troop, just wanted everyone to know we ain't gettin' rich rippin' 'em off.

Come on now troop. It's your turn. I get my crap when they blame oil companies for all the woes of the publics own spending excesses and we raise prices a little (maybe a little more than a little) and put em over the edge and make sell their boats, their SUV's, turn their heaters down, eat chopped liver instead of steak, catch the bus instead of driving, and loose their houses. Yeap, all my fault.
Oohh! I forgot the demise of the auto industry.

Mark

Nice of you to finally admit it

Not all dealers/salesfolks are bad. unfortunately, the ones that are, tend to give the rest a bad name.

Here's my tale of 4 vehicles:

Side note- we only buy used vehicles.

Vehicle one:

Wife decided she wanted to trade her mustang for something 4 door as we were thinking about starting a family. We were both in our early 20's and had just bought a house the year before. We were paying cash for the difference in trade/car. We looked around and I lean Ford from the start, so we drove to the largest Ford dealer around. She fell in love with the silver Contours so we drove one. I thought it was weak. Salesman looked at his list and said he had one V6 left in a different color. Threw us the keys and turned us loose. That's more like it We sat down at the desk. After he got over the shock we were paying cash, we had a deal in 5min and done.

Vehicle 2:

Wife totaled #1. Only thing she didn't like about the car she wrecked was the color, but she wanted another Contour. Problem was, they had stopped making them. After searching the net, I found exactly what she wanted at a decent sized other-name-brand dealer 1hr away near her parents. No biggie. I called to make sure they had it and we drove down. Price was way high, but I assumed the asking price would be. Drove the car, liked it, and sat down at the desk to hash out a price. They were asking 12,500, or what the car sold for new 1yr and 30k miles ago. After some spirited back/forth, we came to 8k+ tax. Of course this required a couple trips to the sales mgr. On the 3rd trip to the sales mgr, my wife went to get a drink and saw the salesman sitting in a break room 2 doors down with his feet up. No one else around. he quickly closed the door and cam ebacka couple minutes later and we finished the deal. It was a Saturday, and oddly enough, I never saw that elusive sale mgr...

Vehicle 3:

We wanted a larger boat, and needed a full size truck to pull it. Once again this is to be a cash deal. My dream truck as a teen was an F-150, so we set out looking at a local Ford dealer. Had a salesman show me a few 150's, but then showed me the brand new SportTrac. It peaked my curiosity. As we talked, the conversation turned to financing as he was gauging whether this early 20's guy could afford this vehicle. Told him it would be a cash purchase. He stood there and tried to argue me and told me I was not very smart. I could borrow the money from his financing for less that I could earn on interest on my money. I thanked him for his time and walked away.

Vehicle 4: (a couple down the road)

We decide that having a full size truck that isn't used often and a minivan that gets not so good MPG isn't the best fit. We want and Expy. We search around and find exactly what we want at a really small Ford dealer in the next stare, about 2.5hr drive. The Internet Sales Manager lady was great. Sent a couple e-mails with question, got a couple back with tons of pictures and info. She asked specific questions and quickly determined that she didn't need to sell me the vehicle if it was what I needed and made sure she provided me any info I could want. We discussed the trade of my F-150 and the owner of the dealership made me a trade offer sight unseen based mostly on how much I knew about these trucks. It was a near top dollar figure. Rolled up to the lot a day later, They handed us the keys to the Expy and never asked for id or anything, she knew who were were from our discussions, but wanted to try an explorer just to be sure. She didn't know if they had one with the V6 as I was asking. I commented on the VIN code and she showed me her private inventory sheet to pick from. They didn't have a used one, so they threw me the keys to a new fully loaded mountaineer and had to move a couple others out of the way. Didn't like the way the Mounty felt. Deal was done 10 minutes after we got back. In the inspection while we were talking, I found a nail in a tire. The saleswoman knew we were on a tight schedule and got the Svc manager to get some one on it pronto. No hassles. Met the owner who had done the trade valuation over the wire. Saleswoman introduced us and started to hand him the keys to my truck to look over before he signed off on the trade (I left it locked while test driving). His comment was that "I walked around it while they were gone. I don't need to look any more. If he knows enough about these trucks to tell want the specific thing in that e-mail and he can tell you the engine from the VIN code, the man knows how to take care of a vehicle." I'll gladly drive back there for my next vehicle.

Moral of the story... I'm a picky person who knows what I want before I show up on the lot/sales floor. The salesperson who has the salesmanship to recognize this and treat me fairly and honestly will have a long time repeat customer. The 1st salesperson picked up on that. I still call him when I'm shopping 10 years later. The middle two I won't deal with again. The last may have a customer for life.

There are those folks who are experts at taking care of their customers while still turning a reasonable profit. This folks are a pleasure to work with. There are those who just want the quick sale and don't value the repeat business, when you meet these, you generally feel like you need a shower afterward.

It is also my experience that the sales force working the lot generally reflect the values of the management/ownership. If I feel the salespeople are dodgy, I walk out as they likely get out from management, otherwise they wouldn't be there long. In our expy purchase, every person we dealt with had the same attitude.