Why do dealers frown when you want to order a car?

[cjhepburn]

A while ago, I ordered a Mustang GT from our local Ford dealer. The car, while on route, had been damaged. The dealer fixed it before I saw it and didn't mention the incident. I noticed that there was some overspray that made me suspicious and once I more aggressively scrutinized it, it was clear that something had happened to it. They initially denied but eventually it came out that they did in fact fix it. Maybe I'm wierd but new to me means not a refurb. I declined the car and deal fell apart.
Because the car was pre-sold, it could not be sold as new anymore despite the fact that there was only 5 miles on the odo. That car sat on their lot for more than 3 years and that risk that something could happen is why dealers don't like ordering cars.
If they can find what you're looking for on another dealer's lot, they will usually trade for it so it's still a car off their lot.

 

[mpvue]

Originally Posted By: MCompact
When I bought my Mazdaspeed 3 I wanted a Cosmic Blue Grand Touring with no other options. My dealer(Kings Mazda in Cincinnati) found the car in Cleveland and had it flatbedded in at no extra cost. Now that's aiming to please. Again, the deal was done over the phone with me making a deposit with my Visa.

nice. if it wasn't for the used car mngr needing to see my trade my whole deal would have been done over the phone and email.
funny, there are still so many dealers who don't understand the customer likes this. they still make every effort to make it a 'come in and we'll talk' kind of deal.

 

[mrsilv04]

Originally Posted By: cjhepburn
A while ago, I ordered a Mustang GT from our local Ford dealer. The car, while on route, had been damaged. The dealer fixed it before I saw it and didn't mention the incident.


Back in the early 70's, Dad ordered a new one-ton Chevy Van for his business. En route to the dealership, the train that it was on derailed. The van was delivered anyway.

The dealer didn't even bother to try and fix it. They had to simply order a second van. Dad swung by the dealership and took pictures of it. It looked fine from the driver's side, but the passenger side was all tore up, with big puncture holes, scrapes, and gouges all over the body.

The way that he had his vans equipped (heavy duty everything with no farkles whatsoever... to him, it was nothing more than a toolbox with wheels), it was easier to order one than to try and find one.

 

[deven]

Another big reason why dealers don't like to order vehicles is because a "special order" vehicle doesn't count against their inventory because it technically was never in inventory. This becomes a big factor when it comes to allocation. Dealerships that have the highest sales month to month and overall yearly get first "dibs" on specific vehicles from the manufacturer. No one wants left over vehicles and sloppy seconds because after all the dealership with first choices take the most saleable vehicles from the list.

 

[benjamming]

deven,

I'm not understanding your line of reasoning here. You say that it doesn't count against inventory but the dealer wants a large inventory. You go on to explain that they want inventory so they can show higher sales.

Sales & inventory have nothing in common from my viewpoint. If they sell vehicles, then they sell vehicles. Why in the world would it not count toward their allocation? I can't see why the automaker would care if it passes through inventory or not. They don't have to pay floorplan costs, borrow for it, etc.

 

[Shannow]

Dealers are tossers.

A mate has been desperate to find a particular Toyota 4 door, 2WD 3 litre turbo diesel ute.

There are as rare as rocking horse dung, and he's scoured the state.

Found one last week, test drove it, loved it, and agreed to buy, didn't haggle.

Went to pick it up this morning 9AM (100 mile drive to do so), and they were trying to fob him off until after 10AM so that they could "get the lot right".

Helloo, here's your commission sitting in the car park getting more and more frustrated by the second.

 

[AcuraTech]

The only reason they pull that stuff is that they want to get rid of existing inventory. Plain and simple. Problem is that ordering a vehicle from the factory is mostly a thing of the past, and it's becoming harder to go that route.

Especially these days, with the economy down, many car factories are only running a few weeks per month, if that. Options are also far fewer then they once were. Back in the 60's you had the choice of 5 engines, rear axle ratios, transmissions, suspensions, etc. These days the main difference is paint color and interior options.

 

[firemachine69]

Originally Posted By: nthach
Not all dealers do so because they would have to pay the CC processing fee charged by their bank or their payments processor. My parents were about to charge the down payment for their Prius just so to rack up AMEX points, but the dealership stuck that down.



I'd walk away from that dealer, personally...

 

[deven]

Originally Posted By: benjamming
deven,

I'm not understanding your line of reasoning here. You say that it doesn't count against inventory but the dealer wants a large inventory. You go on to explain that they want inventory so they can show higher sales.

Sales & inventory have nothing in common from my viewpoint. If they sell vehicles, then they sell vehicles. Why in the world would it not count toward their allocation? I can't see why the automaker would care if it passes through inventory or not. They don't have to pay floorplan costs, borrow for it, etc.


The way it works is that the only time dealers can ask for a specific car with specific options is when they have a pre-sold order with a deposit. When the car is built, the VIN the car gets already has a presold assigned to it so that the car is not sold to another dealer. These cars are allocated to that specific dealer but when this special order is ultimately delivered to the dealer and sold to the individual who special ordered, this sale does not count as part of inventory since the VIN already had a pre-sold designation. There are ways around this, such as the car being delivered and then the owner retracts the offer to buy but its very far and rare since the deposit is actually considered non refundable in many cases but most dealers will refund the deposit they just play hardball with customers though and it usually works.

Most manufacturers don't make cars for specific dealers. What they do is produce cars and then the inventory list is distributed to the dealerships and then each dealerships have rankings, where the dealerships with highest sales get to choose a designated number of cars and down the list they go. Dealers stuck at choosing the bottom feeders ultimately will get the car the customer wants but may have to do dealer swaps but there are fees for that too and may decrease their bottom line.

I am not sure I answered your question but hope its helpful somewhat.

P.S. Inventory and sales go hand in hand for a dealerships too. The more choices you present to a partucular buyer with different options, the better the chances of selling a vehicle to them. Then there are times during the end of the year where not many choices may be available and you have potential buyers but you can't find them the car they want hence you lose a sale for the time being.

 

[sciphi]

Darn, this does not bode well since the cars I'm interested in would need to be special-ordered. I guess because I want a shift-your-own.

So the dealer gets to count the sale but can't say they're moving inventory since the car didn't get sold from inventory is what I'm hearing you say.

 

[LS2JSTS]

I'm not sure if this would work with VW NA.....But, my local Ford dealer is always able to take a vehicle that is already in the que to be built and change the order to reflect what I want on the vehicle.

In essence, I get to pick what I want on the car , the color and options, but I'm actually buying a vehicle that was already meant for their store stock. It's all a question of timing and many domestic dealers are able to do this if they want to take the time.

One thing I always like about ordering a car instead of buying off the lot is the Ford system of "priority" codes. The priority code lets the plant know what purpose the car is being built for....Dealer lot, special order, fleet and so forth. There is even a code that lets the plant know that the car is being built for a fellow Ford employee, think its priority code #10. Always thought that might help a bit to avoid the "Monday" cars....LOL.

 

[roadrunner1]

i have ordered several vehichles from my local ford dealer over the last 20 years or so, no problems whatsoever, get to order exactly what you want.

about five years ago me and my wife thought we wanted a vw tdi, picked out what we wanted online & in magazines. when we went to THREE different dealers to find the car i said well can't we just order it? same answer from all three was the same,"we can't do that because well it's complicated". obviously it varies manufacturer to manufacturer, but vw dealers really turned me off to the point i refuse to buy from any of their dealers.

 

[tom slick]

Honda used to put your name on a plaque on the dash when you ordered a car. That was maybe 20 years ago. You can pick up your new corvette from the plant.

 

[Vizzy]

Originally Posted By: KrisZ
While I understand that they want to sell what they already have on the lot, but they should not make any fuss over ordering, if they do, they don't deserve your business.

.


Exactly.

The arrogance at the OP dealer is amazing, I'd run not walk away from that dealer. Unfortunately VW dealers are some of the worst around, you have to look long and hard to find one that is truly outstanding and realy cares about customer service.

 

[deven]

Originally Posted By: sciphi
Darn, this does not bode well since the cars I'm interested in would need to be special-ordered. I guess because I want a shift-your-own.

So the dealer gets to count the sale but can't say they're moving inventory since the car didn't get sold from inventory is what I'm hearing you say.


Yes, because it's not an in stock car. Plus it cost the manufacturer more money to build a special order car because 90% of the time its an "odd ball" request, hence special order. That is the reason why most special order vehicles take 3 months to arrive at dealership. Most dealerships will demand you pay MSRP for a special order not because they make less commision but more so because to discourage to special order and take the car in stock. Dealers usually make most comissions on special orders though.

 

[Smoky14]

Plus dealers don't stock stick shift because ther is more profit in automatics.
Guess how long I had to shop to get a shift your own Acura CL

Now they charge more for a stick...go figure

 

[demarpaint]

A good dealer doesn't mind a special order, but would rather sell what he has in stock. In stock cars tie up more $$$$$$$ than an ordered car, since the special order car is not on the floor plan tying up money. In a sense a dealer makes more on an ordered car since there isn't as much of his money tied up. They do however run the risk of the order getting canceled shortly after it is placed. It is the change of mind and the cancellation they fear most. Depends on what state you live in, but legally you have a certain amount of time to cancel an order.

When I worked selling cars we tried as hard as possible to roll a car the same day the customer came in, [spot delivery]. The salesman made an extra $100 if the car rolled the same day. Once that car is off the lot and in the customers hands the customer can't change his mind and cancel. That is worth an extra $100 to an owner.

 

[MCompact]

I understand that the dealer has a financial motivation to make a spot delivery, but I'd also think that "half a loaf is better than none" with respect to special-ordered cars. In my case Bachman VW essentially told me that ordering a car was too much hassle and they let me walk. I had already test driven a GTI and sat down with the sales guy and told him what options I did and didn't want, so it should have been obvious that I was a serious buyer.

 

[sciphi]

Their loss.

The Ford dealer I went to yesterday said that it wouldn't be a problem to special-order a car, it would be a 2 month wait to get it from the pipeline, and to come back when I was ready to buy. A marked change from the other dealers I went to, where the pressure was to buy what was on the lot right then.

 

[wapacz]

I've never been to a dealer that pushed me to a car on the lot instead of ordering one. Then again I wouldn't think of backing out of an order after I made it.