Bad experience at Mitsubishi dealer

[Big Mike]

Originally Posted by RED_EL_XR8

I'll have to pull you up on this one Mike, everyone is entitled to an opinion
Ignorance and stupidity are with us all through everyday life. And there are plenty of examples of both,

I've been trying to figure out something intelligent to say - but all I can come up with is "Fair call, I fully agree with your reply." I hope that is suffice?

I meant to say something about the dealer's finance in my ramblings last night but forgot.
XHII V8S mentioned how they offered him their finance, which can often be dodgy and very dear. Extreme interest rates and no support, with worthless other products added or hidden to aid the commission of the finance guy (who is payed commission from the finance company, not the dealership).
In my yard we sold StGeorge products, and my finance guy was very good. I would suggest, given the whole experience is about a gamble, seeing who you come up against and to what lengths they'll go to appear to help - or genuinely help you; I reccommend you talk to the finance guy just to get a quote; prefferably without all his extra products, just to compare with the bank as it costs you nothing to see.
At the beginning of this year when I left, my finance guy was financing at about 8.25% on most deals (up from mid 6s when I started there); as his minimum rate had risen, as did the banks, and he still found he could beat all the banks, even StGeorge/BankSA employees couldn't better him on rate and other fees, and only one credit union could better him from time to time. Filling in for his colleagues at our other yards, he found they were putting in some rediculous products at extreme prices, and charging exhorbitant interest rates - like towards 20% and sometimes higher. None of us could figure out how they were doing it, excpet if they were simply railroading customers into a car, a deal, and getting them all stitched up before they knew what hit them.

So it doesn't cost anything to get a quote - and you might come accross someone like the guy I worked with; but just as you should be weary of pricks at the frontline level, they can also hide behind desks in offices too - so keep your wits about you and as always compare what's around.

[RapidTypLady]

I know exactly what you guys are talking about. I went to our local Ford Dealer and was looking to buy a XR6 and the guy said to me oh you dont look like you could afford one.

So I went to another Ford Dealership paid Cash for my car drove back to that Dealership and said to the guy well you said I couldnt afford it. Sorry paid cash for the car as well.

With that drove away.

Just go and get the car you want from another Dealership.

On Principle I will not ever go to that Dealership ever. We now have a Typhoon and he has seen me in our new car.

:1syellow1

[SSBUB]

Originally Posted by RapidTypLady

I know exactly what you guys are talking about. I went to our local Ford Dealer and was looking to buy a XR6 and the guy said to me oh you dont look like you could afford one.

So I went to another Ford Dealership paid Cash for my car drove back to that Dealership and said to the guy well you said I couldnt afford it. Sorry paid cash for the car as well.

With that drove away.

Just go and get the car you want from another Dealership.

On Principle I will not ever go to that Dealership ever. We now have a Typhoon and he has seen me in our new car.

:1syellow1

would have loved to have seen his face :

[The Taipan]

I did the same thing to Byrne Ford Chermside - under their old management (the new guys seem quite nice). The dealer chatted for almost half an hour, but I asked about the possibility of a test of a BA XT (my brother-in-law was looking at buying a 2nd hand AU series 3 with the works, or a very basic XT). The used yard gave me a drive of the AU he had his eyes on, and I arrived and was talking to him about my upcoming XR6 purchase, and the reason I was there that particular day was to drive the XT back-to-back with the AU. He was "Too busy"...

a month later I arrived in my Phantom XR6. He missed that sale, my brother-in-laws, both my brothers, and two good friends all of which purchased the aforementioned AU, two XR6 sedans, a Turbo ute, an XR8 ute, and a Turbo sedan, between them...

[XHII V8S]

Big Mike,

Many thanks for your insightful comments - really helped to explain it all to me, thanks for your time. The reason I didn't choose the dealers finance is because it was with GE, and my father advised me that finance with the banks was better as they were more forgiving if you get into strife, not to mention the income protection insurance etc. In the end I got an interest rate of 9.95%, Im only 18, have a casual job (i work 45+ hours p/w) and I got the approval with no questions asked. So truth be told, I'm happy I chose the bank over the fianance company. The reason I mentioned all the options in my previous post was because after purchasing the car, I was really interested in finding out some information about it. I dug and dug and found out that the XR8 rims were optioned from the factory as was the tickford suspension, and uteliner. The hard cover wasn't put on by the used caryard as it had marks of age on it. One thing that baffles me is that I went to crystal clean after purchasing the car and spent $10, plus a good old chamois and the car came out looking considerably better than what it did before. I will say however I would confidently put the car up for $17000 tomorrow and happily take $15500 knowing I made a profit as I can pay out my loan and still have a little left over. I don't want to sound pig headed or anything, but XH V8's are worth a little more from what I've been told to Ford enthusiast as they were the last "coupe utility" built, and the first ute with a V8 since 1983. Once again thanks for the insight.

Chris

[Tote]

There were quite a few "specials" put together on the last of the XHs, probably to clear the bodyshells? One of my mates had a nice one with fibreglass wheel arch flares, a canopy and some other goodies that was put together that way by the dealer when new.
Regards,
Tote

[Smoke Pursuit]

Went to another Mitsibishi dealer today to check out a 380 VRX, just for the sake of having a look and seeing whether i liked it.. Anyways in 10 minutes of walking around i was not approached by any of the staff and I was the only person in the yard...

Anyways i jumped back in my car and drove off, as for the 380 VRX I wouldn't even consider one, no better then the old model.

[Bucknaked]

Originally Posted by R0bb0

Dad was looking at a 2004 BA Wagon with 7500km's at Ford on Thursday, and asked how much trade he would get on his 1999 dual cab turbo deisel Rodeo, and was told that it is too old to trade????

I tried to trade my 84 XE Wagon. Nice and straight and clean. Was told its not worth anything to them to trade it. He was wrong. It cost them a sale on a new car. I was after $1,000 for the trade but would have taken less. So i sold the car privatley for $900 and bought my new car at another ford dealership. Oh well, their loss.

[4.9 EF Futura]

Big mike, a thoroughly enjoyable read.

So what sort of "markup" (i'm sure that's incorrect terminology??) is there on the average new car? i.e. if you sold it for the RRP, what % profit is the company looking at after paying bills and a bit of $$$ for the bloke that worked his butt off to get RRP for it...

[Big Mike]

Originally Posted by 4.9 EF Futura

what sort of "markup" is there on the average new car?

Well I worked from Feb 03 to Feb 05; over which time saw the phasing out of CE range of Mirages and Lancers, which would have probably owed the dealership somewhere in the vicinity of $600 to $800 under their special runout-campain RRP's. So after my $70, the boss' $30, fuel charges for demos etc., and the Service Departments fee for installing a/c, cl&rke, 'p.d' which is a Pre Delivery service and full check over, clean/detail, etc. etc., there was precious little left for negotiating on trade in or even a tank of fuel.
Sometimes you could hold a bit of money from the appraisal - say they got $1,200 and you only wanted $1,000; or you could charge $495 for a spoiler which costs $150ex or $435 for the worlds best lifetime warranty tint which costs $210ex. But on a CE Mirage or Lancer during their last runout, they were definately very good buying value. Most of the dealerships in my group would regularly fail to break even month after month.

I also saw out the TJ II $26,990 campain, which all told from memory would still cost the dealer near $200 after bonus claims. And remember, this is all after the non-negotiable $1,205 dealer delivery was added too - so on paper the "26990 Magna" cost the dealership something like the $34,000incl; then they made manual claims for total about $6,000 in bonuses some months. So with dealer delivery added, its still minimal; then all Service Department costs, yard costs, advertising, wages, etc.; can you see now how making a profit can be very difficult???

On the flipside, when the Colt was introduced there was a $1,000 bonus on it, plus about $900 margin. So there was room to negotiate, or profit to be made, in the first month; after which only the $900 remained. Then of course the problem is in order to claim that bonus the car has to be "rda'd" - essentially delivered within the given time frame the bonus is available - at no stage did MMAL give the dealers any hints as to what bonuses would be available the following month - so they couldn't falsely claim or hold off deliveries.

I sold a Pajero to business once at full tote RRP, with all accessories etc. at full RRP, and made from memory over $800 commission, which meant over $8,000 profit was made. I believe it was a superseeded '03 plated car sold in winter '04, I believe I made $2,500 out of the huge list of accessories, and there was probably a $500 old stock bonus (being '03 built) and a $1,500 old model clearance bonus, or something like that - so there was about $3,500 profit at normal RRP for a $67,990 Pajero.
BTW - businesses work out their taxes in various ways, this business requested this, and other vehicles, be sold at full price and be an old stock car - so they could show a greater loss for tax purposes come time to upgrade again - I am not a dodgy bastard;

So to answer your question in reality while clothes stores operate with 200% markup, and food often has 60 to 100% markup, cars averaged about 2% to 5% markup. BELIVE IT OR NOT !!!