Dealer Missed Out On Sale

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I seen a vehicle on Car Gurus from a small local dealer I wanted. So I stopped there a few times to look at it but it was never there..... so I figured Car Gurus was slow at taking the down the ad. So today I'm looking thru C.G.'s and the ad is still up.....so I drive to the dealer and the vehicles not there. I managed to see the owner outside and asked him where the vehicle was and he said it's sold. I told him I've stopped to look at it a few times and it wasn't on the lot. He said his wife drives it.

Moral of the story: If your selling something make sure it's available for viewing at all times. Although it did get sold yesterday it may have been much sooner if it was on the lot.
 
If I were ever to buy new based on an ad I'd call the dealer from his own lot and say, yeah, I was wondering if that car on car gurus is still for sale? Cool, can you show it to me? What's your name? Can we do this now, I'm right out front.
laugh.gif


This should work for "newspaper specials" too.
 
I recall a few times management would list cars that didn't exist, just to draw people in and try to sell them something else. The story was always the same when a customer asked, "it was sold."
 
That's how I bought last one. Advertising at great price sent email he contacted me next morning and I drove it home that afternoon.
 
Or worse, you get a shady used car manager that puts cars online that have not been safety inspected yet. Then they sell it fast and want service to push it though for the inspection and we find more wrong with it than the car is worth.
 
Originally Posted by demarpaint
I recall a few times management would list cars that didn't exist, just to draw people in and try to sell them something else. The story was always the same when a customer asked, "it was sold."


Exactly!!!!l
 
Originally Posted by demarpaint
I recall a few times management would list cars that didn't exist, just to draw people in and try to sell them something else. The story was always the same when a customer asked, "it was sold."



"bait & switch" .....

car dealers have been doing it for decades and decades
 
Originally Posted by Linctex
Originally Posted by demarpaint
I recall a few times management would list cars that didn't exist, just to draw people in and try to sell them something else. The story was always the same when a customer asked, "it was sold."



"bait & switch" .....

car dealers have been doing it for decades and decades

It happens a lot.
 
Originally Posted by bdcardinal
Or worse, you get a shady used car manager that puts cars online that have not been safety inspected yet. Then they sell it fast and want service to push it though for the inspection and we find more wrong with it than the car is worth.


We had a manager that didn't know how to check a car a customer was trading in. He knew if it was in an accident or not but often screwed up on the mechanical end of it. He took a few bombs we ended up having to wholesale to get rid of them after the shop generated a punch list. What he should have done was had the shop check the car, then make an offer on the trade. The problem was the shop was closed on weekends, and he was too proud to ask for help with the appraisal. The moron thought he knew it all. He cost the owner a small fortune, but knew how to package in something good with the wholesale pieces to make the numbers look good.
 
Originally Posted by demarpaint
Originally Posted by bdcardinal
Or worse, you get a shady used car manager that puts cars online that have not been safety inspected yet. Then they sell it fast and want service to push it though for the inspection and we find more wrong with it than the car is worth.


We had a manager that didn't know how to check a car a customer was trading in. He knew if it was in an accident or not but often screwed up on the mechanical end of it. He took a few bombs we ended up having to wholesale to get rid of them after the shop generated a punch list. What he should have done was had the shop check the car, then make an offer on the trade. The problem was the shop was closed on weekends, and he was too proud to ask for help with the appraisal. The moron thought he knew it all. He cost the owner a small fortune, but knew how to package in something good with the wholesale pieces to make the numbers look good.


Might have cost on trade but made up with sales and finance. Many used car salesmen are told just get the sale and that is how they get paid. Finance companies give dealer big kickbacks if you know how to look at numbers so if he took junk on trade for 2k then they had worse financial deal for them and were sold a car that needed work that manager turns down with not to much in it. Customers get taken most of time they really need a car. Not to many inspections happen by customers on weekends when most bad deals are made. Seen it many times.
 
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Originally Posted by demarpaint
I recall a few times management would list cars that didn't exist, just to draw people in and try to sell them something else. The story was always the same when a customer asked, "it was sold."

There's a dealer near here that likes to buy interesting cars. He's definitely a car guy. But, he prices them out of reach of any sane buyer, and treats parts of the used car lot as his personal museum. I've always commented he's got a great place to buy a new car, just not a used one.
 
Originally Posted by tiger862
Originally Posted by demarpaint
Originally Posted by bdcardinal
Or worse, you get a shady used car manager that puts cars online that have not been safety inspected yet. Then they sell it fast and want service to push it though for the inspection and we find more wrong with it than the car is worth.


We had a manager that didn't know how to check a car a customer was trading in. He knew if it was in an accident or not but often screwed up on the mechanical end of it. He took a few bombs we ended up having to wholesale to get rid of them after the shop generated a punch list. What he should have done was had the shop check the car, then make an offer on the trade. The problem was the shop was closed on weekends, and he was too proud to ask for help with the appraisal. The moron thought he knew it all. He cost the owner a small fortune, but knew how to package in something good with the wholesale pieces to make the numbers look good.


Might have cost on trade but made up with sales and finance. Many used car salesmen are told just get the sale and that is how they get paid. Finance companies give dealer big kickbacks if you know how to look at numbers so if he took junk on trade for 2k then they had worse financial deal for them and were sold a car that needed work that manager turns down with not to much in it. Customers get taken most of time they really need a car. Not to many inspections happen by customers on weekends when most bad deals are made. Seen it many times.


No not in this case, he took in some bad trades. Trades, where he never popped the hood, or even listened to it run. His hope was to retail them, and on more than one occasion he took a trade with a bad transmission, or in need of major engine work, and got screwed. His replacement knew how to appraise a trade, and the department numbers went up. A good car guy knows how to check and appraise a trade. He knows the difference between a wholesale and retail piece, and can make a good deal without losing on the trade or the car being sold. We also made plenty of deals telling customers they'd be better off selling their trade privately. That depended on just how bad their trade was, and was done not to [censored] off any one. It worked well a lot of times too.

The F&I guy was usually the icing on the cake so to speak and just made the profit even higher. But we were taught never depended on him to make up for a loss.
 
Originally Posted by Garak
Originally Posted by demarpaint
I recall a few times management would list cars that didn't exist, just to draw people in and try to sell them something else. The story was always the same when a customer asked, "it was sold."

There's a dealer near here that likes to buy interesting cars. He's definitely a car guy. But, he prices them out of reach of any sane buyer, and treats parts of the used car lot as his personal museum. I've always commented he's got a great place to buy a new car, just not a used one.


We had a manager like that once, he lasted about a month.
 
Originally Posted by Warstud
I seen a vehicle on Car Gurus from a small local dealer I wanted. So I stopped there a few times to look at it but it was never there..... so I figured Car Gurus was slow at taking the down the ad. So today I'm looking thru C.G.'s and the ad is still up.....so I drive to the dealer and the vehicles not there. I managed to see the owner outside and asked him where the vehicle was and he said it's sold. I told him I've stopped to look at it a few times and it wasn't on the lot. He said his wife drives it.

Moral of the story: If your selling something make sure it's available for viewing at all times. Although it did get sold yesterday it may have been much sooner if it was on the lot.


I like Cargurus because it tells you how many days the car has been listed. Your best shot at getting the car is in the first week or two. Then after that, it may or may not be there. Last car I bought, it was only online for 3 days before I got it. Didn't see it til the 2nd day and i went down the next day and bought it the following day. For kicks, I keep an eye on the car and it was still listed for over a week before they finally took it down. Whenever you see a car you want, you should always call and see if it's there. A few cars I wanted to check out, I'd call a couple of times just to make sure it's really there as half the time they will lie to you and give you the old, it just sold, you just missed it. For those I always made sure I mentioned that I was only interested in that car and no others so please don't waste my time if it's not there.

Also I'm not sure I believe the whole wife drove it bit, that's to avoid getting sued for bait and switch which is illegal in most states but most dealers do it. What I'm puzzled about is that if you drove down there to check it out, why didn't you ask the salesmen about it? Could have been buried in another lot they have or could be in the shop waiting to get fixed or cleaned and they may have been able to dig it out if you had asked.
 
Originally Posted by hallstevenson
The dealer sold the car. He didn't miss out on anything....


Maybe they missed out on a HIGHER price. Who knows what they sold it for? The OP might have paid more or financed it for further dealer profit.

I went through the same deal as the OP back in May. Was considering a $5995 Lincoln TownCar on a small dealer's lot. Called on it and it sounded decent....decided to drive the 25 miles to see it. It wasn't there when I showed up. And the used car lot was so jammed pack with junky looking cars, and nowhere to park, I just left. I saw that car listed on CL for about a month straight. The ad changed once in that period with the car was being shown in a private residence....and price lowered to $4,995. Turns out the dealer was using it for personal transportation. I'd have paid at least $5,000 for that car. But in this case they lost a sale as I found another car within days of not being able to land that one.
 
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MAN!, this thread sure used a lot of words to say some basic stuff.

Don't get me wrong, explaining human interactions does take descriptive words...and a lot of them.

Car dealers monitor how many calls they get after the sale to see if they should stock more examples of what they just sold.....not just to "get you to drop by the lot".
 
The Sierra that I own now, was the 'daily driver' for the owner of the dealership. It wasn't listed on their website at all.

It was sitting alongside the building, with a dealer license plate on it. I said... Hey, what about that red Sierra sitting over there. The owner of the dealership took a deep breath and said, "yes....it's available".

Little did I know that he'd picked it up at auction earlier in the week... and he'd bought it specifically to be his his daily driver for the summer, and to pull his fishing boat with it. In reality, he got to drive it for three days.

When we were processing the paperwork, he finally told me that he'd bought it for himself, as his daily driver. But he also said that in that business, everything is for sale. Even whatever Cadillac that his wife happens to be driving at the time.
 
Originally Posted by mrsilv04
The Sierra that I own now, was the 'daily driver' for the owner of the dealership. It wasn't listed on their website at all.

My cousin's husband owns a used-car lot and my cousin liked one of the vehicles on the lot that he recently got in so they made it her "loaner". She drove it for months until one day he showed up at her work and handed her a set of keys and told her "drive this (insert name of car) home when you get off today". He sold "her" car.
 
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