New Car Ex Salesman Reveals Secrets

Let me tell you a little something about myself. I believe myself to be a pretty honest guy and when I got into the Automotive Sales business five years ago I planned that to be my niche. Honesty! I was going to sell with honesty. I wanted my customers to believe in me. To believe in my product. I would not sell a product that I didn't believe in.

Of course I wanted to make a buck or two and believe me there's a buck or two to be made, but I wanted to do this while being honest to my customers and getting them the best deal possible! The dealership unfortunately does not have the same views! That's why I am no longer in the business. It is possible for you the consumer to get a great deal when buying a new car but you need to know what you are talking about and the terms used by the dealership. This way everybody wins! Everybody is happy, except to dealership!

Let me let you in on a little secret right off the bat here. The salesman pretty much makes a standard commission on every new car sale even if the car is sold below dealer invoice. In the business this is known as a "mini." The dealership I work at a "mini" was worth $150 dollars! That's it! $150 dollars so we, the salesmen, need to sell as many new cars as possible to make a decent pay check. If a salesman sells 20 new cars a month and that is considered an excellent month in the business, his/her pay check for that month is only $3000 before taxes. We need to sell volume to make any money at all. So we want to help you achieve your goal. Get you the best deal as quickly as possible and get on to the next deal! Understand? So . . . . here we go.

To begin with let’s get something straight. The CAR salesman is your friend! He or she wants to do good by you. The way a car salesman puts food on his or her table is to sell you a car and some will try to bend over backward to get this done for you. The salesman is at the mercy of the manager. It’s the management who is the enemy! Follow the steps I lay out for you below and I assure you when you go into a dealership to buy your next car you will be just as educated, if not more educated than the sales consultant you are working with on your new car purchase!

First things first, DO YOUR HOMEWORK! Be an informed buyer. If you are reading this you are obviously on the right track. Too many car buyers walk into a dealership and either know nothing about the vehicles the dealer has to offer or knows nothing about the buying process itself. WHY? There is so much information available to today’s buyer that there is no reason whatsoever to walk into a dealership uninformed on product or procedure. There is nothing a salesperson or manager loves more than an uniformed shopper. I don’t know about you but I would not have the time or the patience to visit 10 or 12 dealerships, deal with 10-12 salesperson’s (who are going to hound you relentlessly for days, if not weeks after your visit) and test drive 15-20 automobiles! Talk to your friends, neighbors, the guy in the grocery store parking lot whom is already driving a vehicle you may have an interest in, find out how he or she likes the vehicle, where they purchased it, how they were treated at the dealership and USE THE INTERNET! Research the vehicles that interest you.

Use ALL the resources that are available to you, such as Consumer Reports, Edmunds and Truecar to name a few. These website, such as Truecar will give you an idea of what actual buyers in your local area are actually paying for their new cars! Go to each manufacture’s website. Research what programs are available from the manufacturer. Know what customer incentives and rebates are available on your vehicle of interest. Know the difference between a rebate, cash back, bonus cash and terms of the like (we‘ll get into those terms later). And PLEASE, know what financing programs are available from the manufacturer ( all programs are on their websites, do not count on your salesperson or the business manager to happily inform you of them because they won’t!) and PLEASE know your FICO CREDIT SCORE!

Your FICO score will have to in the very high 600’s to mid 700’s to qualify for the best rates and incentives. If you have a car that you are planning on trading in, again, do your research on the internet at such places as kbb and Edmunds. From my experience you are going to get the best idea of what you trade is really worth at kbb You must search “trade value!” Not private party value, not suggested retail price value, “trade value!” And no matter what you think of your vehicle it is not in “excellent” condithon! Most dealership go buy “good” or “fair” condition to value your trade. And cleaning, waxing, vacuuming and changing the oil before you go to the dealership is not going to make a whole heck of a lot of difference on your trade in value just more work for you!