I found the new car I want - the right color and handling etc, but it’s at a Dealership very far from my home. I’d like the dealership close to my home to swap cars with this dealer (same Make/Brand car dealerships. DO I have a chance? How?
When I was selling cars (Toyota and Mazda) we swapped with other dealers on a regular basis. At that time, however, the cars all came from Japan and the selection was not as great as it is now.
Things may be different now that many of the cars are made in the US and the dealers have a much larger inventory.
The bottom line is; they can, but they don’t have to. And they may not want to.
Chevlum97:
In another thread you were asking questions about the car buying process - with the interest in getting a good price.
Now you indicate that your heart is set on a car at a remote dealer.
That means two things will happen:
[list]The cost of the car to the dealer goes up a bit. They will need to pay someone to go and pick it up. They may need to also pay a 2nd person with a chase car. Those additional costs will be passed on to you.[/list]
[list]More important, however, is the dealer now knows your heart is set on a particular vehicle. Armed with that insight, the dealer will likely get you to settle on a higher sale price for the car - meaning their “bottom line” will now be higher than it otherwise would have been.[/list]
The dealer can swap cars, but there is cost involved in doing it. Someone has to move the car from dealer to dealer, and that costs money. One dealer has to take a car out of inventory and add another and that is paperwork, which also costs money.
So, if you ask the dealer to do more stuff for you to make a sale you can expect them to want more money for the car.
Dealers for a particular make have a data base and can log into that data base and locate any new car of the make the dealer handles in stock at any dealer. When we bought a Toyota 4Runner back in 2003, the salesman got on the data base and put in our specifications: V-6, four wheel drive, SR-5 model, etc. He located several vehicles at different dealers. We had to choose an alternate color and the one we finally settled on had a sun roof which we didn’t think we wanted, but my wife now thinks is great. One dealer wouldn’t agree to a swap unless he could get a Sienna in exchange. One dealer about 80 miles away had one and arrangements were made to transport it to our dealer.
Go to the distant dealer and buy the car. You can have any and all warranty work taken care of at the local dealer (or any other dealer for that manufacturer).
When the minister at my church was between jobs, she drove new cars for Saturn from one dealer to another. Dealers have to pay interest on the money tied up in inventory, so if another dealer calls for one of the vehicles on the lot, most dealers are glad to have one less car.
He knows price is set - IRA money that can’t change - cash. We’re ready to do the deal but they don’t have the car.
I’ve been wanting to get a job driving cars for dealers. In a perfect world, they could just hire me and let me drive the transfer, and I’d do it for free. But hiring takes time, though some d’ships pay cash and there’s n Application.
Yes.
But it’s not free as the word ‘swap’ would imply.
When I had my Ford dealer get my 08 Expedition from a Phoenix dealer it cost an extra 200 bucks…and I WORK here !
It doesn;t matter what we tell you here. Ask the dealer you’d like to buy the car from if he can get it…and how much extra it’d be.
Yes dealers can and do swap cars. When I sold cars for a living, if I was having a slow month I’d sometimes volunteer to ferry a car to another dealership, usually in another state. I was paid $300-$400 per trip (plus gas/hotel costs). What I would do was hang around the dealership until 3 or 4 in the afternoon, just in case I was able to get an up or two. Then leave to go swap the cars. Usually this involved driving 5 to 10 hours. So if was a closer dealership I was headed to, I would drive for five hours, swap the cars, then check in to local hotel/motel, and make the return trip the next morning. For the longer trips I would leave around noon , drive for about 8 or 9 hours, stop for the night, get up in the morning, try to get the other dealership before lunch, swap the cars, then just drive all the way back and try to get back to my dealership by closing time.
It was tedious work, but it wasn’t hard work. And if you didn’t have any prospects lined up it was easy money, particularly if you got one of the shorter distance swaps.
They can, but you’d be better off going to the other dealership and buying it from them instead. While some have had good experience with swapped cars, you never know how well the car was driven to get there.
I bought a new car last year. The dealer got the car that I wanted from a dealer about 140 miles away. The car was transported on a flatbed trailer and so it had no miles added due to the trip. A retired guy did the job for a few extra bucks and something to do to be occupied. A dealer with the car that you want may want a trade from your dealer for one of his customers.
I would want the car to be new; mine had about 30 miles when I got it.
Can you give me a heads up on how to get hored? I was told by some that they used a company, or that they used retired salesmen, or already had 6 or 7 people. Two said I could get on their list, but ti didn’t sound hopeful. What is an ‘up or two?’ I thought they’d just call me to see if I could do a trip. Could I have the option of declining a trip if too long a distance, since they have other drivers? Just how does the system work? How do I get hired? Some pay cash, a few do checks.
The dealerships that I worked for sometimes used retired salesman but they would offer the job to current salespeople first usually. If business was slow then someone usually bit on the offer. Generally the only time they would use another company to truck a car in would be if the car in question was considered too valuble to run up extra miles on like a $120k Ford GT or Z06 Corvette or a Viper.
They won’t pay you to go pick up a car that you’re buying if that’s what your thinking. Your choices will to pay them to send someone to go pickup the car or do it yourself for free.
As I mentioned before, I’ve never worked for a dealership that hires people for the sole purpose of ferrying cars. The work is not steady enough to warrant hiring someone. It would be difficult to make a living doing it. The jobs are offered to retired salesman and often current salesman mainly. If you want to do it, become a car salesman first. I was paid for the trips with my regular pay, they just added the amount onto my regular check.
An “Up” just means “potential customer”