By: Scoop Stanton
I am in the market for a new car. I have financing through my financial institution. I already know what kind of car I want and know the market price! I literally have a blank check to complete the purchase. Fortunately, for myself and everyone else out there, there is so much information on what to know when you walk in the dealership. And like everything else we can literally have a car delivered to our home and have our old car removed!
Then why in the name of God are dealers doing the exact same thing for the longest time! The bait and switch routine, or listing a car for one price, then selling the car for another price! Then there’s the “certified preowned” trick where you see a used car at a reasonable price, then there’s another $2,000 charge on top of the price because its “certified preowned.” And its non-negotiable! I was in this scenario and I said fine, I’ll pay the extra $2,000 but either add $2K to my trade in or take $2K off the car price. No dice. I gave a piece of my mind which embarrassed the former Mrs. Stanton and walked out!
Then there’s Carmax. At the end of fiscal year 2024, Carmax sold 770,000 cars! And Carmax only sells used cars and Carmax is far from the cheapest place to buy used cars. But; you can go from test drive to out the door with a car in as little as an hour! Here’s the pitch. You like the car, here’s the price. Do you want to buy and if so, do you need financing? One would think that the industry would copy Carmax! Nope! They still think its 1962!
Industries come and go due to market forces and technology. We no longer have encyclopedia salesmen, the yellow pages, telephone operators, television repairmen, and video store clerks. Hopefully sooner than later we can add car salesmen. Here’s some videos on what to look out at the car dealership!
SEVEN FIVE RADIO 