I love the conversations about how dealerships rip people off, but lets look at some facts before you going and continue to spread the Anti-dealership trash that has been passed down from generation to generation... and we will use a beloved Ram ....1500 slt 2wd 4.7 MSRP- 27785 Invoice- 25296... But wait there is hold back and everyone knows about hold back... for Dodge it is 3% of total MSRP= 833.55 which means if the truck does not sit a day on my lot I will pay 24462.45..... 3323 profit for a vehicle that is sitting on my lot that I either had to put money out for or will pay for in 3 months either in payments or in 1 lump sum... as a dealership that sounds fair to me... After all you as the consumer are the reason I need to keep 20 of the same make model and equipment just in case you want a different color. Now I will let you do the math the next time you go by a Dodge Dealership... Count the Dodge Rams and multiply by 30000.... that is what the dealership it putting out. But you as a consumer want the car for invoice ... after all the dealership is going to make money from service.... which you will never use. That salesman that you spent 4 hours with will get $50... maybe you were only with him for 2 hours... and he got $50.... What about the next 4 hours he has to wait for his next customer where he does not get paid anything? Now the Dealership has made 833 off hold back Say you sell 100 cars that month .... Great you made $83,300... That is good... now you need to Pay Managers, salesmen, Finance manager, Lot guys, the title clerk, processor, comptroller all in all about 30 people... that is roughly about $2800 each obviously some get more some get less... if they all got the same it is only 33600... Average car salesman in the US makes $40000 a year not pad till you consider the average salesperson works 60 hours a week... Do the math correctly and you will find he makes about $10 an hour. BUT DONT WORRY they are stealing you blind!
Warranties
READ YOUR WARRANTY BOOKS
It is very clear on what is covered and what is not. You put a leveling kit on your truck... Well the Suspension and Steering are the first things that pop in my head that are changed... what else is changed? You put a chip in... Well it is not a factory item so why should it be covered? You change your rims to a size that was not standard? Why should I cover your suspension? If it is not factory... IT IS NOT COVERED! If you bring your 4X4 in and there if mud jammed in the wheel wells from you 4x4ing you are not going to get crap covered.
Trades
If I give you 14000 for your truck and you can get 16200 for it ... that is a fair trade.... 14000 for trade... Average vehicle to go through inspection is 800 that = 14800 average car sits on used car lot 90 days so advertising 100= 14900 Detail- 50= 14950 In the end Dealership Selling it for 16200 gets 1250 PROFIT! Such a RIP OFF! oh and I forgot about the 30 day warranty that is mandatory in most states... You would be surprised at the issues that people find with the perfect car you traded in ... just ask 4x4country girl (no offense meant by that just using an example)... Now the way the 14000 benefits you... same scenario as far as numbers except this time you run the add in Auto trader... And you are the victim of THE MANSON EFFECT! I do not know about all of you, but I love my wife and if i ever am giving the gift of a child I would live and die for them... There is NOWAY IN HELL I WOULD LET SOME OF THE PEOPLE THAT I HAVE SOLD CARS TO NEAR MY FAMILY!!! Skin heads, Thugs, white trash you name it... And guess what... you put the ad in trucktrader and you are inviting these people into your life. Wait till you are woken up at 2 in the morning by the guy that was looking at your truck 3 days ago and he just left the bar and decided it was a good time to buy. Worse part he did not even bring you a damn beer! It gets fun... what about the joy riders or the no shows... or worse case... they wreck your truck If you are with in $2000 I would consider that a fair trade.
This is getting kind of long so I will stop defending all of the salesman out there and just say that thanks to all of the people out there that want to bash Dealerships the government is at a point that it has stepped in. I Personally think they should get rid of incentives. Get rid of special financing. lower the price to what the vehicle should be priced at and make us all pay sticker. It worked for Scion. Take the underpowered ugly Echo... Give it a nex body and badge and increase the price by 5k and make everyone pay sticker!
If you think you know of a way that the dealership ripped you off... YOU not the friend of a friend that knew your mom's cousin but YOU! I will be glad to explain to the best of my ability that maybe you were not ripped off as bad as you think you were
Oh sorry on a roll... for those that have a friend with the same truck... They lie about what they paid...We all do.. We lie down about price of cars and up about houses... Just human nature
And my favorite... If you call me after you bought your vehicle from someone else to brag they were $100 less Expect one of the following answers
A- That is great I would have been able to save you that $100 but my manager felt that the 4 hours I spent giving you a great Demo was worth the extra $5 that I would have made... So how long did he spend showing you the car? Oh really you gave him my price and he beat it by $100. I am glad that you made it as easy as you possibly could for him
b- WOW he only gave you an Extra $100... WOW I was trying to cake $3000 I thought for sure someone would give you atleast an extra $2500 off... oh well good luck!
C- I get real quiet and they go you there.... And I say ... Yeah sir I was just trying to decide if I should be as rude as you are being to me or should I just hang up... Should I explain to you that this is how I feed my family how I support myself or again should I just hang up...

I Will continue to defend the salesman and the dealer ship and each time I see a comment putting down dealerships and sales people I will include a story about how wonderful all of you customers are

 

nice well put man i got your back....and im know how in the buisness you are in . if these bashers were in a comision game they would be thinking twice . and im not on comision im salaried but have buddies that are and they really are under paid ...i say if you run across a bone head take his money he is stupid and needs a wake up call

 

Yeah Commission is hard... I did great at it because I would tell you my rule is to make some off of everyone instead of none off of some and all off of others. I did not take advantage of women,elderly, or guys named Billy Bob. Me I preferred the.... I wont pay more than $500 over cost. I would always agree and when I showed them ACTUAL cost of the vehicles... They were always close to sticker. I got out of the business because as the Director of Finance I was working 7:30 am till midnight 4 days a week and 7:30 to 9 on Saturdays... and my then girlfriend said she thought she was pregnant... I quit the next day. Worst part is people do not realize what Car sales is like... You go into work everyday knowing people hate you... knowing if you do not sell anything you volunteered that day... Knowing you work every weekend and almost every holiday... all but Christmas and Thanksgiving... And it never fails... NEVER FAILS!!! if you are off on Thursdays, that last customer of the night on Wednesday.. will want to schedule delivery of the vehicle that she came in to test drive at 8:55, when you close at 9, for 11:00 on Thursday... So you come in and they are almost always late and they never seem to apologize... Why should they... Car Salesman are "uneducated ********" ... So you wasted your entire day off to get a sale... yippie! I once had a Doctor look at his son and say this is why you stay in school to his son about one of my salesman... I came out of my office pretty quick and said to him "Sir, I served my country, I took care of the President when he hurt his knee, I have had dinner with Congressman and I have been injured serving my Country... I have a Nursing Degree and I would be willing to bet both,mine and my salesmans, commission check that my check will be higher than yours this month... you see I wanted to be a Doctor, but they did not make enough" I was on one of the hottest months I ever had so it was true I already saw his salary and he knew it. He humbly grabbed his son and left. I just think it is funny how everyone states Dealerships screwed me but I have never seen the proof

 

Unfortunately Docwhitley, despite however great you had your dealership, some just don't live to that standard. I'm not really talking about your certified retail dealerships, but your small town dealerships. One from my town, they are the dictionary example of a stealership. They tried to screw over everyone that they could, irregardless of man, woman, elderly, etc. They tried to put my mom behind the wheel of the biggest POS Chevy Tracker, that didn't even fall under what my mom said she was looking for in a vehicle. But on the opposite side of the spectrum, we have another dealership in town, and I would not hesitate telling anyone to go buy from them. They have a great lot, and they try to take care of their customers.

And Ramhunter, you shouldn't say that the dealership should try to take advantage of people. Take advantage of people buying a vehicle in the $5k range, then in the $7k range, then in the $10k range, and so on and so forth. Yes skin heads and all of those other weird dressing people are quite different in their views, but would you want someone to say that it is perfectly fine to bend you over the bench and screw you just because you're a hunter, and they're a vegetarian?

Was the car that you got in the court suit over a brand new one? If so, I can understand not changing out any equipment. That would make much more sense.

 

In all fairness I have to stick up for the dealer too. I bought my truck the night of the first big snowfall around here a year ago or so. Some moron backed into me that night in a parking lot stating "they couldn't see me in the snow"

Anyways long story short I had traded in a p.o.s. car and we all knew it. Needed likelly 4000 in repairs to be saleable. All I asked was that I be allowed to pull my CD player out the next day as I picked my truck up at closing and had forgot the cars stock stereo at home. I went to the dealership the next day after work and they had sold the car! Without hesitation the sales manager said well how about we put a new bumper on the truck for no charge. Now my 75 dollar deck sure isn't worth what the 350 dollar bumper was but they stepped up in a hurry and followed through.

I have also NEVER had an issue with warranty even after the leveling kit, tires and chip.

Anyways sorry for going off topic. I hope they trade you that hood!

 

I gotta agree with ried69 here, Doc you can defend your car lot up and down but no one is complaining or questioning you about how you ran/run your business or how you treated your customers. I have no doubt that your lot would have been one to go shop at but can you say the same for the one down the street from you? There are good dealers out there and there most definitely are bad ones out there too. And while we may hear about a good one here and there, the bulk of the time you hear about the bad ones.

 

I have to say I was the one that ripped my dealer off on my trade inI had a couple mods that were in but not hooked up like foglights that didnt have a switch but were installed on the car being a look mod I took out the subs and speakers that I told him about and left the wires and I also got him to pay me 1400 dollars for my wheels and tires when I paid 1500 for them.

I agree when it comes to knowing your sh*t I did and got a great deal on my truck so it worked out perfect and I am a happy owner as well and got what i wanted on my trade in and the price on the truck and i know he was put in a tuff bind but oh well

 

I disagree with you.... For the most part at least where I am... The law and courts are on the side of the consumer soooo much that the small crooked dealerships are not lasting... Even the larger dealerships that are great houses are being forced to close if they do not have a substantial service department to back them up.... Now the situation you presented was your mom was offered a tracker. I call it an option out... When you come in and say you want a V8 Ram... You have the 4.7 and the Hemi.... You would want the salesman to show you both options... Same with your mom... Did she go in looking for a specific price range? maybe he had 2 in that range? and this was the better of the 2? I had a Guy come in swearing he wanted a Rav4... He left in an Avalon... It happens all the time. Your mom always has the opyion to say no...

Sorry I highjacked you Post....

 

I'm not really talking about your certified retail dealerships, but your small town dealerships. One from my town, they are the dictionary example of a stealership. They tried to screw over everyone that they could, irregardless of man, woman, elderly, etc.

How by overcharging... A sale is made when 2 people agree if you dont agree you can always leave...

And Ramhunter, you shouldn't say that the dealership should try to take advantage of people. Take advantage of people buying a vehicle in the $5k range, then in the $7k range, then in the $10k range, and so on and so forth.

How is making a profit taking advantage... Average American family eats 1 Pizza a week... Average profit in a pizza is what $6 $7... Go with 6...6X52X5= $1560.... And go and try to trade in the Pizza in 5 years... You will spend more in profit on Pizza then the average dealer makes on a car


Yes skin heads and all of those other weird dressing people are quite different in their views, but would you want someone to say that it is perfectly fine to bend you over the bench and screw you just because you're a hunter, and they're a vegetarian?

I think Hunter was saying to make more money off of them.... and A lot agree because if you give away (sell at invoice) 24 cars a month... 1 a day 6 days a week... You could make 1200 to 2400 depending on where you work at... So most make the money where it will be easy


Was the car that you got in the court suit over a brand new one? If so, I can understand not changing out any equipment. That would make much more sense.[/quote]

Yes it was brand new... He had the same exact model just had the low profile tires sitting at the Dock waiting to be delivered... We took the standard rims off the grreen one we had and put on the factory low profiles from a silver one... parked the silver one in the back and when the one he ordered arrived we switched the rims back... He got what he wanted but the sticker said what should have been on the

 

My mom knew what she wanted. The Tracker was gutless, an inline 4, and not that much storage space. She said that she wanted something with at least an inline six, plenty of space to equal the car she was trading in, and to be overall nice. As stated, the Tracker didn't fit what she wanted. Later on she got a Jeep, inline six, plenty of storage space, 4x4, and good power for going down interstate. My mom didn't say that she wanted a Jeep and nothing else. She looked at several comparable models, but the dealership tried to get her in anything that came in their lot.