- Joined
- Oct 31, 2005
- Posts
- 4,270
As some of you may know, I've been looking to pick up a used vehicle.
Thought it was time to post up something about the modern car buying process as I've been dealing with it for about a month.
First off I can totally understand how those online car sites like Carvana and Vroom may not be for everyone. That being said the more I deal with dealerships the more I begin to believe that the online model is going to force dealerships to change. It seems to me that too many dealerships are so behind the times in how they do business and deal with the customers that there is very little reason to choose them for a used car purchase. I've ran into a few good dealerships but by far I've dealt with more that were crappy at best.
So here are a list of my experiences as of late.
No prices on used vehicles on the lot. - I go onto the lot, look at the cars and notice that the tags the put in the windows have no prices. I assume this so that they can charge everyone a different price as needed to rook the customer as best as possible. Asking the sales person the price of a vehicle, they want to show it to me first. I don't want to know anything more about it until I know the price. They infrom me that they will have to go check the price and I inform them that I won't be buying from them.
If you don't want an SUV - I can only assume they must have an amazing markup because they are the hottest selling vehicle type. The lots I went to had mostly various SUV models in their new section and about half of the used vehicles were. I'm aware that makers have been phasing out their various non SUV and crossover lines but I was shocked by how far that has gone. I personally don't really like driving them so I'm clearly the oddball. However this has been going on long enough that at least around here there are a lot fewer used non SUV type vehicles on the used lots.
If you don't want to finance they don't want to talk to you. - Several times, the moment they found out I could just buy outright the service went straight to hell. It's pretty clear what dealerships make their money from dealer reserve rather than selling cars. For those who don't know how that works...
(Dealer reserve is a kickback paid to car dealerships by the finance companies (including those owned by car manufacturers) for bringing in new customers. Dealer reserve can be defined as interest points that usually constitute two to four interest points added to the interest rate, and can tack on thousands to the price of a car and increase one's monthly payments by $30, $50 or more. This is basically how it works: The finance company, offers to finance someone's new car for 2.5%, but the car dealer doesn't tell the customer that. Instead, they tell him that the lowest interest rate he qualifies for is 4.5%. The finance company sends the check equal to the 2% markup to the dealership as a commission. The customer gets to pay off the 2% dealer reserve without realizing he actually qualified for a 2.5% rate!)
How much are you looking to pay a month - A variation on the above as they make the assumption you want to finance. Again, whatever amount you say, you can be sure that they will put you in a car for at the very least that amount, but likely a bit more as that will be the closest they can get you to it. Several times that was one of the first questions a sales person asked me.
The price is a bullshit lie - So, many dealerships show the list price on their website with all possible incentives, rebates, and deductions. You will not qualify for all of them, maybe one or two, but not all of them, unless you are financing, in the military, a student, previously purchased the same brand vehicle new to get the loyalty discount, and able to take advantage of special financing rates and rebates with excellent credit. Also, some dealers list the price and in the fine print will have a notation that price reflects a cash down payment of $XXXX.XX. That amount tends to be around 2k from what I've seen, sometimes a lot more but seldom very much less. Also, the "You must print out and bring in this listing to receive this pricing" I see that a lot as well and am not totally sure what the deal with that is just yet.
Contact Dealer for price/details - In this modern day, why is this bullshit acceptable. Any dealership that won't put the information out there on their website can go straight to hell.
I have some questions - When you contact a dealership to inquire about a vehicle and they totally ignore your entire email and respond with some stupid bullshit, it's a good indication that you don't need to do business with them. I'm not talking about the canned automated responses you get but rather when dealing with actual people, for example.
I send an email inquiry that explains what I am looking for, where I am located, and what I would like to know, as well as that I need to be contacted by email do to not being able to access my phone during the day and they fucking call or text me, with none of what I ask about but rather to tell me that they can schedule me an appointment that day or whenever works for me to come check out the vehicle. I'm like 700 miles away and clearly noted that information.. fuck those guys.
I finally find a car that I want to make a move on - So after finally finding one, the first thing I do is ask the sales person about their financing and if they have any kind of deals going on. I have no plans on using it but I get them to send me all the finance stuff and the link to the application. I don't fill any of it out but let them know read through it an take care of that later. I want to get the price worked out on the car so I'll know how much I need to put down, and such so we get that all worked out and cut a deal. Once I have the quote in writing I put the deposit down and then decide, "You know what.. this isn't all that much I'll just pay cash."
Now the person I was dealing didn't seem too happy about that as they can knock the price down a little because they will be making it up on the back end, except there is no back end because I'm paying cash. I was able to get what I feel is a reasonable price and the shipping to my location discounted to by a huge amount.
I fucking hate car buying and dealing with dealerships. I don't see how they offer any value to the process or the customer, even at best, they are just something in the way.
In the end, I'm getting an off lease CPO 2017 BMW I3 with range extender, at less than 22k miles on it.
Thought it was time to post up something about the modern car buying process as I've been dealing with it for about a month.
First off I can totally understand how those online car sites like Carvana and Vroom may not be for everyone. That being said the more I deal with dealerships the more I begin to believe that the online model is going to force dealerships to change. It seems to me that too many dealerships are so behind the times in how they do business and deal with the customers that there is very little reason to choose them for a used car purchase. I've ran into a few good dealerships but by far I've dealt with more that were crappy at best.
So here are a list of my experiences as of late.
No prices on used vehicles on the lot. - I go onto the lot, look at the cars and notice that the tags the put in the windows have no prices. I assume this so that they can charge everyone a different price as needed to rook the customer as best as possible. Asking the sales person the price of a vehicle, they want to show it to me first. I don't want to know anything more about it until I know the price. They infrom me that they will have to go check the price and I inform them that I won't be buying from them.
If you don't want an SUV - I can only assume they must have an amazing markup because they are the hottest selling vehicle type. The lots I went to had mostly various SUV models in their new section and about half of the used vehicles were. I'm aware that makers have been phasing out their various non SUV and crossover lines but I was shocked by how far that has gone. I personally don't really like driving them so I'm clearly the oddball. However this has been going on long enough that at least around here there are a lot fewer used non SUV type vehicles on the used lots.
If you don't want to finance they don't want to talk to you. - Several times, the moment they found out I could just buy outright the service went straight to hell. It's pretty clear what dealerships make their money from dealer reserve rather than selling cars. For those who don't know how that works...
(Dealer reserve is a kickback paid to car dealerships by the finance companies (including those owned by car manufacturers) for bringing in new customers. Dealer reserve can be defined as interest points that usually constitute two to four interest points added to the interest rate, and can tack on thousands to the price of a car and increase one's monthly payments by $30, $50 or more. This is basically how it works: The finance company, offers to finance someone's new car for 2.5%, but the car dealer doesn't tell the customer that. Instead, they tell him that the lowest interest rate he qualifies for is 4.5%. The finance company sends the check equal to the 2% markup to the dealership as a commission. The customer gets to pay off the 2% dealer reserve without realizing he actually qualified for a 2.5% rate!)
How much are you looking to pay a month - A variation on the above as they make the assumption you want to finance. Again, whatever amount you say, you can be sure that they will put you in a car for at the very least that amount, but likely a bit more as that will be the closest they can get you to it. Several times that was one of the first questions a sales person asked me.
The price is a bullshit lie - So, many dealerships show the list price on their website with all possible incentives, rebates, and deductions. You will not qualify for all of them, maybe one or two, but not all of them, unless you are financing, in the military, a student, previously purchased the same brand vehicle new to get the loyalty discount, and able to take advantage of special financing rates and rebates with excellent credit. Also, some dealers list the price and in the fine print will have a notation that price reflects a cash down payment of $XXXX.XX. That amount tends to be around 2k from what I've seen, sometimes a lot more but seldom very much less. Also, the "You must print out and bring in this listing to receive this pricing" I see that a lot as well and am not totally sure what the deal with that is just yet.
Contact Dealer for price/details - In this modern day, why is this bullshit acceptable. Any dealership that won't put the information out there on their website can go straight to hell.
I have some questions - When you contact a dealership to inquire about a vehicle and they totally ignore your entire email and respond with some stupid bullshit, it's a good indication that you don't need to do business with them. I'm not talking about the canned automated responses you get but rather when dealing with actual people, for example.
I send an email inquiry that explains what I am looking for, where I am located, and what I would like to know, as well as that I need to be contacted by email do to not being able to access my phone during the day and they fucking call or text me, with none of what I ask about but rather to tell me that they can schedule me an appointment that day or whenever works for me to come check out the vehicle. I'm like 700 miles away and clearly noted that information.. fuck those guys.
I finally find a car that I want to make a move on - So after finally finding one, the first thing I do is ask the sales person about their financing and if they have any kind of deals going on. I have no plans on using it but I get them to send me all the finance stuff and the link to the application. I don't fill any of it out but let them know read through it an take care of that later. I want to get the price worked out on the car so I'll know how much I need to put down, and such so we get that all worked out and cut a deal. Once I have the quote in writing I put the deposit down and then decide, "You know what.. this isn't all that much I'll just pay cash."
Now the person I was dealing didn't seem too happy about that as they can knock the price down a little because they will be making it up on the back end, except there is no back end because I'm paying cash. I was able to get what I feel is a reasonable price and the shipping to my location discounted to by a huge amount.
I fucking hate car buying and dealing with dealerships. I don't see how they offer any value to the process or the customer, even at best, they are just something in the way.
In the end, I'm getting an off lease CPO 2017 BMW I3 with range extender, at less than 22k miles on it.
