Lunatic Platitudes

I have been in that mood lately. It’s hard to stop the snowball effect when you start letting your eye wander over car lots and allow that thought to enter into your head that buying a new or used vehicle might not be so bad. I am completely and firmly rooted in the idea that I do not actually need a new car any more, but I still love to shop for them. In my last post, I was pretty hard on car salesmen, drawing generalizations off a few that are in reality very poor stewards of their collective profession. I should revise what I said and temper it by saying that I am developing something of a sympathy towards these people.

I read an article by edmunds.com entitled something similar to “Confessions of a Salesman”. This article was developed by an undercover reporter the editors of edmunds.com sent out to get jobs at a couple of different types of dealerships. It’s sad and disturbing on a couple different levels that the dealerships are really forced to beg, lie, steal and cheat their way to a profit and even the honest salespeople are caught in the middle of what I can only describe as an uncomfortable situation. In the end, it’s the consumer that owns the responsibility to protect their money and to get the best deal. Dealers essentially lay out a big web designed to catch whatever prey is willing to get stuck in it. The gist of the article to me was that you should deal with the Internet manager who generally operates on a volume commission as opposed to a per deal commission. You should set up financing before you go shopping. You should research prices using carsdirect.com, edmunds.com, consumerreports.com, kbb.com and wherever else you can find that kind of information. All of these things will help to keep you out of the web by keeping you from having to negotiate.

This is a short one. The boy wants me to do something.

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