5 ms·

For those who are not aware, buying cars in the US is a terrible experience, and has stayed that way for many years. http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2013/02/12/

• jivatmanx 13y ago
  Not a fan of dealer commercials either.
  • medell 13y ago
    I have to wonder at what point these repetitive ads diminish in value. How many times do you need to see a truck hauling a heavy load, slogging through mud to a husky voice over? GM had a $3.1B ad budget last year, 2nd only to P&G. http://www.businessinsider.com/the-35-companies-that-spent-1-billion-on-ads-in-2011-2012-11?op=1 http://www.businessinsider.com/the-35-companies-that-spent-1...
    • chloraphil 13y ago
      I don't think GM makes dealer commercials as they are the manufacturer.
      • jbottigliero 13y ago
        Although they may not make the commercials directly, in print there is often "co-op" money available to dealers when certain criteria is meet by said ad... I imagine there is a similar system for television adverts.
    • BHSPitMonkey 13y ago
      Your descriptions sound like manufacturer commercials; Dealer commercials are the ones with jingles and usually the owner of the dealership yelling things at you for 30 seconds straight.
• prawks 13y ago
  As someone who just purchased a car at a dealer: it really is. I'm majorly hoping that Tesla paves the way to change that. Once prices come down to the ~$30k range and a larger percentage of consumers have the option of buying through Tesla, I think we'll be seeing a dramatic paradigm shift away from the horrible dealer experience. Although there's still a long way to go, I'm excited for Tesla.
  • mbreese 13y ago
    The last car I bought was a surprisingly pleasant experience. But I was deciding between two cars at different dealers. And I bought the one from the dealer that was the best experience. I probably would have been happy with either car, but the buying experience doesn't have to suck.
  • ams6110 13y ago
    The thing I figured out is: don't buy cars at dealerships.
  • sliverstorm 13y ago
    As someone who just purchased a car at a dealer: it really wasn't. The only part that wasn't awesome was due to the fact that I wanted a very specific configuration the dealer could only find one of, there was some extra wait and hassle. But that is just the price I pay for being picky. Moral of the story: anecdotes != data
• rdl 13y ago
  You can skip a lot of that by using something like Costco, Carwoo, or just contacting fleet sales departments.
  • jyu 13y ago
    Thanks for the recommendations of Costco and fleet sales departments. Those are what I would use for my next car. I tried Carwoo for my parents buying a new car. Since it was an all cash deal, and they were shopping for a new car, the cars and quotes were directly comparable. After visiting a couple dealerships from Carwoo, we had the same shitty experience as we would have without Carwoo. Salesmanship, adding several thousand dollars of "extra but very necessary fees not included in the Carwoo quote", exploding contract price, etc. I was embarrassed that my parent's car buying experience was that bad in 2012, and it cost them a couple weekends on the phone, driving out there, hearing that somehow the quote was not the final quote, etc. In the end we just ended up at CarMax for a fair price and a decent buying experience.
    • toomuchtodo 13y ago
      Time and time again, Carmax is fantastic experience. I have bought 8+ cars from them, and have never had a bad experience (either used or new cars).
      • rdl 13y ago
        The best thing I've ever seen were the BMW (and presumably other manufacturer) military/diplomatic sales deals out of Germany. 10-30% below US prices for some models, and 50+% below the local market prices in some countries. You email them, they send you a selector PDF, you reply with what you want and the price, and they take a deposit. You have to be deployed military (although not necessarily to Europe), a contractor on specific orders, etc. to use the program, but it's pretty awesome if you can.
• catmanjan 13y ago
  Is it like that for motorbikes as well? Here in Australia we pay an extra $3000 for Harley's!
  • ams6110 13y ago
    Harleys are just really expensive. It's more about the whole Harley image than it is about the machine. Like any other designer label.
    • sliverstorm 13y ago
      Many Harleys also retain their value pretty darn well, considering.
• Shivetya 13y ago
  Whatever, having purchased six cars in the last ten years I never remembered a bad experience. Bad cars at times but on a whole if the system was so bad then how would you explain sales? they cannot all be bad. Perhaps people confuse used car sales from no name dealers with new car sales or big dealers? I am quite sure I can point at any industry and say the experience sucks when dealing with them if I look in the right places. Even as I wrote this I was at a loss trying to think of even anyone I know who had a bad time.
  • ncallaway 13y ago
    "Bad cars at times but on a whole if the system was so bad then how would you explain sales?" People consider cars to be necessities. There is significant legislation already in place that protects the dealer model. Thus, if you want to buy a car, you have few options other than dealerships.
    • Shivetya 13y ago
      You do understand that the dealer model came about to allow the manufactures to maintain production without having to directly deal with changing of sales patterns throughout the year don't you? The Faustian bargain if you will was dealerships were given certain deals by the manufacturers to protect their ability to profit. States got involved later, where there was money to license such as well as to keep manufacturers from stepping into a solid market to brush aside the dealers who forged it. It was a solution fit for its time and still is in many cases. When Tesla's support falters who you going to yell at? Fellow disgruntled owners on a message board? Not saying it will, but you who goes to bat for you when sales are direct?
      • revelation 13y ago
        Fisker failed, and you don't see dealerships reverse engineering the electrical system or building battery packs. Quite frankly, if the company fails, you are out of luck, dealerships or no dealerships.
      • bobo13579 13y ago
• jessaustin 13y ago
  By the time you get to the dealer, you have already guaranteed yourself a bad experience (unless your goal for the day is just a test drive). The key is to contact multiple dealers with the same fairly specific request. You'll be passed on to the most desperate salesperson on duty, because no one wants to be in a competition. The desperate salesperson at each dealership, however, will know he's in a competition, and he'll act like it. If you're especially brutal with the poor bastard he'll throw in free delivery, and you'll never actually have to go to the dealership. EDIT: I see lots of CarMax recommendations. Maybe they've just automated the process I've described.
  • brooksbp 13y ago
    And target the end of month where sales is looking to meet quota. I called a few places near the end of the month asking for quotes on an exact make/model, ended up walking into both, walking out of both, and striking a decent deal with one. The only thing that really ticked me is that upon careful inspection of papers there was a random $1000 tagged along that shouldn't be. Always, always, always take your time, read everything, and bring a calculator if you have to!!!
• deleted 13y ago
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