'Til They Buy Or Die

...And other insight into car sales

The term "Buy or Die" comes from calling and hounding a person who came on the lot or called about a car until they either buy a car from you or they die.  LOVELY!

I took about 3 years off from real estate to "get a job" and recover from the down market in Montana late 2009 and 2010. So I moved to Spokane, WA and got a job selling cars for a Toyota dealership.

The general manager told me during my interview that "real estate agents typically don't make good car salesmen". That sounded ridiculous to me, because after all... my clients loved me as a real estate agent so people will love buying cars from me... right?!?!?

NOPE!!!!

What I soon learned was that buyers didn't walk onto the car lot with the same feelings towards car salesmen as home buyers and sellers feel towards Realtors. In general, my real estate clients looked at me as a good guy, an expert and a professional. They were willing to listen to my advice and work closely and openly with me through the process of buying and/or selling a home. My new "clients" were walking on the lot with pure hatred in their hearts for me because of the job I had chosen and they flat out lied to me for however many minutes or hours they were there.

The dealerships are completely, 100% solely responsible for the unfortunate way we view car salesmen. I heard over and over that Appleway Toyota (where I worked) was different! We respect our customers and treat them the way they want to be treated! We are re-writing the book on dealership/customer relationships!

BULLSHIT!!!!

A little insight into the average car dealership these days:

• Auto manufacturers offer incentives to get buyers into the dealerships. Toyota will offer 0% APR financing OAC. So on Saturday, you show up to buy your new Toyota with your 800 credit score and the sales manager presents you with 7.4% APR. You get pissed off and say no and then are offered 2.9% APR. On average I would estimate that the buyer has to negotiate for 2 hours just to get the 0% financing that Toyota advertised. The dealerships do the same thing with rebates, at least Appleway Toyota (now Autonation Toyota in Spokane Valley, WA) will not offer you the rebate that the manufacturer offers unless you negotiate for it.
• 2 buyers with the same credit score, trading in the exact same vehicle and purchasing the exact same car on the exact same day can end up with a difference of $5,000 to $6,000 in the deal they get on their new car. One of the buyers didn't know to demand the rebate nor did he/she know they were getting ripped off on the interest rate, nor did they know they were offered $4,000 less for their trade in than the trade value actually was. The last bit is called a UA, and Under Allowance. These 2 buyers can end up with a payment difference of a couple hundred dollars over the same term.
• You know the car in the ad? The one advertised with special extra discounts? That one has no options and is the least in-demand color (the one that very few people want). Nothing really wrong with that I guess. But what they do is park it in the sun and very close to the windows of the dealership. The internal temperature of that car can be 30 degrees higher than most of the cars on the lot. When a buyer gets in, they can't breath and are so uncomfortable that they don't want to drive it so they ask to see another one. The salesman, as considerate as he/she is, gets one from the shade and the buyer falls in love with it. Also it has power windows (yes the still make manual roll up windows), a power seat and several other options. Guess what??? The deal isn't available on that car.... Oooops!

After almost 3 years of trying to work with car buyers the same way I worked with my real estate clients I conceded that it just wasn't for me.