Car Dealer Direct Mail Gimmicks

[LoneRanger]

I got a mailer with scratch off to win a prize during dealership's Memorial Day Weekend "event", the mailer is craftily worded that if you match any four amounts in the scratch off then you are a confirmed "prize winner." What it DOES NOT say is that you win that amount that matched up, only that you have won a prize which on the reverse is either $10,000, $250, an "iPad Pro", or an "All New Smart Watch". The "All New Smart Watch" prize shows an Android logo and an Apple Logo next to it. But WAIT!! Those aren't actually Apple logo's or Android. Nope. They're carefully crafted "similars." So that last place guaranteed prize isn't what it appears to be.

I had to snap a photo of the prize list, just to show the sneaky deception of the "All New Smart Watch" thingy with it's Really Similar logos but not the genuine article.

Anything to get you on the dealership lot, I guess.

P.S. My matching four amounts were $10,000. As shown below... But again, fine print doesn't say you win the matched amount. Matching an amount only means you win one of the listed things one of which is the dime store smart watch. Guess it's fine if you're actually in the market for a new car, why not go have some good natured fun and joke around with the staff and take a test drive. But if you're not, not really worth the high pressure pitch once you get there.

Guess I'm getting way to cynical in my middle age. I wonder how Apple feels about that knock off logo?

 

[Malo83]

I get these from the local Mopar dealer, they send a key out with it and if it starts the car you win

 

[aquariuscsm]

Heck,just go there for the free burgers and hot dogs haha

 

[LoneRanger]

I just think it's deceptive how they use the Apple logo shape but wrong colors.

 

[PimTac]

It does seem they are stretching the truth here.

 

[WhyMe]

Getting you in the door is the hard part. selling you is easy

 

[SeaJay]

I guess there are a few souls among us that read these offers, then go down to the dealer expecting to receive a valuable prize with no strings attached.

 

[mrsilv04]

A local family owned GM/Chrysler dealer tried a marketing stunt like this once, a few years back. Not sure who thought it was a good idea, but someone there decided to go with it. As a past customer, I received a mailer from them.

I guarantee they'll never do it again. I learned several weeks later from a source inside the dealership, that he negative backlash that they received was huge.

 

[2strokeNorthstar]

I go everytime I get one. Free coffee and snacks too. I got a blanket, bracelet t, 2 nights in Lake Tahoe, $20 to use in parts dept. Just tell them you have no interest in buying a car just checking if you won. The salesman. will move on quickly if they see no interest.

 

[walterjay]

Well.."you could win $10,000.00"

 

[csandste]

Remember Bruce Dern in the movie "Nebraska".

 

[Kruse]

Originally Posted By: Malo83
I get these from the local Mopar dealer, they send a key out with it and if it starts the car you win

We USED to get the "come on in and try it" key in the mail also. The key you get in the mail is a cheap, stamped, thin aluminum key and the vehicle they gave away was a brand new vehicle that obviously needed a PATS key. Obviously, people have gotten smarter because they haven't done it for a couple of years.
I would have loved to see somebody go to the dealership with the key that they received in the mail and try to drive it into the tumblers with a hammer....

 

[bdcardinal]

I hate those things. We had one go out offering $20 oil changes, and they didn't exclude synthetic or diesel. Of course they only went to people who hadn't been here in 5+ years. They sold the whole thing to the general manager saying how much we could make on upsells to make up the difference. Of course they sold nothing.

 

[Vuflanovsky]

About every other month I get an "Urgent Mail" package that looks very close to a USPS Express Mail package in design. It usually contains a supposed email from the dealership salesman ( who's ostensibly writing the email about my car ) to the Sales Manager advising that they "really need" my car...and included on the email is a machine printed Post-It sticky note supposedly from the Sales Manager advising the salesman to do "whatever you have to do" to get my car. If it wasn't so stupid it would look pretty slick.

 

[oilpsi2high]

Those go straight into the trash at my house. Such a joke.

 

[RichardS]

The last one of those I got, my number matched up for the number that would win $10,000.

But I hadn’t actually just won $10,000. Reading the fine print, my number indicated which prize I would win (the $10,000), if that number was also drawn at random one any one of the 3 sales days and posted on a board at the dealership.

 

[OneEyeJack]

A few years ago the hand a mailer like that only they maile them to people with outstanding warrants for violent crimes. When they showed up for their prize they were certainly surprised.

 

[supton]

I glance at them before tossing. Usually nothing of note.

Last year I got something for extended warranty which included a sample sheet of just how my out of warranty truck could cost me $12k out of pocket over the next year. It included three tows, an ECU, a trans rebuild and I forget what else. I kept that paper for a while just so I could have a good laugh now and then.