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A Day in the Life of a Car Shopper
When I think of a car salesman, the words, "shady," "tricky," "liar," and "deception" come to mind. I guess it’s really not a fair thought, but from my experience, I just don’t trust them. It seems as though they are just out to get your money, and to make you suffer as you hand it over. I dread the car-shopping drama, but every few years it seems to play out in a similar fashion. This year I vowed it would be different – this year I wasn’t going to let a salesman get the better of me.
This year’s experience started out in one dealership, where my husband and I were shopping for a second car. We thought a second car would make things easier for us. We set out to visit a few car dealers in the area, so we could look for that special car that would call out to us…"I’m the one."
We arrived on the lot of a car dealership that we had been to in previous years while searching for a car. Almost immediately, "Ron" came out to meet us while we were browsing around the outside car lot. He told us he was new in this dealership, and he seemed like he was very knowledgeable about the cars we were looking at. He was also very pleasant. After talking for a few minutes and looking over the cars, we told Ron what we were looking for and he went back into the showroom so he could work up some numbers. I would have been very excited that he was "working up some numbers," but I’d been here before…I knew Ron was not going to come out with his lowest price. In fact, I knew Ron had a few more trips to make inside to the man behind the screen. I knew the secret behind buying a car…I had played this game before. In fact, buying a car really is a game. The salesman makes his move first by introducing himself, then the buyer responds, and then the salesman makes his move, etc. etc. It’s a game that the buyer ultimately wants to win, and at the same time, make the salesman think he’s won as well.
While we waited for Ron in the lot, my husband and I made fun of this situation we were in. We played out different scenarios that we’ve been in before, and how we would reply to them. Ron came back out fairly quickly, which was unusual, and then he went over to the car we were interested in. He took out his calculator and worked up some more numbers. My husband and I gave each other a secretive smirk and waited for the total. Ron looked at us and said that he was pretty confident that he’d be able to meet our price. He then asked us what monthly payment we were looking at. Uh-uh – we knew better than to answer that question. Sorry Ron…we would rather not say just yet. Maybe you could just tell us the price of the car? Ron finally gave us a price, and it was a bit higher than what we had in mind. This was the first dealership we had gone to and we still wanted to shop around and look at some other cars. We thanked Ron, and he fumbled for a business card to give us. While he was looking, he mentioned something about running out of his own business cards, so he wrote down his personal cell number on a card from the dealership and told us to call him later. We thanked him and went back to our car. Before we could pull out, Ron came running toward us. I rolled down my window, and he told us that he had spoken to someone who said that he may be able to get us the car for a couple thousand dollars less than he had told us. "Wow, a couple thousand dollars less," I thought. But Ron also said that it was an unreliable source and he would have to further confirm it. "Call me later on my cell," he told us. We thanked him and drove off to go to the next dealer on our list. We did call Ron later, but he never answered his cell phone.
In this next dealership, we met an older, and not-your-average salesman. "Stan" was much slower and mellower than we were used to. He didn’t try and put words in our mouths, he didn’t speak in run on sentences, and he certainly didn’t make us feel like he would take advantage of us. But even though he didn’t have the typical salesperson personality that we were used to, we still didn’t fully trust him. Stan asked my husband to test drive one of the cars. Of course the car handled great…of course the color was nice…of course he would love to buy it. But the price had to be right. "Let’s go inside and work out the numbers." Stan told us after the test drive. "There are those numbers again," I thought. My husband and I smiled our secret smirk at each other and followed Stan into the dealership.
We sat near Stan’s desk while he disappeared behind a screen at the other end of the dealership. It’s amazing how they design car dealerships – they always seem to have an office at the other end of where you happen to be waiting for the salesperson to "run the numbers." And that office many times has something blocking it so you can’t see inside – whether it’s a screen, tinted glass, or a potted plant. It sure did take Stan a long time to come back to his desk, and by that time we really needed to leave to go pick up our daughter. Stan did eventually come back about 20 minutes later, and he even had a monthly payment all worked out for us, even though we hadn’t even discussed a thing about financing. That was pretty presumptuous, we thought. We took one look at the paperwork and told Stan that we were sorry, but that it was not going to work for us and that we had to leave. Mellow Stan told us to wait just a few more minutes. He disappeared again and came back with a license plate. "Do you want to take the car to go pick up your daughter?" he asked. We thanked Stan but politely told him, "No thank you," and then left. "Boy, he sure did want us to come back, didn’t he?" My husband and I both got a laugh – we were never made that offer before. Back to our car we went.
After we picked up our daughter, we went to the next dealership where we met a nice guy named, "Ed." While there, we test drove another model and got a price. That too was just out of our price range, but I’m sure we could have haggled to reduce it – we just weren’t sure about the car. We left Ed and went across the street to another dealer. This salesman almost lost us – he disappeared inside an office and didn’t come out for what seemed like forever! We got so tired of waiting that we went back to our car. Other salesmen who were outside asked if they could help us with anything. My husband asked why it took so long to get a price. They told us that the computers were slow and that "Simon" was working to get us the best possible deal. We went back inside and Simon came back to explain the numbers to us. Unfortunately, those numbers were not going to work for us. Again, Simon disappeared inside an office across the dealership. This time, Simon came back with the manager. Usually, if you try repeatedly to get a lower price with the salesman, the manager will come out. If you’re lucky, there will be no high-pressure sales tactics used (as we’ve experienced in the past) and the manager will continue helping you find a price that’s right for you. This manager was very nice – unfortunately, he wasn’t able to go lower on the price of that particular vehicle. But he did say he would continue to look for the car with fewer options, which would make the price come down. We thanked them both, took their business cards, and went to our last dealer of the day.
We really enjoyed looking at cars at this last dealership – we had been there the day before, but there were no salesmen available to help us because it was just too busy. So the manager told us we could go have a look in the storage lot behind the dealership. It was wonderful – we got to look at all the cars, sit in them, and really get a chance to discuss things with each other, with no salesman in sight. All car shopping should be this stress-free. When we went back on this day, we drove directly to the car lot to look at a smaller model car. I remembered saying that I thought the car was cute – yeah, I like a cute car but the safety of a car is really what is the deciding factor for me when making a purchase. Since we hadn’t yet been able to get the larger model, we decided to try for the really small version. I had never owned nor driven such a small, economical car. But many people these days are choosing smaller cars, so I thought I would try it.
When we went inside the dealership and met with "Cal," I thought he was being really nice, despite my negative thoughts about his playing the game. He had just started working in this dealership three months ago (how come we get all the newbies), and he couldn’t really offer me information on the differences between a couple of the models. We explained our wants to Cal and he then disappeared to work up a deal for us. We sat in his office and we were really going to just purchase the car then and there, because we knew that if Cal could come within our price range, we were definitely going to buy it. After a few times of Cal coming and going, he left again, only to return about fifteen minutes later with numbers out of our price range. After telling Cal that those numbers wouldn’t work for us, he told us that there was practically no mark-up on this particular vehicle and that there were only so many incentives, etc. etc. But even then, Cal disappeared again to rework the numbers. This time it took him an even longer time to return. During this time, I walked outside and made a phone call to a friend to tell them about my soon-to-be new car. I was second-guessing myself because it was so small and I was worried about the safety aspect. It was very safe for the class it was in, but then again, it was a very small car and I always used to say when I saw a small car on the road, "That car will not survive an accident because it’s so small." After my phone call I went back to Cal’s desk and found that my daughter had fallen asleep in the chair. "Wow, he’s been gone a long time," we thought. We had to have been left there at least twenty minutes, when my husband told me he had been thinking… Uh oh. Nah, it was actually a good thought. Here we had been running all over to try and get a car as quickly as possible because we thought a second car would just be more convenient for us, but since we’ve had all this time to think, we realized that we really didn’t have to rush. I was really relieved, because I felt I was settling for a car that I really didn’t want as much as I did another. When Carl eventually did come back, he was actually able to meet our price and if he hadn’t left us there for so long we would have went home with a new second car. But Carl left us there way too long, and during all that time, we had a chance to think it over. Great for us – big mistake for Carl.
I was happily surprised with pretty much all the salesmen we met that day. Carl was really nice and since he was able to get his manager to "work those numbers" way down within our price range, we would probably go back to him if it ends up that we want a car at his dealership. Even though my husband would have been happy with the car Carl had let us test drive, for me -- a lesson was reinforced that day. I almost purchased a car that I didn’t really love. A car is a huge purchase – you should never settle for a car that you absolutely don’t LOVE in every aspect (looks, features, safety, price, etc). Don’t let anyone talk you into buying something you don’t want, because you’re the one who has to live with the decision. Also, don’t think negatively about all car salesmen – there are actually some out there who are willing to work with you.
Here are MyParenTime.com's things to think about the next time you venture out on a car shopping trip:
- Don’t shop on the last day that you absolutely must have a car – give yourself time to shop around so you can shop without pressure.
- Be friendly to the car salesmen -- the more they like you, the better deal you’re liable to get.
- According to Edmunds.com, "Dealer holdback is a percentage of either the MSRP or invoice price of a new vehicle (depending on the manufacturer) that is repaid to the dealer by the manufacturer." Almost all dealers keep this amount secret, and so you should keep this amount out of your negotiations. Click here for more information on dealer holdbacks.
- Don’t fall victim to high-pressure sales tactics. If something doesn’t feel right, you have the freedom to just walk away.
Good luck on your future car purchase!
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