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People ask me all the time "is this a good deal on this car?"
What makes me the “expert” you ask?
In high school when the other kids were skipping classes to party, go shopping or blow time kissing and stuff, I was out car shopping.(hey! Everyone gets their kicks their own way.) test driving and comparing.
And just for fun I decided to go and work at a car dealership. That’s right, a car salesman! Open shirt, hairy chest, leather pants and gold chains abound! This is not really true of course, but that’s probably the most widely accepted image of a car salesman we all hold in our minds.
I got so good that I was able to sell a car over the phone to people before they even had a look at what they were buying. And no greasy hair and slick talk to go with that.
Doing all this, I managed to learn a few things here and there.
Let me set you straight.
You are now dealing with highly motivated, well dressed, and very well educated professionals. Car sales have been around long enough now that the dealers have created entire schools based on the behaviors of the people that walk on the lot.
Enter the product advisor. Everyone who comes through those doors wants a ‘price’. What most people don’t understand is that you are not there for a ‘price’; you are there for a car.
Actually that’s not quite true either, 95% of people are there to find someone they trust.
Let me put it this way: you don’t know anything about cars, you don’t know what it costs to build one, you don’t know where the steel comes from, the tires, the oil, or that really fancy mp3/cd/radio with 11 speakers comes from either. You don’t even know what kind of car you should be buying. You probably don’t even now who built it!
The product advisor does.
If he has the car you want and it is what you asked for, you will buy it right? Ha! We all think so, but sadly he now must earn his money by building enough of a rapport with you that you will want to part with your money.
Trust.
You see, most people immediately walk through those doors and think that they are about to be taken for a ride or will be given the shaft or won’t get what they paid for.
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There have been a few unscrupulous individuals peppered throughout the industry and we all get painted with the same brush because of some else’s misdeeds.
When I wrote my exam for my AMVIC license, I immediately wished people would fork out the 200 dollars for the course to get educated about car sales in the 21st century. It’ll open your eyes a little. It would save them a lot of pain and headache.
The salesmen are now watching the salesmen to ensure that unscrupulous people are found and dealt with BEFORE they make it to a dealership.
A product advisor (salesman) is there to HELP you get what really want.
The product advisor is only there to help you find the car that meets your needs. The price is decided by the Sales Manager.
The Sales Manager handles the money. He knows what is being paid for the car and how much room is left for commissions. The salesman is actually there to help you get your car at the price you want .
Everyone thinks you have to haggle over the price.
 When I buy a car the price is the price, and I will pay the full price because I will make that salesman work for it. I know what I want and he will get it for me. I pay for service.
It is a service industry after all. I consider paying full price the ‘tip’, it says: you did good and worked hard, thank you. You deserve it.
Go down to your local Walmart and haggle over the price of the chips, or the pens and paper, or the bath towels. Do ask them to knock the price down? You sure as hell don’t get any service there either. And when you get a waiter or waitress that does a really good job do you tip? Let’s talk about how much room you have to haggle in the price. I love this because this is where I get to stick it to the domestics! On an import car or dealer (other than Mitsubishi and Suzuki) the room to move in the price is about equal to the GST and that’s it. Remember that the salesman’s commission is only about 30% of that and he has kids to feed at home. And what about domestics? You know Ford, GM, Dodge…those guys, well they have almost triple that in their mark-up. |
Huh? Really? Yes, I said almost triple. The higher the price, the more they have room to move. Truck to truck they have about 10-15 thousand in room to play. Imports less than half of that. Remember: you get what you pay for!
I strongly believe that, other than a few exceptions, domestics have always been a substandard product. Go and sit in an Audi, and then go and sit in a
Go to any third world country and guess what they are driving?
A Toyota most likely.
In a place where there are no service stations or dealerships and the trucks and cars just keep on going.
 Just look at GM, dying, dying, and dying, with Ford right behind…. Keep pumping out overpriced crap and it comes back to haunt you.
most people buy domestic because they are cheaper. did you know the gm or ford dealer is still making a killing on that truck?
Finally:
Do cars cost less in Wetaskiwin?
Every dealer pays the SAME ‘wholesale’ price for each car. Every dealer, no exceptions. So no, cars cost the same in Wetaskiwin as they do in Fort Mc Murray as they do in
Next time you go ‘car’ shopping; look for a salesman you can connect with. Make sure he is asking the right questions to get you what you want. he will work hard if you give him the chance, after all that’s why he is there. A carsalesman’s life is not full of glamour and prestige, it’s full of people who just want to help people. Haggle all you want, but remember: You get what you pay for!
Ryan Ossevorth,
Director Import Only magazine. |
