Figuring out your financing.

So, you have the best price imaginable from utilizing my other tips. Now, you need to finance.

1. Figure out how much your MAXIMUM payment can be monthly ahead of time (Eg. I can handle $500.00/Month) -> If you are comfortable at say $350 over 72 months, but can handle $420 over 60 months; do the 60 months (You will pay MUCH less interest).
2. Go through the options with your sales rep. Some vehicles offer 0% financing up to 72 months. Even if you planned on a 5 year contract, if you can get 0% for 6 years, why the fuck not take it right?
3. If you are buying during cash incentives (see: no 0% financing), make sure you verify with your salesmen a few things
1. What is the rate? (Sometimes 60 months will be 6.99% whereas 72 months is 7.99%)
2. Who are you financing through? (I find it's easier to get approved through the manufacturer)
3. How much interest am I paying overall in interest? (The longer you finance, the more you pay in interest.)
4. Is there a balloon payment? (Adding a bulk payment to the end of your finance to greatly reduce the payment. Many shady salesmen will do this without telling you. Eg. You pay $240 / Month for 60 months with a final payment of $18,000.00 + Tax)
5. Make sure to clarify the rate AND the term. I put people into 72 month or even 84 month terms if they don't specify because it brings the payment way down. You dont want a long term like this. (see: more interest)
6. Clarify if there is a down payment involved.
7. DOUBLE CHECK IF THERE ARE ANY ADMIN FEES. Another thing that even I do all the time is figure out a price with the customer, then throw back in the admin fee ($299.00) when they want a payment. Often, you won't even be able to tell it's there unless you brought a scientific calculator and your 15 yr nephew.

That's all I got for today. I'll hit on the common issues/shady shit of leasing probably tomorrow.

Cheers.

Something Different.

I'm seeing a lot of blogs these days on TF2, Halo, HoN, WOW and even LoL. However, all of these games, in my opinion, pale in comparison to the glory that was pre 1.6 Counterstrike. In lieu of a normal blog post today, I preset you instead with the greatest CS compilation video of all time.

I know, I know. This isn't what my blog is about, but I'm sure a lot of you played CS and will enjoy the break from my poor writing.




And just for ref, I've seen Ksharp play in person and that part of the video gives me the chills at how good he is/was.

Ups and Downs.

Just for reference, for anyone thinking about selling cars, here is an example of what can happen to your income at any time (my night tonight):

2007 Ford F-150 - Didn't get approved, co-signed failed. ($1,200.00)

2011 Lincoln MKX - Customers Backed out.                   ($500.00)

2010 Ford F-150 (Mentioned in earlier post) Cancelled    ($400.00)

                                                                                                                   

= $2,100.00 lost in one evening.

Feels bad man.

DO NOT Buy a Car Based on a Payment

I see this EVERYDAY and try to use it to my advantage whenever I possibly can.

• You are excited, with a budget (eg. $350/month). 
• You are more concerned about the payment than the actual price

This is a very very bad way to go about buying a vehicle. I always try and sell cars based on the payment rather than the price. Why? Because if you want $350/month, I can probably hit it without lowering the price, but extending the term of your finance. Also, you can guarantee that there will be admin fee's (atleast one) built into the payment.

ALWAYS and I mean ALWAYS figure out the price of the vehicle THEN get into some sort of payments.

Stay tuned for tips on making sure you don't get ass fucked with your financing, tomorrow!

Getting the best price.

So you want more ammo in order to get the vehicle for nothing?

Well, there is another answer, however it isn't free. I would recommend using this website regardless of what you are buying (provided it's a new vehicle), in addition to your ad's so that you know exactly what the dealer has into the vehicle. What's the website?

Car Cost Canada

This website will give you a detailed run down of the dealer msrp, invoice, holdback, financing & lease rates as well as the dealer incentives and kickbacks. Does it work for the USA? I have no idea! However, when buying a car in Canada, this tool is amazing.

Sign up.

Pick your vehicle.

Build it.

Print off the Car Cost Canada report.

Bring it with you and buy your vehicle for practically nothing.

Cheers.

Protip: Trading in your car.

It's VERY hard to trust a number put on your used vehicle when you are trading it into a dealership. In order to assure that you are not only getting the best price on the vehicle, but the best price for your trade, follow the previous protips and use this one as well.

• Avoid mentioning a trade with your salesman.
• Focus on the price of the new vehicle.
• If trade is brought up, say you are going to keep it or sell privately.
• Get the price for the new vehicle.
• Change your mind and say you are going to trade in your vehicle after all and request an appraisal.

Why is this necessary?

• Dealers will use gross profit on the new vehicle in order to inflate the value of your trade (eg, appraised at $4000.00, you want $6,000, so they take $2000 gross from the new vehicle and put it on top of your trade).
• This will ensure that you get the best price on the vehicle AND give you an idea of who is giving you the best honest price for your trade in.

Happy buying, until tomorrow!

Obvious Tip

Don't go into a dealership, sit down with a salesman and say:

"What's your best price/deal/lowest/etc"

I have never  seen this work to the customers advantage in any way what so ever, ever. Only thing you are accomplishing here is annoying your sales rep. This is what I picture every time I hear those words (which is very often):

Protip For Buying a NEW Car

Newspaper Ads

You've seen all the ads plastered in your local newspapers from dealers all over your area. You probably think that they are just annoying pages, meant to clutter up the newspaper. However, it is very easy for you to manipulate the salesman with one of these ads.

• Search all of your local newspapers prior to going into a dealership.
• Put all of your ads together in a folder of some sort.
• Bring ads into the dealership and force them to match the price.

But I don't want the vehicle in the ad, I want one with leather!

No problem

Tell the salesman you want to add leather onto the ad price. If he doesn't want to do it, say you will go somewhere else or insist that you are buying if you can come to an agreement. 

I want a 4x4 and that trucks a 4x2!


No problem

Add it onto the ad price!

Not only does this save you all of the hassle of calling around, driving around and haggling with multiple salesmen, but it also saves you money! Almost all of the new car ads you see in the paper are listed at dead cost and are named "loss-leaders". If you can manage to add-on options from the ad price, you've just bought yourself a car at dealer net cost, congratulations your salesmen hates you (but you saved money)!

None of this actually happens. Regardless of popular belief, people are not this dumb.

Typical Day at Work

Pro Car Buying Tips

Employee Pricing:

Sweet! Employee pricing, the best deal evarr!

Don't be a dumbass and walk into a dealership thinking that because it's employee pricing, the price is as low as it can go. There is just as much profit in a vehicle priced at employee pricing as there is during normal pricing at MSRP. That being said, if you are buying a car and you go during employee pricing; consider the employee price the sticker, or MSRP and bargain your way down from there.

Good day so far.

Get called to the showroom to help a customer. Guy is interested in a truck on our lot that has yet to be stocked into our inventory, so we go outside to write down the info and find the keys. After talking with him, it sounds like he's ready to buy and the truck we're looking at is exactly what he wants. We check it out, go for a ride around the block then proceed inside to talk over the numbers.

After idle chit chat and number crunching, he's on his way out with the implied intention to call me tomorrow.

Couple minutes later the fleet manager comes into my office and asks for the keys/invoice of the truck I looked at with the guy. Said he had Jim from one of the leasing companies on the phone. He had been in earlier and talked to a salesman and was calling to secure the truck for his company. Through the fleet dpt.

What does this mean? It means I wasted an hour with this douche bag just so he could scout out the truck and buy it through his leasing/fleet company.

I guess it's not all bad. The dealership sold a truck, granted I don't see a penny and did all the work. Goodbye until this evening. If anyone has any questions feel free to ask in the comments, be it about a specific post or this profession in general.

I sold a truck... a month ago.

A month ago I sold a truck (one of many) and I gave it my typical fuck yeah face:

It was a dealer trade, meaning we didn't have it in our inventory but would find it from another dealer. The next day, we find and secure the truck and again I sport my victory face. A couple days go by and I ask my manager daily if my truck is coming, which he ensures me it is. After a week or so I sit down and ask where the living fuck is my truck; so we call the dealer while I'm there.

Oh terrific, they sold it. You can see the date of this blog, September 24th 2010. I sold the vehicle on August 28th 2010 and we have yet to find a replacement truck; all because my manager was too lazy and complacent to send over a check and a driver. Every day now I come in and ask the same question, to get the same answer, "No truck yet". My customer is ready to pull my nuts apart with his teeth and I dunno wtf to do. My face as of late will stay the same until he either cancels the deal or I find a truck.

The worst part is I'll only be getting paid $115.00 if we ever find his truck.





First Blog: Overview & Goals

Hello friends,

       The majority of the time you will find me complaining about how much I hate my job on this blog, however all is not bad. Most of the content will be completely over-exaggerated and drawn out accounts from an extremely bias point of view (mine) regarding the customers in my day-to-day activities that seriously piss me off/ stress me out/ make my life miserable. 

        You've probably thought that every car salesman is a total piece of shit, whose sole purpose in life is to rip you off and play you like a fiddle in order to make a dime. This is true, in part, for most of the fine gentlemen/women in the profession. However, some of us are genuinely there in order to help you get into a vehicle that suits your requirements (price, space, size, fuel economy, etc..). I've dealt with certain customers for months, spending hours and hours with them and they still think I'd steal their wallet if they left it in front of me. I can understand the stereotype though (based on some people I work with).

I'll keep it to one quick blog for tonight:

Mr. M came into my dealership looking for a vehicle that is in short supply. Naturally, in this case, you'd expect the dealership to totally rip you off and not budge on the price, etc. After going on a couple of test drives and finding out we have the exact vehicle he was looking for in the correct color, we sit down to go over pricing. We're in cash incentives right now; tons of cash incentives. What does his translate into? Cash off. Lots of it. Mr. M tells me he'd like to be at $700.00 / Month all in (including taxes, fee's, etc). After working over the numbers, I'm at $781 over 60 months (81*60 = $4860 difference fags) and have little hope of coming to some sort of agreement on price. 

After going over the difference with Mr. M, he takes my card and heads off, declaring that he will be in contact with me as we have the only car around that he is looking for. Fast forward a couple of hours, low and behold he calls me.

"Hey"

"Hey Mr.M"

"Alright, I talked to my wife and I can move my budget up to $725.00 / Month, all in"

"Okie, let me run it by my manager and see what he says. I think we're still way too far apart though."

"Let me know, if you can do $725 I'll be in this afternoon to finish the paperwork"

"Ok, bye"

"Cya"

So I head over to my manager, partially in jest because the deal would be outrageous at the price he wanted. I present my offer to him and he figures out with his lovely programs on the computer. After a few minutes he turns to me and says $725.00 is fine, tell him to come in we need to sell this car. I think to myself, "rofl great", call up Mr. M:

"Hey Mr.M , I have some great news, my manager has accepted your offer at $725.00 / Month and we can have it ready by tomorrow"

"Ohh great! Let me get my wife and we'll be down tonight"

This was September 16th. Today is the 23rd. I've called my friend Mr. M fairly frequently but he seems to have jumped ship. Won't answer the phone and won't call me back.

Why have you abandoned me Mr. M?

Why?