Being in a deprest area you can expect dealers to screen their clients.
So now you are in the “Automotive industry”?
The new car vehicle prices are listed on the Monroney label, that is required in the U.S.
Nobody pays window sticker prices for most cars and both the customers and dealers know it. For some reason the Subaru dealers in the area where my daughter lives told her that they do not discount their cars at all because they sell every one they get. I don’t know if they thought she was an easy mark but she told them," You may sell every one you get but you won’t sell them to me."
My son in the Midwest bought his Subaru at a discount and the Subaru dealers in my area advertise theirs at a discount.
My advice for new car buyers, go to dealers and drive cars without talking price, find out what car and equipment you want and let the salesman know that all price negotiations will be done by email or phone, (your choice) and because they were nice enough to spend time with you, that other dealers would have to beat, not just match their price to get the sale.
True, some buyers pay more than MSRP, some pay less. Dealers in my area are not going to begin negotiations with someone who may be there to steal a vehicle and I don’t mean to get the vehicle at a fantastic price I mean theft.
I guess I just live in a more trusting area. The only cars I have ever seen go for more than list price are limited production high performance models. I don’t understand why anyone wouuldn’t avail themselves of all the online pricing and car buying help.
I have had some dealerships play games with me, but I won’t put up with them. I had one salesman tell me they has “lost” the keys to my trade in in order to keep me there when I was going to leave. I told them I had brought another set and had given them only car keys and they could have their shuttle driver bring mine to my house or we were going to discuss the cost of re-keying my car.
I had another salesman who seemed to want to do anything except give me a price on the model I wanted so I made him a low offer. He said he would have to check with his manager.
I waited a few minutes and went the direction he did and saw him drinking coffee and eating a doughnut in a back room, he didn’t see me and I left. He called me about 1/2 hour later and said he couldn’t find me and why did I leave. I told him I didn’t want to interrupt his coffee break and I was no longer interested in his price. I got a follow up call from someone at the dealership and I told them why I did not want to buy a car from them. The dealership I did buy from was very straightforward, they offered me a price, I countered, that continued until we were only about $100 apart and they said they couldn’t lower their price any more and I accepted their last offer. I tell them I never discuss financing until we set a price and tell them I am not sure about trading in my car so I want a clean deal price. I don’t need financing and have taken it when a huge rebate is on the table and pay it off in less than a week. I also don’t trade in.
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The current drastic discounting of cars and especially trucks is indicative of overpricing. Maybe Subaru’s MSRP is more realistic and allows no room for the 20% discounts that are common on GM and Ford pickups, etc. But like all automobile brands Subaru oversells itself to the market segment it has chosen and developed and all automobiles come up short when the rubber meets the road.
The scam calls are very hard to track down as they are often run through virtual call centers and numbers are spoofed. There are ways to track them down but it takes lots of effort and it is extremely hard to get them when the calls come from overseas. That being said, I am pretty sure many of the ones I get are from the US as well. These guys are tricky and many are behind VPNs and such. The fact that there are SO MANY these days
There is no point in reporting ones that use a spoofed number but I try and report at least one per day to the FTC do not call violation site as well as the site for my local state. I also make a point to report the frequent callers if the number isn’t spoofed as well but my goal it to report at least one per day. It only takes a few minutes and I DO think it actually makes a difference. I think some also tell the caller who reported them so I guess I get put on a do not call list with the callers as well. It is too bad asking them nicely doesn’t work but this seems to do the job much of the time.
No, I am not in the auto industry but the fact a business needs to screen customers applies to ANY business unless they want to be taken for a ride by scamming customers. I offer discounts for very large commercial customers but won’t even talk about it with a small customer. Per hour, I make more on the small jobs. People think it should be the opposite and that I should charge commercial customers more. It takes a lot more effort dealing with individuals and the nonsense many cause so it seems that this is how it should be. Yes, some customers want a price that is basically theft and not reasonable at all. My brain basically trips the main breaker in dealing with that person. I just want them gone so I can deal with a decent paying customer. It isn’t just the price. There are plenty of other crap things that they pull. I have a no haggle policy as well. I inform customers that try this that I will raise the price if they try again and that is their last warning. I am busy enough with good customers and these are always the troublemakers so I have no incentive to cater to them.
That being said, I got the feeling that this one dealer was playing games. I have heard others tell me the same story. They also seem to cater more to customers who are maybe just a tad above the “buy here, pay here” places and hit them with high interest. They also operate a buy here, pay here place across the street. I think they just cater to a different market.
There are some cars where people do pay more than MSRP but nothing we were looking at was one of those. I got online and can see the invoice prices and delivery/dock for my area. Anyone who is looking should at least look online and do some research first.
My GF got taken for a ride by a car dealer on the car that got traded in. She was single and had just broken up. She also bought a car in the town surrounding a military base which is always a risky proposition. Unfortunately there are a lot of crooks doing business bases as they are a lot less likely to get caught due to the transient population. Talk about scammers…
Anyway, she went into a place and wanted the newest low mileage car for the best price. They saw a sucker coming and sold her a model from an orphan maker that was not known for being of quality. They also sold it to her with many maintenance issues and bald tires that didn’t pass inspection. This is illegal in MO unless you have a salvage title by the way. A car must pass the safety inspection no matter what. It also needed a new timing belt and this was a model that is not forgiving to having that break. Quite a few other things needed attention and they knew it. She WAY overpaid for the newest low model car and would have been better off with something older and with more miles in better shape. They saw a sucker coming and took full advantage. They dumped a car that no one else wanted for way too much money and got her on the financing to boot. She got several class action notices about that. Apparently the finance company was guilty of deceptive lending practices or something.
The last place she used was great. They were no nonsense and very straightforward. I ended up buying a car from them a few months later. Again, I was happy.
While I am the victim like most reports here of general-purpose fraud attempts — over the phone usually, most common one it someone with a heavy foreign accent and bad grammar who claims to be an IRS agent telling me my federal tax payment is late, there’s a warrant for my arrest, and they will send a squad car to take me in jail in 10 minutes unless I pay anywhere from $750 - $10,000, after which I say “hmmm , jingling my keys, all I’ve got is 7 cents in Canadian pennies and 2 M&M’s, will you take that as a compromise?” — but as far as being a victim of fraud related to automobiles, not so much. About the closest was when a dealership shop miss-wired an electrical system recall repair which promptly burned out my car’s fuel pump relay. Two symptoms, first the fuel pump would run with the key in on without the engine running which it never did before; second, burned insulation odor and 1/4 of the fuel pump relay plastic case was completely melted. So I took it back to the shop the next day. When I came to get the car after the second repair , the service writer said no work was done, the first repair was done correctly, and that it is normal for the fuel pump to run without the engine running. When I pointed out that the fuel pump relay case was no longer melted, so it must have been replaced, he had no explanation other than I must be mistaken.
Yes! I refer to J.D. Power and BBB as the finest recommendations money can buy.
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It was even sooner with the 486 chip. The chip was designed with a math co-processor. But some of the chips the Co-Processor didn’t pass, so they sold the 486 without the math co-processor a lot cheaper. Better then throwing them away. Back then chip manufacturing easily had an extremely high 30% failure rate.
The 486 was called the 486 at first. Then they started this. The 486DX was the “deluxe” and the SX was the “sux” as we called them. I was just getting into computers around this time as a kid.
As for automotive scams, someone was telling me about one for people with OK credit. We are talking OK, not great, but not terrible credit. They will run your credit score as many different ways and places as they can so it shows up that you have been getting lots of lots of hits on credit checks on your credit report. This is a negative on your credit report. That way your credit drops and you can’t get approved anywhere else. Then you have to use the place that screwed you and pay their interest rates if you want a new car right then.
Inquiries to your credit report does NOT EFFECT your credit report. That internet myth has been circulating for years.
Doesn’t seem like it’s that simple:
“Hard inquiries are also known as hard pulls and happen when a creditor checks your credit for the purpose of giving you a loan or credit card. A soft inquiry, or soft pull, is where you or a company is simply looking for information without your seeking credit. A hard inquiry can affect your credit score and remain on your credit report for two years.”
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I am talking about hard credit checks. They do this as many times as possible under the guise of finding you the best deal but it is really a trap to force you into buying a car and getting financing through them.
This will not impact a person with good credit as their score won’t drop enough or they will sense the trap and walk away as I did at a dealer who tried this with my GF once. A person with bad credit will have to use some type of high risk lender anyway so it doesn’t impact them much either.
Actually, what they call “hard” inquiries do drop your FICO score a few points while “soft” inquiries don’t. The drop is not significant if you had a good score >700 to begin with.
Other than my mortgage, which was paid off 15 years ago, I haven’t borrowed a dime before 2 years ago. I’ve paid all my bills 100 percent on time except for once my wife left the electric bill with a stamp on it in her purse. So it was one month late. To me it seems that is excellent credit as I can show that I will pay my depts. But in order to have good credit you have to borrow money unnecessarily to build it. At that time, although I have excellent dependability, my credit was so bad that I couldn’t qualify for a Home Depot card. 3 years ago I decided I wanted a credit card for a little bit extra security. I had to get a secured credit card and take out an unnecessary loan for three years to qualify for a credit card with an $8000 cap. I paid off the loan early cause I couldn’t stand giving them interest. All that just to say that while I was trying to build credit I investigated some options, and got a couple of hard inquiries. I did take a hit with them as far as credit building goes.
People here are confusing a SOFT credit with a HARD credit. A HARD credit is when a loan institution is making their final decision on IF to give you a loan. Inquiries from different loan institutions (which is what started this discussion) DOES NOT EFFECT your credit. Only when the loan company is making a final decision. It’s extremely rare that any car loan will be doing multiple HARD queries before they grant you any credit.
I pay everything I can with a credit card except for things that charge a fee for paying with a credit card… I have one card that gives me 5% back on rotating categories. One that give 3% on groceries, another gives me 3% on gas and the last on gives 2% on everything else. I have no cards with annual fees and never pay any interest. In addition, every one of those cards paid me a cash bonus to take it. I have a lot of cards that I used long enough to get the bonus and then cancelled the card. This has dropped the average age of my cards and Credit Karma tells me that drops my credit score but if I told you what it is , it would sound like bragging. I just chanced checking accounts and by June first will get a $600 bonus.
There is a lot of free money out there. When I bought my 2012 Camry new, I tried to pay for it with credit cards but the dealer wouldn’t take more than $2500 on a credit card. Even that put an extra $50 in my pocket. Some people tink that getting an extra $50 off on a %20000 car is not worth the effort but it is just as much as if you get an extra $50 off a $500 dishwasher.
I agree with Dave Ramsey on some things, but not on the use of credit cards. Does he think HE doesn’t have the willpower to not charge more than he can pay off at the end of the billing period?
It’s apparent that Ramsey’s books are for financial idiots and whatever simple strategy he advised in a book he will stick with it regardless how ill advised that strategy is for a particular situation posed by a caller. His radio program’s purpose is to sell books and tickets to his grand events with little concern for the caller’s best interest. His advice is often comical in its jingoistic response to seemingly desperate problems.
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I try to get credit card rewards as well. Some work on gas, groceries, travel, or rotating categories as mentioned. Discover is my favorite and has rotating categories. These are usually seasonal. For example, the summer travel season brings you discounts on car rentals, gas, hotels, and theme parks. There may be others I forgot. Christmas will bring you extra rewards on warehouse clubs like Sams Club and Costco as well as certain retailers and online shopping like Amazon. Spring brings you the home improvement category for stores like Lowes and Home Depot.
I used to be all about this but keeping track of all the cars became too much effort for little reward. I now online have a couple cards for what I buy most often. Discover is really my favorite overall. I think card rewards are a great thing if you pay the card off and there is no annual fee. I would never have an annual fee on a credit card. If you don’t pay the card off each month you are probably better without rewards as they have a lower interest rate.
I know many consider high interest rates for high risk borrowers to be a form of fraud such as at the “buy here, pay here” car lots. I personally think they are a rip off and would never set foot in one of these places. On the other hand, they allow people who would never otherwise drive anything but a $500 beater to buy a better car. It is all about risk vs. return. I recently saw an article about capping all interest rates at 15%. Yeah, this would work fine for people with decent credit but might actually hurt high risk borrowers by eliminating various financial products they can currently use.
Then there are these “rent to own auto” places. I guess you could get around the interest rate by having some crazy high price on the car and just charging payments with no interest until it is paid off.
I sometimes listen to Dave Ramsey as he is on the local talk radio station. Some of the callers just have no sense at all! I am sure he is catering to the lowest common denominator with his advice. I mean some of the people that call in just leave you shaking your head. THey have no money but go out and buy a new car with a big loan. He tells them to sell it and buy a beater.
Everyone in marketing searches for and takes advantage of every ‘soft spot’ they can find to sell us stuff and sell us the most expensive stuff at that. Of course credit is the biggest soft spot and I see on television where we can buy an electric skillet for $19 per month for 6 months and we all know that with such a skillet we will have more friends and more fun and more free time and our significant others will recognize what geniuses we are for buying one. Ain’t credit great.
EASY payment plans give US easy access to more luxury, performance and status than we can afford and Ramsey preaches against being a sucker for the marketers but offers little insight into intelligent alternatives and there aren’t any more Ford Granadas waiting on the back rows at car lots that only need a new battery to get you to work reliably for the next 2 years. And Dave’s lousy advice on automobiles, which I am more familiar with than most people, leaves me to distrust his advice on all matters. Honestly, I see a man who has packaged and painted himself into a phony political and theological icon. Talk radio is giving us a lot of phony icons these days.
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