AutoBuyology 101
AutoBuyology©
An Arts & Sciences Crash Ph.D. Course in Carlessnessology 101©
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"If you want
to control people, promise them freedom..." - L. Ron Hubbard
The Consumer
Driven Car Deal
"Driving (Defensively) A Hard Bargain"
Fixing The Dings In The "Great" American Car Deal & Paving the Consumer's Toll Free Lane on the Car Deal Highway
Mobilizing Auto Consumers in the Marketplace
Deal Negotiating
Strategies
Dinging the Manufacturer and Dealer
Very long page follows (Print?)
Driving A Hard Bargain
Climb behind
the wheel of
the consumer driven car deal...
and swerve to avoid the
highway robbery
AutoBuyology
DING the
Dealer and
Ding the Manufacturer
on Negotiated Profits
- The following is a listing of some car deal related considerations for empowering, motivating, & mobilizing consumers in consumerizing (jump-start it, or give it a push, but don't wait for the auto or banking and loan-lending industry or your government to help) the Great American Car Deal.
- You may wish to consider and pass along these thoughts to friends and relatives for further discussion, consideration, reflection, improvement and adjustment or tailoring to individual personal circumstances, politics and tastes and "market forces." Before negotiating car sales, lease or service deals, pick up a book or two or three (they all have some new twist or angle on evening up the car deal score) on car buying and negotiating and spend some quality time with these books.
- Find as much information and wisdom as you can about car dealer "dealing by the numbers" techniques which are referred to collectively as "System Selling." These dealing tricks have inflated profits for the auto industry and ripped-off our friends and families for decades. Oh, the automobile and dealing industry recently "celebrated" its 100th birthday. So, why do you suppose they are called "dealers"?
- Beware of turbo-charged industry lip service (salespersonship and advertising) being paid to lure consumers down to the dealer (trolling for suckers). Such manufacturer advertisements and material fake an earnest attempt to make dealing and service fairer and cleaner. Remember that manufacturers have said that they have no control over their authorized dealers, and you will hear this especially loudly after a deal turns sour. These ads and materials, some cleverly pandering to consumer angst by spoofing the classic car deal shams are an acknowledgment of the deep traditions of sham in the industry, and do not represent any substantive difference in the treatment of consumers. Trust your instincts and the general public reputation of the automobile industry.
If the dealer promises you the moon during deal and price negotiations, get it in writing, and do not be surprised if you get mooned after buying it... nothing personal, just business = the economics of capitalist relationships...(:-)
- Pick up Remar Sutton's books at the library or bookstore and read what he says about "System Selling," the dealer's major weapon against consumers in car dealing. Shift "System Selling" into reverse and engage the dealer in "System Buying" where you keep in mind and keep reminding the dealer that the dealer wants and needs your money more than you want or need the trouble of another expensive, over-priced, and potentially problematic new or used car. Avoid over-valuing an inanimate, shiny thin tin, plastic and glass object which has been designed to become obsolete with next year's new models.
Car dealing
remains a shabby anti-consumer business. This industry will say and do anything
to lure and milk more consumers -- even try to sell itself as
honest and fair in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary.
Things must be awfully competitive out there in dealer land,
that this industry would acknowledge in its ads its shameful
"past" practices. Don't buy it, the industry is no
cleaner or fairer today than it was fifty or a hundred years
ago. Ding the dealer and ding the manufacturer on every new car
deal or lease. This industry has earned the public's ire and
wrath.
The proof in this is the depths dealers and manufacturers go to lure consumers with worthless advertising and sham sales tactics labeled as customer service bromides. As the dealer tries to make you feel uncomfortable (guilt manipulation) about not accepting an unreasonably high price--asking you what you are going to do to make the deal happen, remind the dealer that you are offering a fair price for an overpriced product of mediocre quality and potentially endless and expensive problems regardless of warranty or lemon law, and ask the dealer what he or she is going to do to provide you the vehicle your want at a fair price. Most lemon laws are themselves lemons. Consumers are on their own in enforcing lemon laws and warranties after purchase.
- Develop self-respect as a consumer. Stop expecting this industry or your government to clean up the auto industry unless forced to do so by enough consumers demanding fairness in automobile sales and service practices. Australia has comprehensive consumer protection laws and enforcement in car sales and service practices, including training, testing and licensing of dealers and including full documentation and disclosures of defects and hidden damage repairs. Why don't we? Because we have let the automobile industry puppet our government in watering down, postponing or killing real consumer, safety and environmental protection.
Fair consumer protection laws would protect consumers, honest dealers and manufacturers and our economy by boosting consumer confidence. Dealers who cannot compete fairly shouldn't be in the business. A country or society that would continue to permit an industry to run roughshod over it like the automobile industry has done for decades shows little in the way of collective intelligence or cultural self respect. This can be changed. Until now the auto industry has bought off government with consumer money. Its time consumers demanded a fair return on their investment in this industry and their government.
- A Toyota
Dealer was reported in a major daily newspaper to have lease-sell
dealt a $12,000 Toyota for $26,000 to an unsuspecting and overly trusting
consumer. 2000 auto consumers in Florida who thought they were
buying cars outright were leased vehicles instead. Heads-up and
CARveat Emptor.
- Consider
obtaining a business function calculator (borrow the dealer's) and learn how to
use it before negotiating for a car purchase or lease deal. Such
calculators have programs for calculating the costs and percentages
of interest rates and other important business factors. Remember
to toggle the ding dong dealer factor on your calculator before
settling on price. Every car sold in American is priced thousands
more than its intrinsic and consumer value. Do not pay a dime
over what the vehicle is worth, which is somewhere around the
cost of making the product plus a small or token profit to the
manufacturer for its troubles. Consider that most retailers mark
up their products 50% to 100% of its wholesale costs. The auto
manufacturer merely pads the window sticker price similarly,
which includes a sales incentive or "hold back" in
most cases of between 3% to 5% or more which is paid to or kept
by the dealer upon sale of the vehicle (in addition to the dealer's
markup you negotiate as a fair market price of the vehicle).
Keep these issues in mind when negotiating price. Hold the dealer
and manufacturer's take on every vehicle to the absolute minimum
over the cost of making and delivering the vehicle. The gross
profit on some of the new super Sport Utility Vehicles is reported
to be $20,000.
- One business
or economic philosophy increasingly espoused by business schools
and consultants (gurus) has it that the main purpose of any business
enterprise is to make as large a profit as possible for their
stockholders. Of course this is not true, but it is true that
the main function of consumers in the marketplace is to check
profit creep and gouging by negotiating fair profits on car deals
and leases. Once was when our economic system was sold by business
schools as a means for the equitable distribution of goods and
services in society. This has evolved to the hyper-profits first
theory... most likely from an MBA candidate with too much time
on its hands.
- Recall the
consumer who paid $26,000 for that $12,000 Toyota, and avoid the same
mistake. Usually, low advertised interest rates require purchasing
the vehicle at the dealer's or manufacturer's window sticker
price and may be limited by a time period. Shop vehicle pricing,
and loan interest rates around between several sources and if
you decide to buy, consider opting for the best total price including
interest rate or loan costs, make as large a down payment as
you can budget to keep payments and interest lower. The typical
dealer forms which include spaces for the new car price, loan
and interest rates and trade-in allowances are often confusing
and may be used by a "sharp" salesperson to milk a
deal by hiding trade-in allowances, interest rates and etc. The
confusing auto contract forms must be another customer service
feature. Service in the rear, read the small print on the back
of the form... with a magnifying glass?
Would you like fries with that... or how about our value meal?
- Avoid being
sold redundant or unnecessary dealer applied or installed clear-coating, rust proofing or other
dealer applied or supplied extras unless you feel particularly
charitable.
Generally these items are unnecessary and are expensive far beyond
their worth, garnering huge profit margins for the dealer. Beware
the fancy label trick. Clear-coating may be called by some fancy
name. If its applied at all, and often it isn't even applied,
its usually invisible, and more importantly, its unnecessary.
A good way to avoid being surprised with last minute sales pressures and add-ons or dealer remembered extras (surprises) is to obtain a copy of all deal related paperwork and a written disclosure of all services or dealer applied or supplied extras the dealer will try to sell you at deal closing or signing of the contract. Obtaining this information well in advance of closing the deal, giving you plenty of time to read the fine print away from the dealership, will better prepare you for dealing with the dealer when completing the deal, and it establishes you as a consumer in charge of the deal. Be ready for the last minute sale add-ons where the dealer tries to milk the deal (the consumer) by taking advantage of your "emotional momentum or investment" after you have made up your mind to purchase. One secret to selling is to ask yes only answer questions. Beware the "yes" answer momentum and the pressure to be agreeable and to answer questions with a positive response... be polite and sociable, but firm... be parsimonious with personal consumer information, as agreement and disclosure can become a communicable disease in car dealing.
If a dealer tries to load-up a deal with lots of extras, either walk, or inquire whether the manufacturer didn't supply a fully completed product. Before paying hundreds or thousands of dollars for often unneeded dealer add-ons or extras, take a break, and leave the dealership to evaluate the sales pitch, and research the suggested extra[s]. Why would you pay extra for dealer installed clear-coating when the manufacturer has already lacquered or clear-coated the vehicle at the factory? Was the vehicle damaged in transit or on the dealer's lot? Many are, including high-end luxury models. If so, make sure to negotiate a much lower price for the vehicle or ask for a new and defect free vehicle. Remember, dealer installed air-conditioning (vs., factory installed air conditioning) is commonly problematic and subject to maintenance problems. If you want air conditioning, its generally better to buy it factory installed.
Smooshed consumers, road kill on the car deal highway)
- Graciously
expect parking lots full of resistance from dealers and manufacturers
on negotiated profit deals. Dealers
and sales staff will do or say nearly anything to pay the rent,
keep the overhead overhead, and maintain their Gucci lifestyles.
Be very watchful of dealers trying to pass off damaged goods
or products of less value on negotiated deals. Many consumers
believing and expecting to get defect-free new cars, found out
later that the new car they paid a premium price for came with
undisclosed options of hidden damage repairs or undisclosed damage
or defects. Not all new cars of the same make are the same. Shift
changes at the factory may result in differences in the quality
of vehicle production runs. It has been known to happen that
wrong parts, including major drive train features have been installed
in unintended vehicle models and shipped and sold. Customer service
and satisfaction is merely a goal of varying degrees of commitment,
not a promise or guarantee, although it may be promised (sight
unseen) to induce consumers to frog onto "such a deal..."
Remember, dealers treat customers like numbers (usually with a smile and firm handshake -- count your fingers) through what is known as System Selling techniques. It pays for them to do this, because they don't know how much a consumer knows until they try everything in their arsenal of car deal tricks to inflate the price of the vehicle and milk the deal with add-ons or forgotten, er., remembered extras after a customer has been low-balled back to the dealer with a fantastically low price, only to find the price increased with each new service or extra the salesperson includes in the final price. Without good consumer protection laws, car buying and dealing is "whatever traffic allows," (smooshed consumers, road kill on the car deal highway) and until the laws are enacted and enforced to take the industry to task for its shortcomings, this situation will remain. Even with good laws, there will continue to be sham in automobile sales and service. But, strong customer protection laws would give the industry a fairness target to shoot at (in addition to consumers) and would hold sham artists to account when caught red-handed with the exhaust.
An Unexamined Life Isn't Worth Consuming...(Yum, yummy, crunchy human)
A recent University Extension School class schedule featured "Psychology of Buying"...[This is a misnomer, as this class teaches merchandisers and salespeople how to "read" or psyche out customers in order to manipulate their values and create needs or to make connections between a product and some illusionary relationship to fulfill manufactured and real human needs... not to provide a service, but rather to affect sales and ring up record profits... service is merely the straw-middleman to the end-game of record profits... the best way not to bet ripped off in the increasingly manipulative marketplace is to "know thyself", and the methodologies of sales manipulation.
- Stages of development, personality factors
- Social conformity, individuality and other needs
- The importance of ego
- Types of customers / consumers and methods of communications
- Cognitive and social role styles
- Hierarchy of values
- Perception
- Risk vs. safety needs
- Methods of learning, training and changing. Participants can gain a sophisticated awareness of customer motivations including the importance of building long-term positive customer relationships and the real meaning of providing total quality and service [ostensibly as opposed to the faked variety...?]
- Also see "Servicing Marketing"
Check out similar
classes at your local university extension program or obtaining
the course textbook may be just the ticket for not getting "sold"
on a product or service based on trumped up needs or wants...
as long as merchandisers and retailers are going to push your
buttons, you may as well learn where they are...
- Are you being Freuded or Skinnered? Freuding is marketing by using psychological needs for social acceptance and group association, personal identity, safety, personal values, etc. Skinnering is using operant conditioning or (pseudo) rewards psychology... sometimes know as "good doggie" marketing or sales tricks. The membership discounts cards used by some grocery chains or other stores are a good example of Skinnering (named after B.F. Skinner, the famous Harvard behaviorist who wrote, "Without Marx or Jesus."). Rebates are another form of operant conditioning or skinnering. This is designed to make you think or feel as though you are getting a good deal or a rebate when in fact you are still paying an inflated price for the vehicle. The rebate is the dog biscuit tossed to consumers for performing stupid consumer tricks. Don't buy it... Don't be Freuded or Skinnered. Work your personal values and needs agenda, and don't let the dealer or manufacturer play chickenshit games with your needs and wants to affect a sale or rip you and your family off for an inflated profit.
Buzz Off...
- Be aware
of the new car "buzz" factor and don't rush a deal or pay too much
merely to have it over with -- that's not service, its being
"serviced". Beware the new car "feel good factor"
to the extent this may unduly sway your objective consumer skills.
Avoid becoming emotionally attached to any inanimate object,
especially a new automobile, no matter how pretty or expensive
it may be. Request written documentation of all dealer or sales
representations, and keep in mind that anything in writing from
this industry is doubtful to be worth the paper its written on,
as such information may depreciate the value of otherwise good
paper.
The consumer's agenda is to get the most value/best vehicle with
as many options and extras for the lowest cost. While the manufacturer
and dealer are free to ask any price they wish, and consumers
are free to pay any price they wish, the prudent guerrilla consumer
pays only as much as any product, especially "large ticket"
items are worth, which is seldom much more than it costs to make
and deliver it. In some cases this is less than the cost to make
and deliver the product. This is often thousands less than the
asking, expected or inflated price of most automobiles.
Yep, that's right, we all have paid way too much for the average automobile, way too much, far more than most cars are worth. This we have done due to so called market forces (real, imagined and concocted), which in many cases merely means we have passively "bought" the inflationary pricing schemes, advertising and sales pitches (values manipulation) of an industry at war with America's individuals, families and villages -- consumers. The dealer's and manufacturer's agenda is to maximize after-loophole profits from sales to consumers by hook or crook.
Avoid being drawn down to a purchasing decision from television ads promising low prices or interest rates, and especially if these are promised conditioned on you arriving by or before a specified time. Remember, every time you hear "limited offer," that you will hear the same thing again the next time you turn on the TV or read the newspaper. Buy, if at all, on the consumer's, on your schedule, not the schedule of the dealer or the manufacturer. Maximize your consumer profits in all retail transactions.
Who's buying this mistake, you or me...?
Don't be sold
on any deal.
Guerrilla Car Consumers control the deal. Any worthy or credible offer should
not be unreasonably limited by time. If the deal isn't good in
thirty days to sixty days, its probably not such a good deal.
With some research, effort and patience, and a willingness to
wait, walk or "fly" (this really depresses car sales
staff), car consumers likely can drive a better deal home. As
always, if the deal sounds too good to be true, it likely is
-- watch out for dealer and manufacturer ding factors. And, be
particularly watchful of the "lure low, hard sell"
or lease up tactics where dealers advertise or quote low prices
to get you off the couch, and jack you around on price or extras,
and hard sell you up on higher priced vehicles, or lease/purchase
deals which are anti-consumer and pro-dealer.
- Consider obtaining the title of a current Introduction to Business textbook at a nearby college or school and purchasing or obtaining such a book at your library, and bone up on some of the con-ventional sales and marketing strategies used to induce sales and move inventory. Check out pricing strategies commonly understood to manipulate consumer purchasing decisions. This information, used properly from a guerrilla consumer perspective can be very helpful in avoiding "selling" techniques which favor merchants and business at the expense of consumers. Such beginner's textbooks are worth their weight in gold (actually hard unbacked cash), and should be standard learning materials in every public high school in any capitalistic economy or culture. Ask that your school board consider incorporating basic business practices training in your high school as soon as possible -- and we're not merely talking word processing and dictation here folks. These classes are commonly understood as "business" education at the secondary education level in America.
Dinging the
manufacturer...
- Consider
respectfully offering 1/4 (.25) to 1/3 (.33) or more off (less
than) the manufacturer's invoice price or what is known as the dealer's costs
(not the window sticker price, which is the MSRP or manufacturer's
suggested retail price, which has affectionately become known
as the 'manufacturer's suggested rip-off price') (the manufacturer's
invoice or dealer's cost invoice is available from Consumer Reports,
AAA, USAA or other car pricing service for a nominal fee) to
the dealer for the vehicle and its options and walk away ("fly")
if necessary until the dealer calls begging you to come and take
one of the over-priced inanimate shiny thin tin, plastic and
glass objects piling up in inventory on the dealer's lot.
Yes, unfortunately that $20,000 vehicle is likely worth only
$14,000 or $15,000 or less, at most. Deduct more from over-priced
(aren't they all?) luxury models, especially those "hand
made" Rolls and Jags.
Car makers are posting record profits and building up huge cash reserves at the expense of our friends and families through so called non-negotiable "value pricing" schemes and no-dicker deals. Don't buy value price deals. Record profits are evidence that auto consumers are being fleeced and not doing their job of checking unchecked profit creep in the automobile markets!
Negotiate every car deal. Do your pricing research. Make your best offer and walk. If you like, ask the dealer for his or her lowest, most competitive price for the vehicle. Don't fall for the suggestion that the dealer will match or beat any offer you get from a competitor. This is a classic dealer agenda tactic which is intended to get you to return for the hard-sell or softening-up treatment. Make it understood that you are seriously shopping for the most competitive price for the specific model you are looking for with specific options, and that you need to know his best price and for how long the price is good. Get it in writing. Start over if the dealer sells the vehicle, switches vehicles, or otherwise tries to increase the price when you are ready to buy. Keep in mind that the dealer's best price will be thousands more than the vehicle is worth, and thousands more than it costs to make and deliver the vehicle. This is why the preferable consumer driven car deal is the one where the consumer researches the pricing and includes all of the relevant ding factors and makes an offer and walks. When enough consumers do this, auto prices will fall to their intrinsic or consumer value level, instead of the inflated "market force" level which is inflated with advertising hype and social (peer or the Jones') pressures.
- Why do you
think its called the "Blue Book" price? Keep in mind that the
blue book represents prices inflated by the concerted efforts
of an industry whose interests are best served by inflated resale
costs. The Blue Book price of vehicles will naturally go lower
when consumers in enough numbers begin asserting their responsibility
for checking profit creep and inflated vehicle pricing in the
marketplace. Say, why is it that the dealer never buys or credits
a trade-in at Blue Book price?
The rule of thumb is that a dealer pays 30% less for used vehicles then they are worth and sells them for 15% to 30% more than they are worth. This rule of thumb is generally true for new cars too. So at the least, whatever you negotiated for your last vehicle was likely "at least" 15% to 30% more than it was worth. At least! Actually, 30% to 50% or more is perhaps more like it.
- Another excessive
consumer cost is the so called new car depreciation costs, affectionately known
as the shine or new car buzz cost. This has been reported to be on average
$3500 or more of the price of new cars. The new car depreciation
cost is the dollar value of the vehicle lost when you merely
drive it off the lot new and try to resell it. This is the "shine",
"new car smell" or buzz factor cost in new car prices
-- try to negotiate this out of the cost of new cars, just deduct
it from your final offer and walk. Ask for semi-gloss or matte
finish instead of the more expensive super factory or dealer
detailed shine. Make your offer, in writing and leave a contact
phone number where you can be reached, and walk until the dealer
talks. Expect trunk space loads of dealer and manufacturer resistance
here as well. Resistance and denial are the dealer's expertise.
Change is difficult, especially for many of the "old dog" dealers and manufacturers. Consider whether new car depreciation (shine) costs aren't another good reason to go carless or to acquire a mildly pre-used vehicle...? and / or to demand efficient mass transit facilities...? Last year's new models should be obtainable at a reduced new car depreciation cost.
Consider this: if the vehicle has been test driven half a dozen or more times and has left the dealer's lot at least that number of times, why didn't it lose its depreciation inflated costs during one of those test drives, instead of when you merely purchased it and drove it off the lot? Consumers should stop paying the so called new car depreciation costs. Make this industry appreciate you rather than depreciate you as a customer. Make the industry live up to its advertised and represented claims of customer satisfaction and customer service. Help the industry meet its often claimed customer service goals and priorities.
- "Value
priced", "no-haggle" or "no-dicker sticker"
deals are designed to control pricing and limit consumer rights (free market
responsibilities) to negotiate a fair dealer and manufacturer
profit on the deal to check profit creep (creeps?) and price
gouging, except as a take it or leave it deal--leave it--leave
your written offer and walk or fly until the dealer talks. "Value
Priced" simply means that everyone ends up paying too much
"equally" for the same make and model of over-priced
vehicle within a market: "Such a deal?".
The new so-called value priced deals are an unintended admission by the industry that it has been ripping consumers off on optional equipment for decades. So do you really want to pay extra for this so-called customer service? Value priced deals are the industry's answer to the increasingly prevalent practice of consumers negotiating fairer dealer profits, up from the manufacturer's invoice (so-called dealer's cost) price. It took awhile, but consumers (too few really) slowly and steadily woke up to the negotiated deal and increasingly refused to pay the inflated window sticker price. Although however, too many consumers till pay the window sticker price for new cars. Unfortunately. The "free" in free market when it comes to the automobile deal industry seems to mean that dealers and manufacturers are free to lie, cheat and steal to make a killing on new car deals and service--whatever traffic or the market allows. Moreover, this situation will continue until consumers demand that the industry changes its practices or makes it do so through government regulations, or both.
- It's now time to take the successful dealer profit negotiating concept one step further, and ding the manufacturer on profit as well. A fair price for any new car is a few dollars perhaps over what it costs to make and deliver the vehicle. This assumes that the manufacturer is efficient and prudent in its manufacturing operations, and most are not. This means that a fair price for new cars may actually be less than what it costs to make and deliver them. Negotiate down from the manufacturer's invoice (dealer's costs) price (not the window sticker or MSRP price). Make your offer and walk until the dealer talks--begs you to take one of the shiny thin tin, plastic and glass inanimate objects piling up in inventory on his or her lot. Of course, lemons at any price, unless you're into driving sour citrus, when (if) it runs, are way over priced.
The free market depends
on informed participants.
Indeed, contract
laws assume the parties to an agreement are informed as to the
nature of the product and services and agreement specifics. If
you are not informed and do not have the necessary information
to determine a fair price for the vehicle, hold out until the
dealer and manufacturer provide notarized certifications of all
data necessary to inform you adequately.
Have You Been Serviced by A Factory Authorized Dealer Lately?
- Remind the
dealer and manufacturer about their pledge of customer service
and satisfaction
when they politely decline to provide the requested certified
itemized vehicle production cost inventory. Without this information
consumers are at a disadvantage in determining the true consumer
or market value of a particular vehicle in comparison with others,
unless they buy the dealer's sales pitch--duh?. Expect resistance
here, like it'll never happen, until and unless enough consumers
walk away or fly until the dealer and manufacturer walk the talk.
Make detailed vehicle production and pricing costs a customer
satisfaction and customer service issue with the next auto dealer
you consider buying from. Make manufacturers and dealers compete
against each other in providing accurate, certified accountings
of vehicle production and overhead costs and profit margins.
Pricing is a customer service or its a disservice.
- Don't Buy It. Consider making your
offer (explicitly in writing, including your specification that
you are making an offer for a new and defect-free and fully warranted
vehicle, or otherwise as the case may be), leaving your phone
number and walking away until the dealer walks the talk. Exercise
the important function of checking profit creep and price gouging
in the marketplace and the historic traditions of sham in the
automobile markets by implementing the Consumer Driven Car Deal.
- Beware of
the ding-dong factor in new car deals. Deduct a big ding dong factor from your next new
car deal offer or the ding dong may be on you. The trick to car
deals is to be the dinger not the dingee.
- Request the
dealer provide you with a signed copy of his or her membership
contract with the National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA)
and any other regional, state or local Dealer Group or Association.
Obtain
a copy of NADA's "Customer Bill of Rights", and Dealer
Professional Development program policies. If NADA has no such
documents, requirements or polices, request that NADA undertake
to "professionalize" the "profession" as
real professional associations routinely do. Obtain a copy of
the NADA's consumer protection assurances. Then laugh loudly.
The trick looks like this: the sales person leaves the area to phone the bank to find out how much the pay-off balance is on the trade-in so that it can be factored into the price of the new car, which is financed. The dealer quotes a low pay-off price for the trade-in, and says this number may be off "by just a little" and that the customer will have to pay any extra which may actually be owing on the trade-in. It is inadvisable to trade in any car to a dealer on the purchase of a new car, as a private sale usually will get a consumer more return on the "investment." To avoid having to pay hundreds or thousands more than the low-ball quote by the dealer on such deals, cap the amount to a certain acceptable amount and have this agreement put in writing and signed by the dealer, the lending bank and the consumer.
- Many auto
buyers are reporting that after negotiating a price of a vehicle to be ordered
by the dealer, the dealer tries to negotiate an increase in the
price or to stall delivery to try to shake the customer out of the deal so
the vehicle can be sold to someone else at a higher price. Apparently
some dealers are saying they have a source for a special order
vehicle when in fact they have no idea when or if the vehicle
can be found or delivered. This is done to take advantage of
and to "set" a customer's "emotional investment"
in the product, price or service. Some dealers also come back
to the customer after the contract is signed and the vehicle
delivered, and try to add on extra costs, with the excuse or
plausibly sounding explanation that certain charges or options
were not included, forgotten, or overlooked in the original contract.
CARveat Emptor. It ain't necessarily over until its over...
- Obtain a copy
of a complete set of all deal related paperwork, including a
copy of the contract form and all other paperwork that the dealer
will expect to be signed at deal closing. Obtain this material in advance of
making a purchasing decision in order to review it completely
(including the fine print on the reverse) away from the dealership.
Just do this!
- Consider negotiating a better lemon law for yourself during deal negotiations. Most lemon laws are themselves lemons. Have you test driven or read one lately? Spell out under what circumstances the dealer and manufacturer will replace a defective vehicle in detail and have it signed and notarized by the dealer and the manufacturer. Remember, you may have to engage an attorney to enforce any written agreement or to enforce existing lemon laws. In California the lemon law needs only be considered, not necessarily followed to the letter, by the industry sponsored lemon law mediation board, which places the industry at an advantage over the consumer in lemon law disputes. Some auto sale issues attorneys take cases on contingency, and many attorneys are beginning to specialize in auto deal resolution services (Yellow Pages under Attorneys: "dealer fraud" or "lemon law"). When all else fails, pick up the phone and consider the legal alternatives to a sour deal. Check under Attorneys, Dealer Fraud or Lemon Law in your yellow pages. (http://www.freeadvice.com) (?)
Why A FEDERAL LEMON LAW Is Needed:
- Because State
lemon-laws are often unenforceable intra-state let alone across
state lines.
Moving to a new state? Will your lemony lemon-law migrate with
you? Buying a car in a neighboring state? Negotiate a signed
lemon-replacement agreement with the manufacturer (dealers don't
count) in writing and notarized in triplicate (FROM THE MANUFACTURER
!!!).
- In many lemon
law mediation cases,
dealers or manufacturers shop for mediators or arbitration "specialists"
who routinely rule in favor of the industry. Not a bad deal if
you can get it, eh?
- When the
dealer tries to sell you extended warranties during the manufacturer's warranty coverage
period,
find out how much the dealer intends to charge and deduct this
amount from your final offer, and ask why a good product and
a good warranty would need supplemental warranty during the manufacturer's
warranty period. Don't pay extra for overlapping warranties that
cover the same repairs during the same period unless you really
enjoy paying too much and don't mind inflating the costs of products
unnecessarily for others.
Do the same for new car depreciation (shine) costs and other deal add-ons and extras which the dealer tries to "sell" near closing the deal if possible when the consumer is most anxious to have the deal done and generally is most receptive to spending "a little" more on extras which should be included in any "value-priced" deal scheme. Expect resistance here too. But, make your offer and demand that floor mats and seat covers be made a part of the basic price of the car. Work with another dealer if the dealer you're working with is too stingy to sell you the whole car at a fair price, and make sure to have someone stay with the car while you are signing the paperwork, to avoid permitting the dealer to drain the gas tank or remove rear bumpers, trim or other items from the vehicle. _--IT HAPPENS! Did the factory authorize this?
- Consider
not buying a vehicle,
especially one
that the dealer or manufacturer will not provide you the opportunity
to use for thirty days prior to committing to a purchase or lease
agreement. Consider negotiating a thirty day return without question
clause in your purchase or lease agreement. Why should you, the
dealer or the manufacturer expect you to be able to make an informed
major purchasing decision based on a short, one-time test drive
with a dealership sales staff member on board pointing to all
the new features and leading you away from the vehicle's negatives
(every vehicle has negatives!)? Don't buy a car unless you know
its the right car for you and your needs and your budget. Repossession
and auto-remarketing is a growth industry too!
The tendency or prevalent auto consumer mistake is to overbuy, overpay, settle too soon on price, and to get dinged on undisclosed hidden damage or repair costs. Avoid overbuying. How can you possibly do that based on a typical fifteen minute test drive? Add this to your car deal checklist. Deduct a huge ding factor for dealers and manufactures that expect you to make a permanent eight year purchasing decision in fifteen minutes.
Buy down, rent uP!
- Consider
buying only as much vehicle as required to meet 90% of your personal
transportation needs. Rent a van or sport
utility vehicle when a special occasion requires more vehicle
than your normal driving needs require. Beware of the dealer's
need to sell-up, to sell you more car then you can afford or
need, or want and can afford or which you just "gottahave",
for more than its worth. Beware of, expect, and avoid the sell-up.
- Don't sell
the value of your services as a consumer short. Consider marking up your haggle or ding factor
50% to 100% in accordance with typical retail markups. Adjust
as needed for market variables and practical realities. Go for
more if possible. Remember, highballing up from your bottom line
is generally the way this is done. Know and keep your best alternative
to a negotiated deal (BAND) in mind. Be willing and able to walk
away. Perhaps the best way to do this is to have an acceptable
alternative vehicle in mind, or perhaps the more lucrative no-deal
option. Walking is the best deal alternative for most people.
Perhaps replacing the transmission or engine in an older model
is better than sucking on a new car deal mistake. If the dealer
says that he can wait you out, that someone else will come along
and pay more, make sure the dealer gets the opportunity to do
just that, as this suggests that the dealer may not value your
consumership.
Keep in mind that regardless of what the dealer has cleverly led you to say or commit to, you are free to walk away from any deal until you take possession of the vehicle, which usually means when you drive if off the lot. Before driving off the lot, check the gas tank indicator and other trim items. Is the bumper and engine still there? How about the tires, the spare tire, is it in the trunk? "Oh, we didn't understand that you wanted the windshield, bumpers and the engine too. Why didn't you say so." CARveat Emptor! Car buyer be very wary!
WHAT's NEW...?
Be particularly watchful for undisclosed defects or hidden damage
repairs on
all new (yes, "new") and used car deals, especially
negotiated profit deals. Be especially careful with vehicles traded between
dealers or vehicles represented as being "auto executive"
or "brass-hat" vehicles. Carefully inspect new cars,
especially along detail and design indention lines or other edges
or points or lines or change in materials for over-painting which
may indicate prior damage and hidden repairs. Check for uniform
clearances and gaps between doors and body panels. Have the dealer
raise the vehicle up on a repair shop jack you can inspect the
under side of the vehicle. Does there appear to be a clean and
neat or planned arrangement of systems and parts? Is the fuel
tank protected from side impacts by the chassis frames and the
rear and front axles? Are the brake lines protected from being
pinched between chassis frame and the axles.
Shabby or uncoordinated
underside arrangements of systems or parts may be an indication of poor design
or assembly. Have the vehicle inspected by an independent certified
body and repair shop. Improve and share good car buying skills,
abilities and knowledge with friends, family and associates.
Check carefully beneath detailing lines added to the finish.
Sometimes these detail finishes are used to hide repair or repainting
work. They often crack and peel after a few years, so don't pay
extra for such detailing gimmicks. Look at the entire exterior
painted surface. Try to see the surface of the metal and look
for uniformity in appearance and texture. One way to check the
quality of a paint job is to look at the uniformity and consistency
of the reflection of objects in the new surfacing. By inspecting
the vehicle carefully, panel by panel, to see the clear-coating
layer over the paint, the paint layer (is it uniformly applied
over a smooth and dust particle free surface?) and to see the
texture and consistency of the metal or plastic under the paint,
will help you avoid paying too much for quality problems and
mistakes.
Take a small
magnet to check for bondo repairs that may conceal hidden damage or repairs.
- Car dealing
has historically been handled like sex in our society, done but
talked little about publicly, or perhaps boasted undeservedly
about to boost one's bravado (its easier to boast of a great deal,
then admit to having gotten skunked on a car deal). People generally
say they got a great deal on their car purchase, but really they
spent hundreds or thousands more than the vehicle was worth,
and consumers are loathe to admit car dealing mistakes, like
no-one makes them...? The metaphor may be apt here as well, as
often parents forget to pass along good tips on car deal foreplay
or rough car deal sex (getting screwed) and so forth.
Practice safe CAR DEAL sex. Fifteen minutes with a good book or two on the subject of car buying will give you more guerrilla auto consumer ammunition in dealing with the dealer than 90-95% of consumers going into a dealer's showroom possess. Teach your children and parents well. Pass along good car buying techniques. Share tricks of the deal. Avoid unsafe or rough car sex. Again, "consumer protection is a life-long team sport." Avoid unsafe car deal sex! Unscrew the deal and consider the alternatives before buying.
- Learn how
to complain effectively. Only 4% of aggrieved consumers bother to complain,
and many who do complain do so ineffectively.
- Use appropriate
transport modes for
short, medium and long distance travel needs: walking or bicycling
or electric cars are perhaps best for short hauls or trips; cars,
bicycles, bus or car pooling for medium length hauls or trips,
and public or private transit for longer hauls or trips. Develop
a lifelong personal transport plan.
- Be particularly
wary of buying so called "sport utility vehicles" (SUVs). Consumers are paying
premium prices and loan costs (interest) for sporty mini-vans,
pick-ups and sport-utility vehicles which seldom are used for
their intended purposes or capacities. These vehicles are in
a special "not-a-car", "not-a-truck" category
which exempts them from many standard sedan safety and bumper
requirements. Some SUV's are reported to be high roll-over or
stability risks. Narrow (side to side) and short (front to back)
wheel based, high center of gravity and top heavy vehicles may
represent a higher instability or roll-over risks, especially
in high speed cornering, evasive maneuvers, or when struck by
another vehicle from the side. Anyone who tells you otherwise
is likely a car dealer or manufacturer.
Sport utility vehicles (SUVs) are notoriously unstable on cornering and subject to flipping or rolling over. (You paid extra for that...?) The Federal Government recently caved in to the industry, failing to require sport utility vehicles be made safer in consideration of the fact that these vehicles are increasingly used by families. These vehicles often exceed environmental standards required for standard sedans which are regulated.
- Beware of
so called All Wheel Drive (AWD) vehicles which many consumers discovered after
purchasing are not warranted for off-road use. All Wheel Drive may
not mean four wheel drive. The Suburu Outback is one such AWD
vehicle which is not a conventional four wheel drive, off-road
vehicle. Some AWD vehicles owners have found out too late that
they have voided their vehicle warranty by driving off-road.
- New traffic
sign: "Caution, Go Slow, Your auto-consumer friendly government
at work again helping auto industry fleece consumers?" Whatever
traffic allows. Until push comes to tow, and consumers demand
better treatment from the industry and their government, consumers
are what's for dinner. Beef: its what's eating us...?
- Consider
buying a smaller or more practical vehicle ( do you really need that global blast
furnace or would the smaller global warmer meet your real needs?)
without sacrificing safety and comfort and renting a van or sport
utility vehicle for special occasions and purposes when needed.
Larger more expensive cars are not necessarily safer than smaller
or mid-sized cars. Verify crash test data to determine general vehicle
safety, and remember safety tests do not test for all possible
real world accident situations and conditions. Include safety
factors in your personal pre-car deal inventory checklist and
priority evaluation.
- Consider
a better investment. Instead
of paying $20,000 to $40,000 or more for another car deal mistake,
do yourself a favor and put that 20 to 40 thousand bucks or more
into an interest bearing, socially responsible CD or other responsible
investment for education or retirement or for charity, instead
of rewarding this industry for its traditions of anti-consumer
sloth. The Car Book, by Intellichoice is another publication
available at bookstores or libraries which contains consumer
choice information based on seven consumer value categories for
various makes and models of vehicles. CARveat Emptor! Check your
sources and your sources' sources.
- Consider
planning your new car purchase well in advance of your needs when possible. Postpone
buying as long as you can, but give yourself plenty of time to
leverage (wait out) a deal -- six months (minimum) to a year
or more... be willing to wait -- its the best negotiating chip
a consumer possesses, besides one's two feet. One year old new
cars on the dealer's lot should be a better deal, minus new car
depreciation, rebates and other manufacturer and dealer ding
deductions, of course.
- Target and
practice your negotiating and guerrilla car consumer walking
and flying skills
on a few dealers to
get the feel for the deal again if its been a few years between
purchases or just to sample the salesmanship of the dealership.
You can always buy later, and a "new" year old model
is less expensive than a "new" new model just off the
assembly line -- don't buy the depreciation costs... A new car
is just an old car waiting to happen, waiting to lose its shine
or depreciation value. If you are lucky you won't end up with
an expensively defective "new" car, and you won't get
taken for a ride on warranty or other repair work. If, you are
lucky.
The best warranty or guarantee in the world won't protect consumers from the tricks of the Great American Car Deal, including industry after-deal indifference or avoidance. Many consumers have discovered after purchasing that their concerns are ignored or put-off by dealers or manufacturers. The number one consumer complaint, based on the total number of consumer complaints filed with consumer protection agencies and non-profits involves automobile deal and service issues. Government is supposed to be responsive to such issues, but apparently your government has been studying the tricks of the Great American Car Deal in responding to auto consumer issues, and ignoring it. Make sure your local, state and national representatives know how your feel about the tricks of the Great American Car Deal that costs our friends and families tens of billions in unearned profits and costs every year. Fairness apparently is too much to ask?
- The technology
has existed since the invention of the wheel, but apparently due to the automobile
industry's unwavering commitment to customer service, odometers
remain tamperable. Useless headlight wipers, but no tamper-proof
odometers. Now, we're talking real deep customer service.
- Test drive
the dealer! Target
& practice your Guerrilla Car Consumer skills on a few dealers
before deciding to deal or buy. Feel out the dealer's sales strategies
and tactics. Listen with a silent but critical ear to the sales
pitches. Do a few dry runs to get in shape and to become more
accustomed to dealing with the dealer and to build up self-confidence
and to sharpen your guerrilla car consumer "walking"
skills. Because most car buyers buy a car only once every several
years its easy to get out of practice and forget just how much
of an ordeal buying a car can be, or how much fun, depending
upon your perspective and dealing skills, knowledge and abilities.
Auto consumers don't have to get taken for a ride every time.
- Remember,
car salespeople who have practiced their "craft(iness)"
for years, ten
to fourteen hours a day, seven days a week will be formidable
in manipulating a consumer's focus and concentration toward the dealer's
agenda and away from the consumer's agenda of highest value for
the lowest price. Don't let the dealer lead you to over focus
on any aspect of the product, including price unduly to draw
your attention away from the value and costs of the entire deal.
A common dealer sales trick is to plant sales rhetoric or spin
in the subconscious of the consumer. Keep reminding the dealer
of your value as a consumer, and keep asking whether the dealer
values your business, and if so, why he or she is not more forthcoming
in demonstrating it. If the dealer suggests that he can get more
from another customers, walk and let him.
- Specify that
you are (if you are) negotiating for a complete, new and defect-free
new car,
as if this is not stated (and even in some cases when it is--be
car-ful) dealers may assume that a slightly defective car passed
off as new and defect free may be permissible (hey, there's no
law against it), or things like gasoline, bumpers, trim or other
items may be removed between test drive and drive off. (Say,
Mr., Mrs., or Ms. Dealer, does the deal include the engine and
tires, or are they optional on this deal?).
- Also, be keen to your interpersonal or consuming style. Are you assertive (not necessarily aggressive) with others or are you passive-aggressive, or what is known as "other people oriented", which means simply that you often agree with others and derive your world view and general demeanor or life focus from others rather than from inside, from yourself? Assertive people tend be less likely to be taken advantage of by dealers or others, but even assertive people can be tricked by savvy car dealering. Yes, Mr. Macho car buyer, you've been cheated on car deals before, even if you were not aware of it. "Other people oriented" people are at greater risk of being taken for the Great American Car Deal Ride.
Being aware of your interpersonal style should help you adapt to the degree necessary to avoid being manipulated in a car deal or lease. Studying negotiating strategies and textbooks is a good place to begin assertivizing your interpersonal style. Its worth the effort and time, and will pay dividends in other areas of your life as well as car dealing. Prioritize this, and drop by your library and pick up a book or two on the subject of negotiating soon. An introductory textbook on psychology may also be helpful. Be assured that auto manufacturer advertising agencies have a psychologist on retainer to tweak advertising content to push the inner buttons of your psyche. We're not just talking apples and oranges here. We're talking the many differences between granny smiths and golden deliciouses.
- It was recently
reported by the San Francisco Chronicle in a story about the
costs of development and growth, that the average California automobile commuter
spent one of every five dollars ($5 : $1 ) of their incomes on
car ownership. One in five dollars
over a lifetime is a hefty piece of change! 20%.
Consider that the total annual average costs of owning and operating an automobile is estimated at $7,000. ($7,000 x 60 years = $420,000). Multiply this times the number of years you will own and operate a vehicle for an estimate of your lifetime automobile bill. Add in all of your personal, property, income and sales taxes that support the oil, tire, and other auto-related industries, and perhaps you will agree that the automobile "choice" is excessively expensive compared with public transit and other automobile alternatives. - Consider
developing (just do it) a life-long car consumer strategy and
demeanor. If you are going to
buy and use cars, have car ownership and purchasing built into
the organization, budgeting, and planning of your life. And make
your government protect the health and welfare of the marketplace
by policing up unfair, manipulative and fraudulent auto sales
and service practices in the automobile industry. Do this now,
and keep doing it until your government works for you. You've
helped the auto industry pay for laws that protect the industry,
now its time to ask the industry on your next new car deal to
help you buy a piece of your government back.
- Record past consumer mistakes and dealer tricks that worked or backfired (write them down and file them in your car-file. Share these with family and friends, neighbors and enemies. The Great American Car Deal is a team sport. Clip and save newspaper reports (usually buried in the business section, if printed at all) of consumer related automobile industry issues. Refer back to this file when planning any future new or used car purchase. Share this information with friends and family. Most car consumers hold their noses, end up paying too much and getting the agony over with as soon as possible, only to have to endure the experience again in several years without growing from the process or doing anything to improve it. Try something that works.
- Act Kindly -- Value Yourself, Friends and Families
- Take the time now to demand that
your state and national legislators
enact comprehensive:
"FAIR CAR SALES AND SERVICE PRACTICES ACTS,"
to protect America's families from unfair, manipulative and fraudulent sales and service practices in the automobile industry.
A focused act of kindness here pays big dividends down the road,-- values families and communities.
- Consider
car ownership and purchases to be a life-long process of learning
and mastery. Make the necessary commitment
to improve your skills, knowledge and abilities and to support
worthy consumer protection organizations, agencies and efforts.
Consumer protection is good for capitalism and is a non-partisan
issue,-- even some conservatives enjoy a good fair deal, and
resent being cheated on price or quality. Not every Republican
believes that cheating auto consumers is a Constitutional right
or Darwinian entitlement.
- If you cannot
read or understand any materials provided by the dealer or manufacturer,
consider it worthless. Before talking price, make sure the dealer
is willing to provide you with all the information in a form,
context and content useful to you in making an informed purchase
comparison and decision. Make the dealer and the manufacturer
earn and respect your business. Bring your hoops with you to
the dealer and keep them hopping.
- Report all car deal problems
to your loan holder,
(in addition to the Better Business Bureau, and local and state consumer protection agencies). County District Attorneys are perhaps the best place to report fraud or unfair, manipulative auto sales and service practices. Consider consulting with an auto deal issues lawyer for possible legal assistance on a contingency basis. They are sometimes listed under Attorneys as "Dealer Fraud" or "Lemon Law" specialists. Or try: http://www.freeadvice.com
- Before taking
out a loan,
demand to see a copy of the bank's or lender's published consumer
protection policies, and any agreements that the bank or lender
has with dealers to protect consumers from unfair, manipulative
and fraudulent sales and service practices. If the bank or loan
company has no such policy or agreements, consider finding one
that does.
- Report car dealer and
manufacturer problems and issues
to the editors of your local or regional newspapers
where the dealer or manufacturer advertises. Request the editor's or publisher's assistance in resolving legitimate deal or quality grievances, as the newspaper and loan-lien holder benefit from the advertising business of the dealer and the manufacturer. Request that editors balance industry and business reportage with consumer reportage, including an independent section on consumer issues.
- Demand fairness
in car sales and service practices from your newspaper where the auto industry
advertises.
Newspapers can handle this contractually with their auto industry
advertising clients and by agreement can help protect consumers
from sham sales and service practices including misleading advertising.
- When you demand
FAIR CAR SALES AND SERVICE consumer protection legislation
from your local, state and federal representatives, send-mail,
fax or e-mail a copy to the editor of your local or regional
newspapers and request the editor's editorial support for meaningful
consumer protection measures to help police this industry of
its traditions of inflationary and sleazy treatment of consumers.
Remind the newspaper that auto sales and service are the number
one consumer complaint, and ask what they've done about it recently.
Demand that they do more.
- The following
note is included in the classifieds section of the San Francisco
Examiner and Chronicle under #455 - Massage / Spas: 'The San Francisco Examiner
& the San Francisco Chronicle make every effort to ensure that
our MASSAGE/SPAS classification contains only legitimate advertisers
who adhere to strictly professional standards of conduct. If
you encounter a violation of this policy, we encourage you to
call our representative......All responses will be held in strictest
of confidence'. Unfortunately, apparently the Chronicle and Examiner
are more concerned about their MASSAGE/SPAS readers getting rubbed
the wrong way than they are about their AUTO classified readers
being taken for a ride, as no such cautionary note or complaint
solicitation is printed in any of its AUTOMOTIVE classified advertising.
If you get rubbed the wrong way by your auto dealer or service shop, drop your newspaper editor and publisher a note accordingly and demand that they police up their automotive classified advertising clients.
Consumer protection is a safe sex team sport -- everyone needs to work together to keep this industry from screwing us one customer at a time. Even baseball has rules and requires umpires. Why not automobile sales and service?
- Demand that
your newspaper editor not cave in to the industry's bullying
tactics of
retaliating against newspapers that take strong consumer supportive
editorials and reportage (see "Case(s) Against The Industry).
Request your editor support consumers regularly in his or her
newspaper's editorials.
Fluffy perfunctory rehashing of news wire stories don't count. When was the last time your editor challenged the auto industry to police itself of its shabbier side and act pro-actively and comprehensively to clean up its public image and reputation?
When was the last time your newspaper or magazine editor printed "10 good ways not to be taken for a ride by your factory authorized car dealer," or printed a warning about "unprofessional" auto sales and service practices on their Auto Classifieds pages? Trick s of the Auto Deal?
When was the last time your editor suggested that consumer protection in auto sales and service is good for business and for commerce? There is no Constitutional right to cheat customers on auto deals...!
It is unrealistic to expect average consumers to be mechanically and business savvy enough to protect themselves from "professional" auto deal and service cheats. Moreover, auto buying and selling is not a test of survival of the fittest or of Darwin's theories of natural selection. Its a matter of demanding to be treated fairly by those wielding the truncheon of the corporate privilege. If you cannot organize and plan your life to include carlessness, bring God, a prayer, and know the tricks.
When was the
last time you did anything about sham factors in auto sales and
service practices? Are you part of the car deal problem or part
of the car deal repair plan advantage? What are you waiting for?
If you wait until you buy or lease another car, it likely will
be too late, although better late than never.
- After dinging
the manufacturer and the dealer by negotiating the dealer's and the manufacturer's
profits on all new car deals, consider smiling politely, maintaining
friendly eye contact, shaking hands firmly and courteously mentioning
the superior negotiating and dealing skills of the dealership
salespersons. And politely tell the salesperson not to tell anyone
about the bad deal you got.
- Before buying, check with the Clerk of your County Court to verify small claims, bankruptcies and other formal legal claims against the dealer or manufacturer. A review of such cases may forewarn of potential problems and previous consumer issues. Avoid rewarding bad businesses.
Hunting &
Gathering:
Obtain car
dealing information from several sources before developing a strategy tailored
to your personal situation. Avoid relying on any single source
or criteria in making a purchasing decision.
- Refer to
other books,
consumer advice materials and advice (of which there are many sources at
your public library or bookstores) along with your own personal
car dealing skills, knowledge, abilities and experiences in fashioning
the best car deal strategy for your personal circumstances. Expect
the dealer of sales staff to politely and professionally bamboozle
you about the facts and figures (real issues) to consider in
making informed auto consumer decisions.
- Keep track of
changes in the marketplace, the rate of inflation and the increase from year
to year of car prices, and adjust your strategies, negotiating
tactics and final offers accordingly. Keep track of the annual
inflation rate and try to hold any auto price increases to this
rate or less,-- less your negotiated fair dealer and manufacturer
profit price, of course.
- Unfortunately,
consumers may be their own worst adversary when it comes to car
deals and consumer protection issues. What have you done lately
to improve consumer protections in the auto industry?
When was the last time you wrote a letter to your county commissioner or supervisor, your city mayor, or state or national representatives demanding FAIR CAR SALES AND SERVICE PRACTICES laws to protect consumers from the traditions of sham and unfair, manipulative sales and service practices and fraud in the auto sales and service industry?
- Consumers
have passively accepted the current state of affairs in the automobile marketplace,
without asserting necessary and legitimate consumer pressures
on pricing, quality, or customer service and without demanding
governmental intervention where it is obviously needed. Consumers
have permitted its government to pander to and to protect the
auto industry at every turn.
- There may
be other industries with similarly odious and unsavory histories, but the automobile industry stands out
among industries with public personas and reputations for tricking
the public as a traditionally expected and accepted practice.
Many costly and effective unfair and manipulative practices are
not prohibited by law, so it becomes a situation pitting the
relatively novice and easily manipulated customer against the
"professional" car dealer.
Therefore consumers need to improve and exert not only their best consuming skills, knowledge and abilities, but also to demand that government step in and help clean up the shabbier side of this industry, which has been estimated to cost our friends and families 22 billion dollars a year from fraud alone, not including the costs of unfair and manipulative sales and service practices that fall above the technical threshold of legally actionable fraud, and without factoring in the real consumer costs of industry sales and service incompetence. A billion here and a billion there, and soon we're talking real money, real money that could be put to better use than fattening the bloated and undeserving coffers of the automobile industry.
- But don't
let us talk you into or out of anything here,-- feel free to
pay too much for your next new car or to get ripped-off on quality
too, if you like (its a free country and free market economy,
right?).
Leave a big tip if you like, too. But if you do, you risk assisting
and rewarding this industry for the many tricks it has played
on our friends and families over the decades, and in inflating
prices, needlessly making it more difficult for consumers less
able or more sensitive to or sensible about price in acquiring
private transportation.
Its your money, consider not giving it away foolishly or rewarding sloth, arrogance and deceit in the automobile industry. But, also remember, its a free country, dealers are free to ask for the moon, try to make you believe they or their products are worth it, and you are free to go along for the ride or you are free to profit from the value of your business as a consumer in the Consumer Driven Car Deal, in our so called consumer driven economy.
- How much
is five minutes of often sloppy dealer paperwork after hours
of haggling worth anyway? Save as much as possible on your next new or used
car purchase (you save the most on the no-deal deal strategy)
and put it to better use for better social or personal endeavors.
Invest it for your retirement or for your children's education
or future, or donate it to worthy social or consumer charities.
A reasonable
itemization of the unit costs, including basic costs for making the
vehicle and the total profit and other costs of materials and
services built into the price of vehicle (completely itemized)
should be standard industry disclosures and might look like and
include the following:
- Production costs, including materials and assembly labor (fully itemized and certified)
- Administrative costs, including management and shareholder payouts (fully itemized and certified)
- Advertising costs (don't pay advertising costs if possible, just deduct it from your final offer, unless perhaps in the unlikely event you were served directly by the advertising in making your purchase decisions)
- Warranty costs
- Past litigation costs (list these) ( it has been reported that lawyer fees add as much or more than $500 to the cost of each automobile on balance). (This is another value-subtracted cost to avoid paying if possible - ding, ding ding-the dealer)
- Debt service costs
- New car depreciation costs (and method and period of calculation)
- Hold back for dealer (dealer profit built into the manufacturer's invoice price to the dealer for the vehicle) this is usually concealed on the mfr.'s invoice in code
- Sales incentive program fees or costs (usually offered by the manufacturer to the dealer)
- Rebate program costs (usually offered by the dealer to the consumer)
- Dealer profit
- Manufacturer profit
- Executive salaries, golden handshakes, and pensions and retirement costs
- Corporate pension plan
- Estimated average annual and "life of car" consumer purchase and operating costs (including basis of calculation)
- Liability litigation costs
- Congressional lobbying costs
- Political contributions
- Etc. (add your
criteria and information you would like to have here)
- Make sure
the itemized disclosure of vehicle costs is fully certified as
truthful and accurate by a licensed certified public accounting
firm of national
stature.
"Distrust and verify" may be the best personal policy
in dealing for cars and gathering information from the industry.
Unfortunately car dealing has not evolved much since the days
of shady horse and buggy trading. Beware the horse dealer with
one species of horse, and do not be surprised to learn from this
dealer that his only horse is just the right horse for you. Beware
the heavy dose of dealer B.S. factor.
- Verify all
representations and information to the extent possible, including merely sharing
the information with family and friends for constructive and
supportive feedback. Never buy a car on the first date (visit)
to a dealership, as this sends the wrong message and sets the
wrong consumer to dealer relationship and demeanor. Do your homework
and wait out the dealer on price. Control the deal.
With full itemized disclosures of production costs in hand, consumers can help monitor and reward efficiency and other marketplace and social values in the system through consumer purchases. Expect a lame answer from the industry until consumers force a manufacturer out in the open on the issue. The others will follow when such disclosures become a routinely recognized and expected consumer service. Expect it, demand it, get it.
The industry will resist and argue that consumers don't request this information for toothpaste and therefore are not entitled to it for automobiles. Expect the resistance and resist back. The logical answer here is that consumers should request the same information for toothpaste and other products. Don't forget too, that automobile prices are significantly higher than tooth paste, even when calculated over a lifetime of car and toothpaste purchases. Another factor to consider is that toothpaste is essentially tooth paste, and toothpaste manufacturers can compete head to head with other toothpaste manufacturers on materials and ingredients, whereas auto manufacturers enjoy trademark monopolies on make and model of vehicles they sell, effectively eliminating head to head pricing competition.
Let us know if you ever hear about anyone buying toothpaste using the services of a broker to avoid having to deal directly with the retailer. And let us know if you find a shelf full of books at your library or bookstore on how to avoid getting ripped-off by your local toothpaste or toaster dealer.
Don't buy broken-in industry arguments for hiding its inefficiencies and profit creep in auto pricing and dealing. Manufacturers and dealers are posting record profits at the expense of our friends and families. Negotiate everything. Yes, negotiate the price of toothpaste, too. The longer it stays on the shelf, the more likely the price will come down, or at least that's the way the marketplace is rumored to work under academic supply & demand models. Toasters and toothpaste you can take back for a refund if they prove unsatisfactory, but automobiles as currently marketed are for life.
Some differences
between toothpaste and automobile purchases:
1. Buying toothpaste does not require an expensive four or five
year loan.
2. No confusing "fine print" contract required for
toothpaste.
3. Toothpaste costs less. (!!!)
4. Toothpaste can be returned and replaced or refunded, no questions
asked.
5. Lemon flavored toothpaste is sweet, not sour.
6. With toothpaste, complete customer satisfaction is guaranteed
or your money back.
Etc.
- Pricing is
one of the most important factors affecting consumer demand, and it is manipulated by manufacturers,
suppliers, distributors, and dealers, yet consumers walk around
blind to important pricing factors, merely comparing incomplete
retail prices between similar or different products or brands.
Don't buy it. Demand useful and detailed background pricing information.
We live in a consumer driven economy, so jump into the driver's
seat of the consumer driven car deal! Drive a hard bargain.
Don't buy until the manufacturer and dealer jump through
your hoops and provide you the information you need in order
to make an informed pricing and quality purchasing decision.
DON'T LET THE AUTO INDUSTRY DEFINE CUSTOMER SERVICE AND SATISFACTION FOR YOU... Don't be sold on any deal. Be a shopper. Do the buying. Its your job as a consumer. Beware of the dealer sell-up. Buy only what you want and what you can afford. Repossession of vehicles is big business on the take.
- Make your
government respect your consumership in the new consumer driven economy with
tax breaks and write offs similar to those enjoyed by big business.
After all, you can consume more if you are taxed less, right?
How about 100% write offs for all personal medical and the increasing
costs of living (cost of business) under increasingly unregulated
anti-social and anti-personal capitalism. You cannot work and
earn money to pay excessive prices in the newly free traded and
globalized economy if you are sick or unless you eat and recreate
regularly. Businesses write off three martini lunches, but consumers
cannot write off basic costs of living... Democracy, what good
is it if only a minority get to use it and benefit from it?
- Leverage
the value of your business-- the value of your consumer ship, your value
as a consumer.
If the dealer respects you as a consumer and values your business,
he or she will provide you with the information and service you
require in exchange for the value of your consumer ship -- your
business, your service. Hey, its a consumer's economy, right?
However do not permit the dealer to leverage, guilt-trip or coerce
concessions in price, quality or product merely because he or
she may have provided you with materials you have reasonably
requested. If the dealer is unable or unwilling to provide you
with the materials and information you require to make an informed
consumer decision, then he or she does not value your consumership,
and you should take your business elsewhere where it is valued.
- Consider negative reportage and manufacturer and dealer reputations when rewarding car makers and dealers with your business. Consider reviewing the public court records at your City or County (call ahead for directions) Clerks office to determine issues raised by other consumers in small-claims, superior or district court actions against the manufacturer and dealer in your area before dealing and especially before closing any deal. Certify for yourself the worthiness of the dealer and manufacturer for the courtesy and reward of your business--the value of your consumership. Buy only from consumer responsive dealers and manufacturers.
- "Go
figure" your car ownership costs: (Compare this with the manufacturers'
estimate, if available and obtainable)
Do the same for your LIFETIME of car ownership and operating costs. Include insurance, license and registration, depreciation (cost of car minus trade-in-value, divided by years of ownership) and finance charge, if any. How much of your state and federal income and local property and sales taxes go to pay for highway and road construction and maintenance?
You can easily calculate your lifetime of automobile ownership costs by using the standard federal car use reimbursement figure of between $0.28 and $0.35 per mile for reimbursable personal vehicle use. This figure is an average figure. Double this figure and you begin to approach the real costs of car ownership and operations with the costs of unfair, manipulative and fraudulent sales and service practices added in. Report No. FHWA-PL-92-019 from US Dept. of Transportation, Federal Highway Administration, Office of Highway Information Management, Washington, DC 20590 gives the "Costs of Owning & Operating Automobiles, Vans and Light Trucks (1991)".
If you drive 20,000 miles a year its going to cost you approximately $7,000.00 per year, including wear and tear (depreciation), gas, insurance, debt service, maintenance, etc. If you own a car for 60 years its going to cost you approximately $420,000 (based on current calculations of standard government per diem reimbursement rates for mileage). As time passes, actual costs will be more, significantly more than the median priced American home. Note that this cost factor does not factor in the actual wear and tear and full mileage costs for operation and ownership of an automobile which is considerably more. Its is nearly twice the cost of median priced American homes. This cost does not include such economic externalities such as the costs of environmental pollution and other indirect costs of subsidizing the Great American Car Deal. These costs have been estimated variously to be from $5.15 to $15 per gallon of gasoline. Compare this to the pump price which does not reflect the full subsidized price of gasoline or automobile ownership and operation.
Parade Magazine (Jan. 26, 1977) reported that a Wisconsin based consulting firm, Runzheimer International, calculated the upkeep on the 1997 Mercedes 320S at $18,212 a year to operate. These (after purchase) costs were based on annual total fuel, oil, maintenance, tires, insurance, depreciation, financing, taxes and licensing costs. Runzheimer International reported calculated the following annual "operating" costs (keep in mind these cost do not include indirect economic costs associated with the automobile in the environment):
- Cadillac DeVille ($14,596),
- Lincoln Town Car Executive ($14,222),
- Oldsmobile Aurora ($13,266),
- Buick Riviera ($11,945),
- Ford Crown Victoria LX ($10,698)
- and
- Buick LeSabre Ltd. ($10,580).
Thus, a lifetime of Buick LeSabre Ltd. operating costs could add up to $581,900, assuming a 55 year automobile ownership lifetime (not including purchase price at X-year intervals). Your costs may vary, of course. Oh, and a 55 year automobile lifetime of ownership for the Mercedes 320S (at 1997 prices -- [factor in a 3%/year inflation rate]) would be $1,001,660. But, what's a million between friends? With interest and inflation compounding over sixty years, a considerable amount, indeed.
So, why isn't the Great American Car Deal regulated with minimum education and training requirements, testing, and licensing of dealers and mechanics like or similar to the way we regulate real estate agents? Because your government hasn't gotten your consumer message, or is ignoring it!
Using these calculations, if you drive 15,000 miles a year and own cars for 60 years at today's figures, say for $0.28 per mile of reimbursable private vehicle use costs, your consumer costs would be $252,000, again significantly more (nearly twice as much) than the median price of the American home (recently reported to be ($149,000). Actual costs, factoring in the real costs of ownership and operation including the inflationary influences of fraud, waste and abuse, is considerably more than these figures suggest.
Oh yeah, keep in mind that at least and likely much more than $256 billion of your tax dollars over the next five years will be given away as corporate welfare to profitable corporations like:
- Archer Daniels Midland
- McDonalds (to advertise its products overseas).
- Gallo Winery (to advertise their wines overseas).
- Plush Colorado Ski Resorts
- Weyerhauser
- Georgia Pacific
- Walt Disney
- Martin Marietta
- Mining Industry Interests
- National Meat Association
- Energy and Petrochemical Industries
- and many more...(Thanks for your contributions).
Why?
Because your government hasn't gotten your consumer message, or is ignoring it! Are you getting your money's worth? Some of us are, why aren't you? How long are you going to permit your "representative" government to give away your money to profitable corporate slouches like Archer Daniels Midland (ADM), to help it pay its fines for fixing prices for which it recently was found guilty.
Is it worth
it?
- "Go
figure" your car operating costs:
(Compare this with the manufacturers'' estimate, if available).
- Is it worth
it? What's
your total Lifetime per mileage cost of car ownership and operation?
Is it worth it? Would better and more efficient public transportation
serve your needs more economically. Can you reduce your per mileage
personal transportation costs by changing your car ownership
or car use habits and patterns? Not driving is the best deal.
Driving during non-peak traffic conditions is more efficient
than commute driving. Grouping chores or errands requiring vehicle
use is also a way of reducing overall per mileage car ownership
and operation costs.
- Consider
requesting that vehicle manufacturers provide written projections
of the total
cost per mile of ownership and operation of each of its vehicles
(your total cost / mile may vary), and request the manufacturer's failure
rate projections for the model of vehicle you are considering
buying and factor this into your purchasing and final offer decisions.
Manufacturers have risk assessment specialists on staff to calculate
lemon and failure rates to determine how much to ding the consumer
per vehicle to cover these anticipated costs. This failure rate
is calculated into the cost of all new vehicles. This includes
the manufacturer's costs for warranty work and replacement of
lemons. There is no good reason why, in the name of genuine customer
service, that the manufacturer should not be willing to provide
this information without request, so ask anyway. Consider not
dealing until you receive all necessary disclosures and information
in a clear and concise and useful form and content. If there
was true competition in automobile markets manufacturers would
be competing more obviously in providing consumers with value-added
information and consumer services. Instead buying a car is a
potential risky business.
- Consider
avoiding dealing until all documentation has been received in advance and reviewed completely
away from the dealership. Make this a standard practice until
dealers and manufacturers build this into their customer service
and sales practices. Obtaining the dealers home phone, address
and credit information is more easily leveraged prior to a purchase.
Consumers should require of the manufacturer and dealer the same information of the dealer and manufacturer that is required of the consumer in the transaction. This sets the proper tone and demeanor between consumer and dealer and consumer and manufacturer. It puts the consumer in the driver's seat of the Great American Car Deal where we belong. Standard loan or employee application forms may be obtained at your local stationers or business supply store.
Tailor the standard information to meet your personal needs for obtaining necessary credit and address and phone number information from dealer and manufacturer staff. Having the home phone numbers of the dealer's and manufacturer' customer service representative manager may help in resolving after-sale quality and warranty issues. Make sure you are not being sandbagged with a phone number to a business office or answering machine. Check for a published direct and active listing of the owner(s) of the dealership and for the president, sales manager, and customer service manager of the dealership in the area of location of the dealership, and of the manufacturer in the directory or from directory assistance in the area of location of the manufacturer's national headquarters. No published home phone number for the dealer or manufacturer? Why not? Its much easier to give customers the brush off when you don't have to deal with them directly, and what are dealer's for anyway?
Does Your Auto
Dealer or Manufacturer Support FAIR Car Sales and Services Practices
Legislation? Find out, and get it in writing.
- Request and
obtain a copy of the dealer's letter to its state and national
legislative representatives outlining the dealership's support and sponsorship
of local, state and national "Fair Car Sales and Services
Practices" legislation to protect consumers from unfair,
manipulative and fraudulent sales and service practices in the
industry. Look for this to be displayed conspicuously on the
dealership's "salesperson of the month" motivation
plaque display wall. Consider not buying until the dealer provides
you with a copy of such a letter and you are satisfied with its
contents and that it has been forwarded for action by the dealer's
governmental leaders.
- Distrust,
but verify. Remember,
dishonest car dealers can always become convenience shop clerks
or burger flippers at the local fast food restaurants if they
cannot make a living fairly without mistreating the public and
abusing the marketplace. This industry is making enough in profits
and is successful and powerful enough to demand and get effective
and comprehensive consumer protection -- "
FAIR CAR SALES AND SERVICE PRACTICES" (is fairness too "flipping and turning"
much...to ask?)
--legislation to protect consumers, dealers and our economy from
the expensive trickery of unfair, manipulative and fraudulent
auto sales and service practices. But they will not do this voluntarily,
and consumers are paying for it. So, make sure you are getting
your money's worth.
- Leverage
your willingness to deal with a dealer by requesting that the dealer (the owner of the dealership
on dealership letterhead) write a letter to their state and national
representative demanding Fair Car Sales and Service Protection
Legislation. Obtain a copy of the letter and forward a copy of
it to your local, state and national government officials, along
with your letter demanding same. Better yet, take a copy of your
auto consumer protection letter to your dealer with you when
you are ready to deal, and leverage the deal for dealer's signature
on the letter. Forward the letter to your government representative
after making a copy for your files.
- Don't rush
to close the deal, as this is the customer's
milking time. Is this misrepresentation or just the industry's
idea of customer service--the bumper thing? What are bumpers
for anyway? Cheap bumpers are a way for manufacturers to pass
costs downhill to consumers. A little extra in bumper protection
would save consumers in insurance premiums and deductible expenditures
for major damage caused due to minor impacts. Ding, ding, ding...Make
sure bumpers, tires and the engine are included in the base price
of the vehicle, as consumers have discovered to their dismay
that dealers have removed many items between test drive and drive-off...don't
get taken for the Great American Car deal Ride.
Rebates vs.
incentives...
- Understand the difference between sales incentives and rebates. Sales incentives are typically offered from the manufacturer to the dealer. Rebates are typically offered from the dealer to the consumer. If you request information on future rebates and the dealer or salesperson says that the manufacturer does not offer rebates, so there is unlikely to be rebates on the vehicle, this is half truthful, as rebates may not be offered by the manufacturer, but may be offered by the dealer at a later date.
Invoice? Whose
invoice?
- Dealers also
have some neat truth tricks they play with invoices. Who's invoice? Manufacturer's
invoice? Dealer's invoice? "Oh, I thought you meant my invoice?"
A dealer once went back to his price book three or four times
to get the requested "manufacturer's invoice price",
returning each time with a different and wrong answer. When tweaked
on this the following day, the dealer's sales staff indignantly
said he thought the customer had meant "his invoice."
Yeah sure. Like the dealer wouldn't know his invoice price any
better than he would know the manufacturer's price? Another dealer
even said over the phone that his sales staff would not know
the manufacturer's invoice price because he would not tell them
what it was. Yeah sure, well perhaps anyway, like the dealer
wouldn't let the sales staff know where their commission is based?
And, as if a car salesperson wouldn't have personal access to
such information? Yeah, sure. You place your trust in anything
a dealer or sales staff says or does at your own risk.
Be critical of advertising. What is the stated and unstated message and the product and the feelings or unstated products being sold / advertised? Modern advertising is psychologically associative -- associating a product or purchase with such things as "escape" from the stress and boredom or the work-a-day world or corporate culture (also sold by advertising). If one could actually buy these things the excessive price of the Great American Car Deal might be worth the price. Its just a car, and it isn't worth the price of industry advertising which lies about a product being anything more than what it is or what it will do. "Distinguish yourself, be original, be radical, be anti-establishment -- buy a car, like everyone else...? Find your own road? Duh? Its a Saab story...!
- Walk away
from gamy or rummy dealers,
let them puff their tiny egos dinging unwary consumers, old ladies
and uninitiated first or second time buyers. If you get dinged
on a deal, learn from it, consider avoiding the dealer and perhaps
the make and model of vehicle again. Unfortunately dealers and
manufacturers have contented themselves with swapping disgruntled
customers, satisfied in the status quo of current car sales practices
rather than making the entire system more consumer responsive
as most other retailers have done through Total Quality Management
practices. The auto industry will be the last to discover TQM,
especially as it might apply to sales practices.
- More good reasons
to ding the dealer and manufacturer. Carefully inspect any new or used car.
Look it over very closely in different lighting if possible.
Move the vehicle from where the dealer displays it and look it
over again. Be particularly critical of door, hood and trunk
gaps and alignment and window sealing strips -- not all new cars
are created equal -- even two vehicles from the same assembly
line on the same day may vary considerably in quality control.
Bring your own ball bearing.
Will the vehicle look and perform the same in all seasons and weather conditions.
Be particularly watchful of dealer applied pinstriping. Such detailing is often added to cover up defects or damage repairs or to draw consumers' attention away from defects, problems of less desirable aspects of the vehicle. Avoid paying extra for such detailing -- its not worth the mark-up the dealer will likely charge for it. Ditto for window tinting. And don't let the dealer "give" you anything, dealers never give customers anything -- its a taking business, and any gift is a ruse to make you feel beholden to the dealer for other aspects of the deal including the over-pricing and other dealer ding dong factors. CARveat Emptor!
Wear your Polaroid sun glasses to dim the glare of the new car shine, it'll help you find razor blade thin clear-coat cuts and scratches or other hidden finish repairs. Check along panel indentation or detail lines for evidence of refinishing marks.
- Avoid brain
surgery at muffler or oil & lube shops. These shops butter their bread on both
sides by selling unnecessary ancillary services unrelated to
the reason customers take in their vehicles. Many of the specialty
auto repair or service shops are slippery at selling unneeded
expensive services, these are where the real profits are.
Don't be oversold on any service suggestions especially just after the muffler shop has removed all your tires and they are sprawled all over the repair shop floor. Beware the neat trick of trying to sell unneeded shocks and coil springs with the excuse that brake lines might be pinched unless this service is done immediately.
Verify any such recommendation with at least three other mechanics or service shops, and compare pricing before giving the go ahead. Do not be rushed into any service decisions just because the mechanic has your vehicle torn apart on his service shop floor.
If the service is not needed, have the mechanic put the tires back on and back that sucker out of there and do not go back. If the service is needed, use the your willingness to take the vehicle to another shop as leverage to reduce or negotiate the service charges. Get at least three other appraisals from other mechanics over the phone before authorizing the work.
Remember, 'half of the cars serviced by AAMCO Transmission Centers don't need new transmissions'....?
Retail-iation
- Retaliation
is generally discussed in most comprehensive negotiating texts.
Get one and study it. If you or your family have been tricked
on a deal, and the dealer or the manufacturer is unwilling to
make the deal whole, consider retaliating in a lawful, creative
and measured way. Too often consumers just shrug their shoulders
and "eat it", or let their emotions get the best of
them and make a bad situation worse. This merely rewards the
industry for trickery and guarantees that the practices will
continue.
- If you paid
by personal check and later find that you have been dinged by
the dealer or the manufacturer consider stopping payment on the
check if possible to leverage a response to the problems. Also
consider that stopping payment on personal checks may be a violation
of state of federal laws. It may be worth it if it works to leverage
compliance with fairness standards or warranty or other sales
representations.
- Make a flyer
and make sure your library has a public consumer's folder for
consumer information and concerns...this is a team sport, folks...we
only win as a team in the Tricks of Great American Car Deal game!
Hey, two can play this game. A few dollars a month will keep
you in flyers which make great reading on bulletin boards at
laundry mats, cafes, bus stops, or just about anywhere where
people congregate or pass. Be creative within the confines of
local littering and handbill ordinances. Flyers or business sized
consumer action alerts or information grenades can be returned
with utility and credit card bill payments, or returned in postage
paid envelopes that are contained in junk or unsolicited business
mail.
Places where flyers might be well received:
Jury Duty
Bank teller & ATMs
Butcher
Church
Laundry-mat
Office bulletin board
Public events
School
Library
Elevators
Opened widows of parked cars
Conventions or trade shows
Seminars
Hotel rooms
Restrooms
The Theater
The Symphony
The Opera
Parties
Club
Etc.
- While "XYZ
Motors, Inc., Sucks," seems informative, its not news to
anyone who has gone through the demeaning rigmarole of buying
a car from a dealer, as most dealers suck. So when developing
personalized consumer alerts and flyers, be as detailed and descriptive
as possible and be as brief as possible. "Undisclosed Defects,"
"Hidden Damage Repairs," "Unreinforced Plastic
Bumpers," "Side Impact Exposed Gas Tank," "Never
Again", "My Last VW (or other manufacturer or dealer)
Mistake," followed by a contact phone number or internet
address, etc., or similar are more descriptive than merely Shyster
Motors Sucks," even though this is undoubtedly true. Give
helpful and descriptive information when possible, letting fellow
consumers know just how badly the dealer or manufacturer sucks
or bites. Distinguish dealer and manufacturer problems where
applicable. But do not let the dealer and manufacturer Ping-Pong
you back and forth when resolving legitimate consumer concerns.
They are in this Ping-Pong game together against the consumer.
Slam. Slam. Slam. Slam. Your serve.
- Send a dollar
($1.00 US) for handling and a self addressed and stamped business
sized envelope to CARveat Emptor for a Xerox ready copy of the
CARveat Emptor flyer. Make copies of the flyer and make sure others
receive a copy of it in your area or take copies of it with you
on vacation and share it with others along the way as a way of
evening up a sham deal or for just alerting others to the need
for fixing the Great American Car Deal. Helping to educate auto
consumers is a good and legal retaliative measure.
- Holding a
well advertised lemonade, lemon cookies and lemon meringue pie party or
sale outside the offending dealer or manufacturer showroom, with
the media invited along will help consumers know where to shop
more carefully or to avoid altogether. Talking to shoppers leaving
an offending dealer or manufacturer's showroom is perhaps the
most effective means of helping consumers avoid unsavory dealing
tactics. Unfortunately it is also very time consuming, but a
weekend morning or afternoon or two can do great things for your
CARma in evening up a screwy deal. This will certainly make the
dealership jittery about the effects of its deal spiel being
taken for a spin by a cheated consumer as customers return to
their cars from the dealership. Direct action is the weaponry
of the guerrilla car consumer. Do a quality and informative flyer
and go to the annual auto show in your area and distribute it
to show patrons as they line up outside.
- A recorded phone
message about quality or dealer problems or concerns will let
your friends, family and late night calling tele-marketers and
wrong number callers know of your concerns. Keep any such consumer
alert message short and to the point - look into getting an answering
machine with voice mail boxes to post such messages which can
be selected by the calling party. Choose a machine with ample
message storage capacity within each mail box.
- Copy a copy
of the free CARveat
Emptor flyer
page and take it to work and post a copy on your staff or public
bulletin board. Send one to school with the children. Leave a
copy with your bank teller, grocery clerk, toll-road toll clerk,
butcher, and etc.
Consumer alerts may be well received at:
Jury Duty
Bank teller & ATMs
Butcher
Church
Laundry-mat
Office bulletin board
Public events
School
Library
Elevators
Opened widows of parked cars
Conventions or trade shows
Seminars
Hotel rooms
Restrooms
The Theater
The Symphony
The Opera
Parties
PTA Meetings (does your school teach car buying 101?)
Bingo Games
Hotel Lobbies
Busses
Consider letting
others know about your car deal and quality mistakes and tricks that car
dealers and manufacturers have played on you, your friends, family
and associates. Only by letting the widest number of other consumers
know about the tricks of the trade will consumers be able to
avoid repeating these expensive mistakes, and will dealers and
manufacturers pay an effective price for tricky dealing and screwing
consumers.
- Add AutoBuyology
to your hot link site or recommend it for hot link listing with your
favorite web sites. Build CARveat Emptor into your e-mail signature
block as an automatic act of random kindness. Also consider creating
a website home page or subpage listing your personal vehicle
experience history. Describe problems and triumphs with deals
and with vehicle makes and models. Sticking to the facts may
help you avoid reverse harassment and or nuisance claims from
the dealer or the manufacturer, although suing customers may
be an untapped profit center for some dealers experiencing slower
showroom traffic.
Add AutoBuyology's web address to your e-mail signature block. - Consider
consulting with an attorney who specializes in auto deal or lemon
law issues.
In the end, this may be the best and quickest way, if not the
most fun way, to resolve or settle some auto deal or service
issues. Some attorneys will take good prospects on a contingency
basis. Several cheated auto consumers have reported good results
from their lemon-law attorneys. CARveat Emptor!
- Avoid foreclosing
on your options when it comes to deal dispute or problem resolutions and avoid dealing or
settling with offensive or aggressive dealers or manufacturers
unless it is to your advantage and meets your consumer values
and criteria. Avoid signing away your rights. Avoid binding arbitration
unless you are comfortable with the prospects of not having legitimate
issues addressed through the arbitration process. Take it, "or
you won't have any friends," jokingly or seriously stated
by a dealer or manufacturer or his sales or finance manager is
wholly unacceptable. Consider discontinuing negotiations at this
point and consider appropriate lawful retaliation unless you
believe you can trust the dealer to make the deal whole after
having cheated you the first time.
Any threats of physical abuse or threats against one's life or property should be reported to the police immediately. If a dealer or manufacturer cheated you, consider not entering into a quid-pro-quo resolution, where the dealer or manufacturer suggests settling the issue if you "shut-up" about the deal or product. These situations occurred with us in dealing with VW's authorized dealers. If the dealer or manufacturer screws a customer, they should make the deal whole unconditionally. Charge extra for giving up your free speech rights.
- Contact your
local or state consumer protection agency for assistance in resolving disputed
service or sales issues. Request that a case or claim be opened
against the dealer or manufacturer.
- If all else
fails consider alternative lawful measures including signs, faxes, flyers, business
or smaller sized consumer alert cards, etc. Ready to apply
(RTA) pre-cut vinyl self-adhesive window signs can be purchased
at FASTSIGNS (©) or other self adhesive lettering or retail
sign outlets in the yellow pages and easily applied to vehicles
for advertising consumer alerts, warnings or notices to others.
Be creative, truthful and as briefly detailed as possible for
the best effect in such messages. Stay on message. Engage a resume
or word processing service or use the graphic professionals at
KINKO's to help if necessary in developing an effective flyer,
graphic or logo, or vehicle sign system.
- A simple self-sticking
lettered strip such as "Never Again" or "My Last
VW (or Chrysler, GM, Volvo, BMW, etc., car dealer's name) Mistake"
in the area of the dealer's monogrammed license plate frame (front
and back), or in larger contrasted lettering on the rear window
(don't block visibility) would clearly indicate to others a customer's
dissatisfaction with a particular dealer's treatment or vehicle
quality. If undisclosed defects are an issue, a self-adhesive
lettered window or vehicle sign so stating, including the undisclosed
defects would help others avoid similar mistakes. A phone number
or internet or home page address would permit others to contact
a consumer for more details or to hear a pre-recorded message
about the dealer, the manufacturer, or the vehicle.
- Consider going
to an annual Auto Show in your area or nearby city. Take 5000
or more copies of your well crafted consumer alert flyer (use
ours) and hand these out to Show visitors as they line up for
entrance and encourage them to share the information with friends
and family. Make sure you include a note to share the info, as
some people forget or fail to understand that repairing the American
car deal is a team effort.
- Supporting
consumer agencies or non-profits is good for one's CARma and future car
dealing success.
Practice random acts of kindness. Share CARveat Emptor with everyone. - Tell others
about CARveat Emptor and how to find us.
Illegal Retaliation
(Punishable by law, if caught),-- Costs are Usually Passed Down
the Road to Future Consumers by Dealers (So do not try these
at home or at your local friendly factory "authorized"
dealer.
Illegal retaliation
or over-reaction generally reflects the tendency of consumers
to overvalue the automobile and thus pay too much, and therefore
react extraproportionately to that overvaluing... you likely
will get screwed in addition to paying too much, either on quality
or product, etc... but its still only a car... so don't overvalue
it and don't over pay for it, and don't over-react when you get
what everyone expects -- screwed on another car deal...An example
of overvaluing and resultant over-reaction associated with auto
ownership may be reflected in the real life story reported where
a homeless person was shot and killed by an auto (BMW) owner
who became irate when he returned to this street parked car to
find the homeless person leaning against it. The BMW owner is
now overvaluing his BMW from behind bars for committing manslaughter.
For our money, no car or screwy car deal is worth killing or
hurting anyone over.
- In New York
State last year a dealer discovered that a bulldozer left on
an adjacent construction lot by a construction crew had "accidentally"
been started and aimed to roll over a line of 11 new Oldsmobiles.
Flattened them all. Coincidental? Perhaps.
- Scratching the
finish of dealership inventory (sometimes known as keying a car,
or the more fashionable: Razor blade thin (Exacto blade) micro-fine
clearcoat scratch that only shows up weeks or months after sale
when the clearcoat opens up
- Removing antennas
from dealership inventory
- Spray painting
graffiti on dealership inventory or buildings
- Deflating or
puncturing tires on dealership inventory
- Other vandalism
of dealership inventory
- Physically or
verbally intimidating dealership staff
- Shooting, beating
or maiming dealership staff (unfortunately this actually happens
from time to time - when irate consumers over-react and take
extreme action over "its just an overpriced and overvalued
car" (consider lawful and legal measures instead which offer
greater satisfaction mileage and less potential for personal
down-time in jail or on death row [no car dealer, no matter how
scummy is worth going to jail for] --trust us on this one, go
legal in any retaliation, its more fun and potentially far more
effective if done well and creatively!)
- A friend once
related how her husband took a car back after buying it after
a real hard sell job including several grounding techniques and
lots of coffee. After a heated exchange including pulling on
the salesman's tie, they were able to have the deal annulled.
Do not try this at home.
- On a recent
trip, it was learned that a Corvette owner who was not satisfied
with the quality of the product and service found himself out
in the wilds near a steep cliff with a coincidental flat tire,
and low and behold while changing the flat, it rolled hundreds
of feet down the cliff after slipping off the jack. Apparently
the insurance company replaced the vehicle which the dealer and
manufacturer would not.
- Some disgruntled
auto buyers have taken it upon themselves to have a "smashing
good time" in bringing public attention to their lemon vehicles
and lemon deals... by taking their unserviceable lemons back
to the dealer and smashing it with sledge hammers, some offering
the honor of a few blows to passersbys or willing onlookers.
Consider these
consumer tricks on your next or future car deals:
- Use "System
Buying"
(System Selling shifted and driven in reverse) techniques to
keep the dealer focused on valuing the value of consumers. Shift
System Selling techniques into reverse and back up the dealer
into a corner using your "System Buying" techniques.
When the dealer asks what he can do to make the deal for you,
merely suggest that he meet your request for fair pricing, quality
and service. Then, don't let the bugger talk you out of obtaining
these simple consumer oriented deal items.
Hold on to the keys of your old car if you are trading it in. Never, under any circumstances, give your keys to the dealer until you are really ready to drive the new car away -- as this will make escaping a "good deal gone bad," much easier. Don't give up your keys for any reason, even to the dealer to have the vehicle "appraised". Hang on to your old car keys until the deal is done and over with. Do not under any circumstances let a new or used car dealer talk you out of your old car keys until you are ready to drive the new car off the lot after signing the contract. Giving up your keys leaves a consumer at a negotiating disadvantage and lessens one's stature as a consumer in the dealer / consumer dynamic. Keeping your keys gives you leverage right up to the point of driving the new car off the lot.
If the deal goes sour, or if you discover that the dealer has sucked the gas tank dry or removed trim, bumper or other items, you still have your keys and can drive away in your old car. Don't give up your keys under any circumstances. Use you keys as the final act of the transaction, after you have signed the papers. This also establishes the proper customer to dealer rapport, demeanor and relationship. Keep your keys and control the deal.
- Avoid buying
new models first year out - wait for design and quality bugs to be found
and worked out before making a poor investment in a new product. Check the 1-800-424-9393
NHTSA car safety report service before buying any car, but
especially newer models. Find out what problems others are reporting
about a make and model of vehicle before plunking down excessive
dealer and manufacturer profits. Use these reports to negotiate
lower dealer and manufacturer profits. These reports represent
a consumer's track record with various makes and models of vehicles.
- Negotiate
the dealer's profit on all new car deals, including so called "value priced"
and no-dicker deals. Make your final offer after complete research
and comparison shopping, leave your phone number and walk or
fly if necessary, until the dealer talks.
- Negotiate
a consumer's lemon law into each deal. Just have the dealer and the manufacturer put in
writing the consumer conditions you require for the replacement
of the vehicle should it turn out to be unserviceable after purchase
or fail to perform as you believe it should or expect it to at
the time of purchase.
Lemon laws are good as far as they go, but typically the definition of "lemon" favors the industry and not the customer, and some arbitration programs only have to "consider" the law instead of enforcing the letter of the law. Negotiate everything in leveraging a good consumer deal. And remember you are on your own in enforcing a written guarantee and any lemon law. Many dealers and manufactures require consumers to jump through a series of hoops before responding to legitimate consumer interests as a matter of simply postponing warranty repairs or costs to the dealer or manufacturer.
Get the consumer negotiated deal in writing up front on every deal. Leverage the value of your consumership. Don't be surprised after sale when the auto manufacturer is trying to raise capital for a pet project or to reward shareholders to find a downward pressure (the squeeze) passed on to dealers to dampen warranty services.
Manufacturers exercise considerable latitude in honoring warranties. Look for hidden warranties. Often, emission or pollution control devices or fuel distribution system parts may be required to be warranted for a longer period of time than standard warranties.
Why A FEDERAL LEMON LAW Is Needed:
- Because State
lemon-laws are often unenforceable intra-state let alone across
state lines.
Moving to a new state? Will your lemony lemon-law migrate with
you? Buying a car in a neighboring state? Negotiate a signed
lemon-replacement agreement with your manufacturer (dealers don't
count) in writing and notarized in triplicate (FROM THE MANUFACTURER
!!!).
- Charge a
consumer's profit on all purchases (negotiate a lower price). Value the value of your
business--your consumership and make the dealer value you as
a consumer.
- Change the
control dynamic between consumer and dealer, shifting the emphasis to the consumer where it
belongs in a consumer driven economy. Don't let the dealer guilt-trip
or otherwise manipulate you into or in a deal. Remind the dealer
when the salesperson attempts to focus your attention on one
or another particular aspect of the vehicle or deal which you
may have expressed an interest in, that your business--your consumership
is the product or service in the transaction and continue to
ask the salesperson whether the dealer values you as a consumer--values
your consumership. When the salesperson broken-records, "what
can we do to sell you this car," merely reply and repeat
(broken record) as often as it takes, the consumer's broken-record,
"meet my price and quality expectations and needs for fairness
in pricing and quality assurance.
Study "Guerrilla Selling," and become a Guerrilla Consumer. - Deal with
the dealer's sales manager if possible to avoid being flip-flopped
between salespersons and management. You may find that the dealership has
several sales managers upon your request to see the sales manager.
If so, consider walking out of the dealership to another one
where there is only one sales manager who has authority to price
and sell cars without chasing you or his boss around Robin Hood's
barn to close a deal. This is called "flipping and turning,"
and many unaware consumers fall for this slick dirty little car
deal trick. Its sole purpose is to keep consumers off guard and
confused about pricing and from focusing on the consumer's best
interests, the bottom line. Keep your eye on it, and if you cannot
find it, don't buy it.
- Avoid time
limited deals
- any good deal should not be hurried. Don't suck on 0% down, no interest deals.
Re-envision advertising claims to reflect the reality of the
product and the deal. Visit an auto junk or body repair shop
before buying for a balanced perspective.
Industry advertising (you paid for it) notwithstanding, no new car will make your sex life better, make you happier, make you more powerful, make you more likable or loved or give you more control over life's difficulties or uncertainties as many advertisements suggest. (In fact, many car deals and cars have actually made many a personal situation or problem worse.) Sadly, no new car can do this, regardless of the stupidity of advertising which is psychologically researched and designed to push consumers' hot buttons of human needs for feelings and needs for power and control and social acceptance and inclusion in what has become an increasingly impersonal, chaotic and out of control world. Advertising and the corporatization or depersonalizing of our culture seeks to dispossess people of their needs, and sell these back at a profit. Clever, eh?
Don't buy it, don't pay for garbage advertising, it provides no value to you as a consumer. Be wary of the suggestion that a vehicle is in limited supply. Often this is stated to manipulate a sale regardless of its verifiability or truthfulness. A similar ruse is to suggest that the vehicle may be difficult to get, which is merely another sales trick to generate or increase a psychological interest or demand for the product.
Note how advertising tries to associate fulfillment of human needs with the acquisition of a product. No matter how wealthy you are, you cannot buy love, power, or control, and even if you could, you shouldn't pay more than they are worth.
Honda is currently advertising "simplicity" with its vehicles. Five years of car payments, and the risk of a Honda lemon is hardly a mater of simplicity, and neither is the complicated technology which can take days or weeks to diagnose when it malfunctions. Simplicity, eh? What price, simplicity?
- Avoid being
sold. Question and be skeptical of all sales representations
and advertisement claims. Read, "The Tangled Web They
Weave: Truth Falsity and Advertisers," by Ivan Preston (at
your library or bookstore--tells consumers how to find the truthful
lies in slippery slope of advertising).
- Obtain a
copy of the transport report/receipt from the trucking company
that shipped the car to the dealer from the car maker's factory
or distributor to the dealer before buying. Be very careful of purchases of vehicles
traded between dealers for undisclosed defects, damages, or hidden
damage repairs. Obtain and verify full documentation of all mileage,
transportation and use or test driving of all new vehicles. Remember
vehicle claimed to have been "executive" vehicles,
may have been abused rental or leased cars.
- Keep in mind
that even if the odometer has not been tampered with, mileage readings
do not tell you the whole story of the use of a vehicle,
like how long it may have been used in commute traffic. An engine
clock would be helpful to consumers in this regard, but don't
hold your breath, for the auto industry to add one for your convenience.
Mileage does not reveal how the vehicle has been driven or treated or maintained either, nor does it give you the maximum engine temperature, maximum speed the vehicle has been driven, or other extreme occurrence measurements which would assist consumers in "valuing" vehicle purchases. It does not tell you whether the vehicle has been abused during test driving. Often new cars are supposed to be driven carefully for the first 500 to 1500 miles or more for break-in purposes.
Brakes are especially susceptible to damage by improper test driving or emergency stops during the break-in period. These are other good reasons for deducting the new car depreciation costs for all new cars. Remember, most manufacturer warranty maintenance is done at consumer expense. Find out how much this will cost and compare costs for warranty maintenance between dealers.
Consider negotiating dealer or manufacturer responsibility for all maintenance during the manufacturer's warranty period or the term (length) of your auto loan or lease. Consider negotiating an extended manufacturer's warranty as a condition for the deal -- what's "value priced" mean anyway?
Verify past complaints against the dealer and manufacturer with the BBB, Departments of Motor Vehicles, State and County Consumer Affairs Agencies, etc., before rewarding a dealer with your business. Keep in mind that generally the BBB currently will not divulge useful information about consumer complaints about a dealer -- so what good is it unless the dealer and manufacturer release this information to consumers in writing? Get this release up front before dealing along with all of the other information you have check listed in your deal pre-planning. Leverage your business, and don't let any concession be used to coerce you into a deal. Walk or fly until your are completely comfortable with the dealer, the price and the product and service.
- Demand that
the BBB rewrite
its agreements and
memberships with dealers and manufacturers to include full disclosures
of all complaints filed against dealers and manufacturers. An
unconditional membership fee seems like a rather poor qualification
for membership in an organization that suggests by its name that
consumer protection is its most important commodity.
- Check county
court records for
small claims and civil actions brought by other consumers, and check
the bankruptcy court records for any indication of financial
problems with the dealership.
GM's recent (mid-1996) employee strike in Canada is effecting US production and parts supplies. Heads up! Steer clear? Chrysler is currently experiencing labor strikes (April/May 1997). Watch out for downstream quality problem spill-over. Shop defensively.
- Obtain from
the manufacturer
or estimate all value-subtracted costs the manufacturer builds
into the invoice price of the vehicle. Estimate and deduct costs for liability
litigation for shoddy products the manufacturer should have addressed
through design engineering. Estimate and deduct advertising costs
the manufacturer adds to the cost of every car. Estimate and
deduct costs the manufacturer tries to recover from consumers
for its congressional lobbying efforts to kill, postpone or water
down value-added consumer and environmental protection and safety
laws.
The manufacturers and dealers, who have the resources and means to repair the Great American Car Deal have chosen instead to maintain the status quo, where unwary consumers are often dinged on product quality and price through the employment of unfair, manipulative and sometimes fraudulent sales and service practices. Yet the industry has done diddley nada squat (aside from industry serving advertising) to improve its reputation or the system, opting instead to ding customers through so called 'value priced" or no-dicker deals...where everyone merely pays too much more or less equally. You call that customer service, eh? You've perhaps seen the ad in major magazine media, touting the industry's so called response to consumer discontent with the industry, buy suggesting that haggling over price is the major consumer concern.
Its interesting that the industry would try to persuade consumers with advertising about the nature of the industry's public relations problems...this is just more advertising SOP to make consumers think that things have changed when in fact the Great American Car Deal remains the sham it has been since the first automobile was produced on January 18, 1886. Well, more likely since the days before camel trading.
- Be wary of
the new national car deal chain dealerships (the McDonalds of car dealerships) that
are cropping up such as AutoNation (known locally by various
names).
These dealerships offer checklists (they have filled out the
checklists in advance) and offer minimal warranties to grease
deals and move units off the lot. Have any new or used vehicle,
regardless of where it is purchased, checked over completely
by an independent car assessment or inspection mechanic and body
shop before buying. Save yourself the trouble and uncertainty
and just do this, and ding the dealer and the manufacturer by
back charging the amount of the costs of the inspections from
your final offer to the dealer. These new car dealership chains
suggest that consumers should be able to safely buy a car during
lunch hour. Dream on, folks, and count your fingers and toes
after shaking hands on all car deals.
- Remember
to negotiate the manufacturer's profit on all new car deals, especially so
called value price or no-haggle deals. Make your offer after
doing your pricing research, and walk until the dealer talks
if necessary.
- Chrysler
laundered lemons,
hundreds of then in Pennsylvania, New York and California, without disclosing prior
use, defects, damage or repairs, to second purchasers. General
Motor was caught and charged with laundering 50 lemons through
31 San Francisco Bay Area GM Dealers. Some of theses "cars"
reportedly contained mechanical defects which could not be repaired.
Some of the defects involved safety issues, such as brakes. Feeling
lucky?
Public resources should not be used to reward these sham practices and to help these companies pay for the token fines imposed by timid, underfunded and understaffed consumer protection agencies. Make sure your local, state and federal governments are not rewarding unfair, manipulative, and fraudulent sales and service practices in the auto industry.
- As many as
50,000 lemons or more,
are repurchased by manufacturers every year and resold, often
repeatedly,
and all too often without labeling or disclosure of serious defects
or repairs. Thousands of more vehicles miss becoming technically
lemons by one repair job or because owners fail to enforce the
lemon law.
- Reduce your
insurance deductible
to defray any costs associated with pre-sale defects, damages
or hidden repairs discovered after sale for which the dealer and manufacturer
deny responsibility. Deduct the additional costs of the lowered
deductible from your final offer for the vehicle.
- Request that
the manufacturer provide you with a three, four, five, ten, fifteen and
twenty year computerized aging progression image or "morfed"
image of the vehicle as a means of judging the vehicle's appearance
and potential resale value over various periods of time. This information will
be much more useful than a ball bearing rolling down the grooves
between the hood and fender of a "new" or recently
assembled vehicle. Also request computer modeled collision impact
images based on common and worse case crash scenarios with respective
cost estimates for repairs.
- Require the
dealer and manufacturer to price in advance the costs of all scheduled
warranty and on-going maintenance costs. And keep in mind that those new vehicles
which supposedly can go 100,000 miles without a tune-up or oil
change break down and sometimes turn a lemony shade of sour yellow
after purchase, well before the 100,000 mile post.
Focus on the important stuff (how much is this mistake costing me, we, us) and don't fall into the dealer's trap of romanticizing the "best case scenarios" (a natural thing to do when under the spell of the "new car deal buzz"), as every make and model of vehicle has its share of quality control problems, yes even those overpriced Lexuses. Those "100,000 mile, no (SCHEDULED!) maintenance vehicles" can be just as sour or sourer than the other lemons on the lot.
- If your state requires license plates on both the front and back of the vehicle and the vehicle is designed to receive only one plate and especially if the dealer has installed only one license plate mount, ask yourself what else the manufacturer may have forgotten. How do you feel about a license place being screwed to the front bumper through the plastic because the manufacturer forgot to design or provide a front license plate mount, or the dealer chose to save a dollar by not installing one? You pay the fine, not the dealer or manufacturer, and the costs for installing a plate mount after sale.
Signs of Voting
Dummies On-board!, ... and Life on Mars?
- If the dealer
provides license plate mount frames, request generic plate mounts without
the dealer's name and phone number franked on them if possible,
or request that the dealer pay you for driving around advertising
his or her business. This may seem like a small or insignificant
issue, but it speaks volumes about the relationship consumers
permit the dealers to define between consumers and the auto industry.
See if reverse works, after adjusting the rear view mirror, of
course. Buckle up, and drive your hard bargain safely.
- And by all means, if a dealer mistreats
you, do not drive around with the dealer's name and phone
number emblazoned on the front and rear of your car, for
free at your expense -- yes, you paid for it. Remove the license
place frame and replace it or go without one, or you can paint
or tape over the name of the dealership in some cases (avoid
over-spraying). Remove the plate frames and replace them with
generic or other engraved plate frames available from your alma
mata.
- Driving around with the dealer's monogrammed
license plate frames on your car is generally reflective of a
non-assertive consumer working for the dealership for no remuneration
-- stupid, very stupid. Unless the dealer is paying you for the service,
take them off and replace them as soon as possible. Does the
dealer drive around with your name on his or her vehicle, advertising
the value of your consumership, for free? Do what the dealer
does. Give the dealer the dealer's treatment. Treat the dealer
like dealers have treated consumers for fun and profit for decades
over the last century.
- Dealers are
reported
to have an inventory incentive to move units on a monthly basis
and may try to increase their monthly unit sales by accepting
a better consumer deal near the end of the month. Try to avoid
buying over the seasonal holidays of Christmas and New Years.
Dealers often try to reduce inventory before new model vehicles
are due out around October of each year. New model cars are usually
out in October or thereabouts. Dealers may accept better consumer
deals nearer the time when they are expecting the new vehicle
model shipments from the manufacturers. Consumers will have to
negotiate fiercely whenever they deal to get the best consumer
deal. Expect this and build this into your consumer demeanor
and strategy. Expect dealers to deny or to spin or even to admit
to much of the material contained in this and other web sites
and in the various books about typical dealer practices.
Studies likely would show that quality control problems grow during union or labor unrest. (This has been alleged and denied during the year 2000 Ford/Firestone Tired Recall--that the quality problems of the tires resulted from hiring inexperienced scabs to replace striking employees). Keep an eye on the business pages of your local newspaper for indications of labor / management problems. When a manufacturer experiences labor unrest deal very carefully for vehicles built before, during and for a period after labor / management dispute resolutions. CARveat Emptor! Personally, I'd avoid buying from a manufacturer during and labor dispute resolution period and for a least six months following resolution of the issues. At the very least use reports of labor unrest as a bargaining chip in negotiating better pricing and better warranties and deal extras. Go for it? Expect dealers to use real or invented inventory shortages during employee disturbances to increase demand and prices. Don't buy it. Walk. Wait. Walk. Wait. Walk. Wait.
- When leasing (not advised,-- dealers/mfrs
win, consumers lose) your next new car, be careful to have the
dealer quote in writing (have it notarized) the rate of interest
you are paying on the lease or the lease rate or what it costs
you to lease the vehicle, the total costs for the lease, and
any costs for premature return, and the buyout of the lease costs
upfront -- get these in writing. A good way to proceed with lease
negotiations is to ask the dealer (and verify) the difference
in total costs between leasing and buying the vehicle outright.
If you don't mind paying for maintenance, excess mileage, and
other hidden lease costs, and typically hold onto your vehicles
for less than three to four years, leasing may be acceptable
to you... but buying and holding is still the best way to go
from a consumer point of view... and you may as well think about
taking advantage of this strategy, as long as the auto industry
permits it... or buy used, carefully, or opt out of the car deal
deal altogether and pocket the change and invest it with compounding
interest for a better retirement...
©AutoBuyology©
CARveat Emptor - Tricks of the Great American Car Deal
(e-mail: AutoBuyologist)
© copyright 1995-2006, R. Rand Knox. All Rights Reserved.
Not for use, reuse, sale, resale or fee unless so licensed or released
by R. Rand Knox in writing.
Happy motoring, wheeling and dealing,
-- virtually and really.
What's In You?
What's
In Your
Cells?
GOT ASTHMA? Yet?
GOT WAR FOR OIL?
GOT TOXIC LOADING?
GOT GLOBAL WARMING?
GOT EXPENSIVE FOSSIL FUELS?
Have you told your auto maker, or the
auto industry to make more efficient and cleaner-air vehicles?
Recently?
(Flyer
to copy and post). Have you asked others if they have? It wouldn;t
kill you to do so! It may even help prevent or reduce asthma
and global warming.
Help Save Your Breath, Life, Money &
Planet (The
breath, life, money and planet you save may be your own.)
For Healthier
Air, Planet, & People: To Save Y'our Breath, Lives, Money
& Planet...
Tell Car Makers To Make
Cleaner-Air Vehicles
1
Jump Start Ford For A Cleaner-air Future
2 Jump Start Ford
Tell
NHTSA to Improve Fuel Efficiency of SUVs
Tell
Car Makers To Get Their Gas In Gear Flyer 2-up
Save Your Breath, Life, Money
& Planet Flyer 1-up
Don't
Be A Fossil Fool - Fossil Fools Day
Help
Save Your Breath, Life, Money & Planet (The breath, life,
money and planet you save may be your own.)
Car Deal Literacy Self-help - Auto Consumer Resources:
Troop
Support - Up-armored Car Deals
Real Conservatives Conserve (The money you save
may be your own.)
Real
Government
Reformrnment Reform
