NEGOTIATING TO BUY A CAR

This post originally ran in 2006. As you might expect, nothing has changed in those years any more than anything have changed in the way car are retailed in more than half a century. Well, that’s not entirely accurate. My dealership eliminated the negotiating way of selling cars this year, 2013, after a trial experiment beginning in November of 2012. And, to be fair, CarMax, the largest retailer of used cars in the world also offers customers their one and lowest price without the need to haggle.

Why don’t more car dealers go to one price? It’s very simple. Car dealers know that if they give you their lowest price, you will compare that price with their competition and you will buy from the dealer that gives you the lowest price. Car dealers don’t want you to compare their price because they want to sell you their car at a higher price. When a customer asks for a price on any of my cars, I give it to her even if she calls on the phone or emails me over the Internet. Why don’t I worry that she will compare my price and buy from a dealer with a lower price. The truth is that I do worry and that’s why I post my lowest price on every car. But even then, sometimes the customer does find a lower price from another dealer and I lose the sale because it’s impossible for one seller to always have the lowest price. That’s the way the retail marketplace is supposed to work. It’s the way virtually all other products are sold except for automobiles. 

Buying a new or used car is one of the last bastions of the negotiated price. In some countries, negotiation is fairly commonplace in retail stores, but in America virtually all products are sold at a fixed price. Some of us are simply not comfortable negotiating and most of us are not very good at it.

As I have said in previous columns, the best way to buy a new or used car in on the Internet. You can do your research on which car is the best to suit your needs, get guidance on what kind of price you can expect to pay, and finally get quotes from several dealerships on that specific car. However, everybody is not “Internet savvy” and if you are not, you may find it necessary to walk into a car dealership and negotiate for the lowest price.

If you are not comfortable with negotiation, the best advice I can give you is to bring someone along with you who is. Car sales people and sales managers are trained experts in negotiation. This is how they make their living. Here are some tips for you if you decide that you want to negotiate the best price on a car.

(1)   If you have a trade-in, keep that separate from the negotiation. Negotiate the best price on the car you are buying and then negotiate the best price you can get for your trade-in. Don’t fall for the old “over allowance” on your trade-in ruse. This is where the dealer makes up the price of car you are buying higher so that he can make you think you are getting more for your trade-in.

(2)   Never buy a car on payments alone. Always negotiate the best price you can for the car you are buying and then calculate your best payment when you have negotiated for the best interest rate.

(3)   Be sure you understand how the dealer arrived at his retail price. Federal law dictates that a Monroney label be affixed to every vehicle with a manufacturer’s suggested retail price. Many dealers mark that up with another label, often referred to as a “Market Adjustment Addendum”. This markup can be several thousands of dollars.

(4)   Expect the first price you are given to be substantially higher than what you can buy the car for. Sales people and sales managers are trained to “start high because you can always come down”. Don’t be afraid to offer substantially less than the initial asking price. You should look at just like the car salesman does, but the reverse…”start low because you can always go higher”. If the salesman excepts your first offer, you probably offered too much. In fact, shrewd car sales people are trained to always ask for more money, even if the offer is good one. This is because they don’t want to “scare off the customer” by telegraphing to the customer that he “left some money on the table”.

(5)   If the sales person asks you for a deposit before he will begin negotiating, determine whether the deposit is refundable. Florida law requires a nonrefundable deposit be disclosed in writing on the receipt. If this is printed on your receipt, insist that this be waived in writing on your buyer’s order. If the dealer will not agree to this, be warned that he may be able to keep your deposit if you change your mind about buying the car.

(6)   Be prepared for a lot of “back and forth” when the salesman takes your offer back to the manager. When you get close to finding a mutually acceptable price, the manager himself will often come to talk to you. Don’t be intimidated stick to your guns even when they tell you this is “positively, absolutely the lowest price”. Even if you think you do have the lowest price, a great strategy is to get up, walk out of the showroom, and get into your car to drive away. This will often precipitate an even better price. When you try this, the worst case scenario is that you really do drive home, but you can always return and buy the car the next day for the last price they quoted you. They may tell you that you have to buy today, but nine times out of ten that is a bluff. The only exception is when there are factory rebates and incentive expiring.

(7)   The last day of the month really is a good time to buy a car. The salesman’s bonus money is maximized, the factory incentives are in effect, the managers are desperate to make their quotas, and it is the one time of the month when the buyer has the best edge in negotiation.

Caveat emptor “let the buyer beware” could have been written specifically for what you can expect when you walk into a car dealership to negotiate the best price. You are up against experts who negotiate for living. But, if you will follow my advice above, you should be able to hold your own and maybe even get a great deal.

Bait & Switch Advertising (Read the Fine Print)

BAIT & SWITCH ADVERTISING

(READ THE FINE PRINT)

  

All car dealers pay the manufacturers the same prices for their new cars. Dealers will lead you to believe that volume dealers pay less, but this is not true. So, when a car dealer advertises a price for a new car in the newspaper, he has no price advantage over his competition.

Virtually all of  the prices for new cars you see advertised in the newspaper are so low that it would be impossible for a dealer to remain in business if he sold more than a very few cars at that price. The reason for this is that, if a dealer advertised realistic prices with a reasonable profit built in, another dealer would advertise a lower price. The dealer who advertised a realistic price is actually helping his competitor sell a car. 

Most of the new car prices advertised in the newspaper are below the dealers actual cost. He protects himself by selling very few at this price and counting this loss as a cost of advertising. Next to an advertised car you will see some letters and numbers like, #5632A. That is the “stock number” of the car being advertised. This is all that the dealer does to tell you he has just one at this price. The chances are that if you are not the first person in the dealership on the morning of the ad, this car will be gone.

Look for these two fine print disclosures at the bottom of the ad: (1) Price good on date of publication only. (2) Price good with copy of this ad only. These are just two more ways the dealer can avoid selling you the car at the advertised price.

If you read my last column, you understand about “dealer fees”. These fees are additional dealer profits ranging from $500 to almost $1,000 that are added to the agreed upon price of the car by most dealers in Florida. Florida law requires that this dealer fee be included in the advertised price. When the salesman tells you the advertised car has been sold but he has another one “exactly like it”, he can legally add back on that dealer fee.

As you can guess, the salesman’s commission on an advertised car is either zero or very small. Having a very small incentive to sell an advertised car, he will most likely encourage you to buy any other car.

My recommendation to you is to ignore advertised new car prices. If you must respond to an ad car, call the dealership first and ask if the car is still available. If the answer is no, you have saved yourself a lot of time and aggravation. If the answer is yes, ask if they will hold the car for you. If you have to, offer to give them your credit card for a deposit to hold the car. If they won’t hold the car, save yourself the wasted trip.

The only way to get the best price on a new car is by getting competitive bids from at least 3 car dealers for the exact same year, make, model, and accessorized car with the identical MSRP. You can do this on the Internet, by phone, or in person. Use Consumer Reports magazine, the Internet (www.edmunds.com and www.kbb.com are two excellent free sources of information), or even your local library.

Automotive Technology Extends the Driving Life of Seniors

Last week I was invited to address the annual convention of the Florida Association of Computer Users Group (FACUG) at the Club Med in Port St. Lucie Florida. The topic the president of the their club, Sam Wexler, asked me to speak on was what new technology and anticipated technology was there that would allow drivers in their seventies, eighties, and beyond to continue driving their cars safely.

After researching this, I was struck by how much technology was already in place and available today that most people, including me, are unaware of. The new technology which is on the horizon is absolutely amazing. Also, as I looked back on the many technological developments we’ve seen since 1908, with the introduction of the Model T Ford, I was made a aware of how far we’ve already come.

You might say that I took this topic personally. A couple of years ago I had the bad experience of a rogue cop anonymously reporting me to the Florida Department of Traffic Safety and Motor Vehicles (FHSMV) as an incompetent driver. I didn’t know for sure who had reported me but when I learned that the cop who ticked me for speeding was married to a woman who I had recently fired and who had sued me for unlawful termination, I was very suspicious. I was later able to confirm my suspicions when I sued the cop and the town and the judge ordered the FHSMV to release the name of person who reported me. I was required by the FHSMV to be evaluated physically and mentally and take a driving and written test to keep my license. I passed all of the tests “with flying colors”. But, I’ll never forget how worried I was and how much sleep my wife and I lost anguishing over “what if” I should lose my driving privileges. Long before this incident, I wrote an article entitled “Grandma’s and Grandpa’s Freedom Machine” which discussed how vitally important the right to drive is for seniors and how much we fear losing it.

Think of the technological improvements that have been made since the introduction of the first practical, mass production car, the Model T Ford. That car had zero options and accessories. I dare say that very few older people would be physically capable of regularly driving a Model T Ford today. Today we take power steering, power brakes, and automatic transmission for granted. How about power windows and door locks, seat belts, air-conditioning, air bags, tilt steering wheels, cruise controls, etc. Technology we already have has added many years to the driving lives of seniors.

I’m embarrassed to tell you that I didn’t even realize that there are many new innovations that are already standard on cars today that I did not realize until I researched this subject. And I’m not talking about “far out stuff” you can only get on luxury cars. I’m talking about innovations that allow seniors do drive safer and longer than ever before available now on low and medium price cars like Toyota Camrys and Ford Fusions. Here are some of them.

Blind Spot Monitor. This technical marvel uses sub-millimeter radar to monitor those blind spots that exist on all make and model cars. When you turn on your turn signals to change lanes this device lights up warning indicators on your side view mirrors to tell you “Don’t change lanes because there’s a car alongside you that you cannot see!”

Rear Cross Traffic Alert (RCTA). This same invention, sub-millimeter radar, tells you if another car is approaching as you are backing out of your parking place at the shopping mall or your home driveway. If RCTA detects an imminent collision, a warning will sound and LED’s will light up in the interior rear view mirror to further alert the driver.

Pre-collision System.  This also uses sub-millimeter radar and predicts and braces for collision before impact. When the pre-crash collision system detects an obstruction (such as a leading vehicle) and determines a high possibility of collision, it increases the braking force when the driver hits the brakes. If it determines the collision is unavoidable, the pre-crash brake activated to decrease the impact speed. At the same time the pre-crash seatbelt retracts to restrain the driver to help reduce injury.

Anti-Lock Brake System (ABS). Helps prevent brakes from locking. The ABS (Anti-lock Brake System) monitors the speed of each wheel to detect locking. When it detects sudden braking, it will release braking pressure for a moment and then provide optimum braking pressure to each wheel. By repeating this process in a short period of time, it enhances steering control during sudden stops. As a result, it will also help improve the ability of stopping the vehicle. ABS only supports the driver's control of the vehicle, and it is not a substitute for it. It is the driver's responsibility to drive at the appropriate speed depending on the condition of the road and to keep a generous distance from the car ahead of you. 

Brake Assist (BA). Studies show that nearly half of all drivers do not step on the brake quickly and strongly enough to stop the vehicle in case of an emergency.  When Brake Assist detects an attempted panic stop, it supports drivers by strengthening the power. Brake Assist will detect attempted panic braking based on the force that is applied to the brake pedal and how fast the driver is stepping on the pedal. When the system recognizes sudden braking, it will add additional pressure to the brake. When your foot is released during Braking Assist, braking power lessens and regulates the brakes with ease. 

Vehicle Stability Control (VSC). Helps prevent wheels from slipping sideways when cornering or sudden steering. VSC is a system that helps prevent side skids and help stabilize the vehicle while turning on a curve. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's (NHTSA) report, vehicles equipped with VSC compared to those without can effectively reduce single-vehicle accidents by 35% for automobiles and 67% for Sport Utility Vehicles (SUV). When the vehicle senses a loss of traction or a slip, braking is automatically applied to all 4 individual wheels and engine power is reduced to help secure the safety of the vehicle. For example, if the steering wheel refuses to turn from over-speeding (under-steering), the vehicle will take control to steer toward the inner curve. Also, when the vehicle begins to spin from abrupt steering handling (over-steering), the vehicle will take control to steer toward the outer curve.

Traction Control (TRAC). When you are starting the vehicle or accelerating on a wet surface, you could lose control of the wheel because of wheel spin. TRC will help prevent such events from happening. TRC continually monitors the condition between the tires and the surface of the road. When it detects wheel spin, the system applies brakes or slows down the engine to regulate spinning and help ensure proper contact of tires. This helps prevent the car from becoming unstable.

Park Assist. Ultrasonic rear parking sensors mounted across the rear bumper can help drivers to be more aware of obstacles out of their range of vision when reversing. By listening to the beeping, you'll know if you are getting too close to the object behind you.

Dynamic Laser Cruise Control. The DLCC system is designed to help control the distance between the vehicle and the traveling vehicle ahead based on the driving lanes, the vehicle traveling ahead, and vehicle speed. The vehicle-to-vehicle distance control mode is controlled by a laser sensor and distance control Electronic Control Unit (ECU).

Automatic high beam. If you have your high beams on, the headlights will lower automatically when encountering vehicles coming from the opposite direction.

Rain-sensing windshield wipers. Activate the wipers when rain is detected. The driver can adjust the sensitivity to his or her liking. The rain sensors will also automatically disengage cruise control when rain is detected.

Safety Connect: Similar to GM’s OnStar System. It has the following features:

Automatic Collision Notification - In the event of airbag deployment or a severe rear-end collision, the 24/7 response center will be automatically notified. The response center agent will attempt to speak with the vehicle’s occupants, and will advise local emergency services of the situation, requesting dispatch of emergency services to the vehicle’s location if necessary.

Emergency Assistance Button - In the event of an emergency, touch the Emergency Assistance button and you'll be connected to our 24/7 response center (within range, location and coverage). They’ll contact local providers and dispatch emergency services to your vehicle's location if needed.

Roadside Assistance – if you run out of gas, get a flat, need a jump start or require a tow truck, the 24/7 Safety Connect response center can help with Toyota roadside assistance via the SOS button.

Stolen Vehicle Notification - In the event that an enrolled vehicle is stolen, once a police report is filed and the 24/7 response center is notified by the vehicle’s owner, the response center agents can assist the authorities in locating the vehicle, using GPS technology. That means the vehicle is more likely to be recovered quickly, which may help minimize damage.

Smart Stop Technology (SST). In emergency situations, this new system overrides manual operation when both the accelerator and brake pads are pressed simultaneously. The system only engages when the accelerator is pressed before the brake pad at speeds over five mph, in certain conditions. In other words, if the car begins to accelerate on its own, you can kill the engine by simultaneously depressing the brake.

Electronic Brake-force Distribution (EBD). An electronic brake force distribution system uses sensors to monitor the condition of the road and the vehicle's weight distribution to determine where the most brake force is necessary. It automatically increases or decreases force accordingly.

Advanced Airbag Systems. Advanced airbag technologies tailor airbag deployment to the severity of the crash, the size and posture of the vehicle occupant, belt usage, and how close that person is to the actual airbag. It uses multi-stage inflators that deploy less forcefully in stages in moderate crashes than in very severe crashes. Occupant sensing devices let the airbag control unit know if someone is occupying a seat adjacent to an airbag, the mass/weight of the person, whether a seat belt or child restraint is being used, and whether the person is forward in the seat and close to the airbag. Based on this information and crash severity information, the airbag is deployed at either a high force level, a less forceful level, or not at all.

Backup Camera. When the vehicle is put into reverse, a rear facing camera is activated and the view directly behind and to the sides of the vehicle is displayed on a monitor. Graphical guidelines are displayed on the camera image to help the drive guide the vehicle in reverse.

Remember, everything I just covered is available now in many affordable cars. You should investigate what is available in which makes and models before you make a purchase decision.

Now, if you’re just a youngster, say only 65 years old, you can forget about ever having to stop driving your car for as long as you live. The driverless car is almost a reality. You may be able to buy one in as soon as five years! Google has driverless cars on roads today in several states including Florida. If you want to be amazed, just click on this link, http://youtu.be/cdgQpa1pUUE  , or copy and paste it in your browser. You can watch a blind man “drive” the Google Prius around town. You just get in this car and tell it where you want to go. It “sees” and reacts to everything a human can, only faster and smarter. It “sees” other cars, stop signs, curves in the road, children in the street, etc. You can get in the car, tell it to take you to Publix, and catch up on your reading on the way.

Pitfalls to Avoid When Having Your Car Serviced

Before I get into the pitfalls, it is important for you to understand how important it is to have your car serviced according to the manufacturer’s recommendations. The pitfalls and consequences of not doing so can be equal to or greater than those you might experience at the hands of an incompetent or unethical service department.

I strongly recommend that you have your car serviced and repaired by a franchised dealer of the make of your vehicle. I know that this statement, coming from a franchised car dealer, may be met with some skepticism. Listen to my reasons before passing judgment. Modern vehicles are highly complex computerized machines requiring very sophisticated diagnostic equipment and highly trained technicians. The evolution of new, expensive diagnostic equipment requires constant updating. The evolution of car technology requires continuing education of dealers’ factory trained technicians who attend many weeks of schools every year. Forty years ago, it was possible for a really good mechanic to fix anybody’s car. Those days are gone and your car needs a highly trained specialist with the very latest diagnostic equipment. It is impossible for an independent service company to be competent in servicing and repairing all makes of automobiles.

Carefully choose the dealership that will service your car. You do not have to take your car to the dealership that sold you the car for warranty repairs, as many believe. Every dealership of your make car will welcome your warranty and non warranty work.  Do your homework on which dealer has the best service department. Every dealer is graded in customer satisfaction by the manufacturer. Ask to see a copy of his CSI (customer satisfaction index) scores. Check with the BBB and the County Office of Consumer Affairs.

When you take your car in for maintenance or repairs, always ask for an estimate. State law requires that a service department not exceed a written estimate by more than 10%. When paying your bill, scrutinize the detail to be sure that you know exactly what each charge means. Most service departments add a fee on top of everything else with various labels like “miscellaneous supplies”, “sundry supplies”, “environmental handling”, etc. This fee is simply a 5% or 10% charge tacked onto the total bill. If you object to this fee, which you certainly should, dealers will often waive it.

You will find that prices for maintenance like oil changes, alignments, tire rotation and balancing, etc. are usually priced competitively. Where you have to be careful is in the pricing of major repair items like transmission, engines, and air-conditioners. When quoted a price on a big repair, don’t be afraid to negotiate. If you let it be known that you are willing to take your car elsewhere (even if you’re bluffing), you can often negotiate the price down significantly.

You should always make an appointment before bringing your car in. Appointments should be scheduled at relative slow times and days. Avoid bringing your car in early on a Monday morning and other very busy times. You want the service advisor to spend as much time with you as is necessary. This will allow you to drive the car with the service advisor if necessary to identify a specific problem like a squeak, rattle or vibration. Pick your car up at a time when the service advisor or technician has time to road test the car with you again to be sure that the problem was fixed.

Don’t be shy about asking for a loaner car when you have to take your car back a 2^nd or 3^rd time for a repair that was not done properly. It’s the dealership’s fault and you should not be inconvenienced. On a comeback, always talk with the service manager directly. Also ask that they assign their best technician to the job.

As I have said in earlier columns, there is nothing more important than choosing the right dealership to do business with. No service department is perfect and never makes a mistake. What you want to find is that service department that, in addition to being competent, will fess up to their occasional mistakes, sincerely apologize and make them right. 

BUYERS ARE LIARS! (part 2)

I wrote this column about four years ago and this morning I received another comment on my blog. Here it is:

Hi Earl, good article. As a car sales professional, I have heard this saying and whilst I always approach every prospect with the right attitude: The number of lies I have been told I have lost count. Things like: a/ Customers telling you another dealer will give them an extra $4000 for their trade in: when you know the dealer deals with the same wholesaler b/ Customer tells me that another dealer will throw in a polished alloy bullbar: Two problems: that product was not available for that vehicle yet: yet they still insisted (and the store it was going to come from: TJM: didn’t even make tow bars for that model: and lo and behold: the other dealer hadn’t even met this guy. c/ Customer comes to me, we build a great rapport, then goes shopping elsewhere and buys: phones me to ask if i will match a deal that is so far below cost it couldn’t be anything other than a figment of their imagination: and after calling the dealer, finds out it is just that: and the real buyer was not the person who came to me. This other clown comes and parades the car and restates what deal they got: yet can't produce the invoice. That said, I love the car business and these people are part and parcel of it. I quickly work them out and eliminate them now ;)

This comment is just another example of why car salesmen develop this negative attitude toward their customers.  It’s reminiscent of what soldiers do when they go to war…they demonize the enemy to justify in their minds that their job which is to wound, kill or capture them. During WWII, the Japanese were the “Yellow Peril” and we called them Japs. The Japanese referred to us as Yankee Devils. The same held true with the Germans, Koreans, and today with the Muslims. Just like soldiers, car salesmen are often only “following orders” and they demonize their customers when they’re ordered to do things that their conscience wouldn’t permit them to do to a “good person”.

I don’t claim to be a psychologist (and I don’t even play one on TV), but I have read articles explaining how humans will stereotype other people in a fashion that falsely justifies their negative behavior toward those same people. We also see this with racism. If you make yourself believe that car buyers are out to take advantage of you, “buyers are liars”, you can’t feel guilty about tricking them into paying a dealer fee. If you trick a “roach” or a “slug” into coming in to buy a car on credit when they probably can’t, why should you feel guilty? After all, roaches and slugs don’t have feelings.

I’m always amazed by the way car dealers who use deceptive advertising and unethical sales tactics rationalize their behavior by actually blaming you, their customer. The following is a direct quote from an anonymous car dealer’s email I received this morning in response to one of my recent columns in this newspaper:  “I don't think you would make any of these comments if you sold fords in a non-metro market. How do you expect dealers to change when consumers think they should pay less than dealer cost for a car and then walk into any other form of retail store and pay what they are asking?? Your ideas are noble but there are other dealers who have tried 'your' methods who are no longer in business.” This dealer is saying that his customers are so ruthless and cunning that they won’t buy a car unless they can buy it below his cost and his only solution is to trick them into thinking that they are buying it below his cost, like tacking on a “dealer fee” to the price they quoted the customer.  He also goes on to say that my “ideas are noble” but I can’t possibly be successful and I will go broke trying. I truly appreciate his concern and I want to assure him, if he is reading this article that my business is doing very nicely.

This attitude is actually a prevailing part of the culture in many car dealerships. Many dealers, dealer managers, and sales people don’t trust their customers (how paradoxical!). They don’t even like their customers. A very common expression among car dealers and their sales staff is “Buyers are liars”. This means that a prospective customer will not tell you the truth about the condition of his trade-in, he will lie to you about the price he got from your competitor, and he is likely to remove those new tires that were on his trade-in when the dealer appraised it when he comes in to pick up his new car.

There are also a lot of dealerships where used car buyers and people with bad credit are held in especially low esteem. They have nicknames for people with bad credit like “slugs” and “roaches”. Apparently dehumanizing these unfortunate members of our society with derogatory labels makes it easier to treat them so shabbily. People with bad credit are targeted with direct mail and newspaper ads making absurd promises that convince prospective customers that they can finance a car no matter how bad their credit. In some dealerships applicants are coached on how to falsify credit application and pay records. In some cases the applicant may not even know he is signing a false credit application which is federal offence.  In most cases the credit is refused and the applicants are not even given the courtesy of a return phone call to tell them this.

What these kinds of dealerships don’t understand is that you must trust a person first before you can expect her to trust you. You have to treat a person with respect before you can expect that person to respect you. Somebody has got to go first. My experience over the past 40+ years as a car dealer is that 99.9% of my customers are good people who I can believe and trust. Those are pretty good odds and I just assume that every customer I am dealing with is part of that 99.9%.  Once in a great while I get burned, but the loss from that one in a thousand that takes advantage is far out-weighted by the other 999 who respond positively to my trusting them and treating them with respect.

Buying, Leasing, and Servicing your Car Is Governed by “Survival of the Fittest”

Buying, leasing, or servicing a car is in an “evolutionary time warp” compared with most other retail transactions. Buying an iPhone from an Apple store, a TV set from Target, or a dress from Macy’s is actually a pleasant experience. People shop in modern stores as a form of pleasurable recreation without any intention of buying anything. My wife, Nancy, and I go to Costco often on Saturdays, not because we have a lot to buy, but because it’s a pleasurable way to spend an hour or two. Contrast this with buying a car which many compare to having a root canal or a colonoscopy.

Flash back about 75 years in the retail evolutionary tree, and you have the “21^st century” car buying experience. Everybody you deal with is paid a commission on whatever you buy…a car, service for your car, parts for your car, or financing or insurance for your car. This commission is directly proportional to how high a price they can coerce you into paying for the car, part, service, finance or insurance. Furthermore, everybody pays a different price for everything they buy. You might buy a new 2013 Jeep Wrangler Sahara today for one price and find out that your next door neighbor paid $2,000 less the following day from the same Jeep dealer you bought yours from! In fact, it’s almost certain that she paid a different price than what you paid. The price each of you paid depended on the buying and negotiating skills of you and your neighbor. The difference in price is also affected by the skill, ethics, and integrity of the car salesman and manager you dealt with.

Car salesmen, on the average, earn about 25% of the profit they make when they sell or lease you a car. The average profit on a new car is about $2,000 but this average is made up of wild variations from “zero profit” to $20,000 and even higher. You ask, “Why would a car salesman sell a car for zero profit if he’s paid on commission?” There are two reasons. First, some cars are “real dogs”, very hard to sell and may have sat on the dealers lot for months or even years. Salesmen are paid what is called a “flat commission” to sell these “dogs”, anywhere from $100 to $1,000. The second reason is that manufacturers often pay big bonus money to dealers for hitting a monthly objective. Toward the end of the month, dealers will also pay flat commission to salesmen so that they can hit their volume objective.

You may also ask, “How could a dealer possibly make a $20,000 profit on a car?” The most common way it by leasing a car and tricking the customer into thinking he is buying the car. A large down payment or trade in added to the normal profit on a lease can be gigantic and the monthly payment is reduced so much by the down payment that the unsuspecting lessor is not suspicious.  Sometimes people are talked into leasing by the salesman promising them that they can return the car at any time, just as if it was a daily rental. Remember that a salesman will earn a $5,000 commission on a least with a $20,000 profit.  Another way people are tricked into paying exorbitant profits when buying, is by dealers marking up the manufacturer’s sticker price with an addendum label. The dealer advertises that price as the “list price” or “sticker” price but what he doesn’t tell you is that it’s his sticker/list price, thousands higher than the manufacturer’s MSRP.

The same wild variation in price for the same products or services applies also to what you pay for service, parts, and finance and insurance. Your neighbor who was smart enough to finance his car with his credit union, can easily save $3,000 over what you paid in the dealer’s F&I department if you weren’t careful. If you allowed the “assistant service manager” or “service advisor who is really a commissioned service salesman to sell you unneeded services, you also paid more than your more careful, prepared neighbor.

As most regular readers of my blog, newspaper column, and listeners to my radio show know, my mission is to educate you so that you will be the winner in the contest between the car salesman, service salesman, and finance and insurance salesman. My frustration is that you’re probably already “survivors”. The mere fact that you read my blog and column and listen to my radio show proves that you’re trying to improve your skills and you are not overly trusting of car dealers who may be out to deceive you.  In other words, I’m “preaching to the choir” in a sense.

Last week I received a call from an 82 year old man who thought he had bought a new 2013 Hyundai Santa Fe but found out when he drove it home he had signed a lease, not a purchase contract. The dealer made at least a $15,000 profit and the salesman made about a $3,750 commission. When he realized what they had done to him he brought the car back and offered the dealer $1,000 to take back the Hyundai Santa Fe and return his trade-in, a 2010 Santa Fe. They refused, saying “You signed the paper and you’ve leased a car”. I’m working with the elderly man now to try and help any way I can. I’ve spoken to the General Manager of the Hyundai store and am trying to get him to do the right thing. At this point, things don’t look too promising.

The problem is that there’s a group in our society that is, unfortunately, natural victims. They’re too trusting, not well enough educated, very young (first car purchase), mental faculties failing (maybe the last car purchase), and language impaired (immigrants). Unscrupulous car dealers and salesmen lay in wait for these victims just like a lion lays in wait on the Serengeti plains for a young or injured antelope. That’s why I used “survival of the fittest” in my title. 

You can easily recognize the advertisements that are aimed at the victims. You’ll see or hear phrases like “We’ll match your down payment”, “We’ll allow you $8,000 over book for your trade-in, “We guarantee the lowest price”, “Bad credit or no credit is no problem”, or “$7,000 discounts on all new cars”. The victims flock into dealerships that run these ads like sheep to the slaughter.

Because I don’t advertise this way, I rarely see “victims” in my Toyota dealership. My customers are mostly well informed consumers and lucky for me, there are a lot of them and they are growing in numbers. I’ve grown to become the largest volume car dealership in Palm Beach, Martin, St. Lucie, and Indian River Counties. However, I must say that as a businessman and a humanitarian, I’m very sorry that I cannot sell cars to those who suffer the most, the victims of our society. But, I’m the proverbial optimist and believe that through better education and smarter, more compassionate regulation we will see the victims of our society minimized over the next few years.

TOP TEN CAR AUTO AD SCAMS

I could write a “Top 50 Auto Ad Scams” because the ingenuity for deception in “getting car buyers in the door” is virtually limitless. However, I chose to concentrate on the ten most popular with South Florida dealers. Just beware that there are many more schemes than these I list. 

(1)   Discount from Dealer List. Anytime you read or see a car advertised with a large discount, determine whether that discount is from the MSRP [manufacturer’s suggested retail price] or the dealer’s retail price. An all too common practice is for a dealer to mark up his cars thousands of dollars over the MSRP and call it “dealer list” so that he can show huge discounts that aren’t real.

(2)   Prices exclude “impossible” rebates. Manufacturers often offer cash rebates to customers who qualify for special reasons. Some of these are being on active duty in the U.S. military. This rebate can be as much as $1,500. If you graduated from an accredited university within the past 6 months you can qualify for $500 to $1000 from some manufacturers. There is a customer “loyalty” rebate which affords you $1,000 or more if you are own the same make car that you are buying. There’s a similar for lease customers. There’s even a “Farm Bureau” rebate which qualifies you for $500 if you are a farmer. Dealers are actually combining all of these rebates and deducting them from advertised prices of their cars. Of course, what are the odds that any customer would simultaneously qualify for all of these rebates? The average reader of these ads qualifies for none of the rebates.

(3)   Lease payments based on large down payments. Virtually every lease payment advertisement requires a large down payment which is concealed in the fine print. Most people lease because they want to lay out as little cash as possible. If they had $4,000 cash to spend, they would probably opt for a purchase. Those that fall for this trick often end up leasing the car at the full retail. Leasing companies will allow dealers to lease cars for “only” up to 110% of capitalized cost. When you make a down payment, this reduces the net capitalized cost which allows the dealer to sell your contract to the leasing company.

(4)   Lowest Price Guarantee. This guarantee is absolutely worthless. If you read the fine print, you will note that it says that “the dealer reserves the right to buy the car from the other car dealer [his competitor] at the same price his competitor quoted you”. No car dealer is going to accommodate his competition so that they can steal away his customer. Of course the other fact that makes this guarantee worthless is that it requires that you prove the lower price by presenting a buyers’ order from the other dealer signed by a manager. I know of no car dealer [besides me] who will give a signed copy of the vehicle buyers’ order to a customer unless they drive the car home or make a substantial, non refundable deposit.

(5)   Only one car available at ad price. When you are reading a newspaper ad, you will often see a strange number next to the advertised car. If you are watching the ad on TV or listening on radio, the number will be unreadable or undecipherable as is the fine print. An example is STK #T91832. This is the stock number of the car and means it is the only car of that model and accessories you can buy at the advertised price. They don’t say “only one car available at this price” because you would realize that the chances of that car being there [or sold to you if it is there] are very slim. Don’t be misled if the ad also says “many more identical models available at this price”. Florida law requires that dealers include the dealer fee in their advertised price. But if that specific stock number car is unavailable, they can add their dealer fee to the price of an identical car. This scam is why I continue to lobby Tallahassee to require that all profits to the dealers be included in all prices whether advertised, verbal, or on the Internet.

(6)   Advertised price is “plus dealer installed accessories”. All this means is that the price you see is not the price you get. Dealers love to add their accessories to their cars because they can set any price they want and drastically increase their profit margins. A dealer charging you $299 for pin stripes and floor mats would have a real cost of about $100, allowing him a 300% margin.

(7)   Lease payment based on unrealistically low mileage allowance. All leasing companies limit the number of miles you can put on their car without paying a penalty. This is because the higher the mileage, the lower the resale value and the leasing company has to sell their car at the end of the lease. The average American drives her car 15,000 miles per year. It’s very common to see mileage limits of 10,000 and even 7,500 miles per year with penalties of 25 cents per mile. For an average driver in a four year lease that would be a penalty of $7500! The dealers don’t get this money, the leasing company does, but the dealers do this so that they can advertise an unrealistically low lease payment.

(8)   Lifetime Warranty. A lot of dealers are advertising these “lifetime warranties” on every car they sell. This is a very limited warranty which applies only to the cars powertrain. The term powertrain has different definitions as to which parts of the car it consists of. It typically means only those parts of the engine, transmission, drive shaft, and rear axle that are lubricated. These parts virtually never fail as long as you change your oil as prescribed by the manufacturer or by the issuer of the warranty policy. If you fail to change your oil as prescribed, the warranty is null and void. It’s a win-win for the car dealer. You have to come in to have your car serviced regularly so that he can make more profit and, if you do comply with this, there will never be a claim. Dealers do pay outside warranty companies for these warranties, but the cost to the dealer is minuscule, around $25. The low price the dealer pays the warranty issuer is further proof that the warranty is worthless.

(9)   Purchase payments include “balloon payment”. How would you like to buy a new BMW 2009 328i for just $339 per month only to discover that your last payment was $12,983! Oh, and you also had to make an upfront down payment of $2,500. ALWAYS READ THE FINE PRINT!

(10)                       Internet Quotes Exclude “Dealer Fee”. The average “dealer fee” in South Florida is about $850. About 25% of car buyers are using the Internet to buy cars today. Almost 90% used the Internet for information about buying their car before going to the dealership. Virtually every car dealer in Florida charges a dealer fee and they all exclude that from the price you are quoted on the Internet. I spoke to a woman just the other day who drove all the way from Lakeland to West Palm Beach to pick up the new Infinity that she had purchased on the Internet. When she got to the dealer, he added an additional $695 for his dealer fee.

The War between Insurance Companies and Body Shops That You Never Knew Was Being Waged

I’ve written other articles about how insurance companies try to fix your car as cheaply as they can without showing the necessary concern for the quality and safety of the repairs. You can find them on this blog, www.EarlStewartOnCars.com, “Collision Insurance and Your Rights” and “Coping with Body Shops and Insurance Companies”.

This new article was written by Alan Nappier (pronounced like rapier), my body shop manager at Earl Stewart Toyota. Alan is not only the best body shop manager I’ve employed in my 47 years as a car dealer, but one of the smartest, most articulate people I know. I’ll probably sound like I’m overdoing it but he also has an incredible sense of humor. I say all this so that when you read what he has to say below, please take it as the gospel. Alan is not a “smoke blower” or an exaggerator. He tells it like it is.

Your body shop is either at war with the insurance companies or they fight on their side. If your body shop is not fighting for you to protect your car from cheap, poor quality, and unsafe repairs you’re in a “heap of trouble”. The chances are that if your body shop is on your insurance company’s “approved repairer list” that its loyalty is not to you but to that insurance company. You should take your car to the body shop that you know and trust will fix your car with your interests paramount in their mind, not one who must “play ball” with your insurance company or lose their membership on the “approved repairer list”. One way to find out whose side your body shop is on is to ask them if they will be asking you to sign two forms. One is called a “Limited Power of Attorney” and the second is called an “Assignment of Proceeds”. Please read on and Alan will explain very clearly why this is so.

By Alan Nappier:

Getting an insurance company to “approve” proper repairs to a collision damaged automobile is the toughest part of the collision repair industry. First of all, in a legal sense, the insurance company really has no right to dictate or blueprint a repair process. Their responsibility to the customer is to pay for property damage, NOT determine HOW the vehicle is to be repaired. The insurance company makes money by taking in premiums and investing these premiums. Any damage claim payouts are EXPENSES and like any company, controlling expenses is a top priority. This creates a conflict of interest when the insurance company is allowed to participate in the repair process. Contrary to popular belief, insurance companies DO NOT look out for YOUR best interests; they look out for their OWN best interest. This scenario leads to an adversarial relationship between insurance companies and HONEST repair facilities. Dishonest or unethical repair facilities view the insurance company as their customer and you as a product. They will repair your vehicle however the insurance company instructs, regardless of quality or the resulting structural integrity of the automobile. They want to keep the insurance company happy so that they may keep getting business referred to them. It’s a great arrangement for everybody EXCEPT the vehicle owner. An ethical body shop will repair your vehicle properly REGARDLESS of the insurance companies’ suggestions otherwise. In the past, we would have to just “absorb” the difference between what the insurance company “allowed” and what it REALLY cost to repair your car.

  Enter now a powerful couple of legal documents called the “Limited Power of Attorney” (POA) and the “Assignment of Proceeds” (AOP). The POA is exactly what it says it is. It gives the repair facility the power to initiate legal action or collection efforts on your behalf. No, we can’t steal your house or take over your bank account, the LIMITED POA is specific to the insurance claim  Remember, in a legal sense, the shop has NO legal connection with, or obligation to, the insurance company. Our contract (signed repair order) and responsibility is with YOU, the vehicle owner. Therefore, YOU are still financially obligated for the monetary difference between what the company allowed and the true cost of the repair. A POA allows me to repair the car properly, deliver the finished product to you and then begin collection efforts on your behalf. Odds are, you’ll never hear about the claim again.

  The AOP is actually a document that “assigns” your contractual arrangement with the insurance company to the repair facility which then gives us legal standing to sue this insurance company directly. This “connection” must be established to allow the shop to sue for “breach of contract”. When an insurance company fails to adequately compensate for property damage, they have breached their contract with YOU. The AOP extends this contractual obligation to the repair facility.

  With all of THAT being said, here’s the REALITY of the situation. We are most likely never going to use these documents. The power of these documents is the knowledge that they exist. Reaching an agreed repair dollar figure is a negotiation and a negotiation is a battle of wills. You don’t want to enter any “battle” without the proper weapons and knowledge. The AOP and POA are the most powerful weapons the repair facility has available to it. When confronted by a mugger with a knife, just showing the dirty no-good your gun is enough to deter further aggression and typically end an ugly situation and you walk away the victor, not with any illicit gains, but, just with what was rightfully yours to begin with. This is the EXACT same thing we use the AOP and POA for. Simply by brandishing these powerful weapons, the muggers (insurance companies in this case), recognize a losing battle and retreat. No insurance company wants to have their dirty little secrets exposed in court. They know they can’t win because the facts and truth are on our side. The end result is, these couple of signatures you gave me makes me David to the insurance companies Goliath.

Grandma’s and Grandpa’s “Freedom Machine”

You may have read in the newspaper a couple of weeks ago about a 94 year old man who hit a woman riding a bicycle. It wasn't the man’s fault; the woman, in her fifties, ran a stop sign. They put the old man in jail overnight and he was given probation because he was driving with no license. It had been taken away because he failed his driver’s test. He said he had to drive because he had to take his wife to the doctor and pick up medicine for her.

There is another reason that a lot of younger people don’t seem to understand why this old man still owned a car. If you are one of these people, think back to the first time you ever drove a car. Think back to the time you owned your first car. Can you recall that wonderful feeling of FREEDOM? No longer did Mom or Dad have to take you to school, to work, to the store, or to a friend’s house. Or, you didn't have to take the bus, the street car, or impose on a friend who already owned a “freedom machine”. If you are a guy, do you remember how you felt when you first picked your girlfriend up at her home in your very own car? I don’t know about you, but I still feel a tingle when I think about it. I really can’t think of a more memorable experience in any young person’s life. Your first kiss is probably a close second [My first car was a 1951 Pontiac Chieftain & my first kiss was from Mary Ann Riggle during a “spin the bottle game”].

 If you are one of those younger people who curse at that gray haired driver in front of you because she is driving too slowly, just remember that she is probably a safer driver than you. Newspapers like to feature stories of senior citizens having accidents and questioning their mental and physical faculties for driving but insurance companies charge senior citizens lower premiums than you. That means they have fewer accidents and cause fewer injuries. Admittedly that is partly because we seniors drive fewer miles but it’s also because most of us drive slower and more carefully than you.

My Uncle Charlie died eight years ago. He was 94. My Aunt Marion died within a year of Uncle Charlie. They lived in the same very modest, small house on Valencia Drive in West Palm Beach for fifty years. But they always owned a Cadillac and it was always parked outside in their driveway. Up until the time they were in their late eighties, the highlight of their week was to take a Sunday drive in their shiny Cadillac. Uncle Charlie always drove. When his eyesight got too bad to drive, he still kept that Cadillac in their driveway, always clean and shiny. His eyesight was still good enough so that, from his rocking chair in his living room, he could see that big Cadillac sitting outside (and so could his neighbors).

My father died when he was 86 and he drove a Pontiac TransAm up until the very last. He had cataracts removed from both eyes and back then, you had to wear “coke bottle” style glasses to see after this operation. He had no peripheral vision and there were a lot of scrapes, dings, and dents that appeared on both sides of that TransAm. Thank God he never had a serious accident. I saw Dad every day and I would see that the dents and scratches were regularly repaired. He always said he didn't know where they came from and I never questioned him about that. Maybe I was wrong, but I didn't have the heart to ask him not to drive anymore. I knew how important that car was to Dad and I knew how devastating it would be to him if he couldn't drive anymore.

You may have heard of George Greenberg a. k. a. the “Mayor of Clematis”. He died a few months ago at the age of 91. He owned Pioneer Linens on Clematis Street in West Palm Beach, a store founded by his father, Max, in 1912. George and I were close friends and I delivered a eulogy at George’s funeral at the request of his grandson and daughter. George always drove an old Buick station wagon, although he was a wealthy man and could have bought any car he wanted. A couple of years ago, George finally treated himself to a new Mercedes Benz SLK-Class convertible! Boy did George look good in that car and he was always smiling when he drove it! When he was diagnosed with brain cancer and given only months to live, he finally had to stop driving his freedom machine. His grandson drove him to our monthly dinner at Carmine’s Ocean Grille and picked him up. It never was the same for George after that.

 

At my Toyota dealership in North Palm Beach, we have a lot of older customers. It’s just the demographics of northern Palm Beach County. My average customer is 55 and I have lots of customers in their seventies, eighties, and nineties. Maybe it’s because I’m a senior citizen too, but I especially like talking to my older customers and I’ve become personal friends with some. I can tell you from personal experience how important their cars are to them in their latter years. During your middle years when you have so much more going on in your life, your car becomes more utilitarian and you take it for granted. But when you retire and your life is not as hectic your car returns to the importance it had when you were sixteen…your “freedom machine”.

We recently leased a new Camry to one of our very good customers. This was the third car that she got from us over the last seven years and she had just turned 90. One of my managers, who has worked for me for 20 years and is a neighbor of hers, handled the lease. About a month after she took her new Camry home, her Grandson learned of the transaction and demanded that we rescind the lease. When we spoke to our customer, she let us know that her Grandson was very upset with her for leasing the car. He didn't think she should be driving a car anymore and that she wouldn't live long enough to make all the payments on a 4 year lease. We offered to refund all of the profit on the lease (about $850), but the Grandson insisted that we take the lease car back. This would cost my company thousands of dollars because of the depreciation a car takes on as soon as it is titled as a used car.

Yesterday afternoon my customer’s Grandson and Stepson visited me in my office. They continued to demand that I rescind the lease [Only the leasing company, Southeast Toyota Finance can rescind the lease] and absorb the thousands of dollars in depreciation on 1 month old used car. They suggested that I may have broken laws by exploiting the elderly and that if I did not succumb to their demands they would sue me. They had already called Toyota to complain about my actions. Not so politely, I asked them to leave my office.

This experience troubled me for the rest of the day and even last night and is what inspired this column. Now I understand why I was so angry at the actions of my customer’s Grandson and Stepson. They didn’t seem to understand how much that car meant to their Grandmother/Stepmother’s happiness and what an important thing her “freedom machine” was to her.  I have to wonder how much of their ire was due to genuine concern for her or the potential financial impact on her estate. Her Grandson told me that she had put only 1,500 miles on her last car and what does she need a new car for? He just doesn’t get it! A new car is a lot more than just a way to get to the drug store. To a senior citizen it’s a source of pleasure, pride, and comfort, knowing that it’s in their driveway for everyone to see and it’s there if they need it.

One of my sons just called me to double check on the correct time for him to come over for Thanksgiving dinner today. I told him that I was writing this column and we discussed the subject. I also told him that I hoped that neither he, nor his two brothers would ever take away my “freedom machine”.

Car Dealers Exploiting the Elderly

I wrote this column several years ago, but I’m still getting calls from elderly people and their sons and daughters about how the elderly are being victimized by car dealers. The most recent was from the son of woman in her nineties. She was ill when she leased the car and asked the salesman if she became ill or died, what would happen to her financial obligations on the leased car. He told her not to worry, as long as the car was returned there would be no cost to her or her estate. This is one of the most common lies told to older people by car salesmen. Many older people have never leased a car. They think of it as a rental car. This woman is now seriously ill and unable to drive. The son has had to pay thousands of dollars in lease payments to the leasing company.

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 turned 72 last month and I’ve learned 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 and I’m a whole lot more knowledgeable.  There was a great article in 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, 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.