TehNrd

Dear Car Dealers,

Get with the times. My wife and I have spent the last four weeks test driving 12 different cars. Some cars were good and others not so good. Yet the most annoying, not surprisingly, aspects of buying a car is dancing (not literally, that would be weird) with the dealers. Most dealers are still using the same old tactics they have since the begining of car sales. This is dumb. People aren’t stupid anymore when they walk on to a dealers lot. In fact, I can learn more about the car online than most of the salesman know. So dealers, let’s be real, here are a few tips.

Second sticker
Really? You are going to artificially inflate the price of a vehicle based on “adjusted market value”. And you are going to do this in a serious recession? What are you smoking? This is such a turn off and as soon as I see this sticker the chances of me buying a car from you go way down. What the heck is “adjusted market value” anyway? Last time I checked every single one of those cars cost about the same to make no matter where it is being sold. The only real variable here would be the shipping costs which strangely enough are the same in Miami as they are in Seattle. So just because I may live in an area with a higher average income that doesn’t mean you can raise the price. Oh and don’t forget about this thing called the internet where I can go buy a car from some place that has a “lower” adjusted market value with a few clicks while sitting in my pajamas.

Test Drives
Don’t come with me, you are most likely annoying. I do understand that you may need to ride along if I am driving a really expensive car, but please, don’t talk. Having you in the car makes everything so awkward. I just want to relax and get a feel for the car but I can feel you breathing down my back from the rear seat. Any questions I have I can ask when I return, but you know what, I probably already have the answer because of this little invention called the internet. If I crash the car we all have insurance so don’t worry about that. If you don’t come with me you will also get to stay at the dealer and potentially help multiple customers at once and improve your sales. You can’t do this sitting in the back seat.

Dickering
Don’t. Once again with this magical tool called the internet I have a pretty good idea what you paid for the car. Based on my recent experiences I can usually get within $200 of what you paid. Now that I know your purchase price you have very little negotiating power. Let’s not waist time, just give me your more lowest price. If it isn’t low enough I won’t buy it. If I think you are messing with me there are about 5 other dealers that sell the exact same car as you, and I have no loyalty to you, I will walk out the door to the next dealer. If it’s fair price I’ll buy it.

So in the end guess what? We ended up buying a car from a dealer that list the lowest price they are willing to sell it for, no negotiating, no dickering. And you know what? Out of all of the dealers we went to this was the busiest. There were more people in here on a week day than others had during the weekend. What a concept, set a price and let the market decide if this is fair, fundamental economics.

Sincerely,
Jason