I made enquires to both my local Subaru and Mitsu dealers. The Mitsu guy mailed back inviting me to put down 3K over MRSP, for a car he could not guarantee getting, and one he did not have a price for.
Subaru on the other hand told me what they knew, and said they would get back when they had more facts. The car was not going to be a penny over MRSP.
2 different approches, one sale.

 

Wow, its nice to know I am not the only person they treated like an *******. Did you get your galant from them? Did they screw you there and if so did you return the favor on the customer survey? I wonder how much of an affect those surveys have on the dealer.

Well i recently had my car serviced upstate where i go to school at the same dealer i did the outlander testdrive program at. They are really nice there. Unfortunately, I am a senior so i wont be up here much more. The dealer is Otto and they are in CLifton Park, NY. Super nice sales people and service.

As fas as other dealers near SI, My parents leased a Galant about 10 years ago from Bay Ridge mitsu and they werent so great either. There is Bell on RT 1 in jersey, but I have heard bad things about them too. The one I would recommend is Ramsey Mitsubishi, on RT. 17 in Jersey. A good friend of mine got his Montero there and has nothing bu praise for their sales and service.

 

Since I actually am a car salesperson I'll give it to you firsthand, not heresay.

Pay plans differ from store to store but typically on a new vehicle the salesperson's commission is based on a percentage of the amount between invoice and the amount above that the car is sold for, less pack and expenses. For example, let's say a car has an MSRP of $20,000 and an invoice of $19,000. The industry average commission is 16% of that amount, which would mean the salesperson made $160 on the deal. Problem is, s/he probably won't make that much on this deal. I mentioned the "pack" earlier. The pack is explained in the pay plan as a lot charge designed to cover costs for the dealer. Really it's just the dealer grabbing the first few hundred dollars of profit. For our purposes let's say the pack is $300. Our "$1,000 payable gross" has just dropped to $700 and our $160 commission down to $112. Only we're not done yet. There might be additional charges in the pay plan such as a cleanup fee to cover the cost of detailing the car - cleaning it - for delivery. Let's say that charge is $85. There might also be other fee's like an "advertising fee". Let's say that's $50. Now our payable gross has dropped to $565 and the commission has dropped to $90.40.

None of this really matters though since most deals are done at a few hundred dollars over invoice - usually not even enough to cover the pack, detail and advertising. Does the salespeson make $0.00 in that case? Of course not. Pay plans will typically include a "minimum commission" or "mini" so the salesperson at least makes something. A typically mini might be either $50 or more usually $100.

Let's say the salesperson has a good month, moves 12 new cars, with an average retail value of $25,000 each and sells each of them for a few hundred over so each deal was a "mini". S/he just made $1,200 for a months work to move $300,000 worth of product.

Do you see why salespeople don't like whoring out cars for a few hundred over?

The dealership of course has holdback and flooring. This is what allows them to sell a car for a little over invoice without taking a bath. Holdback and flooring are designed to cover the costs of holding a car in inventory for up to 90 days. If the car sells before 90 days, the difference becomes gross profit, if the car is on the lot more than 90 days then the cost of having the car on the lot will exceed the holdback and flooring amounts. Somewhere in the middle it is all supposed to balance out. It is exceedingly rare for a salesperson to get paid into holdback, although the New Car Manager often does.

As for kickbacks, ha! Sorry but I work for a Mitsu dealer. Sometimes, very very rarely, will offer "dealer cash" (trunk money) on slow moving cars. It only applies in specific situations and we invariably give this up to the customer to move the cars in question. The 01' Diamante comes to mind here since that's the last time we had dealer cash that I can recall.

Sometimes reimburse us for advertising. For example, there was one month last year where we spent $50,000 in advertising and IIRC we got $10k or so of it back from - basically they reimbursed us the association fees on the cars sold that month. Also IIRC we moved some 55 cars that month for a gross average (including holdback and flooring) of around $970. Any of you capable of basic math just figured out that the total gross barely covered the advertising costs, forget about paying inventory costs, sales commissions, title clerk, payroll clerk, license clerk, lot porter, detailer, receptionist and managers salaries.

As for demonising an entire group of people based on stereotypes of what they do for a living (or their race, religion, skin color, sexual orientation etc), well I think most of you understand what that is called.

 

Why don't they have a flat rate to sell the cars Sort of like what Mercedes Benz has done with ther cars. Don't know if they are still doing that?

 

As for demonising an entire group of people based on stereotypes of what they do for a living (or race, religion, skin color, sexual orientation etc), well I think most of you understand what that is called.

do you aspire to be a lawyer? Just curious

 

I called my local dealer to get info and the guy said he just got some literature on it and he'd call me back when he found it....that was a week ago...that place must be huge if he hasn't found it yet????!!!!

 

Also watch out for the finance guy. Seems like they can be worse than the sales people sometimes.

Last time I bought a car, the sales guy was really good to me. He gave me a really great price on the trade-in. I was underwater on the financing and he gave me what I owed. He gave me a little under MSRP on the first offer (no haggling needed). I have great credit so he quoted me a low apr after a credit check verified that. In fact he commented several times on how unusually good my credit was.

Enter the Finance guy. My wife and I sign the papers and are very happy. On the way home I realize the numbers are changed! They kept the purchase price of the new car the same, and the price on the trade-in the same. However they tacked on the amount we were underwater on the trade-in to our new loan. The sales guy had specifically told me they wouldn't do that and they would help me get out of a previously bad deal.

When I went back they said it was just a misunderstanding by the finance guy. Well it took 6 visits before it was straightened out. First they tried to raise the price of the new car above MSRP saying they "couldn't remember" what the agreed price was. Well I had the quote in writing (had to go back home to get it). Then they said that we didn't qualify for the good apr they had told us before and it was 11.5% instead of the quoted 7.5%!!

After several visits we got it straightened out but the apr was only knocked down to 9.9%. The thing that really sucked was I already had taken the car and I really felt trapped. If I had caught the trick before I took the car I would have walked.

The ironic thing is the dealership's motto, "No Phony Lures". Yeah right, the salesman brings you in with the promise of a good deal. Then once they have you the finance team works you over.

 

That is why I love well run european socialist countries. Maybe you could get one in America. Oh wait, you would be too sick to use this car due to the lack of health care, not to mention the falling economy and capitalist markup.

My 2 cents

 

Not surprising coming from the left coast.
Did some liberal college prof. brainwash you?
I have great health care and plenty of money.
Move to europe if it is so great.

 

I plan too but I need to make some money first and finish my BS so I can buy all the cool stuff they have over their and have some money to live until I can find where exactly in europe I want to live and get a good job. As far as brainwashing I have to ask you how much you actually know about the two places because unlike alot of Americans I know, I am not lazy enough to just trust the opinion of others I actually have looked very deeply at the differences and know that there are dozens of reasons why life in europe is definatly for me.

My explained 2 cents.

BTW ever seen the yellow 10sec super Evo. Wish we had some cars like that here instead of the riced out civics I have the luxary of seeing everyday here in CA.

 

One-price stores (like Saturn) tend to have payplans that pay either a flat rate per car or a combination of a salary and a flat rate.

 

How about those that feel the need to attack a persons source of income and livelihood go **ck themselves..

One thing I still can't tolerate, is the discussions on how car dealers are all scumbags?!

There are a lot of goofs in the car business that should be pumping gas instead of selling cars, but there are also a lot of doctors, lawyers, and other "reputable" fields where there are equally as ****ty people working in those fields too...

Let's leave the car guys alone, chuckle when we walk in to the dealerships and just KEEP YOUR GUARD UP and watch out for the "big bad car salesman"..

Just pay attention to what your signing and walk away or ask questions if you don't understand something.

Above all don't pay over sticker for this car!!! is really uncool to do this!!

 

I agree......

IMHO generalized statements bashing an entire profession are better suited for the newsgroups and such. I appreciate having a professional car salesman posting here and even better that he sells for Mitsubishi. Thanks Mark.

Speedlimit....

 

While I agree that bashing a profession or whatever you want to call it, isnt exactly right. I also beleive that people shouldnt take casual posts on a message board so personally. If you take offense to what people say here then perhaps you need to re-evaluate the way in which you interact with people online. Nothing on this thread is personally directed at anyone and people who feel insulted or personally targeted need to realize the informallity of this forum and loosen up a bit. Just my opinion. I just cant understand how people can get mad on this forum. If it really makes you that upset, just walk away, turn off the computer and enjoy the outdoors.

 

I happen to sell cars for a living (though maybe not for much longer, but I digress..). When somebody refers to my ENTIRE PROFESSION as "slime *****" who "lie, steal, and cheat for a living", I take that personally because it is directed at me. I also know FOR A FACT this view of the profession is false and based on stereotypes. If we were say, talking about race instead of occupation this wouldn't be tolerated on any board worth posting too (substitute the N word for "slime *****" for example). But because we are talking about car salespeople, somehow its OK?

If scumbags like this get to post, then I get to point them out for what they are. Fair nuff.