They mean the dealer not the salesman! I took out my wallet and pulled out my license, he asked me what I was doing? I said I'm checking it to see if I was born yesterday!
I told them if they're only making $200 per car, they better put the key in the door right now.
I would hate to see the overhead on these mega dealerships. By the time you run the gauntlet, through the maze of people in there you're head is spinning.
If you make it across the lot without one of the scavenger's trolling the lot smelling for fresh blood, then your assaulted by some bimbo at the door who speaks like a 33 record played at 78. She "Assists" you by guiding you in the direction of a "sales assistant". (Usually the one she's been playing tonsil hockey with behind the tire rack.)
The salesman then asks what you're interested in blah blah. He takes your license, hands it to some other girl and you wait till she copies it and comes back. You go for a test drive, like it and start the dealing. He asks what kinda trade you have, you tell him and you fork over your keys. Two mysterious guys come out of nowhere and take your pride and joy for a ride... They come back and they have a chit chat on the other side of the room, out of ear shot of course.
The salesman asks you what you think your car is worth. Then hands you a form, with those clowns numbers on it. You are MILES apart. In fact, they might as well have castrated you right on the spot! You start to get up to leave only to realize they played the old, "the other guys still have your keys trick" Locking you in your seat till they decide you've had enough. An hour and a half later, if you somehow live through this torture and they brow beat you close enough into making a deal, they then bring out the Big Guns the "Assistant manager". Of course he could be the janitor for all you know. (You can't tell the players without a scorecard.)
He lays on the BS, and this is where the $200/car hand is usually played. You go round and round and settle on a car. But wait there's more people to meet!
You're then escorted by the sales guy to the finance manager, who takes your application, then you meet, the service manager, the service writer, the parts guys, they show you their state of the art service department, where a gaggle of mechanics are puttering about waiting to catch a glimpse of the bimbo who mans the door.
So, all tolled you've met or seen:
5 mechanics watching,4 salesman trolling, 3 girls office working, 2 "trade in" guys evaluating, 2 parts guys parting,1 service manager managing, 1 service advisor advising,1 service writer writing, 1 assistant manager managing and 1 door bimbo.
And partridge in a pear tree.
21 people. Plus more I'm sure.
When I bought my first car at a small Chrysler-Plymouth dealer in East Aurora NY, there were like 3 people up front. The salesman, who also took your credit app, the manager who looked at your trade, a girl in the office in the back, the service manager, who also did the advising and the writing, plus a couple mechanics.
And they gave the sweetest deals!
What happened to the nice friendly dealerships? I bought 5 cars from those guys, my dad 4, my brother 2. When you walked in there they knew you by name and were genuinely happy to see you again. If you had some issue, they took care of you right now!
Boy I miss those days!
Wow, lots of comments since I last looked in. Lots of them of them pertaining to dealers. OK, I'll offer my $.02 (USD).
I'll start by telling you that I'm not a typical new-car buyer. As a kid, I once heard Howard Hughes was asked how he became wealthy. He supposedly said, "I don't pay interest on depreciating assets." For what ever reason (or perhaps because I was raised by depression-era cheapskates, lol) this stuck with me. So I went most of my life without a new car. Being a mechanic helps I suppose... I have been
very well-served by a string of old $3500 daily driver Chrysler products. Usually acquired out west, where the resale value falls hardest for rust-free grandpa cars that haven't been run over our bombed out roads for a decade.
But I was no stranger to the inside of a dealer. My family and friends being more normal than I; would usually take me along to help insure they weren't robbed on a purchase or repair. I must tell you that I believe the Detroit area is a bit of an anomaly, since perhaps even a majority of purchases are done with some version of an employee-discount. The haggling is usually about $300 floormats or a lowball trade in. It also means the salespeople's motivation is something like this...
Of course, worse than that is the service experience, which is like this...
*true story... My dad brought his '92 Voyager in under to have the lift gate wiper motor replaced (the only failure that vehicle ever suffered). He also asked them to replace the 3rd brake light bulb, which is under the same plastic interior panel. In the process, they shattered the back window and had to keep the vehicle for a couple extra days. Now the bulb was accessible from EITHER direction, and they BROKE THE DAMN WINDOW COVERING THE BULB. They (tried to) charge him an hour for the bulb replacement.
Knowing that I would want to do this...
...at the service counter or sales office of any dealer where I plunked down $30-$40k+ and got treated like an **shole, I stayed away from dealers even when financing wasn't the issue. Seriously. That's pretty much how you get treated in a metro-Detroit dealer. They know you're getting a discount, they know you'll buy no matter what, so they treat you like garbage. I'm not looking for an assault charge. I stay away.
So while I like Chrysler vehicles, the dealers are like a cancer. I also know they're all pretty much the same, regardless of make, because the salespeople are gypsies that move from one location to another, and one guy owns the Dodge/Ford/Chevy/Honda/GMC/Nissan/Jeep/Lincoln/Kia/Buick/Daewoo story anyway. State franchise laws are written by local politicians, not car companies, who can go screw themselves in the opinion of J.D. Hogg (State Rep). And the franchise system dates to blacksmith days (really, it does).
But I really like the current Challenger. I felt as if I should reward the people who actually built a large, RWD V8 coupe by voting with my wallet. Then they (breifly) offered 0% financing on a car with the smallest amount of depreciation outside of a Wrangler, so even my insane and long-dead mentor couldn't complain. Way back in 2012, I'm dating my current wife who lived in a place that looked like this:
So one day, we were driving through the cornfields and I spot a Dodge Dealer with a bunch of farm trucks and a few Dodge Challengers. I asked aloud... "I wonder how they'd treat me there instead of the car-buying hell we have in Detroit?"
Long story short... very well! They even let me test drive the stick vs. auto back-to-back, probably knowing full well that I'd use the 0-60 timer to see which one was faster. (Sorry Stan...) And when I said that I didn't want all the nav system junk, just a base radio,
they suggested I order it from the factory the way I wanted it! They had no issue with my using an employee discount! They gave me free oil changes, which were the only reason I ever saw the service department. The next purchase will also come from Farmville.
I added the stripes and a few more "mods". The bittersweet ending was that although I put 15k miles on before I sold it, I never had the heart to drive it in the winter (and the track-pak tires would have been awful anyway). In the summer I mostly drove my old car(s). One day I pulled up (in another car) and thought "why am I paying all this insurance and some depreciation on a car I don't use that much?" So up for sale she went and within a couple days, she was gone. However, I will buy another before this current platform/style comes to an end.
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