why don't car dealers negotiate over phone?

vikingaero

anewman wrote: »

In some cases if you use a broker you could even be directed to the dealer you got a test drive from to buy, so that would show them who failed to budge on price when you asked and tried to give you scare stories about the internet.

As this forum shows time and again, loyalty does not pay (maybe it does if you have money to throw away).

One of my friends went to the local Vauxhall dealer armed with a Drive The Deal quote. The salesman refused point blank to match it. So my friend toddled off and ordered from Drive The Deal. A few hours later he got a call from...... the same salesman, whom he dealt with earlier, calling to take his deposit and confirm details. And the same salesman completed the handover of the car. It seems that the salesmen are not allowed to match internet brokers prices on walk-ins.

ukjoel

vikingaero wrote: »

One of my friends went to the local Vauxhall dealer armed with a Drive The Deal quote. The salesman refused point blank to match it. So my friend toddled off and ordered from Drive The Deal. A few hours later he got a call from...... the same salesman, whom he dealt with earlier, calling to take his deposit and confirm details. And the same salesman completed the handover of the car. It seems that the salesmen are not allowed to match internet brokers prices on walk-ins.

They are not. Occasionaly a sales manager will authorise it.
Drive the deal get a small handling fee (£50 or so for passing the deal to the dealer.
The salesman gets a £50 commission for filling in an order form and handing over your car (it will also count towards his numbers and lift him into a higher band of commission for the cars he sells himself.

If you walked in off the street for the same car the salesman would be looking at a minimum of £200 commission from the deal and depending on what else he sold it could be a lot more than that.

Thats where your saving kicks in. That combined with the other discounts the dealer does to get the volume in from drive the deal that month.

The salesman knew he would be supplying the car but also knew that there wasnt any point trying to compete on price. He also knew his manager would never authorise him to price match as they would get the order anyway.

Lemonade_Pockets

ukjoel wrote: »

If you walked in off the street for the same car the salesman would be looking at a minimum of £200 commission from the deal and depending on what else he sold it could be a lot more than that.

haha its been a while, this rest is pretty much spot on but this is inaccurate.

Trust me i would of stayed selling cars if this were the case...... i would of been on a minimum of £58k pa! Happy days where do i sign?

vikingaero

Lemonade_Pockets wrote: »

haha its been a while, this rest is pretty much spot on but this is inaccurate.

Trust me i would of stayed selling cars if this were the case...... i would of been on a minimum of £58k pa! Happy days where do i sign?

LP,

Are you no longer a car salesman?

missile

berniesmaster wrote: »

i dident even know that prices are negotiable! and if so...how much? 5%...10% more??

They will be pleased to take 5% and delighted to take 10% more :rotfl:

flyingscotno1

Once bought a car that was over 400 miles away, which was an adventure. Did go and see it however and it worked out in the end.

I find companies like Drive the Deal curious as to how they make the money- there will be a cut somewhere but is it as low as £50? How much volume are they doing passing on to dealers?

Hintza

flyingscotno1 wrote: »

but is it as low as £50?

Probably variable but I always thought it was in the region of £200.

Lemonade_Pockets

vikingaero wrote: »

LP,

Are you no longer a car salesman?

Nope, afraid not, having done a number of years in sales as salesman/business manager i got bored of 7o'clock finishes and working weekends.

However i still work in the industry for one of the major MFR's as an accountant.

Lemonade_Pockets

Hintza wrote: »

Probably variable but I always thought it was in the region of £200.

Every dealership group is different and commision structures can be quite complicated.

It is possible to earn £200 per car don't get me wrong, but your average profit would have to be £1500+ and you'd have to be on the top commision band which is normally 18-21 cars a month plus flog a healthy amount of protection packs and gap insurance. This is pretty unlikely especially with all these MSE's out there .

To give you an idea our targets as dealership used to be average profit of £1000 per car on used and £500 on new. Even that wasn't actually real profit as there was still all the fixed costs to pay.

decsdad

Hi all,
We have done this, found an Approved Used Audi on their website 250 miles away, phoned up, negotiated, had a trade in also, agreed a deal, paid £500 deposit, drove down, car not up to scratch, told them so, got deposit refunded.
A week later, found another 500 miles away, negotiated, agreed a deal, drove down, great car. Just have a good look over the car, point out anything needing sorted, of course the Approved used car sheme helps I think.