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Why is car shopping such an unpleasant experience for most consumers? There are certainly many different answers to that question but I’d like to focus on one specific area here regarding dealer practices and reputation. I’ll point out some things to watch for that may help you avoid both a bad deal and buying experience. After you’ve done some research about the makes and models you’re interested in take the time to check on each dealer’s background before visiting their showroom. What is their Better Business Bureau rating and how have they dealt with customer complaints? Run a Google search to see if they have lots of negative press or feedback on Yelp, eBay or similar sites. What do people you know have to say about their previous buying experiences at the dealership? Have they been in business for long? You’ll weed out many potential dealers by just investigating these few things. Some of the worst dealers to..

“No Hassle Pricing” sounds like a great idea to people in the market for a new or used car. Who wouldn’t want to avoid all the back and forth haggling when making a vehicle purchase? Most people will agree that trying to get a good price on a car is a daunting task. So the prospect of such a consumer friendly approach as “no hassle pricing” promises to provide a less stressful path to legitimate savings. As a consumer’s advocate, and professional car buyer, I’m afraid I have to disagree with that notion. Pulling back the curtains reveals this selling approach as another marketing strategy that leads naive buyers to part with more of their money. By preying on their fear of being taken, retailers have these customers convinced that they will spend less, when in fact they will not. Let me illustrate this with a couple of examples of this you are probably familiar with. A large national retailer of predominantly used..

Here’s some important advice if you don’t want to overpay for a new or used vehicle: Never negotiate your purchase based on the monthly payment that is being offered to you. The only thing that you first need to determine is the selling price of the vehicle. Even if you want to lease, this will still apply. Once that is done, and only then, should you get a trade -in value if that applies. Other factors, such as the interest rate, number of months of the loan or lease, your remaining loan balance on your trade, or your amount of down payment should not be used to determine the selling price. The dealer has too many ways to lower your payment yet still pad their profit by manipulating these and other factors. Too many consumers focus solely on whether the monthly payment will fit in their budgets and wind up paying thousands of dollars more than they should. A very simplistic example of this is lowering the payment by..

Good timing is important when making any big dollar purchase, especially when it’s a new vehicle. While finding the right opportunity to enter the market is something that car buyers need to watch for, no one can predict the perfect time. Each individual’s unique set of circumstances will determine their best time to buy. Here are 5 reasons in today’s marketplace to consider buying a new car: 1) Summer is a great time for new car buyers to take advantage of current model year end incentives. In the fall, dealer’s inventories and their selection of the better incentivized 2011 models will steadily decline, while lots are restocked with higher priced 2012 models with smaller or no incentives. 2) Buyers can benefit from unusually high trade-in values due to the strong market demand for used vehicles. 3) Great interest rates and attractive lease deals are still available from most new vehicle manufacturers. 4)..

If you want to make some sense of the auto ads in your local newspaper or dealer’s website, here’s a short primer on spotting some often misleading terms. You may also need to break out a powerful magnifying glass as well. I’ll list just a few in this blog to help to demonstrate how these ads can be so deceiving: An ad reads: Sign & Drive, $0 Down on a new 2011 Infiniti G Series $339 for 24 months. Disclaimer in small print at bottom of page: 10K mi/yr, plus tax, license title & doc fee. The harsh reality here is: You’ll have to sign a 2 year lease, allowing you to drive only 20,000 miles before getting hit with a $.25 charge for each excess mile. The $0 Down misleads because the tax & fees add up to about $4000 you’ll have to pay on delivery. A real $0 Down lease would mean including the taxes & fees in the lease payment, which will boost the advertised payment to over $500 per month. Adjusting the allowed mileage to..

“Buyers are liars” is a commonly used expression in the car business, and unfortunately, it’s a harsh reality. For some reason, so many car shoppers think it’s okay to lie about a price they have from another dealer, the trade-in value they received, or the options on that other dealer’s car, in order to get themselves a better deal. It happens to most car salespeople every day. Decent, honest folks transform into Pinoccio as soon as they step onto the showroom floor. I suppose there are a number of reasons why people believe it’s acceptable to act this way when it comes to haggling with the dealer. Of course, many believe that all car salesmen are showroom sharks who will say anything necessary to make a sale – so the lying is justifiable. Mainly though, I don’t think people know of any other way to try and get a good deal other than resorting to this deceptive behavior. What they don’t realize is that the pros in..

Convertible, rag top, cabriolet, drop top, roadster, soft top……lots of different names that all mean freedom, sun on your face, wind in your hair, and pure motoring fun. Here in the Midwest, convertible season (generally May – September) is a short but glorious time to enjoy open air cruising. When you factor in the rainy days and blisteringly hot periods during July and August, ideal convertible weather is both a precious and fleeting commodity in our area. As a result, the demand for both new and used convertibles goes through rather dramatic seasonal changes. Used convertible values peak as the warm weather approaches and drop just as quickly in the fall as the days shorten and cool. Here are some things to consider when looking to buy or sell a convertible in our region: While new convertible’s values don’t fluctuate, as their seasonal demand increases, so will the profit margins that dealers want to make. Buying in..

The internet is now being used by the overwhelming majority of today’s car shoppers as the primary source for obtaining their information. Researching and comparing various models on popular automotive websites provides potential buyers with mostly reliable data. Almost all of these websites have prominent offers for “Free Dealer Price Quotes” which the web user is encouraged to take advantage of. A tremendous amount of customer leads are generated by these sites as a result. This is where dealers compete for your business and things are likely to get confusing. Pricing at this level is commonly quoted at artificially low prices to lure consumers into showrooms. Hard to decipher and buried disclaimers are often attached with extra charges and certain restrictions that raise these prices so quickly that noses bleed. Sadly, price comparison shopping via the internet is unlikely to yield any reliable information for the..

Vehicle History Reports (VHRs) are a useful screening tool for potential used car buyers, unfortunately they have their own sets of issues and limitations. Their accuracy is only as good, or not as good, as the various sources reporting the data where human error is often involved. As a car buyer’s advocate and consultant I always recommend that my clients check the VHR on any car we consider. It’s a cost effective way to eliminate any rebuilt, salvage titled, major damaged, stolen, flood, lemon history or odometer rollback vehicles right from the start. Simply avoiding these vehicles is my main purpose for using any VHR. Some companies also provide the added benefit of title guaranties and other protections in the event that they missed reporting something major on a car you bought after purchasing their report. Sometimes though, a VHR may reflect negatively on a perfectly good vehicle that has not been branded in any of the..

Car buying is largely an emotion driven experience for most of us whether we are aware of it or not. It’s easy to become intoxicated with that new car smell as soon we set foot in the dealer’s showroom or see the display of shiny used vehicles glimmering under the bright lights. Unfortunately, too many people fall prey to their emotions and impulsively make poor buying decisions, falling in love at first sight with the wrong vehicles. As a former new car dealer for over 30 years, I’ve seen many folks suffer needlessly from buyer’s remorse, and I would like to share a few tips for buyers to think about the next time they need to buy a vehicle. Some careful deliberation can help you select the right vehicle and prevent regret. Before heading out onto the dealer lots, here’s five tips to help you avoid buyer’s remorse: 1 – Establish your priorities. Make a list of features and options that are essential..