Jeep: Buying a new Jeep...

CFLav8r wrote:
 

Your arse. I used to be a salesman, and I can tell you from experience that
customers were far more liars than the salesmen ever were. They'd claim a
dealer gave them some princely sum for their trade or that another dealer
gave them an additional $2000 off the same car, blah, blah, blah... A quick
call to those dealers in front of them changed their stories in a hurry.
The attitudes some of these people would bring in was nothing short of
astounding. Too many people have preconceived notions of the dealership
experience, and it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy because they already
have distrust and it causes them to try and one-up the salesman. The whole
process is a joke!

Those that got caught lying to a customer at my old dealership were warned
on the first time and fired on the second, and I've never seen one get
fired (but I've seen one warned).

You see a salesman because there are lots of them running around with
customers and the manager does not have time to work with every customer.
Therefore, there are lots of salesmen, and one or two managers determining
what he'll be willing to part with the vehicle for. That's how and why the
system works like it does with the salesman->manager->finance chain. The
used car manager appraises the trade because he's the one responsible for
selling it, and he's the one that goes to auctions to buy cars and knows
the market for them because he's sold lots of them. He's not going to give
you more for your trade than he's seen going across the auction block for.
If he's seen lots of your car going across the block, he'll give you even
less. He knows his market. He specializes in it. No matter what those
black/blue books claim, they don't know the market as well as he does. He
only uses those books as a guide, and not a bible, because he simply can't
remember every car that went across the block at auction.
 

You want a pleasant experience? Get the assumptions out of your head, get
the chip off of your shoulder, and get your facts straight. You need to be
realistic about your trade-in (no, they're not going to give you what you
could sell it to your cousin for), ask them for invoice and if they can't,
how much over invoice can they go and can they order you one for invoice if
that's not satisfactory, and just be realistic. You can't get a car from
another dealership on locate for invoice, either, so locating your dream
Rubicon and getting it for invoice is a no-go. There are costs involved
with making such transactions between dealerships, so you'll have to bear
them.

It's simple supply and demand. Rubicons aren't exactly as common on the lot
as an X, but they're not as uncommon as the new Mustang GT. You'd probably
be lucky to get one for invoice, but you might get it for a few hundred
over. The used car market is in the toilet, so you won't get top dollar for
a trade-in. Consider selling it yourself. If it's something very common and
not really all that "hot" in the market, like say...a Ford Focus ZX4, then
good luck. You may not even get someone to come out and look at it for
sometime. This is the same risk as that used car manager is going to take
on trade-in. You might have a car that no one wants to buy. Of course, you
probably think you have a gem and you want top dollar. Like I said, if
you're so sure, put it in the paper/Auto Trader and find out just what it's
really worth retail.

--



Registered Linux user #378193

CFLav8r wrote: 
Do you know someone who works for a company that has the DaimlerChrysler
Affiliate Reward program? This provides a nice discount with an up front
price which reduces the sales attack you are enduring.

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I agree, it has to be one of the most frustrating parts, your first time
out you listen to all the crap, and have the sales guy say I have to go
check with the manager, but after a couple dealers you soon realise they all
have the same speil, and the checking with manager crap is another word for
coffee break while you sweat.
Like the other poster said, if you can find a relitive that works for
Chrysler you can avoid all that, we did that with our Ford Escape,
brother-in-law, $4,000.00 off, no dealing, no crap.
Now if we could just find a relitive that works for Chrysler, we could
trade our Escape in for a rubi too.

"CFLav8r" <com> wrote in message
news:Xeahe.20992$tampabay.rr.com... 

CFLav8r wrote: 


1) Study up and decide exactly which model and which options you want.

2) Go to the dealership and ask to speak to the "internet sales
manager" or the "fleet sales manager".

3) Tell him you want to order a vehicle, that you know exactly what
you want, and that you wish to know what his lowest possible price is.



I recently did this. I ordered a 2005 Rubicon Unlimited with
exactly the options I wanted on March 2. I picked up the vehicle on
March 30. I paid invoice plus $150 less all applicable rebates. I did
not leave a deposit, and I was not obligated to accept the vehicle when
it arrived.

Check kbb.com and edmunds.com to find invoice and sticker prices
and current rebates. Most of the time you will get a quote around $100
to $200 over invoice. The dealer cost is a bit less than invoice,
however, due to things like holdback. Your main problem right now is
that production of 2005 models might have ended.


mdh

"Ruel Smith" wrote in message ... 

Well I can definitely believe that you are a salesman (I don't believe you
can
ever stop being one). You have started by insulting my inteligence, which is
one of the main characteristics of a modern day salesman.
 

My salesman told me over the phone before I wasted my time going to the
dealership, that he had SIX Jeep Wrangler Rubicons with Hardtops and
manual transmissions. He said all I had to do was pick the color when I got
there. When I got there, he had only TWO Rubicons not the SIX that he
mentioned on the phone. Both had softtops and one was automatic. The
only hardtop was a Wrangler X. Of the two, one was a Unlimited, again
not what I was looking for.
So he then tries to sell me on the soft top, telling me it would be no
problem for THEM to put a hard top on it as part of the deal.
So with that promise I agree to continue with the deal. The only problem
is that when we get down to signing papers theres no mention of the hard
top.
He then tells me that I would be better off buying an after market hard top.
So you be the judge... Where would you go from here?

If I had the patients to sit and continue my story, you would find that of
the
three Orlando Jeep dealerships I dealt with only one treated me with any
respect, honesty or courtesy and that was Carmax (but they didn't have
what I was looking for).
Of all the people I have told of my experience, not one had any pleasant
memories of their last purchase of a car.
 

Pleasant experience = Remove salesman out of the picture, go to online
purchasing system. As for assumptions... I did go fact finding before going
to the dealers, but that didn't help at all. Not even the online inventory
was
correct for any dealer except Carmax.
If I could get an online quote and financing I would not bother going
down to the dealership other than to pick up my new car.
That day I know will eventually come. Heck they might even deliver that
new car to my home or office.

Frustrated New Car Buyer in Orlando.
Salesman or so-called former Salesman need not respond.
(I won't know if your lying)

CFLav8r wrote:
 

No, I'm actually a union plumber... I couldn't take sales. You have to be a
certain kind of person to succeed in that line of work. I just couldn't
handle the 19 year-olds with no credit at all wanting to test drive Trans
Ams and the people that came in wanting to try and push you around and be
total jerks. I even had a guy threaten to beat my ass because I told him up
front that he wasn't going to get a Firebird convertible for invoice while
we were in the middle of a GM strike and couldn't get another one on the
lot for the forseeable future. I was just being honest. He got in my face,
called me lots of names, threatened me, etc. I just kept telling him to
have a nice day and leave, which he finally did. The next day, he called
both the owner of the dealership and my sales manager and wanted my job,
saying I did not need to be dealing with the public. Honestly, I was as
considerate and polite as I could have been in the circumstance, and was
just up front and honest with him. To beat it all, when he called my sales
manager, I was in his office listening to him on the speakerphone. I just
happened to be there explaining what had happened in the incident the day
before, since the manager was off that day and heard about it. This is the
kind of stories I could tell you all day long about dealing with customers
on the car lot.

I only became a salesman because I have a big passion for cars and needed a
job. I found out that liking cars and selling them are not the same. I can
tell you that at the one dealership I worked for, it was policy to NOT lie
to customers, as they felt that it had horrible backlashes if the customer
would ever find out. We have had salesmen lie, sometimes they were just
mistaken about a certain program or something, but when discovered, they
got reamed. Again, it was policy to warn the salesman the first time they
got caught lying, and the second they were fired.
 

I'm sorry you've had a horrible experience. That doesn't sound like a
pleasant one at all. I'm just telling you that in my experience, this
experience is in the minority. I can also tell you that on the other side
of the coin, it's just as bad, if not worse. I've seen customers go to
great lengths to try and pull the wool over our eyes about trade values,
etc., when they were full of it. The best trick they ever taught us was to
listen to the story, find out who the dealer was, and who the salesman was
and then call the dealership in front of them. If they don't backtrack
before you make the call, then they honestly believed they were getting
such and such for their trade but were misled. Then, when you did get the
salesman on the phone, ask him if he'll take the car as a "buy bid" for
that same price. Nine times out of ten he'll give it up that they
over-allowed on the trade by moving some money from the new car to the
trade, making it appear to be a better deal (and you got him telling it on
the speakerphone in front of the customer). That sort of thing is just
semantics: less of a discount here, more trade allowance there...it's the
same deal with the numbers shuffled around to make it more appealing. The
salesman didn't lie, but the numbers certainly got shuffle to the rightful
place on the paperwork, had the customer bought.
 

Online purchasing systems simply do not work for trade-ins. If you sold the
trade yourself and just purchased a new car, then they're fine. Just about
every manufacturer has an online purchase program. GM has Buy Power. You
can purchase the vehicles online that way. However, I've seen much better
deals made from the showroom floor.

The problem with online sales is that you chase your tail, as a salesman,
constantly. Of the 100-150 inquiries about new car purchases online that a
dealership receives a month, only about 20 are even serious. Therefore,
it's a lot of work with little payoff because those cars sell for very big
discounts with no hope of making more. Believe me... If you were that
salesman, you'd get sick and tired of it and your whole desire to deal with
customers would plummet.

Now, with everything I've told you, does it sound like I've lied? I've laid
out exactly how it works. There's nothing here that's misleading or
anything. I'm no longer a salesman at all, and haven't been for a long
time.


--



Registered Linux user #378193