria. Now it seems like the rules for membership have really loosened. Here, to join many Credit Unions, even those that had employment (like King Soopers - part of Kroger) or small geographical niche now have open membership by joining a consumers club or ski club fro $10 or so. They even can join Colorado CUs if they live in Wyoming or Nebraska.

british_rover

Yeah I got it and emailed you back. Was that number on your email you cell number?

mfletou1

Why not?

I got 5.99 financing for 84 months through my Credit Union!

I was going to do 60 for 4.99, but hey...I'll take the extra point for that kind of monthly payment.

No prepayment penalty. I put 9k down, so I won't be upside down--and remember, I bought a Honda that's practically gained value since I walked off the lot with it it!

(CarMax is selling my exact vehicle, only with 11k miles, for $4000 more than I paid...ha...)

Seriously, though...with the way that car will depreciate (slowly) and my downpayment....why not 84 months?

lrguy44

Yeah - both office and cell are on there

otto8

HEY Mack.............Don't waste yer money buying a different brand !!!!!!!
White-Westinghouse makes just about all of the home appliances nowadays!
GE-Whirlpool-Sears-Montgomery Ward-Fridgidare and most store brands are
all W-W brands. Heck I even think W-W owns Maytag as of late !!!!!!!!!!!!

dino001

It's smple 84-month loan is waaaaayyyyy to long for any car, even honda, even if it was at zero percent, let alone six. Makes no financial sense, as if you actually stick to your payment plan 84-months at six percent, you pay about 23% of initial loan in total interest. From risk management, it's a disastrous proposition. You expose yourself to possibility of owing the money for a car that may get totaled or worse break down without coverage. It might be ok if you actually have the money and are leveraging it against better returns that have lower risk that locked-in 6% plus breakdown/total risk. I doubt such investments exist - just look how many investment geniuses were wiped out in recent credit crunch.

If you seriously think your Honda gained value you are simply delusional. The "value" is not what's on stickers of used car lots, even on average - let alone one place. Remember those stickers represent wishes of the dealers and their cost of both acquisition and inspection/reconditioning. Go to the very dealer you bought it from and ask how much he would give you for it. At best, ask your insurance agent how much you'd get for it if you totalled it today.

At last - focusing on monthly payment is probably the worst way to look at a vehicle transaction. It usually get one to trouble down the road.

dino001

That sound right. $1800 looks like a steal.

mackabee

I would have to disagree with you on that one. GE makes Hotpoint, Whirpool makes the Sears brand Kenmore, and Maytag was about to be bought by Whirlpool. Reason I know this is I spent a month in an appliance store before I went back to my original dealership back in Dec of 2005 and picked up on the different brands and who makes what. Those Sub-Zero and Miele, and other fancy brands are for very rich folk not us peons.
Mack

mackabee

I totally agree with you on this one. I would never finance a vehicle for that long of a term. Heck we bought our 92 Camry I financed for 48 months at 7.8% through my credit union and I thought that was a long time. I grew up with 24 and 36 month terms so a 48-60-72-and 84 month looks scary to me.
Mack

madmanmoo

ROFL. Snake is awesome because he WILL argue about anything.

-moo

madmanmoo

Dino forgot to preface everything with, "in his opinion". I don't think this is such a bad proposition if it's simple interest. Dino also forgot to see the humor in your statement about Honda's gaining value. He's been on a "delusional" kick for the last couple of days.

Seriously, it's your money. Do what you want with it. It's not like you're upside down on the car or it's a balloon loan. Go peacefully and enjoy your new car. If you have some extra money during the course of the loan, pay it down early.

-moo

cdnpinhead

"Go peacefully and enjoy your new car."

Those seven words, used liberally on every one of these forums, would go a long way towards putting some civility into what often become acrimonious "I'm right and you're a moron" pissing matches.

Well done.

May you go peacefully & sell lots of new cars.

madmanmoo

Hooray!!

May you go peacefully & sell lots of new cars.

This is my mantra to start out every morning now.

-moo

jmonroe

Don't waste yer money buying a different brand !!!!!!!
White-Westinghouse makes just about all of the home appliances nowadays!

I’m not going to argue with you about who makes what for whom because I don’t know.

I’ve also heard there are just a few companies that make almost all of the appliances. The real question is, do they make them all to the same specifications?

How many times have you heard when you go to buy tires, “our brand is made by Goodyear / BF Goodrich / Cooper" etc. Sure, there aren’t nearly as many manufactures as there are names on the tires so the big guys have to be making them for everyone but they are not making them for everyone to the same specifications. Just because they’re all black and round doesn’t make them equal. That should be very easy to understand, right?

jmonroe

joel0622

We do the same thing. If we do one of those "Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner" promotions and a customer comes in and says that they are truly just here to see what they won then we don't waste the customers time or ours. We give them the 3 way flash light/radio/bottle opener and send them on there way.

I prefer test drive promotions to the the just show up promotions. At least then can hint at the fact that you don't HAVE to test drive the car and then if they still want to you at least know there is some interest.

We have a huge Dog and Pony show going on tomorrow morning. We are giving away his and her cars. A F150 and a Fusion. Guaranteed winner no strings attached all you do is pay the sales tax on the two units if you win. We know for a fact we will have 103 qualifiers here along with the people they bring so we will have some where between 150 and 250 people on the show room floor in the morning.

Here is how it works

We have been doing a promo with a local radio station for a couple months. They do a live remote every Friday on the drive home show and people stop buy to register. They draw a winner every hour and you have to be able to sing the chorus of your favorite country song on the radio.

We have 103 qualifiers who in the morning will all show up here and we will have a concert and some other things.

At 9:30 AM they will put all 103 qualifiers drivers license in a fish bowl and have a reverse draw. The last 20 in the bowl advance.

Those 20 draw an envelope, the envelopes are numbered and have a 6 digit code in them. The 6 digit code is the code to the "prize safe". One at a time you go up and try the code in your envelope, in the safe is the key to the two cars.

jescue

Enter me in the drawing! Two free cars works for me. I have two drivers licenses so maybe I have a better chance.

joel0622

Do you ever listen to 103 KDF? The DJ who does the afternoon show is the one running it. His name is Bud Ford.

I don't listen to the station, I am a sports radio junkie.

BTW call me if you all ever do a test drive promotion, I would love to take a spin in one of those $100K Porches.

madmanmoo

And what did you think of the game last night? Were you able to watch it?

2nd stringer did a good job for Green Bay, but wasn't enough. Good game though.

-Moo

joel0622

Poor ole Brett Favare, he just can't get over the hump in Dallas. Hard to belive he has never won there before. I am suprised Aaron Rogers had his helmet with him, backing up Favare is like backing up Peyton, nothing but easy money.

I

jescue

Bud Ford- could that be any more perfect? We are having a test drive deal in February on the new Jag XF. Free food and drinks, you could came by and spot all the Ford bits in the new car.

exb0

I don't get it. What is your store getting out of it? So you get free advertising on the radio station?

lemko

Geeze, now I don't feel so bad about my recent purchase. I purchased a leftover new 2007 Cadillac DTS Performance for 0% over 60 months. I was mad at myself because I fell in love with the car on the test drive and allowed my judgement to be clouded. I did want to buy a new car, but wanted to wait until after winter, or at least until after the holidays.

Wouldn't it be ironic if that Odyssey costs him more over the long run than my Cadillac? Actually, I really feel bad for the guy. The interest rate for such a long term is good, but 84 months is w-a-a-a-y too long! I hope he really, really likes the van or is only paying something like $200 or less a month.

oldfarmer50

Here's a couple of examples of F&I guys who go that extra mile for their customers.

Local screamer dealer has ads on TV where he brags about how he once "Got a dead guy financed". Seems he was completing the arrangements and wasn't aware that the customer had died that morning.

On the news this morning was a report that a local Chevy F&! guy was sent to county jail on charges he produced phony W-2's, payroll records and social security numbers to get his bad credit customers financed. The report said they also expect charges from another county where worked for a VW dealership.

So joel0622 do you have any corpses with bogus social security numbers driving around your area?

joel0622

So joel0622 do you have any corpses with bogus social security numbers driving around your area?

I do technically have a dead guy driving around. He is a Ford Retiree who had allot of joint credit with his wife. She passed away several years ago and his bureau says he is deceased. It is a hassle every time time he buys a car.

But no, I can honestly say that in 15 years I have never bouged up an app.

lemko

Well, I hope he got gap coverage in case the van is stolen or wrecked. I did.

joel0622

It was a joint effort with the radio station, we got about 10 spots a day plus the whole drive home show. We are paying for one of the cars and the radio station is paying for the other.

They do remotes from several different places a week and alway have one of the cars with them that has been wrapped with our dealership name and the radio station.

It is just an alternative to spending $12K for a full page color add in the paper that runs one day.

mfletou1

I was always balky about long loans, too, but I'm not seeing the risk in this situation. If I was putting zero down, I'd feel differently, but with 9k down on a 25k vehicle, I'll be ahead even if I only make minimum payments for the life of the loan. Obviously if the car gets totaled, you're somewhat exposed, but that is the case no matter how you finance.

As I said, there's no prepayment penalty, so there's no way I'm actually going to have the loan for 84 months--I'll be paying extra on it right from the get go. But hey, if there was some emergency or something and I needed very dollar in a given month, now I'll have that option.

Obviously, I was kidding about the car gaining value, I don't seriously believe that-- but you know--I'm willing to bet that if I went into CarMax and got an an appraisal on my car this weekend, I would get offered at least what I paid for it, if not more. CarMax is the only relevant institution for me, its 10 minutes down the street and its where I sell all my cars. They just gave me $9k for an 04 Malibu! KBB trade in value on the Ody is $3200 over what I paid for it. You think they wouldn't offer $25, maybe 26k for a new EX-L in perfect condition with 300 miles that they'll sell for $30? They throw stupid money around all the time!

british_rover

Jag XF. Free food and drinks, you could came by and spot all the Ford bits in the new car.

Don't go spreading those kind of rumors.

dino001

Well, lets leave it there. As Moo rightfully put it, in my opinion there are better ways of using money than taking 7-year loans against depreciating asset. Perhaps it works for you, because you are diligent and otherwise careful with your money - and have more in the bank to cover unexpected occurrences.

Many other people would see 84-month loan as way of getting them something they simply can't afford. Of course Moo's role is to sell them that item and it's not his responsibility to give financial advice - being a great guy as he is, he just finds the best way to fulfill his customer's wishes, no matter how unreasonable they might be.

I can see that for you "financial flexibilty" you get by real estate -style loan may mean you actually keep money in the bank for true emergencies and enjoy your car sooner. Most others use that term as excuse to buy that plasma TV or new couch along with that car and not to have to make choices (one or the other) - so their checking account still has $20 before the paycheck arrives, but they get more "flexibility" in paying more creditors at once.

british_rover

a new EX-L in perfect condition with 300 miles that they'll sell for $30? They throw stupid money around all the time!

I agree with that.

A couple of weeks ago carmax put 47,000 dollars on a BMW 335i hard top convertiable. The most I could get out of anyone was 40,000 dollars.

jescue

He could spot them in your cars as well.

jlawrence01

Mackabee,

Your assessment of the appliance situation is correct. White Consolidated Industries (WCI) makes a lot of appliances and markets them under orphan brands but they do NOT make GE or Whirlpool products. Whirlpool did buy Maytag last year and I think that there will be more consolidation in the industry. I also expect to see more imports from the European market as energy usage becomes more critical. Do realize that GE and Whirlpool also have a strong European presence.

WCI seems to pick up a lot of the "old" brands, slaps them on lower end product, and tries to hit the lower price points. They seem to invest little in advertising or R&D.

mackabee

"I’m not going to argue with you about who makes what for whom because I don’t know. "

Who's arguing? I just stated a fact as I know it.


Same thing with some manufacturers of tires and cars. Bridgestone owns Firestone and some customers won't touch Firestone because of the Exploder debacle but don't mind the Bridgestones. I don't know if both tires are made to the same specs.
Lexus is made by Toyota, Acura by Honda, Infiniti by Nissan, The Geo/Prizm is a Toyota Corolla chassis and drivetrain, Matrix/Vibe you get the pictures.

greanpea68

It is just an alternative to spending $12K for a full page color add in the paper that runs one day.

We stopped advertising in the paper also for the same reason. Besides it doesn't matter what you advertise in the paper. Everyone comes in with the screamer add anyway and asks " Will you match this/" or " It says only $9,999 in the paper, you must be able to do that on a brand new maxima"

We do a lot of radio and TV with just the mention of the dealer name a lot and commitment to customer service.

GP

mackabee

If I fax you a copy of my driver's license can you drop it in the bowl? I could sure use a new car or truck.

roadburner

I was just wondering...
Will your dealership be adding an ADM to the Bullitt Mustangs? If so, how much?

joel0622

I don't know. It will depend on how many we get and what our competition does.

mfletou1

Lemko,

I financed $17k on the van, if I were to just pay the base amount monthly, over seven years I'd have to pay just about $21k. The difference in total amount between the 48, 60, 72 and 84 products wasn't that much. More or less than you new Caddy? I don't know.

Of course, I'm not going to do that anyway, so I'm not actually going to pay that much.

You guys are too wrapped up in normal circumstances. You're used to dealing with idiots who get 84 month loans at terrible rates, put nothing down, and then when they want to trade in their 55% depreciated car in 3 years wonder why they're way upside down.

In this instance, the interest rate was basically the same if I did 36 or 84, I put a lot down, and I'll be repaying it in a shorter term anyway. The 84 month loan just gives me maximum flexibility month to month so I can better allocate my resources.

I didn't need to do 84, I just couldn't see any reason not to. Go ahead and hit me with some that actually apply to my situation, but so far I haven't heard anything.

lrguy44

I have financed several people at 84 months whose income varies from month to month. Most pay it off in 48-60 months, but have low payment for tough season. works well for commissioned customers who will attack it in good months.

obyone

It's smple 84-month loan is waaaaayyyyy to long for any car, even honda, even if it was at zero percent, let alone six.

What's wrong with a 0% loan for 84 months? Why would anyone be in a rush to payoff a 0% loan? Now that makes no sense to me.

british_rover

but have low payment for tough season. works well for commissioned customers who will attack it in good months.

Yup those kind of loans are good for that.

I have had times where I made 10,000 dollars one month and 2,500 the next. :sick:

That hurts.

lrguy44

Know what you mean - my biggest swing was $15k to $2800.