Dear
Florida car dealer, even if you weren’t a good history student in school, you
probably remember the quote from Commodore Perry from the War of 1812, “We have
met the enemy and they are ours”. The satirical comic strip, Pogo, has a
memorable quote satirizing Commodore Perry, “We have met the enemy and he is
us”. This fits the image problem we car dealers have today. We brought it on
ourselves through our devious advertising and sales practices. However, we
blame everybody but us…our customers, lawyers, the media, and car dealers like
me who dare to speak the truth.
This
is the 3rd letter I have written to Florida car dealers in my weekly
column. The first asked you to stop charging your “dealer fee” on top of the
price you quote your customers. The second asked you to advertise cars at a
price you were willing to sell the car for and have an ample supply of. In both
letters I made the point that there is a minority of car dealers like me who do
not charge dealer fees or resort to “bait and switch” ads. I also confessed
that I used to be one of those dealers that I am writing about today. I did
charge a dealer fee once and I did advertise cars that I hoped the customer
would not buy. At the end of each letter, I asked that you call or email me to
discuss my letter. So far, I have received no phone calls and the only emails
blame me and others like me, for the negative image that car dealers have in
our society. Here is an example of the emails I have received from dealers: “I read your sanctimonious babble in today’s
Post and you are correct in assuming your comments will garner the attention of
other dealers. It is comments like the ones you made that keep public opinion
of our chosen profession in the doldrums. Like it or not we’re together in this
battle and your “holier than thou” claim will only fuel the fire. Want to show
the world your true compassion? Donate 20% or more of you net profit to charity
then you’ll truly be the “great guy” you aspire to be.”
We
can see this sort of “shoot the messenger” attitude with our politicians who
blame the media for their negative image. It always amazes me to hear
Republicans accuse the media of left wing bias and the Democrats blame the same
media for a right wing bias. Sure there is bias in the media just like there is
some bias in all of us. But, when your
image in the eyes of the American public is as bad as that of politicians and
car dealers, how can you not understand that there is a problem? The only
profession I can think of that ranks as low in the public esteem is that of
lawyers.
If
you will call or email me to discuss my position in an open minded manner, I
think you will be surprised and happy that you did. My business has grown
steadily since I began to really understand that satisfying and respecting my
customers was the most important single ingredient for my overall success. I’m
certainly not making the claim that my way of doing business is the only path
to success. I know a lot of car dealers who sell more cars and make more money
than I do who do not take my approach with their customers. You can
“fool some of the people all of the time”. However, that minority that can be
fooled all of the time is shrinking daily as our customers become more educated
and sophisticated. One day soon, there won’t be enough of them to go around and
the majority of car buyers will be doing business with guys like me.
Sincerely,
