How do "the dumb" buy an automobile?

wearymicrobe wrote: One of the reasons I really love living on the west coast.

So because I live on the east coast I'm not allowed to dress outside of my income level?

Just messing, I just wanted to join the party.

As a former car salesman, I can pretty safely say that most uneducated car buyers just flat-out get hosed. With the rare exception of a cash buyer, most people figure out what fits in their monthly budget and don't care that its a 452-year loan, nor do they even check the interest rate or do some comparisons on how far upside-down they'll be in three years. Then when they decide to trade it in, they accept a monthly payment again, absorbing the negative equity in the old car and adding another 212 years to their loan.

I sold a used Malibu to a lady worth about $4500. She wanted to pay it off quickly and said she could afford $300 a month. The deal that the manager came back with was $329 a month for 36 months. Do the math. That's almost $12k. She signed... the... contract. It was a few days later that the dealership discovered they broke the law. I never knew what law it was, but evidently there are laws preventing how much profit you can make on used cars. I had to call the lady and give her the "good news that we found better financing and lowered her payment to $279 for 30 months." She brought us homemade cookies. She was so happy and told all of her friends how great we were. Sweet lady. Terrible at math, but sweet. She was about to pay $8500 for a car that will be worth $500 when its paid off.

I think most people pick cars by superficial criteria. My ex wife completely fell in love with the Scion xB. Just the looks. She had to have one. Fortunately, they're great cars. Unlike her previous love for the old LeBaron convertibles. She has now moved on to lusting for a Suby crosstrek because they come in orange and have AWD. That's it. she doesn't care if it has headlights. Orange and AWD.

In the business we call it hot buttons. Ask the customer what they want and they'll usually say "I would like A, B, and C, but it must be X." At that point, you show them cars with X and let them drool it out.

In reply to curtis73:

Exactly. For a short time in 96-97 I sold dodges at a small dealership. I tried so hard to engage the customer about their needs and what they could afford. And all they cared about was "is that the truck from Twister?"

"Yes sir but you earn $8 an hour and have 5 kids, can I interst you in this nice used minivan......."

"HELL NO! Gimme that truck, I'll lease it for $199 a month and be upside down for the rest of my life but I'll have the Twister truck!"

Customers are stupid.

OTOH, my step father once walked out of a dealership because they wouldn't NOT stamp their logo into the back bumper of a truck.

Dealers are stupid too.

I should clarify. by "dumb" I don't mean disrespect. Simply that these are "uninformed". Does that make ppl happy?

And, yes, I don't know the whole story. But I DO know enough about them to know they bought the wrong car. These are usually my family or customers. I see the cards on the table.

Stampie wrote:

wearymicrobe wrote: One of the reasons I really love living on the west coast.

So because I live on the east coast I'm not allowed to dress outside of my income level? Just messing, I just wanted to join the party.

I was taking the low road on that one myself.

But its hard on the east coast at functions for work and social. East coast you can tell by the suit or the sport-coat or really the attitude. West coast my neighbor wears surf shirts and flip flops to work when he does not have meetings and the dude is worth high 8 to low 9 figures.

In reply to wearymicrobe:

Yeah I meet wealthy folks regularly out here in the PNW. Sandals, tie dye, hippy hair and an expensive beetle.

In reply to wearymicrobe:

I understand but there's always the exception. I remember working in a small town in SC and this country guy in worn out jeans came in. He came across as a very nice but simple guy. Turns out he was probably the richest guy in the county. Me? I've taken to the FL tradition of flip flops unless absolutely necessary.

Around here, people may buy a car because it is a particular color. For example, they may want an Accord, but if the Camry is available in Carolina Blue, they're getting a Camry. I think this is how the three Thunderbirds I see driving around got sold.

I dont know, with my deep seated hatred for servicing diesel trucks i once asked a lady why she had a duramax. She said its what she wanted and i just said ok. Lifted duramax for a family sedan!

Around here, a Toyota dealer is leasing 2016 Corolla LE for $3k down and $95/month for 36 months.

Effectively, I can drive a brand-new car with a full warranty for $180/month. That's about $120/month more than a bus pass.

A Corolla would suit the complete automotive needs of probably 60% of the driving population. Heck, if I was car shopping right now, I'd go lease one tomorrow.

A number of people shop their vehicle purchase much like they do...well, almost everything else: Impulsively

It's my experience in working at a used car dealer that people buy what looks good to them, has all the tech stuff on the interior(iPod and Bluetooth stuff), doing ZERO research on the brand, reliability, maintenance, etc.

Then complain 6 months later when their 7 year old car with 100k miles has a thermostat that sticks open(on a Trailblazer) and they didn't buy a warranty. Googling common problems for the car would have taken 5 minutes to do, and you'd know to expect a water pump, thermostat, blower motor resistor, HVAC/radio backlights, fuel sending unit, and secondary air injection pump to fail at some point. Plus more.

People are dumb with (lack of research on) cars.

Admittedly I'm probably the same level of dumb buying a computer or TV, but $20k+ purchase vs $500-1000 purchase multiplies their level of dumb.

Nissan rogue syndrome. You buy that which has the most attractive rates for the stuff you get.

Once my brother-in-law needed a car and headed over to the local Pontiac dealer on a Saturday morning and bought a brand new Grand Prix.

I was shocked - no months of research, Chicago Auto Show attendee, magazine articles, brochure reviews and comparisons, and multiple dealer visits? Sometimes I take the joy out of buying a car.

I shop on the "dumb" side by the hive standards. When I bought my used civic, I went to my looked at the website for my trusted dealer for used cars with a manual. End of the day I went in looking for stick/cruise/mpg. My civic was the cheapest thing to fit the bill that wasn't a cobalt. I traded in my dying neon for scrap value, put down close to $1k, and took the financing I could. Thankfully at no point have I or will I be upside down on it.

That last part isn't too hard if you can find a good deal on a used Honda or Toyota and have around $1k down.

My workplace (in Washington DC) parking lot is FULL of big pickups (so many F250s and F350s), almost all of which are always clean, many of which don't have a tow hitch, the beds look unused, and definitely not for off-roading. Few of them use the trucks for any "trucky" things.

Sometimes I think to myself "WTF?" until I realize that those F350 dually diesels probably get better fuel economy commuting than my damn WRX does......

My mom and dad went in looking to trade an '08 Expedition EL in for a crew cab 4wd 1/2 ton truck. They left with the Expedition and a 2013 Chrysler 200.

I don't understand either.

Later my dad put 10k down on a 2013 Chevy and still ended up with what seems like a very unreasonable payment. I think he could have just paid cash for the same truck just a few years older.

When it comes to shopping for a new car I'm amazed at how easy it is to find the best deal and get multiple quotes from competing dealers. Yet people continue to spend close to MSRP or get suckered in by "promotions or sales." I find it sad that people will leave 2-5k on the table buying news cars when it takes less than an hour to save that amount of money. Probably takes them months or years to save that amount. They get in the mindset buying a car is like going shopping at Walmart where the price is the price.

Who really cares why they wanted the car they are purchasing? Some people would pick a car over color or assumed brand quality never looking into The specific model because it looks cooler than the other car. Then they get up sold a whole bunch of worthless crap before they sign the paperwork because it only works out to be an extra $5 per month.

Then you have the people that just want exactly what they want and won't compromise at all. Was upset with one of my business partners who wouldn't just buy a truck off the lot since it didn't have exactly the options he wanted. Although limited cost difference on the manufacturers website those options cost over $4500 to our company. If you can learn to compromise or live without certain things in life it will save you a lot of money in the long run. You can only spend every dollar once.

Then you have people like me that over analyze decisions. I can justify or give criticism on every car purchase I've ever made.

Streetwiseguy wrote: I completely don't understand the truck love for people who don't need a truck, but, hey, its a free country.

Best I can figure it's the closest you can get to a big squishy V8 RWD cruiser anymore unless you want/can afford a Chrysler 300.

KyAllroad wrote: OTOH, my step father once walked out of a dealership because they wouldn't NOT stamp their logo into the back bumper of a truck. Dealers are stupid too.

I bitched a fit about that with the one and only new car I ever bought. I was told "we put them on every car as soon as they come off the truck"

It took me 5 minutes with a hair dryer to get it off.. but still.. there is a reason I will not set foot in that dealership

Andy Neuman wrote: When it comes to shopping for a new car I'm amazed at how easy it is to find the best deal and get multiple quotes from competing dealers.

Apparently, this is highly dependent on what part of the country you are in. Around here, you're lucky to get a response to an email at all. If you do, it will most likely be a canned response to "come in and drive the car".

In the rare circumstance where a dealer will actually email a figure, it's nowhere near "the best deal" that you will get in person.

I want to live where you live.

BrokenYugo wrote:

Streetwiseguy wrote: I completely don't understand the truck love for people who don't need a truck, but, hey, its a free country.

Best I can figure it's the closest you can get to a big squishy V8 RWD cruiser anymore unless you want/can afford a Chrysler 300.

The problem with that theory is that everyone buys a crew cab 4wd. That's probably why I like trucks outside of their intended purpose though.

In the past decade I've been a tech at a few dealerships, worked sales, been in the military, and now work on the civilian side of the mil and I've gotten to witness how and why people buy cars in all different flavors. At the dealership you flat out saw people just get convinced by a shady salesman that the Civic that's been sitting on the lot for 15 months (not really just exaggeration) because of it's ugly color combo and options that they need it and sell it to them at MSRP because "Honda doesn't come down on cars because they have a minimal markup from invoice to begin with."

Then you have boots straight out of basic training at their job school who go to the first dealership they see out of base and buy the first cool car they see with an interest rate at 24.79% because they have no credit to begin with and a guaranteed paycheck (until they get discharged for a DUI). Doesn't matter what car it is as long as it's new and cool to show off and it gets them off base!

Then you have computer engineers/IT. One of them buys a fancy luxury car. And in keeping up with the Jones, the next one goes and buys something similar, then the next one has to one up the other two and buys a German luxury car instead of a Japanese. Then the 4th one buys a luxury SUV, then the next guy buys a luxury performance car, then the cycle starts over again.

One of my peers had a decent 2010 VW Jetta. He kept up on the maintenance and never had any issues. One of his engineering counterparts trades his Genesis coupe in for a Land Rover, another guy trades his hand me down accord in for a E92 M3, and then their manager buys a new Mercedes E-Class. Back to the guy with a Jetta, he shows up with an A3 today. "I was like dude why the A3? He was like well I don't know, I drove by an Audi dealership and stopped in unexpectedly and that's what they sold me, plus I wanted a luxury car to match everyone else...." No idea how much he could afford, how much he should pay, no research, just going in on pure emotion and herd like mentality.

Moral of the story is that some people don't care, don't know any better, follow the leader, or just get scammed. Smart consumers are few and far between. Smart automotive consumers are even rarer breed (even enthusiasts can be potatoes when it comes to purchasing a car).

EvanR wrote:

Andy Neuman wrote: When it comes to shopping for a new car I'm amazed at how easy it is to find the best deal and get multiple quotes from competing dealers.

Apparently, this is highly dependent on what part of the country you are in. Around here, you're lucky to get a response to an email at all. If you do, it will most likely be a canned response to "come in and drive the car". In the rare circumstance where a dealer will actually email a figure, it's nowhere near "the best deal" that you will get in person. I want to live where you live.

I would recommend searching new cars on autotrader, most dealers will list a much more competitive number on the site. Which you can use as a benchmark between dealers. I searched in Vegas, deals weren't listed as low as in the northeast.

I also drive an S2000 and have 2 kids. I rallyx a Fit and chump race an Accord. Judge me all you want.