Hey, I have dual citizenship and I don't understand it.
As an update, I contacted the TX Dept of Insurance directly and received a detailed response. Basically, they confirmed what I already knew about Progressive's coverage, and said that to their knowledge no other authorized insurer has a similar endorsement. They also said that they will at times suggest that a regular insurance agent contact a surplus lines agent to determine if any eligible surplus lines insurer is writing a particular form of coverage, but that they (TDI) know of just one that offers the product, and that they cannot divulge the name of the company as their method of marketing and the actual coverage form is currently being investigated. !! They said that as my own research has indicated, this is a niche area with few alternatives. They agreed that it appears I have exhausted all options, and that I have to decide whether GAP coverage has enough importance to warrant switching insurers or lenders.
I have found one area credit union I'm eligible to join that offers GAP for a flat rate of $225 for the life of the loan, IF I refinance through them. In my case it's worth exploring because I used rebates/incentives to cover negative equity of my old car loan. If I happened to total my new car in the foreseeable future, I'm in a world of financial hurt.
GAP in Texas is an insurance product that can be sold by a dealership as a stand-alone product (like an service contract). You can try local dealers but otherwise it may be hard to find a carrier to sell a standalone GAP policy. The price is fixed to the consumer, so there should not be much variation in pricing between dealers.
------------------------------------------------
Does anyone think it would be fruitful to contact dealers asking if they will sell GAP as a standalone product, even if I didn't finance the purchase through them??
Not sure where to post this, but here seems to be OK.
Was at the Honda dealer the other day looking at the new Ody. They were shooting so promo stuff (I guess) in the showroom (professional photog, various cameras/lights set up). We might have been the only customers (or couple), or maybe it was my devilish good looks, but the photog asked us to be in one of the pictures, posing at a desk with the salesman, pretending that he was showing us a brochure.
Of course, i forgot to ask what the pics were for (or for a token of appreciation). I don't imagine they can use them commercially without a release, so i doubt I will be seeing myself on a billboard soon, but who knows.
Did manage to yank my wifes chain though. I left her a message that the dealer called, and becasue we helped out, she could have the Ody she saw for invoice. She wasn't too pleased when I had to fess up that I made the story up though.
.."(professional photog, various cameras/lights set up)."
........ sounds like "commercial time" .. they will check the pics and "cut and snip" what looks good .. that means: your out and the Mrs is in .......... ) ..... I used to do that all the time with customers, they love it, better than any reality show.
Customer does. We had a case where a customer damaged a Mazda RX7 w/ me in it on a test drive. Spun the car @ 30 mph!! Dry pavement no less. Anyway, did $3k worth of damage. Customer paid. Didn't buy the car though
Yes, if a photo of you (moving or still) is used in advertising, you have to sign a release form for the company to use it. You could make life miserable for them if you don't. Whether or not they'll give you something for your trouble is up to them. (I'm an ad agency creative director, so we deal with this stuff all the time.) I would say an Ody at invoice is more than you're likely to get. A polo short could happen.
In the spring, when I thought I was in the market for a new car, I went to the local Infiniti dealer and fell in love with the FX35. We wound up not buying anything at that time. Since then, things have changed and we're now in the market again. Actually, we're not in the market. We'll be getting an FX35 in the next week (2 weeks at the absolute most). The local dealer doesn't have the color combo and options that I want. A dealer 100 miles away does. I emailed the sales rep at the local dealer. The text follows:
"JJ - My wife and I visited you a few months ago when we were looking at FX35's. We wound up not being able to get a car then, but are back in the market now. We're looking for:
Liquid Copper Brick/Black Interior Sport Pkg. Touring Pkg. Cargo Area Protector Splash Guards
From the Infiniti of Cincinnati website, I see that you currently don't have any that are close matches to this. I found one at the Glenn Lexington dealer that has a Black interior and a sunroof wind deflector.
When are the '05 FX35's coming in to your store? If we decide not to wait on an '05, is there any difference if we strike the deal with you and have the one from Lexington shipped up here? Meghan and I enjoyed working with you and would like for you to get our business, if possible.
Thanks!"
This was 3 days ago now. No response. For you salespeople in the crowd, what's wrong with my email, if anything?
I did the work of tracking down the individual salesman that we worked with before - not the generic internet sales manager email addy that everyone uses. How long would it have taken to respond to my email, in which I don't indicate that I'm going to grind him and I even talk about taking an '04 off his hands at a time when '05s are getting ready to hit?
You say you used his actual address so it sounds like you're pretty sure JJ's still there... maybe he's on vacation or out sick. Pick up the phone & call to find out. Or re-send the e-mail with an intro saying it's re-sent from 3 days ago, and cc the GSM.
Maybe it's a country or even province thing, but up here, the dealership pays for the damages and their liability insurance covers any damage or injuries to 3rd parties.
"This was 3 days ago now. No response. For you salespeople in the crowd, what's wrong with my email, if anything?"
Some deales just seem to have no clue when it comes to e-mail. I've been trying to buy a Jag X-Type for the last 3 weeks. Over that time I've e-mailed 24 dealers (4 at a time. Once they don't respond in a reaonable time frame I move onto the next 4). and heard back from 2. I eventually gave up and hit the 'phone. Trying to get any interest is like pulling teeth.
Because around 50% of the time the person on the other end can't understand my accent. It's hardly ever an issue in person but on the 'phone it can get frustrating.
or you get transferred 3 times and either hung up on or stuck in the neverending hell of the sweet sounds of Muzak piped through your earpiece. At the very best end of the spectrum, you get to leave a voicemail - which is no different than sending an email, so why spend 20 minutes trying to get someone on the phone when it takes me 30 seconds to send an email?
'11 GMC Sierra 1500; '98 Alfa 156 2.0TS; '08 Maser QP; '67 Coronet R/T; '13 Fiat 500c; '20 S90 T6; '22 MB Sprinter 2500 4x4 diesel; '97 Suzuki R Wagon; '96 Opel Astra; '11 Mini Cooper S
why can't the car sales bisuness in general fall into line with the way other bisuness is done these days? The vast majority of auto customers work, and most work functions on email. That is the environment the customers live in. Time to play the game, and cater to the customers world.
Also, salesmen tend to be out on the floor, workign with customers, as opposed to parked in a chair in front of a computer screen, waiting for new email to show up, like many of us. Not that I'm bitter or anything...
it depends on the business. Our company absolutely functions on email. Even our check stubs are sent that way.
Seems to me that auto dealers are a bit behind in how they deal with email. I would think I'd be finding a way to mine those tickles every day and turn the legit ones into a contact, rather than ignore them and annoy the few but growing numbers of customers who have learned to do business on email. But that's just me.
I also wonder if dealers haven't fully embraced e-mail as in some ways it gives the customer the upper hand when it comes to the initial contact. It's a lot harder to get a read on a person via e-mail as opposed to the phone or in person. (I'm sure the dealers also aren't thrilled that a customer can send e-mails to 50 dealers in thirty seconds.)
With an e-mail, you can narrow down a price range and stock availability and just get down to business right away once you finally meet at the shop. E-mail clarifies and gets the process started more quickly, imo.
One way or another, though, car dealers are going to have to embrace e-mail and online sales. The next generation of car buyers won't know how to buy things any other way.
I have actually never seen a dealer or salesperson that published individual email addresses. They always have the "contact us" general box for quotes, etc., but it seems pretty rare that you can get to an individual salesperson. Lot's of them don't even have PCs on the desk (just some central ones for checking inventory, etc), so they may have limited access to email even with an address.
If I have a question for a specific salesperson, I'll just call and have him paged. If i get VM, no big deal.
All the people I liked once that I try to go back to seem to have moved on anyway, so I just try someone new.
Can't think of too many other retail stores that use e-mail, other than "e-tailers". Tried it a couple of times, once on a garden tractor, and once with a large appliance store, didn't work at all. Waited days for any response. Could have made one phone call instead of wasting many days....Guess if you want to buy a product at a retail dealership, best bet is to call or stop in....
......... It's not that dealers are slow or behind or need to embrace anything .... what has happened in the last 4/5 years, (especially in the last 2 years) is that emails to dealers have "lost" their credibility and even trying to keep a "internet manager", which is a joke, for more than 2/3 months is a task - why.?
It's simple, you have kids, bored office managers/employee's, college students in class, afternoon wives, folks that "just" surf the net (we all do it.!) and they might be interested on a wing and a prayer ... the "buyers" the *real buyers* are a very small minority that hit the keys, and I do mean small.
The best example is when I went to see some dealer friends in the Denver area before Sturgis .. just sitting around waiting for the other riders and getting the bikes ready, of course my friend wants to show me his stores, has 11 in the Colorado area and the big deal of the day was his internet manager is quitting the job and wants to go back to the floor .. it's understandable when he has 221 (that day) emails from 10 different people from LA, Eureka, Barstow and lets not forget Wichita and KC - and guess what .? they all want a price for a Cavalier, Dodge Durango, Infiniti G35, a Burb, Subaru, the TL and the A8L, lets not forget that Tacoma and lets throw in that MB E55 just for the grins and glory ...... I dunno guys, no wonder why your not getting any replys ..l.o.l....
Kinda like how spam has wrecked email for the serious email user. To take isell's earlier point, I suppose that's why many home open house ads say "serious buyers only."
Still, in the long run there will be a place for email in the process. Maybe we aren't there yet, but you'd think a dealer would be working it somehow, even if the server sent a standard answer explaining why a phone call works better.
I have had decent conversations with car salesmen via email in the past, but not from one who actually sold me a car. Hmm... makes yer point again...
Last year, when I was shopping for a late model used car.. I used e-mail quite a few times.. Most results were disappointing..
I think e-mail works best with a dealer that is advertising on the internet with autotrader or ebay. They are used to answering questions via e-mail.
Even then, I only had two satisfying "conversations" via e-mail... One dealer that was just 40 miles away was very responsive and upfront.. just couldn't get in the same ballpark on price.
The other one: I bought a car from..
I think if you are pulling up e-mail contacts from web sites, and asking for quotes on new models, you will be mostly frustrated.. I prefer face to face or phone contact for local dealers. Not that I love dealing with them, but I find I'm usually more successful that way.
I don't doubt that e-mail inquiries result in a lower percentage of sales per contact -- for now. But I also can't imagine the issue is going to go away -- all those kids out there who'll be buying cars in 5-10-15 years are being raised to buy everything online.
I'd also guess it couldn't be easier to weed out non-serious e-mail inquiries, which makes ignoring the serious ones almost inexcusable.
I did just about all of the legwork on my last purchase via e-mail. All I had to do was show up for a test drive and paperwork. My dealer's willingness to negotiate via e-mail is precisely what earned him my sale. He happily answered specific questions whereas other dealers would only counter with "I'd be happy to answer that when you come by for a visit."
A dealer could get rid of a lot of the riff-raff by having an e-mail form on its website that requires the customer to provide name, address, and phone #, and a preferred method of contact drop-down: "phone," "e-mail," "schedule appointment", etc. Phone numbers can easily be verified online these days, and as long as the dealer honors the legitimate customer's preference for method of contact, I don't see how e-mail isn't a winner for everyone. My dos centavos.
**A dealer could get rid of a lot of the riff-raff by having an e-mail form on its website that requires the customer to provide name, address, and phone #, and a preferred method of contact drop-down: "phone," "e-mail," "schedule appointment", etc.** ......
Your missing the point, MOST dealers do ... I have had parents call call/email me back with apologies for their kids, maybe just the email with "not ready now" after 20 emails, or when the manager emails back it gets returned on the come back, as mailer demon(?) -- remember, your the small minority of the *real* buyers on the net, it's the other 2,501,087,012 that are causing the problems l.o.l.. ..
If folks can get ambitious enough to go out and look at couches, golf clubs and ski-do's for hours and hours, then I would think they would be ambitious enough to go look for the the second most expensive purchase in their life - their next vehicle ...
Being an "Internet Manager" isn't any fun. Nobody except those of us in the business could have ANY IDEA how many worthless E-mails flood in each and every day. It's so hard to ferret out the very few serious ones from all of the garbage.
Once in awhile, I'll get a customer who wants to correspond strictly through e-mails. When this happens, I lose interest quickly. Recently, I lost a sale. I had a customer send me an e-mail letting me know he wanted to come in that evening and buy the used CRV I had shown him the day before. I was swamped that day and didn't check my e-mail until the next morning.
So, I called him and he let me know he had bought somthing else because..." Since you didn't respond to my e-mail, I assumed the car was sold"
Nevermind, all of my customers have my direct line which is attached to my belt!
When I sold, I had my cell phone # printed on my business cards. My customers always had a way to get ahold of me. Sure my bill was higher, but the sales that I didn't lose made up for that. It is extremely difficult for a busy salesperson to continuously check e-mail even if the dealership provides it for them.
lets put this in perspective. "weeding out" the non-buyers from emails to a delaership is like spending hours to negotiate the last $1.50 on a $50k car deal.
professional salespeople tend to do the thing that gets the best result for the time involved.
weeding through emails has one of the WORST result/time ratios in the history of sales. even if you have a pre-drafted return email, it only applies to about 25% of the ones that come in. therefore, you spend an average of 10 minutes on EACH of the remaining 75%.
if a store gets 100 emails per day (usually times 10), that means that you can return 25 of them in a 30 minute time frame. the other 75 take about 10 minutes each (average). that makes a total of ~780 minutes (13 hours).
forget about sending ANOTHER after one of them is returned in the same day, or taking phone calls from the ones who are still interested, or actually SELLING a car to someone that comes in.
We have a pretty good I-net dept, sells 20-25 car per mo. For every good lead they get they get 30 spam ones though. We have an auto responder to help the dept keep up w/ the amount of emails. Its alot of work separting the wheat from the chaff, and we are a small dealer. Imagine what its like at a big store.
and the people who choose screen names like "rubberduckyondrugs@cheapwire.com" or "slinkychick@hotmail.com" don't help. I have several friends whose email gets filtered out by my spam filter just because of the name they picked.
One thing about email that is very frustrating for our internet department is folks seem to fire off single question emails the second it pops in their head,....its not unusual to see 15 emails from one person over a 4 hour period all with one line single questions.
Comments
As an update, I contacted the TX Dept of Insurance directly and received a detailed response. Basically, they confirmed what I already knew about Progressive's coverage, and said that to their knowledge no other authorized insurer has a similar endorsement. They also said that they will at times suggest that a regular insurance agent contact a surplus lines agent to determine if any eligible surplus lines insurer is writing a particular form of coverage, but that they (TDI) know of just one that offers the product, and that they cannot divulge the name of the company as their method of marketing and the actual coverage form is currently being investigated. !! They said that as my own research has indicated, this is a niche area with few alternatives. They agreed that it appears I have exhausted all options, and that I have to decide whether GAP coverage has enough importance to warrant switching insurers or lenders.
I have found one area credit union I'm eligible to join that offers GAP for a flat rate of $225 for the life of the loan, IF I refinance through them. In my case it's worth exploring because I used rebates/incentives to cover negative equity of my old car loan. If I happened to total my new car in the foreseeable future, I'm in a world of financial hurt.
------------------------------------------------
Does anyone think it would be fruitful
to contact dealers asking if they will
sell GAP as a standalone product, even
if I didn't finance the purchase through
them??
Terry.
Was at the Honda dealer the other day looking at the new Ody. They were shooting so promo stuff (I guess) in the showroom (professional photog, various cameras/lights set up). We might have been the only customers (or couple), or maybe it was my devilish good looks, but the photog asked us to be in one of the pictures, posing at a desk with the salesman, pretending that he was showing us a brochure.
Of course, i forgot to ask what the pics were for (or for a token of appreciation). I don't imagine they can use them commercially without a release, so i doubt I will be seeing myself on a billboard soon, but who knows.
Did manage to yank my wifes chain though. I left her a message that the dealer called, and becasue we helped out, she could have the Ody she saw for invoice. She wasn't too pleased when I had to fess up that I made the story up though.
2020 Acura RDX tech SH-AWD, 2023 Maverick hybrid Lariat luxury package.
........ sounds like "commercial time" .. they will check the pics and "cut and snip" what looks good .. that means: your out and the Mrs is in ..........
Terry.
2020 Acura RDX tech SH-AWD, 2023 Maverick hybrid Lariat luxury package.
We had a case where a customer damaged a Mazda RX7 w/ me in it on a test drive.
Spun the car @ 30 mph!!
Dry pavement no less.
Anyway, did $3k worth of damage.
Customer paid.
Didn't buy the car though
if you ADD taxes and license, then its not unrealistic.
here in KY, i get a $355 payment including taxes...
ok. terry...how much is my focus worth???
;-)
RX-8 has higher residual for manual...
Interesting
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Isn't manual a "no-cost" option on the 350Z? If so, then you'll take the full hit on your lease price for the lower residual.
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"JJ - My wife and I visited you a few months ago when we were looking at FX35's. We wound up not being able to get a car then, but are back in the market now. We're looking for:
Liquid Copper
Brick/Black Interior
Sport Pkg.
Touring Pkg.
Cargo Area Protector
Splash Guards
From the Infiniti of Cincinnati website, I see that you currently don't have any that are close matches to this. I found one at the Glenn Lexington dealer that has a Black interior and a sunroof wind deflector.
When are the '05 FX35's coming in to your store? If we decide not to wait on an '05, is there any difference if we strike the deal with you and have the one from Lexington shipped up here? Meghan and I enjoyed working with you and would like for you to get our business, if possible.
Thanks!"
This was 3 days ago now. No response. For you salespeople in the crowd, what's wrong with my email, if anything?
I did the work of tracking down the individual salesman that we worked with before - not the generic internet sales manager email addy that everyone uses. How long would it have taken to respond to my email, in which I don't indicate that I'm going to grind him and I even talk about taking an '04 off his hands at a time when '05s are getting ready to hit?
Am I that much of a dinosaur?
I hate picking up the phone, I'd rather do everything by email. Guess that's just me.
Some deales just seem to have no clue when it comes to e-mail. I've been trying to buy a Jag X-Type for the last 3 weeks. Over that time I've e-mailed 24 dealers (4 at a time. Once they don't respond in a reaonable time frame I move onto the next 4). and heard back from 2. I eventually gave up and hit the 'phone. Trying to get any interest is like pulling teeth.
Because around 50% of the time the person on the other end can't understand my accent. It's hardly ever an issue in person but on the 'phone it can get frustrating.
'11 GMC Sierra 1500; '98 Alfa 156 2.0TS; '08 Maser QP; '67 Coronet R/T; '13 Fiat 500c; '20 S90 T6; '22 MB Sprinter 2500 4x4 diesel; '97 Suzuki R Wagon; '96 Opel Astra; '11 Mini Cooper S
I would suspect that as a salesperson, I would rather have a person on the phone rather than an email that probably wouldn't amount to anything.
Can a salesperson who handles internet sales give an idea as to how many inquiries they receive per day and how many turn into actual leads?
2020 Acura RDX tech SH-AWD, 2023 Maverick hybrid Lariat luxury package.
Seems to me that auto dealers are a bit behind in how they deal with email. I would think I'd be finding a way to mine those tickles every day and turn the legit ones into a contact, rather than ignore them and annoy the few but growing numbers of customers who have learned to do business on email. But that's just me.
With an e-mail, you can narrow down a price range and stock availability and just get down to business right away once you finally meet at the shop. E-mail clarifies and gets the process started more quickly, imo.
One way or another, though, car dealers are going to have to embrace e-mail and online sales. The next generation of car buyers won't know how to buy things any other way.
If I have a question for a specific salesperson, I'll just call and have him paged. If i get VM, no big deal.
All the people I liked once that I try to go back to seem to have moved on anyway, so I just try someone new.
2020 Acura RDX tech SH-AWD, 2023 Maverick hybrid Lariat luxury package.
It's simple, you have kids, bored office managers/employee's, college students in class, afternoon wives, folks that "just" surf the net (we all do it.!) and they might be interested on a wing and a prayer ... the "buyers" the *real buyers* are a very small minority that hit the keys, and I do mean small.
The best example is when I went to see some dealer friends in the Denver area before Sturgis .. just sitting around waiting for the other riders and getting the bikes ready, of course my friend wants to show me his stores, has 11 in the Colorado area and the big deal of the day was his internet manager is quitting the job and wants to go back to the floor .. it's understandable when he has 221 (that day) emails from 10 different people from LA, Eureka, Barstow and lets not forget Wichita and KC - and guess what .? they all want a price for a Cavalier, Dodge Durango, Infiniti G35, a Burb, Subaru, the TL and the A8L, lets not forget that Tacoma and lets throw in that MB E55 just for the grins and glory ...... I dunno guys, no wonder why your not getting any replys ..l.o.l....
Pick-up a phone, simple .......
Terry.
Still, in the long run there will be a place for email in the process. Maybe we aren't there yet, but you'd think a dealer would be working it somehow, even if the server sent a standard answer explaining why a phone call works better.
I have had decent conversations with car salesmen via email in the past, but not from one who actually sold me a car. Hmm... makes yer point again...
I think e-mail works best with a dealer that is advertising on the internet with autotrader or ebay. They are used to answering questions via e-mail.
Even then, I only had two satisfying "conversations" via e-mail... One dealer that was just 40 miles away was very responsive and upfront.. just couldn't get in the same ballpark on price.
The other one: I bought a car from..
I think if you are pulling up e-mail contacts from web sites, and asking for quotes on new models, you will be mostly frustrated.. I prefer face to face or phone contact for local dealers. Not that I love dealing with them, but I find I'm usually more successful that way.
regards,
kyfdx
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I'd also guess it couldn't be easier to weed out non-serious e-mail inquiries, which makes ignoring the serious ones almost inexcusable.
I did just about all of the legwork on my last purchase via e-mail. All I had to do was show up for a test drive and paperwork. My dealer's willingness to negotiate via e-mail is precisely what earned him my sale. He happily answered specific questions whereas other dealers would only counter with "I'd be happy to answer that when you come by for a visit."
A dealer could get rid of a lot of the riff-raff by having an e-mail form on its website that requires the customer to provide name, address, and phone #, and a preferred method of contact drop-down: "phone," "e-mail," "schedule appointment", etc. Phone numbers can easily be verified online these days, and as long as the dealer honors the legitimate customer's preference for method of contact, I don't see how e-mail isn't a winner for everyone. My dos centavos.
Your missing the point, MOST dealers do ... I have had parents call call/email me back with apologies for their kids, maybe just the email with "not ready now" after 20 emails, or when the manager emails back it gets returned on the come back, as mailer demon(?) -- remember, your the small minority of the *real* buyers on the net, it's the other 2,501,087,012 that are causing the problems l.o.l.. ..
If folks can get ambitious enough to go out and look at couches, golf clubs and ski-do's for hours and hours, then I would think they would be ambitious enough to go look for the the second most expensive purchase in their life - their next vehicle ...
Terry
Once in awhile, I'll get a customer who wants to correspond strictly through e-mails. When this happens, I lose interest quickly. Recently, I lost a sale. I had a customer send me an e-mail letting me know he wanted to come in that evening and buy the used CRV I had shown him the day before. I was swamped that day and didn't check my e-mail until the next morning.
So, I called him and he let me know he had bought somthing else because..." Since you didn't respond to my e-mail, I assumed the car was sold"
Nevermind, all of my customers have my direct line which is attached to my belt!
take out the questions about the '05s. that implies an indecisiveness on your part, and can send the wrong message, no matter what you meant.
ask 1 thing at a time until you get a real dialogue going. get an answer to the lexington question first.
P.S. email me please.
professional salespeople tend to do the thing that gets the best result for the time involved.
weeding through emails has one of the WORST result/time ratios in the history of sales. even if you have a pre-drafted return email, it only applies to about 25% of the ones that come in. therefore, you spend an average of 10 minutes on EACH of the remaining 75%.
if a store gets 100 emails per day (usually times 10), that means that you can return 25 of them in a 30 minute time frame. the other 75 take about 10 minutes each (average). that makes a total of ~780 minutes (13 hours).
forget about sending ANOTHER after one of them is returned in the same day, or taking phone calls from the ones who are still interested, or actually SELLING a car to someone that comes in.
this is 13 hours of typing...with $0 return.
For every good lead they get they get 30 spam ones though.
We have an auto responder to help the dept keep up w/ the amount of emails.
Its alot of work separting the wheat from the chaff, and we are a small dealer.
Imagine what its like at a big store.
hey hey hey.! thats my Ex, how did your get her email address.?!?
Terry ;^}
</;^D