I wrote this column over four years ago, but it’s more important and timely today. Not a week passes without at least two or three elderly people contacting me about being victimized by a South Florida car dealership. These are usually pre Baby Boomers in their seventies, eighties and nineties. I’m happy to say that I have a high rate of success if I’m contacted soon after the purchase, within a few days. The first thing I do is contact the dealership’s owner. With publically owned dealerships like AutoNation (Maroone), Penske Automotive, and Sonic, and Group One I have to contact the real General Manager. I emphasize “real” because sales managers will often try to foist themselves off as the General Manager, but they are only in charge of the car sales departments and are really “general sales managers”. In the rare occasions I strike out, I have no alternative but to contact the Florida Department of Motor Vehicle, DMV which is the best governmental agency to keep a car dealer on the straight and narrow.
I use the term “car dealer” often in my columns and I want to make it clear that I am not trying to get personal. I could use the terms “car salesman” or “car sales manager”, but the dealer is the boss and I firmly believe the placard Harry Truman had on his desk, “The buck stops here”. The guy that owns the place is responsible for the actions of his employees. Just because he doesn’t know that there are some salesmen or managers taking advantage of his customers, is no excuse.
When I became a senior citizen I truly began to see the world in a different light. I have been a car dealer for over 40 years, but I have seen my own business through the eyes of a senior citizen for only the last few. One thing that has helped this awareness has been my relative new public persona, brought on by my TV commercials. Seeing me on TV (and also reading this column) precipitates a lot of phone calls, emails, and letters from seniors in Palm Beach, Martin, and St. Lucie counties. Some of these are very complimentary. Many of them are also calls for help or advice from those who were taken advantage of when they bought their car.
I get more calls from widows than any other single category. In my dealership last Friday, I was introduced to a widow in her seventies who had come in to buy a car with her nephew. She had never bought a car before. Her husband had always handled this responsibility. He passed away 2 years ago. She was very wise to bring along her nephew to assist her in her first car purchase.
I am learning as I approach 70 that I’m not quite as sharp in some areas as I once was. My memory is not as good and I am not as fast as I used to be. This is not to say that I am not as smart as I was when I was younger. In fact, I’m a lot smarter. There was a great article in the February 16 Wall Street Journal entitled “The Upside of Aging”. It explained how recent scientific studies have proven that even though certain mental abilities like memory and reaction times regress as we age, other more important mental abilities like judgment, empathy, vocabulary, and semantic memory more than offset the negatives. Semantic memory is the recollection of facts and figures from your field of endeavor or hobby and is most robust in seniors. If you would like to read this article just click on The Upside of Aging or send me your email address or fax number and I will send it to you.
Buying the right car at the right price is no easy task. There are a lot of variables like trade-in allowances, monthly payments, discounts, interest rates, lease or buy, finance or pay cash, and all that I just mentioned has to do only with the cost of the car. What about which is the best make and model for you? This process should take lots of time in the study and preparation but too often purchases are made in just a few hours with little or no preparation.
The reasons why the elderly are so often targeted and exploited by car dealers (and other businesses) are many and complex. For one thing, there are just a lot of elderly people living in Palm Beach, Martin, and St. Lucie Counties. When a reporter asked John Dillinger why he robbed banks, Dillinger replied, “Because that’s where the money is”. Even though most senior citizens are smarter than ever, I believe that we are perceived by many as not being so smart. We are looked upon as easy prey. Also, I think that we pre-baby boomers grew up in a more trusting, family oriented time and we sometimes trust others more than we should.
In summary, if you are a pre-baby boomer like me, take extra precautions before you enter a car dealership. Do your homework carefully. Never, never make a rush decision. Do not buy that car on the same day you come into the dealership. Go home, discuss it with friends and family, and sleep on it. And if you call me, please call me before you buy the car, not after it’s too late.
Showing posts with label elderly. Show all posts
Showing posts with label elderly. Show all posts
Monday, August 01, 2011
Monday, March 07, 2011
Florida’s Orwellian Attack on the Elderly
I couldn’t believe the article I read in last Sunday’s Sun Sentinel (March 5, 2011) reporting that Florida took away the driver’s licenses of 7,719 residents based on 9,105 anonymous accusers!
This is the result of a Florida policy allowing anybody to notify the state if they believe a person is mentally or physically incapable of safely driving their vehicle. The informant can obtain a form from the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles or download the form from the Internet. The informant is anonymous and is not required to have proof that there is anything causing the driver they are turning in to drive unsafely. Not only does the informant remain anonymous, but should the victim of the informant feel or even prove that that the report was made carelessly or maliciously, “no civil or criminal action may be brought against any person who provides the information.”
Once the informant has made his report, investigators who work for the state make contact with the driver and submit their findings to a medical review section in Tallahassee. Investigators may interview family members, neighbors, or the driver’s physician as part of the investigation. The drive may be asked to submit a medical report from their physician or they may be required to report to a driver license office for retesting. How much confidence do you have in state investigators? I know that the ones who investigate children abused in foster homes haven’t been doing too good a job lately.
What this all means is that, if you don’t like the way somebody drives or even if you just don’t like somebody period, you can turn them in to the state and hope that their driver’s license is revoked. Almost 9 times out of 10, driver’s licenses are revoked on the basis of these reports so the odds are pretty good for the informants. But even if the driver’s license isn’t revoked, think of the aggravation, embarrassment and time consumed by these drivers to fight to keep their licenses. Clearly, most of those reports are made against the elderly and the elderly are often more vulnerable and less equipped to do battle with the state or he accuser.
Have you ever been driving and gotten angry because the driver in front of you was going too slowly? Maybe you’re late for something and the drivers in the left and right lanes won’t get out of your way. This can make anybody angry to the point where you might curse, blow your horn or flash your lights. I’m sure that many cases of violent road rage start with this scenario.
It’s very easy to obtain a person’s name and address once you know their license tag number. I wonder how many reports are made to Florida’s Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles as a result of angry drivers in a hurry. You don’t even have to be angry at a person’s driving to report them. You might just have had an argument and decided this is a great, completely safe way to get even without the other person ever finding out.
I completely understand that we have lots of impaired drivers who shouldn’t be on the road. That’s why we require that drivers take driving tests periodically. I would fully support requiring older drivers to take more frequent hearing, vision, and driving tests. But I can’t believe that we have a system allowing anybody to anonymously inform on another with no responsibility or recourse. If a person has reasonable evidence to think another driver is impaired to the point he can’t drive safely, he should report him, but not anonymously. Everybody should have the right to face his accuser. The accused should also have the right to sue or prosecute the accuser if it can be proven the accusation was made carelessly or maliciously.
If you agree with me, contact your local state senator and representative and let them know how you feel about this Orwellian assault on Florida’s elderly drivers.
This is the result of a Florida policy allowing anybody to notify the state if they believe a person is mentally or physically incapable of safely driving their vehicle. The informant can obtain a form from the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles or download the form from the Internet. The informant is anonymous and is not required to have proof that there is anything causing the driver they are turning in to drive unsafely. Not only does the informant remain anonymous, but should the victim of the informant feel or even prove that that the report was made carelessly or maliciously, “no civil or criminal action may be brought against any person who provides the information.”
Once the informant has made his report, investigators who work for the state make contact with the driver and submit their findings to a medical review section in Tallahassee. Investigators may interview family members, neighbors, or the driver’s physician as part of the investigation. The drive may be asked to submit a medical report from their physician or they may be required to report to a driver license office for retesting. How much confidence do you have in state investigators? I know that the ones who investigate children abused in foster homes haven’t been doing too good a job lately.
What this all means is that, if you don’t like the way somebody drives or even if you just don’t like somebody period, you can turn them in to the state and hope that their driver’s license is revoked. Almost 9 times out of 10, driver’s licenses are revoked on the basis of these reports so the odds are pretty good for the informants. But even if the driver’s license isn’t revoked, think of the aggravation, embarrassment and time consumed by these drivers to fight to keep their licenses. Clearly, most of those reports are made against the elderly and the elderly are often more vulnerable and less equipped to do battle with the state or he accuser.
Have you ever been driving and gotten angry because the driver in front of you was going too slowly? Maybe you’re late for something and the drivers in the left and right lanes won’t get out of your way. This can make anybody angry to the point where you might curse, blow your horn or flash your lights. I’m sure that many cases of violent road rage start with this scenario.
It’s very easy to obtain a person’s name and address once you know their license tag number. I wonder how many reports are made to Florida’s Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles as a result of angry drivers in a hurry. You don’t even have to be angry at a person’s driving to report them. You might just have had an argument and decided this is a great, completely safe way to get even without the other person ever finding out.
I completely understand that we have lots of impaired drivers who shouldn’t be on the road. That’s why we require that drivers take driving tests periodically. I would fully support requiring older drivers to take more frequent hearing, vision, and driving tests. But I can’t believe that we have a system allowing anybody to anonymously inform on another with no responsibility or recourse. If a person has reasonable evidence to think another driver is impaired to the point he can’t drive safely, he should report him, but not anonymously. Everybody should have the right to face his accuser. The accused should also have the right to sue or prosecute the accuser if it can be proven the accusation was made carelessly or maliciously.
If you agree with me, contact your local state senator and representative and let them know how you feel about this Orwellian assault on Florida’s elderly drivers.
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