ltc

I don't think so.

allegretto

so you're a dealer in Greenwich (a toney area as i recall, never been there myself) and you're ranting at us about how difficult your job has become?

Wow! here's a tissue, the tampon machine is freshly stocked. have a nice cry, go freshen yourself up and come back in a better mood...

things will get better as soon as you learn about service.

see, it's not about YOU, it's about the CUSTOMER. if that rubs you wrong, get another career!

sorry there, but i didn't hear many squawk when they were selling like popcorn. c'mon, suck it up. very few businesses are making killings right now. it will get better, i think, if they (that's the 537 bonified screw ups in DC) don't go out of their way to make it worse

buckwheat987

I find the OP's posts laughable.

gt68

i expected the hostility, but you too are missing the point. i WANT to service my customers. it's what i look forward to doing every day. what i am saying is that if you in fact are a real buyer in the market, idenify yourself as such. an email request for a best price from an anonymous "buyer" with no expression of a commitment to buy, well, is frankly hard to take seriously.

in your email request, identify yourself. tell me you want to buy my silver/black cab and you are looking for a deal and you'd like to make a decision today, and that your offer is $x. now you're not one of the hundreds of crackpot emails and i can offer you the service and attention you deserve when you're looking at a $100k+ car.

jderrico

Everything in life is negotiable and the laws of supply and demand even work for P-cars. There's lots of supply out there so you can't expect top dollar anymore. Its your job to determine who's serious and who's not. An initial crazy low bid does not mean a buyer isn't serious...sometimes it a way of finding who the serious sellers are in how they respond. A buyer gets blown off, they often walk. Give them some consideration and discuss it, you may win a deal and then a loyal customer that will pay top dollar when the economy turns around and supply is short.

gt68

no dude, you too miss my point. i don't have a set price, or a best price. i don't make money until you write a check and drive away in your new car. i'd love to get MSRP and the market demanded that for a while. now i heavily discount the cars; when a customer makes me an offer and is still paying me a profit i say "yes, thank you," and take the deal. how much is enough though? for some guys it's a thousand, for some it's $5 for some it's $10.

i have 10% margin in my front end and my net operating profits are less than 1%. i'm not complaining, i'm explaining reality to you. i'd love to have it the way the german dealers do: no inventory to carry, you order a car and it comes it comes in a year with every option you want and not a single extra one and you pay msrp, but you're not pissed about it because everyone pays msrp and no one lies awake at night wondering if their neighbor paid $1,000 less. oh wait, i couldn't do that because most of the geman dealers are owned by PAG, not franchises. that, and they're socialists (hard to belive, but even more so than we are).

you hate dealers? do you hate the retailer of every product you buy, and the fact that they're making money when you buy that printer, that latte, that hamburger or that house? why am i so dirty, man? i'm trying to make a living doing what i love, just like you are in your business, which you're obviously successful at if you can afford a porsche.

bad dealers will perish in this economy. good ones will survive. but that's academic, and completely off the topic of my original post.

points

When I go to dealers to buy trucks or vehicles for my business or family I routinely either lie about my identity or get rude and dont give them my name at all.

I do this to avoid being called over and over to see if I have made my mind up. When the dealer gets your name, e-mail or address you can expect to be hassled, cajoled, whined at and bugged till you are blue in the face to get that sale.

This is why when I start pricing vehicles I do not reveal my identity....so to the OP maybe thats why you are getting many requests for prices on the internet without ID. Buyers are sick of the high pressure sales that come with calling or visiting a dealer.

Edgy01

I think it's the salesman,--not the dealership, who has an issue. When I first approached my dealership and spoke to a salesman he cited a $5000 deposit and then never returned my call about a Paint to Sample and European delivery. I went to ANOTHER salesman who I was familiar with and got an entirely DIFFERENT reaction,--claimed a $1000 deposit was sufficient and then began to work on the order with me. If I simply walked away based upon the performance of one lousy salesman that dealership would have been out a sale.

Today it's a buyer's market and salesmen have to understand that the gravy train pulled out of that station about 18 months ago. This is where the tough get going or they simply move on to mattress sales...

gt68

you're right, it's my job to determine who's serious. make an offer to buy and i know you're serious. that's all i'm asking for.

i'm not sure you're a serious buyer when you offer $70k on a $100k car because it's a crackpot offer and seems to demonstrate a lack of knowledge of our profit margins, but hey, now i have something to work with and know some one is working with me in good faith.

abe

First, I don't see a problem when someone posts how great a deal they received....it keeps the dealers honest. No different with you guys wanting to know how low your competitor is willing to sell.
Second, something about what kind of service we will receive in the future with buying directly....well, its not like they are doing a great job now.
Third, working 70hrs a week...if your not selling cars what are you doing during those 70hrs? Don't be graphic and remember this a G rated forum. Are you sitting around and looking out the window? Some people really work 70hrs a week to pay for the P cars!
Lastly,
....get a grip of yourself, for crying out loud, you are a man...I think

Oh, next time someone asks for the best price...why don't you do it so we don't have to play all these b.s. lying games at the dealership. You might get more people to buy instead of wasting their time! Oh, I forgot...the game is how much we can squeeze that orange!
BTW, thank you for listening to me...and as you like to say "just kidding"
abe

lig

Funny thread. I bought my car when the economy was better. I didn't send in the "give me your best price" email - I made an appointment and scheduled a drive w/ my local dealer.

Living in the backyard of Micro$oft - the sales guy was courteous but not at all interested in negotiating. He told me they could sell every C2S they could get at a serious premium over what other dealers in different regions were selling for.

I appreciated the fact that he was forthcoming but I ultimately bought elsewhere. I wanted to buy locally but they felt they could have more money on the same car from another buyer and I felt I could get the same car for $5-10K less elsewhere - and I did.

jderrico

So how do you respond to these offers? That makes all the difference. There is a BMW dealership in town that WILL NEVER get my business even if they are the last dealership around because of this kind of attitude.

Quadcammer

This is ridiculous.

I answer easily over 200 emails a day, and somehow manage to get other stuff done as well. As I'm sure you're not flooded with walk in buyers, wouldn't it behoove you to give the guy a response?

email received: "whats your best price on xyz porsche"

Your response: List price is $98k. If you're interested we can try to work out a deal. Give me a call at 993-996-914 to discuss it further. Thanks and have a great day.


That response took about 20 seconds to type. Hell, copy it and just paste it into emails since its a standard response.

I realize that a lot of these are BS, but why risk a sale over not responding to an email.

Anybody who ISN'T price shopping these days is a fool. Unless you are providing hookers and blow around the back of your dealer, there isn't much incentive to buy a car from you if you are charging 2% more than the next guy.

Dealers would be the first to bend an unsuspecting customer over, so don't be surprised when people are sick of the bull**** and just want to know what you can do for them upfront.

Quadcammer

thats interesting.

What if I say I'm looking to buy in 6 months? Am i now relegated to the list of "untouchables" in your email junk folder?

What if I offer 10% under invoice? 20% When is the offer low enough that you're sure I live in my mother's basement?

A judgmental salesman better have something great to offer, or else he'll be selling toner cartridges at staples pretty soon.

These emailers are not in your store, begging for test drives or wasting your time by tirekicking. They shoot you an email. Maybe they are an eclectic billionaire with bad social skills. Maybe they are hedge fund traders who are busy with convergence trades and don't have time for a long drawn out response.

Again, a 20 second email response will weed out the bums.

DRJMK

I agree!