Here Are The Ways Dealerships Fail At Internet Sales

How are the car dealerships in your area when it comes to internet sales? Unfortunately for most people, it is exactly as this article describes it.

Of course, unlike the U.S., auto manufactures in Europe can sell their cars direct to consumers. Most American car buyers who can’t afford a Tesla are stuck navigating the franchise system whose primary online tools consist of outdated websites, useless instant chat functions, and pathetic grasp of how to communicate via email.

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internet sales seems to have regressed in recent years...

I remember back in early 09, when my family was in the market for an 09 Accord, we were able to get a quote online from a dealership, that we walked in with and were able to purchase at said price without any haggling/BS...

fastfoward to earlier this year, when my family was in the market for a 15 Rogue/15 CRV, trying to get a quote online was like pulling teeth. no one was giving out any precise numbers, everyone just wanted me to waste my time to stop by the dealership...

The entire automobile dealership franchise model is a dead dinosaur. Direct sales should be where it's at, but for any of the big three and even toyota/honda to come up to speed would ridiculous and they would be putting all of their dealerships out business and starting from scratch.

My last car that I bought in 2010 was done primarily via finding prices online via cars.com and other aggregator sites, and then directly calling whoever listed it. I think these days you still have to pick up the phone, but online is still a great tool to start the search.

Most dealers were willing to haggle with me over the phone. I went in to the one dealer who gave me the best price and walked out with the car. If you get a loan from another lender other than the dealer (e.g. a local bank or credit union) or just have the cash you have a set "out the door" (i.e., after taxes and fees) bottom line making negotiations more straightforward. If the dealership is going to give you the loan on the other hand, the actual price is secondary to how much they can get in monthly payments off of you. So most of them they won't do it over the phone because their business model is built on playing games with you in the dealership with the monthly payments via the dreaded foursquare.

If you go into a dealership without the price you want to pay nailed down you are going to have an unpleasant experience.

I detailed how I went about my purchase a couple months ago of a new 2015 Dodge Challenger R/T+ and I'll try it again in short hand sorta.

Start with the Manufacturer's website and other research online to find the car you want and the options you want, everything, like building it yourself with their website tool. Make sure you know just want you want to a "T".

Use Autotrader.com to hunt down your car, their site will display the dealership, the car's VIN, and most importantly, the Window Sticker. This is how you find out who has the exact car you want.

Use TrueCar, enter the Zip Code of the dealer that has your car as your own zip in the search so it will zero in on your car that you found with Autotrader.com. This will also result in that dealership contacting you online about the vehicle.

Arrange your financing ahead of time, know what you will need to borrow and give yourself some room for extras, don't forget TTL and Warranties.

Go buy your new car.

My last couple car purchases I've used Truecar. You get blasted with e-mails and phone calls from various dealers once you request your certificate, but they invariably try to undercut each other's Truecar price. After a day or 2 of e-mail only haggling, I've usually made a pretty good OTD deal. Only hassle I've had doing it this way was when a Toyota dealer bait and switched me after I'd sold my car. Fortunately it was the end of the month and another Toyota dealer was happy to honor the same price on a comparable car. Every dealer is different though and they certainly do run the gamut. .

I don't think online or over the phone quotes mean much to most dealers. In my last car buying experience I found a car online, called the dealer and worked out the price. Verified all the details a few times with the guy on the phone then made the semi-long drive to go get the car. First thing out of the sales kid's mouth "Oh the manager thought you meant THIS color, I'm going to have to check about the color YOU want..". You guesses it they wanted over $2k more for the color I told them I wanted on the phone and they said they had. Exact same car, but if I wanted the deal I had to take the brown car instead of the silver. They got the finger and another dealer ended up selling me the car I wanted for less then the original dealer wanted and it was a newer year model to boot.

Methadras said:

The entire automobile dealership franchise model is a dead dinosaur. Direct sales should be where it's at, but for any of the big three and even toyota/honda to come up to speed would ridiculous and they would be putting all of their dealerships out business and starting from scratch.

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That's just it. Without dealers trying to screw the customer over they wouldn't make enough money to survive in today's market. Basically the dealer gets charged invoice for the vehicle and the dealers make whatever they can on top of that. They are out to take as much money from you as they can. The whole experience is about getting shafted the least instead of using salesman as a tool to provide information and aid the shopper in finding the right vehicle. At one point the salesman was needed to provide information because they were a source for it and had experience with the different vehicles as well as knowledge the consumer just didn't have access to.

Now we can get what we need form the internet and walk into a stealership knowing everything we'd ever need to about a given vehicle. Really we just need people to arrange test drives. Financing is another racket and one that could be eliminated with automated systems. But agian you have the dealership and banks trying to bend you over for as much money as possible. This system as it stands now is literally the only way these people can ensure the survival of their industry as they know it. Most of the personnel at a dealership are unnecessary.

I know several people who purchased from Carvana and loved it and I'm probably going to use it soon. A 360 degree view inside and out of the car, with the problems labeled, everything is done online, and the'll tow it to your home, or pay some of your expenses to pick it up from their 'vending machine'.

The Dealers do get charged invoice, but it's not the invoice you think you are going to get to see.

No one, not even dealerships, can stay in business by loosing money. They don't loose money on the new cars they sell and they sure don't loose money on trade-ins.

I don't know why anyone would think these dealerships are living on the edge cause the evidence is quite a different reality. Now you are correct that they are trying to use every angle possible to get all they can from the sale and the financing. Between the new car, your trade-in, the financing, and the dealer options, they have developed a pretty good shell game to get your money.

If you want to better your odds start by selling your old car yourself, anyone can outsell what a dealership is going to offer and when your done it's one less shell for the dealership to use to manipulate the price with.

Next, arrange your own financing ahead of time so you know what you are good for and that it's enough to get you what you want. You just have to be realistic about what you can afford. Again, one less shell in the game.

The next shell is dealer options, those are simple, be willing if pressed to pay for anything already on the car though they will usually waive charges on items you won't pay for if they are sure of the deal, they have the money to cover it.

Next, warranties, these are frequently easy also, usually you can pick and choose all the warranty options you want and leave anything you don't want off the list.

Now all that's left is the bottom line price and TrueCar.Com makes that part pretty easy, it will almost always be a price under the Window Sticker of the car, with any Dealer incentives applied after for an even better price.

It really depends on the dealership. I bought a new Mustang from a dealer called Greenway in Orlando last year and was able to negotiate the whole thing painlessly over e-mail. Their online team was knowledgable and great to work with. When I drove to the dealer all I had to do was fill out the paperwork (about 20-30 minutes) and I was on my way.

I wonder if the Kia dealership in Florida the author is talking about is Fuccillo. That would make a lot of sense. If you live within a 40 mile radius of that dealer you would know that they are the shittiest group of people to work with despite all the publicity and PR. In other words, the author picked the worst example possible to write an article about a car buying experience.

There is actually one dealer in town here that has a whole setup where you can buy the car on their site and they'll come to you with the car and finish the paperwork at your home or business. I don't know who in their right mind would buy a car that way, but it's an option now apparently.

Maybe impulse buying cars is a thing now that we all have such short attention spans.

Roadster.com

My GF just bought a car through them. $295 for avoiding the dealership bullshit and long paperwork process. Super-easy process, the prices were similar to what she could have got through Costco, and they even delivered the car to our home.

The service after the sale makes up for any headaches buying from a dealer.

Dealerships know most people are terrible negotiators and easily intimidated if not inundated with information they dont understand. Getting you in the door is critical to steamrolling you so you end up accepting a bad deal. Even if you begin the negotiation process online you'll never get as good an offer as they might have given you in person just because they dont take you as seriously.

Bought the wife's car back in 2006 through one of the internet buying services.
Better price than I could get elsewhere, and had the exact options we wanted. Only problem was that the dealer was 35 miles away. Paperwork was ready when we arrived and we where in & out in 20 minutes.

Tried to use the same service 2 years ago when I bough my car, and their prices where no longer very good.
Looked on TrueCar, and the dealers than had the best prices where 60+ miles away.
Ended up searching through the local dealers stock online and found the exact model and color I was looking for at a local large dealership. Waited until the end of the month, and contacted internet sales department. They matched the best deal on TrueCar, and they where less than 10 miles away.
Very easy to deal with other than I had to rush to sign the paperwork before the end of the month, but that was why they gave me such a good deal

The problem with everything is sales commissions. I think its bogus as shit that the cost of a car is so negotiable. Why would you screw a good nice customer by charging them more simply because they didn't fight with you on the price? Car makers need to get rid of that shit and have set prices. Pull the fake bullshit out of the game, you know the invoice, they say its the cost to the dealer but no one every pays more than that price, how can it be that nearly everyone can get a car for less than invoice lol. Online haggling over car prices is why dealerships don't want to quote. Car companies just need to start being like all other businesses and charge a set price for a car of set specs. No negotiations, if you want to get rid of a car just lower the price and advertise it to everyone. Just like a TV or anything else.

rudy said:

. No negotiations, if you want to get rid of a car just lower the price and advertise it to everyone. Just like a TV or anything else.

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Car dealers are independent franchises, so you should think of them like a fancy craigslist seller. They can charge whatever they want, they bought the property from the manufacturer and it now belongs to them, and they are selling it to you used with 5-30 miles on the odometer. Technically Best Buy could allow customers to negotiate on the pricing of a 60" TV if they wanted, but their inventory is far too vast to make this work. Car dealers have it easier. If you want fixed pricing then you would need to buy straight from the manufacturer, which they wont do for whatever historical reasons led up to this current business model.

My wife filled out a Subaru dealers internet lead form, got a call back over 9 months later...