Reconfirming the Reputation of Used Car SalesmenJustin VillaverdeJustin Villaverde212006-08-03T11:22:00Z2006-08-03T11:22:00Z16353624308425111.8026Reconfirming the Reputation of Used Car SalesmenbyJustin VillaverdeI need a new car for a few reasons. My current car is dieing slowly and I don’t want to put any more money in it. It no longer fits my needs. It’s a pain in the ass to park anywhere in DC. And the gas mileage is horrible, because of the things I need to fix. So, I’ve been shopping for a “new to me” car. I know what I want and thanks to the lovely amount of info online, I have an idea of what I want to pay. This is where the fun begins.First off, I must mention that I don’t know much about cars. I know the look I like and the features I want, but that’s about it. For this reason, I’ve targeted cars with factory warrantees remaining. My days as a salesman at a major electronics store soured me on extended warrantees, so there is no chance I’m paying for one on a car.The time came for my first day out on the road visiting dealers. I had in hand quite a few different cars that I wanted to look at, all of which I found listed on more the one website (the point that multiple sources listed the same vehicle is important in this experience). To call my day horrible would be an understatement, not because I could find any cars I was interested in, but simply because of the lowdown sales tactics that all alive and well in the retail car sales. Here’s a list of a few things I learned:1. No matter what the car is priced at the dealer is always only making “a few hundred dollars.” Example, one dealer lowered the price of the car 3 in a feudal attempt to make me buy a different car then the one I was interested in. Each time he said his manager told him that they were only making “a few hundred dollars” if they were to sell it. Ok, so I understand simple mathematics. How is it possible to take $1000 off and still make “a few hundred dollars” when you were only making “a few hundred dollars” in the first place.2. Even if the car is the same model with the exact same features it is not the same car in the eyes of the dealer even though it is in a customer’s eyes. I realize that dealers acquire their cars from many sources. But I struggle to understand why 2 identical cars with similar mileage would have a 20% difference in price. And a dealer doesn’t see a problem with that.3. An advertised price isn’t always the real price of the car. And bait and switch tactics are also alive and well in retail auto sales. Two of the four dealers I visited both claimed that the prices in the ads I had (keep in mind that multiple sources listed the same prices) were mistakes and they could not sell the car at that price. I did not debate the legality, because it was just easier to leave.4. Cash buyers beware. For those of us who do not want to use dealer financing, the price may be higher then listed. Another dealer said that the advertised prices assumed that the buyer was using their financing. The actual price of the car would be $500 higher for cash buyers. Again this is something that is not mentioned in the ads and again I did not choose to debate the legality, because it was just easier to leave.5. The dealer will always win on trade-ins. And Kelley Blue Book and other sources of used car pricing only matter if they are in the dealer’s favor. It is perfectly fine for dealers to say home much lower the Kelley Blue Book their price is, but when it comes to trade-in value Kelley Blue Book is not an accurate measure of value. I heard excuses from low wholesaler quotes to not having the original stereo (the old on was a cassette the new one an MP3/CD player) for why my car was worth half what Kelley Blue Book said it was.After reading this whole rant it may seem like my main problem was on this outing was pricing, and it was. I simply never found a deal I could live with. That is the exact reason I did not buy anything. But the real problem I ran into was not that I wasn’t willing to pay the prices I found advertised, it was the fact that so many of those prices were not what I really was going to pay. It may just be my inexperience or it may be dealers trying to rip people off. I’m sure it’s a combination of both. I’m just from a camp that believes that an advertised price should be the actual price.Justin - 04-21-06