I work as an auto salesperson and I pride myself on transparency and honesty. The internet has introduced so much of that into the car buying process anyway, so why not embrace it, eh?
So your take home, after tax withholding, is over $900/week for a job where you don’t need a college education…& you’re obfuscating by subtracting your draw.
FoieGrasIsEvil:
Buy here pay here places exist because they literally are the last chance saloon for people with destroyed credit. They do their own financing and charge outrageous rates because they can and their customers are desperate for a car. The cars are usually junk as well.** I could never work at a place like that, I simply can’t feed off human misery.**
Note the bolded part for later…
FoieGrasIsEvil:
No, untrue. In the other thread in GQ there are a couple people that simply do not understand that telling me your payoff on your trade doesn’t gain me anything other than ascertaining your equity situation. I NEED to know that, and knowing it doesn’t alter what the car is worth. It’s worth what it’s worth based on book values driven by what a dealer can buy a car just like yours at an auction. The two biggest objections are always trade value and price/payments.
No, the only reason you NEED to know that info is IF you’re doing the financing.
FoieGrasIsEvil:
And yes, it would throw me off if you came at me with a trade after telling me you weren’t trading because any equity, positive or negative, affects the deal and the payment structure. If you have positive equity, you can use that in lieu of money down if you wish or you can just use some of it and get a check back. It’s your money, it’s up to you. Negative equity is a HUGE game changer because it may affect whether a bank will even loan you the money for the car period depending on how underwater you are.
Awww, poor baby, you need to do some extra work.
FoieGrasIsEvil:
Yeah, I won’t do that. But yes, my dealership is a very active trading partner with other dealerships so chances are if we don’t have exactly what you want, and you like dealing with me, we will work up the numbers in advance, broker an agreement and take a refundable deposit on the vehicle pending acquiring the car. The only way the deposit is non-refundable is if we secure that shit brown, rear wheel drive single cab truck that only you wanted and we get it and you back out, we use your $500 deposit to defray our taxes, writeoffs and insurance costs for now having a shit brown, RWD regular cab truck that will sit on our lot forever because it’s an undesirable set of features.
& if you can’t get that other car for whatever reason, how long do you hold the customer’s deposit for before returning it?
FoieGrasIsEvil:
Or people that think it’s unfair for a dealer/salesperson to make a profit (it’s how I live!). Only in this business is profit a dirty word. I get that people want a good deal and I try to get that for them. I think the funniest thing about this business is that my happiest customers are the ones I made the most money off of, bought the extended warranty (which isn’t bullshit), bought GAP insurance (also not bullshit), bought the environmental protection package (questionable), etc. My unhappiest customers are generally the ones that grind us into powder, they get an incredible deal, I make $100 on the sale and they still feel they are screwed, or that on top of the dealer basically giving the car away they want us to throw in all kinds of stuff, bedliners, all weather mats, etc when there simply isn’t any money left in the deal, they just want a free lunch. This happens a LOT.
So if I research online & do a deal thru the internet, you & you’re cow-orkers aren’t doing much but distracting me during a test ride, typically on roads of your choosing & doing some paperwork, some of which is done by a clerk & for that you’re taking home $50m/year after exorbitant withholding (which I’ll give you, but that’s the IRS). Sorry, but you’re not doing a lot of value add for me & I don’t see why I should pay you a lot for that.
FoieGrasIsEvil:
It really depends. My rule of thumb is to give the customer what they ask for. If they say they want “car x” and they want their payment to be “x” and I fulfill that desire, then I have done my job. Even if we made ten grand (extremely rare these days) selling them the car. And by “we” I mean the dealer. I get a percentage of that based on where that ten grand profit is (front end v back end, etc).
Remember where I said not this for later? You “simply can’t feed off human misery” but you could soak someone? There’s a fine line between Saturday night & Sunday morning. :dubious:
FoieGrasIsEvil:
My SOP (standard operating procedure, sorry, former Army!) is to quote someone, if they have found a SPECIFIC car, $1000 behind invoice less rebates, on a new car. The quote is good for 48 hours and there’s a disclaimer stating as much. Obviously this is lure to get the customer in the door right away to buy , and if they do, they will get the quoted internet price.
Ooops, you just admitted to creating false urgency.
