My place of business is right across the street from a car dealership. They have a big sign out front that flashes messages, but most of the time just has the time and temperature. I look at their sign all the time because I usually forget to wear a watch and glancing out the front window is quicker than going in the back room and looking at the wall clock.
A while ago they had “COME SEE THE MONKEY!” on the sign. I still dont’ know if they had an actual monkey or what. I wanted to go just to see the monkey, then leave after I’d seen it.
Now it says “IT IS COMING! [blink] COMING SOON! [blink] DON’T MISS IT!” Doesn’t say WHAT it is.
It’s the replacement for the old McCarthy sign that they tore down to pave the way for Best Buy’s world headquarters in Richfield. New “lovable landmark.”
My personal favorite is “Every Credit Application ACCEPTED!!”
Yeah, they’ll accept your application - just fill it out and hand it to them and they’ll accept it. Now, whether you get approval is quite another issue.
Incidentally, having a bit of a sorta-insider’s view of at least one car manufacturer - those particular dealerships don’t just order cars to sell - they are told by the manufacturer how many of what kinds of cars they will buy. I can’t say that’s true of all, but I know it’s the way one domestic car maker does business.
And on preview, I see that I was beaten to my application comment, but it stands anyway. Now I’m gonna pout.
Here in Chicagoland, some of the dealers have decided that the Saturday-morning half-hour infomercial is the way to go. It’s actually kind of funny – a half hour of hot-looking women parading around used cars and a smarmy announcer bellowing about HOW LOW THE MONTHLY PAYMENT IS! And it’s not just one dealership, there seem to be about three or four in rotation doing the same thing. Used car salesmen bad, infomercials bad, used-car infomercials REALLY REALLY bad.
My favorites are the ones that claim that OUR NEW CAR MANAGER ORDERED TOO MANY CARS SO NOW WE HAVE TO SELL THEM AT BELOW INVOICE!!!
I want to say Great - and while you’re at it - fire the idiot new car manager for ordering so many cars, and make sure his replacement took some basic business classes!
Ever hear a spot for cars at a really low price, then at the end the announcer spouts out VIN #s? Well that is the specific car at that price. The other cars on the lot are at the regular, inflated, MSRP(dealer sets actual retail price). Yeah, great commercial, great low price, but only one car at that price.
Actually, in my experience, they really do accept all applications. You might have to put 95% down at 23%, of course, but they’d love to take your money.
Accepting and approving are 2 entirely different things. All the commercial implies by “accepting” is that you can fill out the paperwork and they will accept it for perusal. (before they tell me to get my broke-no credit/fucked up credit having- ass on down to Willy’s used car lot)
Glad you learned your lesson, kp_72110 - you need to work on anticipating my every comment and thought, then be ready to jump in and agree with me. Oh yeah - and send chocolate.
If people were making you reasonable offers and you were refusing them, you wouldn’t be much of salesman now, would you? Thanks, but I’ll be looking for a dealer who admits he may have to accept an unreasonable offer.
When you have copious free time, you must read Confessions of a Car Salesman he proves in there that salespeople and managers live in their own little world, and things which seem dorky to normal people are quite hip in that strange subculture.
My favorite? We have one TV commercial locally with the sales manager spouting cliche after cliche: “You’ve shopped the rest, now shop the best!” blah blah blah “If you want to pay more, that’s your business - if you want to pay less, that’s OUR business!” blah blah blah “we don’t care about your past, we care about your future” - all with this smarmy dumbass grin. I change the channel every time it comes on (which seems like every half hour).
Slightly off topic: Last I was out and had to make a u-turn, and accidentally did it in the driveway of a large dealership. I kid you not, 3 salespeople rushed over yelling at me “do you want to buy a car today? come on in! We can appriase your car in 10 minutes!” etc. It must have been a slow day.
