Talked to her the other day. She is not there yet. Her plan now is to go this summer (July I believe) and come back with a new car. I will keep you posted once I know what happens.
Can anyone sell new cars this cheap?
- Thread starter ibdefaria
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Talked to her the other day. She is not there yet. Her plan now is to go this summer (July I believe) and come back with a new car. I will keep you posted once I know what happens.
The good news is that she is also going there to visit some family, so it won't be a complete waste of time.
I enjoyed having a level playing field. It not only protects the consumers, it helps the rest of us that refuse to stoop to unethical practices. I've always maintained a good reputation so I don't know what it takes to build one back.
It has been years since I worked in Louisiana. When I was there, everyone, in the front end of the store, had to be licensed by the state. Motor vehicle enforcement might shop a store. If a salesperson misrepresented a vehicle, they were subject to having their license pulled. If a customer asks you "has this car ever been wrecked?" your response had better be, "I can not tell you will, with all uncertainty, that it has never been in an accident". I saw a dealership get a huge fine, for false advertising, and the second offense got the entire dealership shut down for a couple of weeks. I would be interested to know if the same rules apply.
Maybe some people "won't come back to a place that acts this way", but enough do. I don't understand if they just need an excuse to buy a new car or if they are stupid. A customer tells you that they are going to XYZ motors and you explain to them the scam they are running. They go there, get bumped and buy the car anyway. I can't tell you how many times that I have seen this happen. Some will return and buy the car from us. Many will not return because they are embarrassed or frustrated.
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- Mar 7, 2012
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- Mike
Mike, I'm sure that we are on the same side in this. Most of my internet experience has been in Dallas which is very competitive with absolutely no enforcement. I left a dealership because the new GM would buy thirty cars at auction and put them on line for what he paid for them. He would hit the customer for and additional $4500 for reconditioning, pre-prep, dealer installed accessories and anything else he could think up. His online inventory was four times what you could park on the lot. Customers called in for availability and were told that the car was there.
It worked well for a time. I had left to one of the closest, same brand, competitors. Our internet department, alone, outsold that store but at first, they cost us business. They haven't changed and their reputation is the pits. People still go in there and when hit with the bump, still buy the car. They were posting bogus reviews and got caught. Now their reviews reflect how they do business but they still get traffic. Sounds like red eye white mice to me.
It worked well for a time. I had left to one of the closest, same brand, competitors. Our internet department, alone, outsold that store but at first, they cost us business. They haven't changed and their reputation is the pits. People still go in there and when hit with the bump, still buy the car. They were posting bogus reviews and got caught. Now their reviews reflect how they do business but they still get traffic. Sounds like red eye white mice to me.
- Mar 7, 2012
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- Mike
Doug, I'm sure we are on the same side as well. I don't think you condone doing business like the crazy people that we've worked with in the past. I guess I just see things so plainly that I can't understand why other people (customers) fall for the non-sense. I know it happens, and I know it has happened for years. I just hope that people will wake up one day and these shady dealers will get what's coming to them. The Louisiana deal sound sweet. I bet the border town dealers make a killing with bad advertising 
Louisiana has very strict laws and they enforce them. I sold cars when I was in college. When I graduated, I was a rep for one of the manufacturers. It gave me the opportunity to visit dealerships in markets all over the country. I ran three stores in Louisiana, one of which was in Baton Rouge. By far, Baton Rouge is the toughest market that I have ever seen. At the time, "Red Stick" had a population of under 200K people but had six Chevy stores. The two largest were 2 1/2 miles apart on the same side of Florida Blvd.. They had as many Ford Stores. Dealer groups routinely recruited car guys from the market. They believed that if you can survive and thrive in this market, you will be successful anywhere. I lost people to Dallas, Houston, Oklahoma City, Nashville ...you name it.
Well that dealer is one of the biggest Hyundai stores in America. Much as I dislike doing business that way, it works or they wouldn't do it.
Im going to sound like a bit of a jerk, but most people really aren't all that swift and they fall for it. And once they get there and realize that they aren't buying a new Elantra for $14200 they end up making a deal anyway and by doing so they reward this sort of behavior.
It does sicken me but to quote a co-worker "if people didn't buy crack there wouldn't be crack dealers".
So...
My friend is back from Florida. She is now driving a certified 2011 Kia Optima LX (30K miles). She paid 18K for it. But she ended up buying it at another location in Florida. She says that they gave her $4,000 off. I checked the price on edmunds and noticed that this is what they usually go for. So I guess it's not a bad deal, but not a amazing deal either.
- Mar 7, 2012
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- First Name
- Mike
At least she was going to Florida anyway. Do you think she at least realizes now that she could have received the same deal locally, and that if the deal seems to good to be true then it probably is? The flip side of this is that the false advertising this place is doing is bringing in mass traffic and they're likely selling a good portion of these unsatisfied customers anyway. What's a car guy to do...
