BEWARE THE PHONY MONRONEY!

The Monroney label, commonly knowns as the “window sticker”, is meant to inform car buyers of the official retail price suggested by the car manufacturer. The U.S. Senator who drafted this law, Mike Monroney, said this about his law: “The dealer who is honest about the so called ‘List Price’ cannot compete with the one who packs several hundred dollars extra into it so he can pretend to give you more on the trade-in.” Senator Monroney said this in 1958 and the only thing that has changed is that dishonest dealers are now charging several THOUSAND dollars extra. To add insult to injury, some remove Monroney Labels before delivery which is illegal.

The Monroney label is the window sticker that is mandated by federal law to be affixed to every new vehicle sold in the United States up until the time the new owner takes delivery. The name, Monroney, derives from Senator Michael Monroney’s law passed by Congress in 1958. Prior to the proposal of this bill, there was often a large discrepancy between the showroom price and the actual price of a new vehicle. The fact was that existing price tags did not tell the full story. Most customer-quoted prices were for "stripped-down" models and did not include additions for preparation charges, freight charges, federal, state, and local taxes, or optional factory-installed equipment requested by the purchaser. These hidden charges were used by some dealers to increase the selling price while giving the new vehicle buyer an inflated idea of their trade-in allowance. This price confusion led to a slump in auto sales during the early 1950's. Senator Monroney's bill was designed to prevent the abuse of the new vehicle list prices, but would not, however, prevent dealers and buyers from bargaining over vehicle prices.

Well, as you might expect, car dealers have figured out a way to evade this very good law. An alarmingly large number of dealers use a label that is designed to look almost identical to the official Monroney label. It has the same coloring, fonts, type size and layout. This “phony Monroney” is affixed right next to the genuine article. Unless you really look close and read all the fine print, you will have no idea that you are looking at a counterfeit Monroney label. This phony Monroney includes extra charges to artificially inflate the manufacturer’s suggested list price, MSRP.

One of the most egregious of these charges is an addition of pure markup just for profit which has a variety of names. Some of these are “Market Adjustment”, “Additional Dealer Markup”, “Adjusted Market Value”, “ADM”, “Market Adjustment Addendum” and “Market Value Adjustment”. Some dealers advertise discounts from DSRP vs. MSRP, with DSRP standing for “DEALERS suggested retail price.” This is simply an amount that the dealer adds to the manufacturer’s suggested retail price. It is almost always used in high-demand, low supply cars. I have seen these labels with charges as much as $10,000 added to the MSRP. Additions of $1,500 to $3,995 are common. Dealers also use the counterfeit labels to price dealer-installed accessories, which are OK, if the accessories are not marked up higher than the manufacturer marks them up. But dealers usually add virtually worthless accessories just to increase the price of the car to you with very little increase in cost to the dealer. Nitrogen in the tires, pin stripes, roadside assistance, floor mats, etched and tinted glass are just a few examples.

When customers confuse the phony Monroney with the real one, this distorts their point of reference for comparing prices between different dealerships. Manufacturers’ Monroney labels are consistent for the same year, make and model with the same accessories. A 2016 Honda Accord with the same factory accessories will have the same MSRP at every Honda dealership you visit. But if dealers fool you into thinking their label is part of the Monroney, you’re not comparing “apples and apples”. This can adversely affect a good buying decision in many ways. Some buyers focus mainly on how big a trade-in allowance they can get for their old car. If one dealer has the same car marked up $3,000 more than another dealer, he can offer you $3,000 more for your trade and still make the same profit as the other dealer. Some buyers focus on how big a discount they get from “sticker”. It’s easy to give a higher discount if you have artificially inflated the MSRP by thousands of dollars.

My advice to you is carefully inspect the sticker on the new car you are contemplating buying. Read it completely and especially the fine print. If there is a second label on the car, it is possible that it is fair. This would be for purposes of adding an item, installed by the dealer like floor mats or stripes, priced the same as the manufacturer charges. If that second label includes a markup over MSRP for no reason other than profit for the dealer, make sure that you adjust for that number in your comparisons for discounts and trade-in allowance. Some dealers also add a second markup to these labels and that is the infamous “dealer fee” also sometimes called “doc fee” and “dealer prep”. Some dealers do not put this on the phony Monroney but print it on their buyer’s orders and program it into their computers.

Should I Trade in My Old Car or Sell it Myself?

When you trade in your old car on your next car, the dealer will try to retail your car or sell it at auction for more than he allowed you in trade. If he successfully retails your car, he will make about $2,000. If he wholesales it at the auction, the profit will be less. You should know that this is what the dealer wants to do. Sometimes it doesn’t work out that way and he will lose money on your car at the auction. Or, he may be unable to retail your car and then most certainly lose money when he is forced to wholesale it.

Obviously it is more difficulty for an individual to make a profit by selling her own trade-in than it is for the dealer. That is one of the main considerations you must consider before deciding to sell your old car yourself. Most people run an ad in the local paper and/or online (www.CraigsList.com) to advertise their trade. If you do this, you need to know what to ask for your car, and I recommend consulting www.kbb.com. This is Kelly Blue Book’s Web site and will tell you about what your car is worth wholesale and retail. Another way to determine this is to ask dealers for your make of your car what they will buy it for. This will establish the wholesale value. CarMax is a good company to consult if there is one near you. Once you establish the wholesale, you should consider a markup of less than what car dealers are asking. A $1,000 markup is about half of what car dealers are marking up used cars for and a good price for you to try. When deciding how much profit you want to make, remember that you’re losing the 6% (or whatever state sales tax applies) sales tax reduction that you earn when you trade your car in. This takes a lot of work and you will be dealing with a lot of “tire-kickers” and people who cannot afford to buy your car. I strongly advise you not to extend credit. Require full payment in cash. There’s also the “security issue” of having strangers visit your home and drive our car. Set a time limit on how long you will try to sell your car. Remember that your used car is depreciating every week and your cost of advertising will climb. I wouldn’t suggest you hang on to your old car for more than a month.

www.Ebay.com, is a good alternative to advertising your car in the newspaper. A lot of car dealers use eBay to retail used cars and it is very effective. There are schools on how to retail merchandise on eBay and eBay has tutorials. There are also a lot of books at any bookstore on this subject. There are companies who will do all the work for you and you only pay them a fee if they are successful in selling your car. If the dealer you are buying your new car from sells cars on eBay (most do), you can ask him if he will post yours eBay along with his cars for a fee. www.AutoTrader.com is also a good way to advertise your car online.

If you fail in your attempt to retail your old car, remember to be careful to maximize the amount you get from your dealer as trade-in. Often dealers will attempt to trade a car in for below wholesale. Be sure you have a firm handle on the true wholesale value of your trade. You can get bids from other dealerships to purchase your car for cash and you can check with www.kbb.com. If you are buying a car from a dealer franchised to sell a different make than your trade-in, be wary. This dealer will likely be unable to offer you as much as a dealer who is franchised to sell the make of your trade. People looking to buy a used Toyota are more likely to visit a Toyota dealership than a Chevrolet dealership. That is why it’s important to get bids from other dealerships before accepting the trade-in offered by the dealer you’re buying your new car from.

Buy Your Next Car Online

Prediction: Five years from now, 90% of all new cars will be purchased online. Currently, in 2018,  it’s less than 30%. The reason this percentage will balloon is simply that the online price is usually your lowest price. More and more car buyers are figuring that out every day. Dealers must give their best price to a prospect inquiring over the Internet because that dealer will have that one chance to sell the car. If they try “the old negotiating game” the Internet prospect will simply choose the lowest price from several other quotes he gets. When my friends ask me to advise them on how to get the best price on a new car, I always tell them to use the Internet.

I’m not suggesting that you don’t visit your local dealer to see, touch, smell, and drive the new vehicles you’re considering. This is very important. You can’t make a valid, final decision on which new vehicle is best for you by solely reading data and looking at pictures on the Internet. Research of that nature is important, but you should finalize your decision with visits to the dealers to experience the vehicle.

Once you have made your final decision on the year, make, model, color, and accessories, you are ready to use your smartphone or PC, and choose the dealer from whom you will buy this specific vehicle. If you’re not handy with computers, ask a friend or relative who is. First go to the manufacturer’s Web site like www.ford.com, www.toyota.com, www.chevrolet.com, etc. You will be able to type in your zip code to find all the dealers of that make within a given radius, usually about 40 miles, giving you 3 or 4 dealers. To expand the radius, choose another zip code further from yours. The dealers within your radius will show their Web site addresses. Click on their Web site and ask for a quote on the specific car you have selected. Most Web sites have a page for what is called a “quick quote”. You type in the year, make, model, color, and accessories. It will also ask you for your name, telephone number, address, if you have a trade (always indicate you do not have a trade), whether you are ready to buy now (yes), and other questions. All you really need to fill out is year, make, model, and accessories and your email address. If you prefer not to be contacted by phone, don’t fill in the phone number. If they require it before you can submit your request, type in any 10 digits so that the Web page will allow you to. If you can’t find a “quick quote” link, just email your request to their Internet sales department.

Depending on your computer skills, this whole process should take less than half an hour. Think of all the time, gasoline, shoe leather, and especially aggravation you are saving compared to visiting several dealerships in person. The time it will take to get back quotes varies from dealership to dealership. You may get some back within a few minutes, some will take a few hours, and some may take a day or two. Believe it or not, some might not respond at all. There are even a few dealers who will not quote a price on the Internet, but try to lure you into their store with false promises. Ignore them. I recommend that you get a minimum of 3 valid price quotes on your specific vehicle. It’s so easy to get quotes, why not get a half dozen or so? You are not necessarily even limited by driving distances. If the best price is from a dealer who is too far away, show that quote to a dealer nearer you and ask him if he will match it.

There are some things that you must be careful about. Be sure that that the price you get is an “out the door” price. That is a price which excludes only federal, state, and local fees and taxes which are usually just for tax and tag. Most dealers in Florida tack on fees of their own which are variously referred to as “dealer fee”, “delivery fee”, “do fee”, electronic filing fee, tag agency fee, etc. Typically, there are more than one of these phony fees. This is illegal or highly regulated and enforced in many states, but not in Florida. These fees vary from around $700 to over $3,000. Be sure that this fee (which is just profit to the dealer) is included in your “out the door” price. Also, be certain that you’re comparing “apples and apples”. When you select your low bid, double check that this dealer is quoting you on the same year, make, model, and accessories as the other dealers. A good double-check is to compare the MSRP. The MSRP, manufacturer’s suggested retail price, will be identical on identically equipped cars of the same model and year. Also, be sure that the car  you are considering will actually be there when you come in. Give them deposit on your credit card to hold the car for you. I they try any “flim-flam”, you can always stop payment on your credit card.

One “trick” you can use on a car dealer who is reluctant to quote you his real out-the-door price is to tell him your bank or credit union requires a signed buyer’s order from the car dealer with total (itemized) out-the-door price. Tell the dealer that gives you the lowest online price to email or fax you a copy of this buyer’s order so that you can take it to your credit union or bank, pick up the check, and bring it to the dealer. If he refuses to do this, you know he’s lying to you about his price. I mystery shopped a dealer last week that gave me an impossible low price on line. I emailed him that I liked the price, would come in the next day to buy the car, but he wouldn’t send me a copy of the buyer’s order. I asked him three times and he would not respond.

Online car buyers are the wave of the future. The retail car business is going through rapid changes and the old fashioned, price-haggling way of buying cars is slowly but surely becoming obsolete. If you haven’t already, now is the time to join the ranks of the smart, sophisticated car buyers.

Getting the Best Price from the Car Dealer

Buying a car involves deciding upon a mind-boggling combination of choices: make, model, trim level, options, accessories, etc… Almost every one of these choices affects the cost of the vehicle. Throw in the vast array of manufacturer rebates and lease and finance incentives and you have a very confusing landscape to navigate. This makes simply knowing the cost of any particular car very difficult.

Almost all car salespeople and sales managers are paid a percent of the profit on the cars they sell. The average percent paid to the salesperson is 30%; he makes $60 on a $200 profit and he makes $1,200 on a $4,000 profit. The profit per car for the average car salesperson in a month varies greatly and can range from as low as $100 (or less) to as much as $10,000 (or more)… even on the identical car! A car salesperson’s success depends on how high a price he can sell you the car, so each deal is different and depends on the dynamic between the salesperson and the customer.

All of this is because of the antiquated system of selling cars, a system that was derived from nineteenth century horse-trading. Back in the day, horse-buyers were far better at negotiating a price fair than car-buyers today. Most people couldn’t afford a horse, and those that could were far better prepared and equipped to negotiate.

These days, some car buyers are very shrewd, savvy negotiators and can hold their own with any car salesman. However, many car buyers are not as well prepared. Young, first time car buyers might not be so shrewd. Buyers whose first language isn’t English can have problems. The elderly, especially widows, are often victimized by car salesmen. The shrewd negotiator can actually buy the exact same car from the same dealer and salesman on the same day for thousands less than the elderly widow.

One of the most important things you can do to prevent paying a much larger profit for the same car than the next customer is to compare prices with different dealers for the EXACT SAME YEAR-MAKE-MODEL with the exact same accessories and exact same MSRP. Remember to use the MSRP, the manufacturer’s suggested retail price and not the dealers price often displayed next to the MSRP sticker.

It can be difficult to get a firm price from a car dealer, but I’ve found a method from my hundreds of mystery shopping reports that works every time. Tell the dealer that you are financing through your credit union or bank, and they require an official signed buyer’s order from the dealership before they will give you the check made out to the dealer. Take that buyer’s order to at least two other car dealers of the same make and ask them to beat that bottom line price. You can also compare that price to the TrueCar price at www.TrueCar.com and the Costco Auto Buying program at www.CostcoAuto.com.

One word of warning is DO NOT VARY FROM THE EXACT CAR YOU SELECTED when you compare prices. Each car dealer you visit will do and say anything to persuade you to choose a different car. The dealer knows that his hands are tied and he must cut his profits if he gives you his best price on the car you’ve selected. He may tell you another car is better, cheaper, or that the car you selected is not available. Persist and get at least three prices on the car you decide on.