Over the past several weeks, I’ve become intrigued by King of Cars, a new reality series on A&E focusing on the flamboyant general manager of a Dodge dealership in Las Vegas. Keeping in mind that television editors can make us see what isn’t really there, the series makes pretty clear what I thought people knew all along; if you’re going to buy a car, you need to do your homework.
The series is barely a month old, and every “deal” they’ve focused on has demonstrated the ability of the salesmen to focus on the wrong issue — they ask the potential customer how much of a monthly payment they want to pay. This is precisely the wrong way to approach a car deal. When you talk to the salesman, the only thing you should focus on is price. I wish I could claim credit for it, but a cousin of mine once told a car salesman who asked a similar question “I’ll worry about financing, you need to worry about the price I’m willing to pay.”
The lesson of the show is pretty clear. Every customer so far who has walked into the dealership worried more about their monthly payment than the full price of the deal has been taken for a sucker. Which probably explains why, in tonight’s episode, the general manager was able to fly a Mexican resort on a private jet.
May 8th, 2006 at 9:53 am
I no longer look for cars unless I have an approved loan from somewhere else. Won’t deal with their finance guys, and it drives them nuts. Very few folks realize how much extra a dealership makes on getting loans written.
When we bought the wife’s car (with $25k in hand) the finance guy almost blew it by pressuring us to finance with them. When I finally said “one more word about it and we leave, now do the f*$@ing paperwork and shut up” he got the hint.