From 1986 to 1998 I sold cars in the Seattle area before
relocating to Colorado. That area has a large immigrant population. LL https://www.virtualmirage.org/ is writing extensively about macro ethnic
events, primary China, which is way beyond my pay grade. On the micro level, I
have experience.
Warning
If political incorrect words, phrases, and ethnic slurs
offend you, move on. This is real world shit.
Chinese Car Buyers
Tough negotiators, but not liars. If a Chinaman told me he
had $4,000 down, he had it. One transaction still sticks in the memory bank.
“You price too high. Me poor.”
“This is an advertised car for the weekend. The owner won’t
let me sell it for less”.
“Why owner not sell for less?”
When you are stuck, let your mind go blank and whatever
comes out of your mouth may work.
“The owner is a Jew”.
“Oh, Jew. Tougher than Chinese. What your interest rate?”
Samoans
I only met one who had decent
credit. The rest were basket cases.
Koreans
Arrogant assholes, but malleable. Get their egos involved.
They want to beat you. Takes a little finesse but doable.
Russians
Black Americans
I’m trying to work a deal and
this suck ass salesman is pestering me.
“Hey Tank, your do real well with
Blacks. What is your secret?”
“Simple. Treat them like white
people”.
Vietnamese
Never met one who wasn’t a lair. “That is the price. Yes or
No?” “OK. Goodbye. Thanks for coming in”.
Africans (from
Africa)
See Vietnamese. We had a salesman named Zarnell, went by Steve.
6’4” of chiseled mahogany. Nice guy with
a drug problem. One day he spent three hours with a party from West Africa.
Came up to where I was standing and vented.
“Fucking imported niggers”.
“Steve”, says I, “I can’t be hearing this”.
“Fucking imported niggers. It isn’t
like we already have enough niggers. We import more”.
Iranians
See Vietnamese.
Native Americans
See Samoans.
Hindu
See Koreans.
Canadian
Time wasters. Rarely bought anything. I did make a killer deal on one dumb
Canuck, once. We had taken in trade a Skoda. The ACV (actual cash value) the
used car manager put on it was $1. Never, ever, could the car be sold in the
USA. Slow day, Canuck time waster, and I said to him,
“Wow, this is your lucky day!” We took in a car we can’t
resale in the US but you can register and license it in Canada!” “Yada, yada,
yada.”
Cash changed hands and off he went. After many phone calls
over the next few days where he severely mother fucked me, the border goons
finally let him take it into Canada. Warmed the cockles of my evil heart, it
did!
By the time I left for Colorado, a good third or more of my
sales were to previous customers. I never lied to a customer. If they were too
dumb to ask the right questions, or too lazy to do their own research, I sure
as hell wasn’t going to educate them.
One manager had this outlook.
“I don’t believe in lying to a customer to sell a car;
unless a particularly large gross is involved”.
My ideal customer was one who had educated themselves, had
their shit together, and could recognize a fair deal. I could have them in and
out in a couple of hours. Big gross profit? I made 50% of my monthly earnings hitting
the bonus levels. Numbers, baby! Not that I was opposed to a gross profit. My
boss, Dan King, called me “Grossey” (when he was in a good mood).
I wouldn’t be in the car biz today. There are few salesmen /saleswomen.
Order takers on the new car side. The hardcore are all on used car lots.
I had some success as a manager doing off site sales. Sixty
or so in maybe twenty Colorado towns over a three year period. I liked the
challenge. No one had ever done it on the scale we operated. After 2008, I left the biz for good.
Koreans + Macro
In 2002 my boss went from used trucks and stock trailers to
becoming a Kia Dealer. By 2008 he had four Kia franchises. The President of Kia
America was Peter Butterfield. One day at lunch, at a dealer convention in Las
Vegas, the Korean biggies called him into the hallway and fired him! He was a
Ford vet, had them by the balls with his contract, and they had to pay him
off. He then bought an engine re-manufacturing
company and I spent a year+ traveling several states promoting the company. Fun
times!
Later I became an endurance driver for Roush, testing
pre-production and prototype cars and trucks. This took me to the Kia factory
in West Plains, GA and the Hyundai factory in Montgomery, AL. It was
interesting to see the Korean managers and their staffs interacting. Not for me; I avoided contact. Arrogant
assholes!
What I’ve written is real world shit. If you are offended, “Oh,
Well”.
16 comments:
I haven't bought a used car since my 1969 Ford Mustang...in 1978. Which makes me sound old, now I put dates on the page. The 1946 Willies in the garage was purchased by my son-in-law, so I technically didn't buy it.
I know that a new car depreciates before you drive it off the lot, I know all of that. But I baby cars, maintain them to schedule, and tend to keep them for a while and they give them away to kids, etc., and buy a new one. I'm not any fun for guys like you, Tank.
For a good few years, I had a brother-in-law who was a GM of Longo Toyota in El Monte, CA. I'd call him and tell him what I wanted, he'd tell me when to come by, and I'd sign here and sign there in the parking lot and would be gone with the new car in ten minutes. That was the easy way. Then he bought a Nissan dealership, and it was easier still. He'd tell MRSLL to come pick up her new car, I'd drive her over and didn't have to pay for it. Now he sold the dealership (drat).
LL
My last new, off the lot car, was a 1972 Renault 16. The last time I had a car payment was 1984. I have owned too many cars and truck to remember. Most were bough to resell. I had two Lincoln Town Cars that lasted 250,000 miles each. Not babied, but not abused and maintained. My father's words, "Grease is cheaper than machinery". My ex was a bad driver, careless, and refused to learn.
For the most part, can't work on 'em anymore.
And stuff is being engineered into 'em that breaks 'em at some point, costing many $$$$ to repair. (Ford is having problems with intake-valve coking on their Ecotech engines. I wouldn't own one too long because the only fix is cylinder head removal/replacement.)
We've now had two new Taurus SHO's. It's as close to a 60's muscle car as we can come.
But they have the aforementioned valve problem. And now Ford, in their management brilliance, ain't makin' 'em anymore.
A Kia Stinger may be the next new car in our garage.
GB
Rumor mill says there might not be a 2nd Gen Stinger. A Kia sleeper is the Cadenza. 290 hp, no turbo, 235 ft lbs. torque. 12.0:1 compression, 3.3 V-6 DOHC 24 valve.
For the most part, Kia has gone to timing chains over timing belts. The belts worked fine but the customers wouldn't do the 60k change and found out the hard way they should.
My last new car was my 2006 Jeep Grand Cherokee. Still have it, with about 80k on the clock, but it's going to need some work. New windshield, new front struts and rear shocks, and as soon as Air Care Colorado opens back up I have to get it smogged, which means I have to swap out the engine oil pressure sensor, as it's gone "Full Scale High", triggering the CEL.
And there's an old Toyota in the garage that's going under the knife for a new timing belt, tensioner, water pump, reman DENSO starter and alternator, new fuel injectors, and a new fuel filter. I also have all new belts and hoses for it.
The starter and fuel filter are "Targets of Opportunity" as they're much, much easier to reach when the upper and lower intake manifolds are off the car, which is required to replace the injectors and one of the coolant hoses.
DrJim
I'm trying to get the wipers working on my Taurus. The part I need is $100+ new. Pulling a used part is a problem as my old fat body can't contort enough to reach it. When it looks like rain/snow I drive the Mighty Max.
What interesting tales you tell. If I remember correctly, I've only bought one new vehicle, a Ford pickup in 1968. The only reason we bought that was it was what we needed to make a long distance move, and it was a fair deal, and the dealer was a friend... Since then it has been nothing but used vehicles. Most of our vehicles have gone on to others in the family, or friends. My last purchase was my Tahoe, used with very low miles, and I got to check it out before they detailed it, very clean. It will most likely be my last purchase... unless...
I'm with LL on this one. I buy new and keep them for usually 10 years. I've 'mostly' had good experiences, because I do my research before I ever walk on the lot, and usually bought from friends that were GMs. :-)
OldNFO
An informed consumer ready to make a decision. The best kind of customer for a professional salesperson.
Brig
Thank you or the remark on interesting tales.
Conventional wisdom says a vehicle is the 2nd largest purchase people make. That assumes they don't stay renters. Another bit of wisdom is, "If you are always broke, you are driving the reason".
In general, there are two types of buyers, need buyers and want buyers. Guess which ones fatten the commission check?
I always tried to treat every customer with respect but very soon I decided my mission wasn't educating lazy damn fools.
Sure hope I don't qualify for the lazy damn fool category...
I do my homework and I've always taken one of the guys in the family with me when I buy a vehicle. Nearly all of the salesmen have responded better that way. I'm curious as to what your thoughts on that are.
Brig
Your family members are what are refereed to as a third baseman. Many salespeople dislike that situation. It rarely bothered me, just another element in the sales process.
I liked customers who did their homework. The process moves much faster with them. I kept records of how many people I talked to. Of those, how many did a test drive. (The vehicle is a far better salesman than any person). Of the test drives, how many was I able to sit down and put something on paper. Of those, how many did I "close". Over a couple of decades I would "close" one out of 4.2 people I talked to. The national average, supposedly, is around one in eight.
The best I ever worked with was Dirty Al Imhoff who closed one in three. I always outsold him, and made more gross profit, because he would spend hours with a customer. His choice.
The lazy damn fools start the day with, "Let's go look at some cars". No prior planning, no research, and only a vague idea of what they needed. Maybe they didn't have money for a movie and just wanted to kill time. Fine, but they weren't going to kill my time!
I can't imagine not test driving a vehicle on the type of roads you would be driving on the most.
My question would be, do most salesmen treat a lone woman differently from a woman with a man?
Brig
Yes, the stupid ones. Worse, they ogle her assets and perhaps hit on her. Back in the day, a quick way to get fired off my crew.
I can't recall a woman alone who wasn't serious about buying/leasing a car.
One woman had a crystal on a chain. A each step, she would hold the crystal over the paper, close her eyes, and wait for the crystal to start moving. It would move! Strange to me but, what the hell, she was the customer. She leased an Escort.
Offended? Not at all.
I'm looking to replace my 08 F150 (fleet/used/270k) with something similar but newer. Some say I should trade it in on a lease for a RAPTOR, save the upfront cash then use that for a new vehicle purchase when the lease runs out.
I'm already confused.
LSP
A lease is a purchase only you make your down payment at the end, if you decided to keep it.
My advice to anyone is this: if you can't afford to buy it, you have no business leasing it. The difference between the monthly lease vs monthly purchase should go into savings.
Back in the day I worked for Sound Ford, Renton, WA. They were around #20 nationwide in volume. For 14 years they were the #1 Ford Red Carpet Lease store in the county. I think I'm qualified to say I understand leasing.
There are four important numbers, capitalization cost, residual, mileage allowance and lease factor. You probably won't be able to get the lease factor (basically the interest rate, but the other numbers you can. Cap cost is what the dealership will sell you, or the lease company, the vehicle $xx,xxx. Residual is what you can buy the vehicle for at the end of the lease. Mileage is how many miles a year. If the vehicle has, "reasonable wear and tear", and isn't over the stipulated mileage, you can walk away. Too many mile and you pay a penalty. All this assumes a closed in lease. Open end leases are rare.
All indications is the bottom is falling out of the used car market and in two months or so some bargains will pop up.
Good luck.
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