If you really wanna know what the economy is doing-ask someone in sales, or restaurants, or any service industry. It is not going well. Businesses are cutting back and at the same time demanding that the profit margin go up. I know of a 14 million dollar restaurant that is working with 8 managers right now. Not because they are short staffed but because of cuts they have made. A 14 million dollar a year restaurant should have no less than 14 managers at a time and a couple of trainee managers to fall back on. I work in car sales. Now I know what you all are thinking, but we actually are one of the few that wanna help people get a car. We do not bully people or make them feel pressured. We encourage people to shop around
because we have the best car for the price and people remember great customer service. I won't buy from a jackass and I wouldn't expect anyone else to either. It has been
soooooo slow and to make matters worse, the soccer moms and the older generation who think that they need to get close to or near what they paid for their 10 year old gas guzzling
SUV or
Lincoln town car and expect to find a car that gets 40 miles to the gallon with all of the bells and whistles for under 10 grand are coming out in droves. IT AIN'T GONNA HAPPEN!!! We buy our cars from the manufacturer and we pay for them through the bank. Yes, we have a note to pay on them every month-just the
interest, but that adds up when you have 100's of cars on the lot. We also mark up the cars about $400 dollars. There- I said it. $400 dollars. All of the people who are out of touch seem to think cars are marked up 3-4 thousand dollars by the dealer. That is true in some cases-Maybe Mercedes, BMW and Land Rovers, but not on little 4 bangers or small
SUV's that are marked at 25k. My point is if you are out car shopping and you have not done your
Internet research you deserve to get upset and frustrated, but only with yourself. The market has changed so much in the last 5 years. When you are doing you research, please bear in mind that when advertised the dealer will put in the
lowest priced base vehicle and add all of the rebates and bonus money in i.e. small print, and no one ever, I repeat ever qualifies for every rebate or bonus.
Also when doing your research the price on the
manufacturers website never includes taxes, shipping fee, destination charge, title or doc fees, all of which the dealer has no control over. That alone adds up to thousands, and I haven't even mentioned financing charges. So be cool, do your research and expect to be in the dealership for a minimum of 2 hours ( you are not buying a pair of pants-you are buying a very expensive and technical machine) . Average time at my dealership, from picking out and driving a car to leaving the lot is around 3-4 hours. We have to do paperwork, pick a car, gas the car, detail the car, more paperwork, get the tags , appraise your trade, get the
financing, more paperwork, finalize the delivery, go through the checklist for the delivery, set the radio stations, check for your insurance, yet more paperwork and then you are free to drive your car off the lot where it
depreciates as soon as the tires hit the asphalt. I hope I have enlightened you all. I know I feel a little better. Now come buy a car from me so I can keep the
Internet access, will ya.SF
