No Auto Prices on Windows?

Factual Questions
1

Standard disclaimer - apologies if this has been answered already.

The wife and I were recently ‘shopping’ for a used car (we have very little to spend, and so were literally skimming through used car lots going “Nope, nope, nope, double nope…”). Anyway, at lots that we visited south of our little town, in Fairfax County VA, there were big bold prices on the windows that made shopping easy-ish. We venture back into our burg (Alexandria, VA), to visit one last lot in the city, and were VERY surprised to see no prices on the windows, even on the dealer info sheets in the passenger side windows. Of course, a salesperson swooped in on us, and I informed her that we really wished to just see prices to get an initial feel. She said, and I quote:

**“Sorry, there’s no prices on the windows in the city, it’s illegal in this area.” ** Of course we told her that we were just south of here and there were big bold prices on the windows, but she reaffirmed that in our city it’s “illegal”.

What is going on here? Obviously, it makes it harder on the consumer and easier on the salesperson to make the prices inconspicuous (forcing one to talk to one of them… shudder).

  1. Can a dealer deciding to put prices on the windows of their cars (that THEY OWN AND ARE SELLING) really be “illegal”?
  2. Isn’t this widely considered bad business practice? We for two are not going to shop there, or anywhere else where the pricing isn’t pretty clear up front.
  3. Is this the case anywhere else in the country?

Thanks

2

Welcome to the dope Barracuda Motorcade.
As far as what is legal in your town, I don’t know. There could well be a local ordinance that prohibits the painting prices on windshields to try and avoid the place looking well cheap.

In general, here in California most used car lots do not post prices on the car windows with the possible exception of one or two cars on the front line that have a price painted across the windshield.
What is required is the federally mandated form stating if the car is sold with or without a warranty.

I would strongly recommend that if you are buying a used car do lots of research particularly with respect to price. Used cars are far more profitable to a dealership than new cars in many cases.

I don’t know what your budget is, but you may want to investigate some car makers certified pre-owned used cars, as they come with a factory warranty. These are generally more expensive luxury cars that are a few years old, such as Lexus, BMW, Mercedes and Volvo.

Good luck and have fun shopping. If you have a question about a particular brand / model of car or are wanting to compare a couple, feel free to start a thread over in In My Humble Opinion. You will get a bunch of answers.

3

This doesn’t answer your question, but;
When I shop for a used car, I do so mostly on the internet. There are many sites (autotrader.com is one, but there are others) where you can search for cars on basically any criteria (including proximity to your home). I would be very surprised if the lot you mentioned did not have its inventory listed on some web site. If it did not, I would certainly steer clear of it.

4

That’s the opposite of my experience. Every single car on every lot in every California city has a price on it. All negotiable, of course.

What is banned around here is prices on cars parked on public streets, not lots.
But despite this, every town town has a “used car row”, usually near the largest park, with plenty of handmade signs in the windows. I guess if it’s got regular plates, not dealer plates, then the meter maids overlook it.

5

Here’s a trick I learned from a friend of mine who used to sell cars.

Sometimes, there will be a sticker on the windshield with a series of letters. A common code here in Louisiana is BLACKSMITH. B=1, L=2, A=3, etc.

Look for a sticker like that and if they’re using that code, you might be able to figure out the price of the car.

6

In our area used car dealers are prohibited from doing a lot of things that make used car lots look cheap; it’s a zoning / “quality of life” issue (read as “snobs like fancy surroundings”).

No big prices in windshields. No raised hoods. No balloons or waving signs / flags. No inflatable Godzillas.

But prices may be posted on the car on an info sheet in normal sized type, and all the dealers I’ve ever shopped does so.

Bottom line: it’s plausible the OP’s local municipality has a rule against posted prices. A quick check of the city code online would answer that.

7

My experience in Akron, OH, is that the prices are only displayed on the low-end cars in the market.
There’s a jerky Chevrolet dealer in Lower Akron who only puts big price stickers on the cars he’s selling for under $4000, which probably constitutes the bottom 15% of his inventory.

8

It would seem counterintuitive to me as well, you want the customers to come in, not just price you from the street.

9

I’ll wager they’re trying to appeal to the impulse shopper who things that “Doug Chevrolet has nothing I can afford, plus they’re jerks who raise prices mid-negotation” and would drive on past, rather than stopping, thinking they couldn’t get anything on the lot for $1990… which is not true in this case.

10

I like seeing the cars with the hood up and hazard lights on… As if that’s the way I want to picture my next car.