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Comments
You guys having people willing to crawl up your rectum for an S5? I'd sell 100 of em this month if I had them.
Dman, you seem like a pretty cool guy, plus your rich so I always hesitate to disagree with you. However I take great offense to that statement. I work in a very small rural market selling Hondas. We are a university town in SE Ohio. We actually put cars in our ads that we have on the lot and in a reasonable supply. And we put prices on tthem that we can actually sell the car for and make a ( however slight) profit. If someone chuckle head manager wants to put a loser deal in our ad, me or one of our other 10 + year salesmen will fight to sell that car and break it off in the manager for pulling a bonehead stunt like that.
Now I do understand that our markets are vastly different and recognize that you probably have to "outscream" several other dealers with each ad, so using that approach probably makes a lot more sense to you then it would for us.
Dman, you seem like a pretty cool guy, plus your rich so I always hesitate to disagree with you. However I take great offense to that statement.
I agree. It is the difference between a sales professional and a sleezeball that give us all a bad name.If someone wants the stripped car with manual tranny we have in the ad - he is welsome to buy it. I am not going to pull tricks like "oh, we just sold it", and "oh, that's a typo". If the customer wants something different - I will start from the top, but we stand by our word. If we sold the ad car - we will have prooof to show to the next customer that is interested.
My experience, when calling or visiting dealerships, is that ad cars were "already sold"... according to the salesmen. Now when you call on 3 or 4 different occasions the opening minute the dealership opens, and the ad comes out in the paper for the first time that morning, well as Elmer J. Fudd would say, "There's something ahhfullwee scwooey going on awound here." :sick:
But, I never took it as the saleman trying to "bump" me into another car, which they never did. I took it as the car was never there in the first place. Butt again, those "ad car" ads will run for 6 weeks or longer. So, even if the car is sold that first day, customers will be falsely led into the dealership for over a month based on that ad.
Back in a previous wife-time, she had totalled her car and was in need of a new one. She had decided on a Honda Accord LX, dark blue with an automatic transmission. Nothing else would do.
Each Friday, the LA Times runs all sorts of 'screamer' ads for cars. One Honda dealership (not too close to us but not all the way in LA) was advertising an Accord LX for something like $14K - MSRP was around $17K (this was 1992). One only at this price.
The paper came out on Friday morning; we didn't see the ad until Friday afternoon. We called the dealer and asked about the ad car - dark blue! We immediately drove to the dealership and bought it.
I guess that meant tough luck for anybody else who called about the car the rest of the weekend.
Moral - the ad cars do exist, but you gotta be quick (or lucky, or both) to get it.
You shouldn't take offense to that statement ! As you pointed out your self you are both in differant markets. Even here in Boston there are screamer add's all over the place and ever since I have been selling i have heard that streo type " your either a salesman or a order taker " And i have done both. With some customers you just have too. I think the diffenece betwteen the 2 is
If you are a "order taker" You are going to be controlled by the customer and have small grosses :sick:
If you are a "salesman" You are going to take control of the customer and sell him what you have available to you and make profit. :shades:
The key word in both situations is control. And if there is anything I have learned about this business is that it is all about CONTROL :surprise:
I don't think I have to exxplain how we control customers.My favorite way is to throw their keys on the roof....LOL
Just my 2 cents
GP
Advertising is a tool for a dealership to get there name out in the public. To get them to know where we are located. Do those deal exist yes. But ussualy there is some catch. College grad rebate, loyalty rebate, you have to qualify for all rebates.
I do know here in Mass. The DA office has cracked down on screamer adds and fined dealers up $100k for false adds in the last year :sick: They fined dealers not just for being false but more on being "deceptive adds "
The problem comes from Dealer A advertises $19,950
now Dealer B the next week has to advertise $19,650
Next week Dealer C & A have to advertise $21,300
Mean while invoice on the car is $20,655.00.... :confuse:
But I bet everyone already knew that.
The thing that kills me is all the info is out there. Nobody really needs Adds anymore.
There is always that car that has been on the lot and it just had a birthday and the color is puke green. Than sure I can see some blowing money on that car but not on a fully loaded smoke 3.5 Altima with tech pkg.
GP
As a "greenpea" you should like any color of green... even puke flavored. I hope you're not talking about the "sage" green Altima as looking like puke. Looks pretty nice to me... that colored Altima that is.
That’s a name from the past alright and here in the Burgh they had a place called White Tower and it’s gone now too.
When I lived in South Carolina, Augusta Ga. was the close by big city. They had a place called Rallies (I think that was the name) and they sold a bag of burgers (about 6/8) for less than a couple bucks (90’s). These were little rectangular burgers (no cheese) about 2x3 inches. They weren’t bad but by the time you finished condimenting these little things you really built up an appetite and were ready for another bag, which I think was part of the plan.
jmonroe
'15 Genesis V8 with Ultimate Package and '18 Legacy Limited 6 cyl
Rectum rockets, sliders, grease bombs, roto-rotor in a box... all of these are just a few that have been used to desribe the White Castle hamburger. To stay on topic... they must put laxatives in the things. :sick:
Mystic emerald is the color now. It is a funny color because only a hand full of people want the car. Majority of people don' like it so alot of dealers say OK you want to buy the add car you have to get that color. At least that was the way it was at my last dealer. But the funny thing is that the people that do like that color I have found to pay a nice profit to get it :confuse:
ANother add color I have found is biege or gold or as Nissan calls it Chardonay :surprise:
Didn't mean to step on any toes jsut telling it how it was.
GP
You didn't... just messing with you. :shades:
Should have included a "
Watch it. I didn't start that White Castle thingy; that was 'snake'.
Rectum rockets, sliders, grease bombs, roto-rotor in a box...
But since we're on the subject, I never had those problems. Strong Constitution I guess. Yeah, like in 'Old Ironsides". I'd never let an itty bitty burger sit me down. :P
jmonroe
'15 Genesis V8 with Ultimate Package and '18 Legacy Limited 6 cyl
Damn... nothing like getting ripped twice in the same sentence. My 05' is officially called, "Golden Beige". I don't think it is so bad. Coming off a plain white car it didn't bother me. Even Mrs. jmonroe thought it was a pretty color.
Didn't mean to step on any toes jsut telling it how it was
Hey, that comment didn't bother me none. You could have called it a POS for all I care. Now if you know who sees this post, the fun will just be starting. And forget about an apology...they never worked for me.
jmonroe
'15 Genesis V8 with Ultimate Package and '18 Legacy Limited 6 cyl
I always thought you and snakie were a bit sensitive about the Hyundai jokes.
Now that I know you ain't...nyuck nycuk nyuck !!! :shades:
you got me... I was trying to back pedal there
GP
Gold and white colors.... from my experience seem to have a older generation buying these colors.
Not trying to stereo type but it is what it is. Anyone else notice differently?
GP
GP
'snakie'? Sounds like the two of you go back to the playground days.
Just curious, were you known as 'jipstie' back then?
jmonroe
'15 Genesis V8 with Ultimate Package and '18 Legacy Limited 6 cyl
i show up at the agreed on time and am brought over to the internet sales manager.
he says i see we sent you a quote on a fusion. do you know which model you want, se or sel? i say (while thinking 'this is off to a bad start') i requested a quote on a specific vehicle. he says sounding somewhat surprised, 'um, not all the information comes through on these requests'. tell which specific vehicle you are interested in and i will give you the numbers. i figure, 'i am here and have nothing to lose', so i tell him.
we go through the 'programs' to see which ones i am elegible for.
in addition to the regular rebates, there is an additional $500 one he has not seen before.
so his price is invoice-holdback-rebates. pretty sweet number.
this car was one of 3 identical ones on their lot.
we both got a chuckle, when he i'll sell you another one at that price, too.
i asked him for more info $500 'rebate' a couple of times.
to me it read 'gift card'. he went and asked someone, and it turned out to be a gift card. i saved us an awkward situation on that one.
i told him which particular car i wanted to test drive, but he had me drive another identical one(i'm not liking this much), the one i wanted was blocked in.
we went for a ride. it was ok, the steering and brakes were not as connected as in the focus. the transmission seemed to work pretty well. even on a steep downgrade. it is a six speed auto, but only has PRNDL for gear selections.
i was not expecting get wowed anyway, it's a family sedan.
the front seat was comfortable and i could fit in the back seat, too, so i was pretty happy about that.
when we got back they had a price on my trade, which was exactly the lowest number i was hoping for. i tried to get them to bump it up a bit, but they said no.
i showed them the rate from my bank. he looked at it and said 'that's the best rate i've seen in a long time'. their bank ended up matching it.
i said when can i test drive the car i want to buy? miraculously, it had gotten unblocked, and we went for a ride.
i am picking up my new car on saturday and my wife is going to get a gift card out of the deal.
left the house at 2, back home by 3:45.
i wanted to do a 'To be continued...', but i think mac has a copywrite on that.
So you're saying a true professional should lie? Tell the customer the car in the screamer ad has already been sold, when it has been hidden in the back lot behind some bushes.
Maybe a true professional [non-permissible content removed] does that, but most of the sales guys here are better than that.
Or, maybe you mean that you ignore a customer questions about the ad car, and redirect the customers attention to a higher priced car? Better... but still dirty pool in my book. There's "salesmanship"... and then there is nasty bald faced lying. In your book is there no difference?
Enjoy your posts though deskman. Glad you are feeling better.
I find out the wants,needs and budget of my cust.I would never lie to make a deal, I will bluff but never lie. closing a deal is like playing poker. :shades:
I would much rather wear a white hat than a black one .
The reason i make good money is that I work in one of the top 50 volume stores in the world . :surprise:
I make the king of cars look like the king of losers!! :shades:
That's a bunch of bull. Our store does that too. In this day an age where all communications are monitored for your request to not all came thru is baloney. Another one is "I'm sorry I didn't get back to you sooner, It's been an incredible day so far!" What is so incredible about it? that the person has been surfing the net and hasn't responded to the customer's e-mail or made a phone call? Geeez! It really makes me sick that lots of stores have turned the internet department into another avenue for advertising and confusing the customer.
When I ran my internet department (just me and later an assistant) I would give customers what they wanted. Price, rate, availability, you name it. There was only one store that gave me any competition and it was run by a girl friend of mine, no not a romantic girlfriend, and acquaintance of mine. Then I started making too much money on the deals so the d--kh--d Gm we had at the time decided to "take you out of the internet department. You are leaving too much profit in the deals". I said "Excuse me? isn't that what we are here for? to turn a profit?" and he replied. "You're quoting prices and they are taking them down the street to beat it." so I replied "Well, by quoting them a price I have a better chance of them coming to our door than by not giving them the info they want." So we parted company and now they are struggling to keep up.
Mack
"
I hope whoever buys it gets the mop and glow.
i wonder how many miller lite empties will fit under the seat. :surprise:
9 out of 10 doctors prefer White Castle to Ex-lax. :P
2011 Hyundai Sonata, 2014 BMW 428i convertible, 2015 Honda CTX700D
tidester, host
SUVs and Smart Shopper
No matter how financially literate you are, it's hard to avoid the temptation of a shiny new car when you're young and stupid!
In the fall of 1999 I was in a pretty good spot. I had just graduated from college and started my career working for an oil drilling contractor in the Gulf of Mexico. My job wasn't glamorous by any stretch of the imagination, but it paid well and opened my eyes to a whole new world I otherwise never would have seen.
At the time I was driving my brother's old 1989 Chevy Silverado 4x4. I bought the truck from him 6 months prior for $7750. The truck was in great shape, ran well, and never gave me any problems, other than it was 1o years old and I felt that I "deserved" something a little newer.
It was this feeling of entitlement that ultimately brought me to commit my first big financial mistake; the new vehicle lease. I don't exactly remember the details of how I got there, but there I was at the Local Toyota Dealership standing in front of a used 1997 Toyota 4Runner with stars in my eyes.
Though I had never driven a 4Runner myself, I always liked their rugged exterior styling , and had always heard excellent things about it's reliability. I thought that it would be the perfect vehicle for my "active" lifestyle. I was such a sucker for marketing, and slick advertisements.
"Beautiful" I thought to myself as I stood before the freshly waxed SUV "I could do a lot of cool things with this baby!"
"Good afternoon" came a voice from behind me. "Can I be of any assistance".
I turned around to see Eric (who happened to be two days into his job as a car salesman) come running out of the showroom to greet me.
"Umm, yeah, what would my monthly payment be on this 4Runner?" I said tentatively.
First lesson, anybody who has experience buying cars from a dealership will tell you that worrying about the monthly payment, and loosing sight of the overall cost, is a sure way to get taken for a ride.
Inexperienced, but not dumb, Eric realised that he had a golden opportunity before him as he stated empathically "Oh, don't waste your time with that '97 model; with the current deals we have running right now on the new 2000 4Runners, we'll be able to work out a much better deal for you".
"Oh really?" I said, even though I was still a little apprehensive. It just sounded to good to be true.
Second lesson here, if it sounds to good to be true, it is!
"Oh sure!" He said. "Let me show you the new 4Runner that was just delivered to our lot yesterday".
And there it was. A 2000 4Runner SR5 4X4 "Highland Edition" complete with 31" tires, jet black paint with color matched grill and fender flares, and the signature "hood scoop". It sounds a little cheesy to say, but I honestly think my heart skipped a beat when I saw this truck.
It didn't matter what the price was at that point, I knew that I wasn't driving off the lot in anything else.
"Would you like to take it for a test drive?" Eric's tone implied that he was doing me a favor.
"Sure, that would be cool" I said. Remember, I'm only 22 at the time and this is a $33,000 vehicle.
"OK, let me just run in and check with the manager real quick and get the keys"
Eric came running back out with the keys and handed them to me. "OK, I'm going to ride in the passenger seat" he said.
As we left the lot, Eric started talking about the cool features of the 4runner, but more importantly, to establish his connection with the buyer, he began asking questions about me, what I did for a living, etc.
"So what do you think?" he asked excitedly, as we made it safely back onto the dealership lot.
Of course the reality was that I loved it, and he knew it, but I played the cool customer and said that the 4Runner was "nice".
"Well, would you like to come inside and talk about a few things over a can of Coke?"
"Sure" I said.
Eric was so new, he didn't even have his own desk yet. Instead, after apologizing profusely, he guided me to the employee break room to talk business, which incidentally was right next door to the general managers office.
"Tell me again, what kind of payment where you looking for on your new 4Runner." he asked me.
"Oh, I don't know, I was hoping for something around $400 a month." I still have no idea how I came up with this number, it just seemed like the car payment someone my age, with my income should have.
Third lesson, although I wouldn't learn this one until 2 more car purchases, is that you shouldn't have a car payment no matter what your age or income if you can avoid it.
"Hmm...$400, OK" he said, as he scribbled the figure in the upper right hand corner of a preformatted "deal sheet".
He then asked me what I later found out to be one of the key phrases in the automobile industry.
"$400 up to..." he asked. Without finishing his sentence, I knew he was asking what my maximum monthly payment was.
"Oh... I don't know, up to $450" I said, without giving it much thought. What he basically had done was "up to" me another $2400 if he could get me to agree to a 48 month loan term.
Fourth lesson, if you absolutley have to have a car payment set a budget that works for you and don't get "up to'd"
"Great" he said. And why not, this really was great for him, he had the perfect customer sitting in front of him, and it was only his second day on the job! "I'm going to have the manager check out your trade-in and then we'll see what we kind of a payment we can get you into".
To be continued...
More @ Trees Full of Money
All i have to say is :lemon: Oh what a feeling Toyoda !!! :lemon:
O.k... I've got no problem with that. Perhaps I misunderstood the intent of your prior post.
If someone comes to you with a screamer new car ad and says," I want this car now."... and the car is available.
What do you do? Do you sell them the car as they asked? Or, do you tell them it is no longer available and try to put them into something a little more profitable?
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
:confuse:
Congrats on your new Fusion explorer. But, I would hold onto that gift card if I were you. Use it for your wife's birthday, or give it to her as a Christmas gift. From a financial point of view it's a good move.
Also have witnessed speed bumps taken at a high speed etc.
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
Because most people who rent cars will drive them hard... or harder than their own car. I do. Most of the guys in this discussion do, and I bet even "The Tidester" does it.
Now, I'm not talking about abusing the car, or doing anything that will lower it's value. Mostly fast starts and stops, accelerating through some hairpin turns... having a little fun. isell and a lot of others will tell you they've never had any problems with buying rentals, so "the boys" aren't being to rough on them.
GP, surely you're joking, aren't you? ("No, I'm not joking, and don't call me Shirley!")
Seriously, Saturday newspaper ads are a valuable tool to help me gauge how our local dealers are pricing many of their new models. They have been for the past couple decades. Thanks to the newspaper ads, I was able to buy the following vehicles several hundreds of dollars, probably as much as $1K, below invoice -- even after deducting all the published inventives offered by the factory to the dealers:
- 1992 Pathfinder XE 2WD
- 1996 Maxima GXE
- 2005 4Runner SR5 2WD
Notice that all of these vehicles were the base models. In each case, the dealer had heavy inventory. In one case, it was the last weekend in March at a heavy-volume store which was attempting to meet quarterly sales quotas.
Without the newspaper ads, I never would have suspected the purchase prices could be so low. Even my usual "cotmc" tricks wouldn't have helped in all these instances.
I honestly think my heart skipped a beat when I saw this truck.
Yep, you were already heading up the proverbial creek...
I still have no idea how I came up with this number
... and at this point you dropped the paddle!
I agree 100% We have not ran a screamer add here in over 3 years. They are a waste of time and money. IMO it is bad business to spend money on advertising a product at a loss.
We just ride other peoples adds and will gladly match the price of a like product. It must work because we lead the city month in and month out.
Full page color here runs around $15K for the weekend.
:surprise: :surprise:
I never knew those ads could cost so much!! Here, we still regularly see large newspaper ads from the majority of our larger Nissan, Toyota, Honda, and Hyundai dealers.
We also tend to have large black and white ads for lease deals from our BMW, Volvo, and Lexus dealers -- usually in the Sports section of the paper.
By the way, if it wasn't for that 1996 Maxima GXE screamer ad, I would have purchased a Honda Accord EX, instead.
I'm not trying to argue, but I just wanted y'all to know that the ads sometimes might cause some buyers to reconsider their purchase options.
To sell then what they asked for the first time they walked into the shop is in my very honest opinion being stupid.
I should have been more specific... Our dealership stopped advertissing in the Paper. We spend our advertising budget on the internet, radio, and tv comercials...
Here in Boston a Dealer can spend $3000 - $5000 a day. Ihear it is cheaper in some parts of the country and maybe more in others. But when we track the sources of how people hear of our store they never responded with the paper. ( that was back when we did advertise in the papaer.
GP