Template for Buying a Car Online Avoiding Dealer Deceptions

                                                 

On my radio show, “Earl on Cars”, I feature a mystery shopping report of different South Florida car dealerships. Every week (for over 17 years) we’ve visited different car dealers, pretending to buy a car, and reporting on live radio what really happened. We name the dealerships and those salespeople we dealt with. In the past we’ve responded to “too good to be true” advertisements and exposed the dealers’ deceptions. We thought that, by showing you the “tricks up dealers’ sleeves”, we could help you avoid them. Now, we think we’ll try a different approach, more beneficial to you. We’re demonstrating the best way to buy the car of your choice at a low price without deception. All our mystery shopping reports are available online at www.EarlOnCars.com.  

Below are the mystery shops of four Ford dealerships in South Florida. The very best way to get the best price on the next car you buy is to compare your out-the- door price on the same car with at least 3 car dealerships. Competition is your best friend and car dealers’ worst enemy. Below is a clear example of exactly what you should do the next time you buy a car.  

 

9-17-2020 Mystery Shop: Multiple Ford Dealers: Mullinax Ford, Al Packard Ford, Wayne Akers Ford, and Advantage Ford Report: 

 I began my mission with a Google search: “Ford dealers near me”. On the search results page, the four closest Ford dealers were Mullinax Ford in Lake Park, Advantage Ford in Stuart, Al Packard Ford in West Palm Beach, and Wayne Akers Ford in Lake Worth.  

My next step was to visit each of their web sites to find my desired vehicle: a new 2020 Ford Explorer XLT with an MSRP of $38,170. Three listings had links that were labeled to imply that clicking it would reveal a price for the listed vehicle. Wayne Akers Ford’s read, “Get Today’s Price”; Mullinax’s said, “Get Today’s Out-the- Door Price”. Al Packer’s was “Get Today’s PACKER e-Price”. Only Advantage Ford’s listing implied the online price was the price; their link read simply, “I’m Interested.” 

 In every case, the links opened “lead forms” - forms on which I was supposed to provide my name, email address, phone number, and any comments or questions. I learned my lesson from last week’s mystery shop and the deluge of phone calls that I received (and am still getting) taught me.  I put in all zeroes for my phone number, and only gave my email address. Next time, I won’t use my personal email address, but another I can get free from Google, MS Outlook, Yahoo, etc. Where possible, I indicated that I only wanted to communicate via email. In the comments sections, I stated that I wanted to receive an out-the-door price on the listed Explorer, with an explanation of all fees. Since the prices weren’t revealed by clicking the “Get My Price” buttons, I assumed that I would be receiving emails with their best prices.  

1. Advantage Ford Online I submitted my form, then for the heck of it, I tried their online chat, but their chat appeared to be nothing but another way to get me to give more personal information. I asked the chat agent about the Explorer, and the agent offered to get me the info, but then said she couldn’t find it, so she needed my email and phone number for her “team” to contact me. I gave her my email and waited. A few minutes later, I received an email from “Jelisa” with a price and sparse details. My price was $38,886, but the out-the-door was $42,636.99. This supposedly included all taxes and fees, but there was no itemized breakdown. No MSRP was indicated, but I was given a VIN. I searched their website for the VIN and identified a 2020 Ford Explorer XLT with an MSRP of $42,310… not the vehicle I wanted a price on. 

 2. Wayne Akers Ford Online. I got the fastest response from Wayne Akers. I received an email from “Sabrika” explaining that the Explorer I inquired about had been sold. She included two out-the-door quotes for two other Explorers… both quotes were sparse on details. No itemized breakdown of fees. No details about options or anything else. One was a used 2020 Explorer with an out-the-door price of $41,225. The only indication that it was used was the “U” at the beginning of the listing. I confirmed it was used by searching the VIN on their web site. The other one was another used 2020 Explorer with an out-the-door price of $37,704.  

3. Al Packer Ford Online. As I did with Advantage Ford, I tried Al Packer’s chat service. It was an identical experience. No help from the chat agent, who just wanted to collect my contact information. I did receive a few emails from Joe, though. The first one didn’t have a price quote; it was just an introduction. The next one was “just as helpful”. He wanted to know if I had any questions about the Ford Explorer that I was interested in. I never got a quote. 

 4. Mullinax Ford Online I submitted my inquiry on Mullinax’s website. I received an auto response like Al Packer’s, but right after that, I received a price quote. This quote was the only one I received on the actual car I inquired about: a new 2020 Explorer XLT with an MSRP of $38,170. I emailed back to get an itemized breakdown and waited for a response. After 30 minutes, I still had no response, but I made up my mind to choose Mullinax anyway - they were the only one to quote me on the specific vehicle I wanted. They also had the lowest top line price - $33,833 and the promised No Dealer Fees. 

Mullinax Ford On-site Experience.  Inside the showroom, everyone wore masks. I asked the receptionist for a salesperson and said that I preferred a female associate if possible. I was told there was only one female salesperson and she was busy with a customer. Instead, she summoned Brian. Brian offered me an “air handshake” and chuckled. I told him about the Explorer and that I had received a quote online. He pulled up the vehicle record on the computer, then reported that it had just been placed into their “loaner fleet”. He said he had a different one to show me if I agreed. I said okay, assuming I was about to be switched to a more expensive model. Instead, I was surprised that he took me to the twin of my desired vehicle: same year, make, model, trim, and MSRP. Brian scanned my license with his phone, and we drove the vehicle out of the parking garage for a test drive. When we returned, Brian asked if I was ready to make a purchase today. I replied I would if the numbers looked good. We went inside. I was asked to wait while Brian got the sales figures. He returned with a worksheet with an itemized cost breakdown. The MSRRP was $38,170. Then Brian applied a $1,087 discount and a $3,250 rebate to get to a selling price of $33,833 (same as my online quote). He added $2,411 in taxes (the sales tax should have totaled $2,079.98, though I did not catch this at the time). He also added $311.50 for Tag & Registration. That was it. No other fees. I asked Brian if it was okay if I grabbed some lunch and thought things over. Brian did not seem to have a problem with that. He handed me my paperwork and said he’d look forward to my call.  

Epilogue What this mystery shop teaches us is that it doesn’t matter how sophisticated or methodical a consumer’s approach is, getting an out-the-door price quote is like pulling teeth. Despite the fancy web forms and chat services, the online experience can be just as frustrating as the traditional showroom visit. However, Mullinax stood out over the others. Except for the slow (no) response for the price breakdown over email and the “incorrect” sales tax calculation (this was either a mistake or a small hidden fee of $331. Because Mullinax advertise “No Dealer Fees”, they may rationalize that calling the hidden fee something else makes it OK), Mullinax came closest to a modern 21st century car buying experience we hoped to get. TrueCar average for this model is a bit lower than Mullinax’s selling price, coming in at $33,421 before dealer fees. However, with dealer fees averaging over $1,000 in our area, it’s likely that Mullinax has a lower actual price. 

Why Car Dealers and Manufacturers Want You to Lease Instead of Buy

“Follow the money” is a very common phrase. It’s the best tactic to catch criminals and decide when a politician or car dealer/manufacturer is telling the truth. Car dealers’ profit on leased car averages at least twice the profit on a purchased car. Also, a customer is more than twice as likely to lease or buy her next car from the same dealer if she leases.

Therefore, you shouldn’t be surprised that most of the new vehicle advertising are “lease payments” and that the number of leased cars has soared in recent years. Leasing used to be an anomaly, maybe 5% of total sales, and now it’s about one-third. Some makes are approaching 50% leasing. So, you ask, how can the dealers make so much more money leasing than selling, and still increase their percentage of leases? It’s very simple; they trick you into believing that leasing costs you less!

Dealers can do this because leasing is far more complex than buying; there are many more variables. Remember that car dealers are professionals and experts at what they do and understand the complexity of a lease “inside and out”. Leasing a new vehicle from a car dealer is like you sitting down at a poker game with a bunch of professionals. There’s an old joke, “If you sit down at a poker game and you have to look around the table to find the sucker…you’re him.”

When you buy a car, you just must confirm that the price you write your check out for is the lowest price you found after comparing several sellers…simple. When you lease a car, you’re “buying a monthly payment”. But the problem is the dealer can almost always give you the monthly payment you think you can afford by manipulating other variables. Hidden fees are among the most popular deceptions. A few are as follows: Penalty for exceeding the maximum allowed mileage. “Lease acquisition fee”, kind of like a dealer fee for leases, but they also charge you their regular dealer fee. Lease disposition fee at the end of the lease which is where “they get you coming and going”. Charges for “above normal wear and tear” is one of the largest and most abused hidden fees. This is what the leasing company “thinks” the cost is that you’ve damaged your vehicle above their version of “normal”. These hidden fees can total in the thousands of dollars. I’m convinced that many leasing companies consider this overcharging for nominal and nonexistent damage to be an important profit center.

When “buying a monthly payment” you must understand that a car dealer can manipulate variables to give you most any monthly payment you desire. The biggest variable is down payment, always large and hidden in the fine print. A $399 per month lease payment may fit your budget exactly but is it for 12 months or 60 months? A favorite trick to advertise a low monthly payment is have a short-term lease with a large down payment. A big down payment on a 12-month lease vs. a 36-month lease substantially reduces the monthly payment, but you have the use of the vehicle for only one-third of the time. Large down payments aren’t always just hidden in the fine print. Some lessors “forget about their trade-in” when they lease. Getting a fair price for your current car reduces the monthly payment. I get calls from “lease victims” who received nothing ($0.00) for their trade-in.

Remember that almost everybody is a payment buyer. We make our mortgage or rental payments monthly. Our electric and phone bill is monthly. We pay our credit card bills monthly. Few people pay cash for larger purchases, especially when interest rates are so small. When wedo buy a car, we finance it and make monthly payments. It’s no wonder that dealers and auto manufacturers understand and use this to their unfair advantage.

Also remember that when you lease a car, you’re building no equity; it’s like renting a home instead of making mortgage payments. When you’re ready to buy or lease another car, the only down payment available to you is out of your pocket or bank account. In fact, one of the most nefarious things about leasing is that you get trapped into leasing again because you can’t afford a down payment large enough to get a payment you can afford. Too many folks that lease their first car believe they can return the car to the dealer before the end of the lease, like you would a rental car. When you sign on the dotted line for lease, you’re obligated for every single payment whether you like it or not…even if you can’t drive the car anymore. If you die, your estate is responsible for the rest of the payments.

There is no inherent financial advantage to leasing over buying. If you shop and compare a lease payment with at least three other car dealerships, you can lease a car at just as good a price as if you shopped and compared the purchase price. The difficulty is to recognize all the variables I’ve listed above. You must keep all those variables constant, the same, among all the dealers who quote you a lease payment. This is very difficult to do, especially when you don’t know all the variables. If you pay cash for a new car, there are only two variables…the out-the-door price of the car and the trade-in allowance for your car.

I hope I didn’t convince you that leasing a car is always the worst option. It’s only the worst option when you don’t know all the facts most of which are buried in the fine print. For the first time and “less savvy” buyer/lessor, I recommend buying over leasing. For the more savvy, sophisticated, new vehicle intenders, leasing is a good alternative when you fully inform yourself about hidden costs, fine print, and the salesman’s smoke and mirrors B.S. Never, never, never lease a car when you visited the dealership wanting and expecting to buy. Car salesman are trained to, what car dealers call, “Flipping you to a lease”. The easiest person to take advantage of on a lease is the one that was intending to buy. The salesman will double his commission and the dealer will double his profit when you get “flipped to a lease”.