Auto Trends

In the last blog post we spoke about how to spot a poor dealership within the first 30 seconds of driving on the lot. But sometimes a dealership may look good from appearance… but not be so good in service and negotiation. You may also have liked a car on their lot so much that you were willing to look past some of the early visual warning signs.

In such a case, here are 5 more warning signs that a dealership may not be conducive to your good health, both physically and financially:

No clear prices written on the vehicles- This is a big warning sign for a dealership that likes to try their hand of controlling the entire situation in hopes of controlling your final decisions. The idea is to take away your option of “just looking”. You can’t just look around this type of dealership without a salesperson, and they have set it up this way on purpose. The minute you like something they ask you to follow them inside and that’s were the grilling and interrogation starts. Add another five years onto your life and avoid this.

Controlling salespeople- This one is sometimes hard to catch, because it isn’t exactly like what you have seen in the movies. The real professionals are actually very friendly and appear to really be interested in helping you get a good deal on a car. They will immediately take control of the situation and guide you through the lot. In effect, they are testing the waters with how much influence they can have over your decision. Don’t let them control the situation. This is one time in life when you don’t want to be too courteous. Don’t follow them, they should be following you! They can follow you right to your old car and watch you drive away!

The Bait and Switch- The Internet has brought about a new way to promote the infamous bait and switch, which has been used for centuries. This occurs when you shopping through an online dealerships inventory (as so many people do these days) and come across the perfect car at an affordable price. You excitedly head down to the dealer to get a look at the automobile, but when you get there, it suddenly isn’t there anymore. But that’s okay… because they have another great model “just over here”. And thus the old switcheroo strikes again! Don’t waste your time, just walk away!

The turnover technique- This phrase is in reference to one of the age old dealerships of wearing down their customers so that they will just buy the darn car so that everyone will leave them alone. This begins innocently enough with one friendly salesperson, then a new one with a different style will subtly take over, followed by another, then another, and so on until they gang up, get you in that corner with the only way out being through a pen and a dotted line. This is no way to make an informed decision for yourself, get out of there before the second salesperson shakes your hand.

Stalling- This is the grand daddy of them all and comes in so many forms it would be nearly impossible to mention them all here without subjecting you to the very same treatment as this tactic suggests. Just as the word describes, this type of dealership will do anything to wear you down to the point where you are sick and tired of shopping for a car and just want to buy one to get the whole process over with. You can tell this type of arrangement immediately when they disappear several times to check on a price, evaluate your trade-in, can’t find the manager, etc.

Make sure that when they finally get back to you that you are long gone down the road to another dealership. For this very reason we advise that you never let them hold your keys to your trade-in until the deal is done. You may even want to bring an extra set of keys in case they play the old “we lost your keys” bit. Not many dealerships are hard up enough to embarrass themselves with this little sweetheart, but every now and then you hear of someone who actually had that tactic pulled on them.

Buying a car is not always a very pleasant experience, but it is your money and you should be the one in the drivers seat through the whole process. The minute you feel yourself losing control, is the very minute that you need to get up and leave. You can always come back and they will probably have an even better deal for you when you do!

Why 30 seconds?

Well as most of you know, this is about the maximum time that you have before the vultures leap on you, lather on the grease, and squeeze you through their doors to negotiate a deal! The key is to evaluate a potential dealership quickly and decide if you even want to look at their cars, much less deal with their employees and manager.

Here is a short list of 5 things you should be aware of before you even out one foot outside the car door:

Are they a good standing member with the (BBB) Better business Bureau?

-Here is a great step you can do before even getting in your car to head to a dealer. Do a quick search on the BBB website to find out if they have a good track record with their previous customers. The BBB can be a fantastic source to find good business, and it is a shame that not more consumers use this free service enough.

Does it have any cars you are interested in?

-This may sound overly simple, but not every dealership has the same cars on inventory. In fact, the better dealership is, the more customers that have bought from them, the better the inventory they will have. A dealership with a poor inventory is usually a danger sign for a dealership who is low on sales numbers for one reason or another… and this means that the pressure that is on them, is going to be transfered to you. Not a fun experience, so you would be best to move on down the road to the next dealership.

Does it have an overabundance of “Deals” advertised on their lot and in the windows?

-Dealerships can use all sorts of deals to get you in the door. The problem with them is they often cloud the real underlining deal with “free gas for the summer,” “0% Interest,” or any other of this sort of jargon. You are there to buy a car, not purchase a $100 gas card, or get approved for a $50,000 car loan. Keep it simple, and go for the dealerships with the same philosophy.

Are there a big group of sales folk hanging outside of the building ready to pounce?

-You would think they would know better by now, but there are still a lot of dealerships with a sales force that stand outside of the door waiting for their next prey. The worst of these is the ones who no sooner you put your foot out the car door, they are already on their way up to greet you. This is when you turn back around, get in your car, and head over to the next dealership. Unless you are in the mood to deal with a pushy salesperson with a bag of tricks Santa’s reindeer would have a hard time pulling, you’d be better off somewhere else.

Are you the only customer there?

-While not always a great indicator (especially in todays economy), an empty lot may be a sign of several folks who perhaps know something that you don’t. If any of the other danger signs are apparent with the addition of no customers, it may very well be worth your time to spend it at a dealership on down the road.

Who would have thought 10 years ago that we would have fallen so far as to have gas as the reason we would buy a car. We have Chrysler and their $2.99 a gallon for three years and Suzuki and their Free gas for the Summer Sales Event.

As their advertisement says:

“FREE GAS FOR SUMMER with 0% financing. It doesn’t get much better than this.”

Well, I don’t know if we’d say that. If they were really were giving away all the gas you could use for the summer that would be pretty cool… but their not!

What they forgot to include is the very fine print. Everybody is giving rebates this time of the year and Suzuki is trying to disguise theirs in the form of a prepaid card that you can buy gas with.

Unlimited card for three months?

No, sorry… try more like $320 for a SX4 Sedan, $355 for a Reno, SX4 Crossover, and Forenza ($370 for the wagon). Onwards to the BIG savings… $450 for the XL7, and finally $470 for the Grand Vitara.

Let’s see, if we calculate a summer of upwards of $4.00/gallon… you might have a months worth of gas at best… and that’s not counting any trips to Suzuki to complain about your card not working at certain gas stations.

Now we’re not saying that THESE particular cards won’t work… but from experience with such prepaid cards, they are usually a pain in the rump to deal with and half the stores you try to use them at, you end up in front of the line of 10 other customers behind you while the attendant is calling for the manager to figure out why their machine is not accepting the number.

Giving Suzuki credit however… the 0% financing is a nice touch, as long as you are not currently under a $350,000 mortgage, have 6 maxed out credit cards, and a Hummer sitting in your garage for $1,000 a month you can barely afford. In that case you will probably be getting the regular financing.

But you can’t blame car manufacturers who are trying to get creative in order to boost their dwindling sales. This one gets a B+ for effort and a C- for execution. Some folks will probably see past the gimmick and then go over to the Chrysler dealer, who is at least offering a few thousand dollars in rebate over the next 3 year period (assuming they don’t go bankrupt).

You have until June 3oth to get in on this deal, which should give you plenty of time to decide for yourself which manufacturer is offering the better deal for your circumstances.

You’re getting warm Suzuki… lukewarm!