My day sitting at a car dealer

So posted my review about car shopping yesterday over in the 3rd Gen Pro section (comparing a 2020 Tundra Pro vs. 2021 Ram Laramie) - now I’m gonna tell you about the complete BS I got to over hear from the 2 salespeople on either side of me.

Contestant 1: A younger couple - trying to trade out of their current ride and into something nicer. Came in with their eyes on a used Charger.

Sales guy explaining how they are pretty limited on their options with a 518 credit score, no $$ down and how the only lender who will touch them (at 19.9% interest) will only allow 84 months (the only term they can afford a payment on with their 12k negative equity) on new vehicles. Keeps trying to steer them into an entry level Jeep suv. Clearly not getting through as he keeps trying to get a Charger.

Finally, he realizes it’s not working - so he says “Ok - I’ll take the Jeep IF you get me that 0% financing and the rebate”. Yea - there’s a good chance of that happening bud. Like seriously- how are people this financially irresponsible allowed to exist?!?


Contestant #2 - a young kid (maybe 18/19) and his parents. Kid is clearly the brains of the operation - as mom and dad are just there for decoration. Kid is looking to buy a new Challenger - he’s got some $$$ down, a job and knows what he wants.

Salesperson is telling him - he’s good with the bank - thin credit file but they can work past that and the fact his loan amount vs income is kinda high. The only issue is insurance - insurance is gonna be $400 a month on his own and combined with payment that’s damn near his monthly take home. Sure he’s gonna get a raise soon - but he’s foolish to take on so much expense - and can he simply go on mom/dads insurance to save $$.

So it comes out mom and dad have no insurance (sure hope they all walked there today) - and can’t get it because of dads last DUI and car is leaking n his name. Salesperson is working - trying to get an agent to write just mom and son - but dad doesn’t understand why they won’t insure him too and refuses to let the salesperson get the deal done to help the kid.

Next thing I hear is dad yelling “we’re gonna walk and go somewhere else if you don’t give us what we want”. Just like again - what is it with people feeling like they hold all the cards at a dealership.

I mean good for the kid working and saving to get what he wants - and for the dealer for trying to save him some $$ and not pushing him into a stupid amount of debt monthly. But poor kid just happens to be born to a complete moron who cannot understand why insurance doesn’t want to take on an unlicensed driver with multiple DUIs in the house (and cannot be excluded by state law). Hopefully they figure out they can use grandparents/family friend and add kid to that to get him insured as additional driver under a driver whose over 25 and hopefully save him a ton of cash monthly so he can get the car he wanted.

It is stuff like this that demonstrates why I could never be a car dealer - I’m simply too honest/straightforward. I’d have told both within 3 minutes how it was and that I’m not a miracle worker. Sales is a skill - like many other things - sometimes you either can do it or you can’t - you can’t teach people to be this tolerant and patient.

 

Welcome to the military, where all brand new airmen/soldiers/sailors decide their first car is a challenger/charger/mustang/Camaro that they can afford on $2000 a month (car payment, plus insurance on their own, and usually at the max of 18% interest). I can't tell you how many kids I end up seeing leave their cars parked in a parking lot because they can't afford the gas to go along with a $1K a month car payment/insurance.

 

Totally get it. I sell boats and off road vehicles and it is amazing what people think vs what reality is.

 

Getting ready to retire after this past year?

 

My dad didn’t teach me much. But dear lord the one thing he beat into my head was to go into a dealer knowing exactly what I wanted to pay for a car and what extras i wanted, and what financing I would be using. Do not even listen to them.

 

An 18 year old working his first job definitely doesn't need a brand new Challenger.

 

I walked in a stealership as an E4 looking for a used car, cuz I knew that new car was gonna take my redbull, and my boat honey money... so.. I walked through 3 stealerships cuz they wanted me to take on a 90's Corolla, but I didn't want that... Definitely no Challenger nor Charger though, Camaro and Mustang were around, but they were everywhere on base, so I took the hard pass.. Got my cousin on, and got a great rate at the time and I refi'd to separate myself from my cousin and leave it under my own name... but I had atleast a 650, they just frowned on the first time buyer, so I needed backing... Can proudly say I got my Tundra while looking for a 4runner or an Avalon and walked away with a 0% interest for 5 years and no money down on a new Tundra, and she is still here, both of them are.. LOL...

 

So what did you end up with for your first car?

 

It was 2003 and I got a 2002 Toyota Celica GT with 13k miles auto... I really wanted the one next to it a 2001 Celica GTS 6spd manual, but it had 120k miles, so it was a hard pass for me.

Edit: Got so much hate, got my tires slashed, got keyed, tail lights cracked, among other things...

 

Just a fly on the wall. Crazy

 

Absolutely first though I had here - I’d bet hard earned money this kid was either a new recruit or Reserves.

And I get it - your young, no housing cost and $$ coming in with nothing to spend it on currently. I have 0 problem with a young kid enjoying his new found buying power.

At the same time - we owe it to teach these kids basic budgeting and remind them that stuff will be there when they get home - no point in buying the car/truck/bike of your dream on credit when you ain’t gonna be able to touch it for 12-18 months and your gonna be paying on something that sits or is being enjoyed by your significant other and their “friend” back home probably.

It’s ridiculous the amount of pawn shops and rent-rims sitting within a few miles of ANY military base. But they wouldn’t be there without demand - been this way for last couple hundred years - not gonna change overnight.

 

Absolutely my nightmare job - right up there with dealing with car collectors every day.

Having to deal with the morons in something I love to do in my spare time. If you wanna learn to hate a hobby - try doing it for a living.

People have zero understanding of WHY financing 100% of a rec product is a bad idea - at least those who didn’t have one financed like that around 2008.

It’s great when you can afford it - and financing is not always a bad idea - but having some $$ up front and buying what you can comfortably afford are keys. Too many get caught up in “upgrading” and it only takes a time or 2 until your financed 120%.

Hell - I bought a pontoon knowing nothing more than “I wanted a boat” - bought the cheapest new on the market - wound up renting it out last 2 summers and paid for it in full on rentals - sold it for 90% of what I paid new.

I will NEVER do that again - maybe post pandemic rush I pick a nice lightly used boat up with the cash I set back from my sale/profit - but the market today is simply stupid. You think trucks are overpriced- go boat shopping right now.

 

Yep. I was stationed in VA from 1996 to 2003, and ran into a guy who was getting his command to help him out because he took on a car loan, at - are you ready for this?

**106.5% APR**

I shit you not.

 

Uhhh... Is that even legal? How do you ever pay it off?!

 

In some places it would be legal, you never pay it off. Thats the idea behind it.

I worked with a woman that bought a used car, over 100,000 miles thru a pay day loan place. Her interest rate was 30%, she was giddy as could be. She made the comment that the woman at the pay day loan place had never done a loan that large before. I just shook my head and walked off.

Another woman was bragging about her $7,000 tax refund, huh huh, ya ok, and how she was going to buy all this new stuff and take day at a spa that costs $1,000 cause, she deserved it.

Fast forward a couple months she was on the floor in one of the offices crying as I walked by. I asked another manager what was going on he said her car got repoed and we are trying to find a way to help her, to which I replied, guess that $1,000 spa day was not good idea huh?

I got a talking to that day about being more considerate of others feelings.

I laughed and said whatever.

Moral of the story, people are idiots and adults, no one forces them to sign on the line.

I have made my fair share of financial mistakes, but I also own them as well. No ones fault but mine, I signed the line.

 

At the time there were no usury laws in place in Virginia; as such, yep, it was totally legal (although shady/underhanded as hell).

 

106.5%apr

just call it a rental at that point

 

Preach it brother.

 

Y'all want a fun read, go to reddit and check out the askcarsales sub. You'll learn a ton about how to buy a car, but then there's the stories that pop up. They're fantastic. I can't believe people can be so dumb, at least until I remember George Carlin's quote: "Consider how stupid the average person. Now realize, that half the population is stupider than that!".

But yeah, check out that sub and enjoy. The insights into car buying are great too. The stuff I picked up there had us in and out of the dealership with The Woman's car in under 2 hours, which included a drive across town to their other lot and back to get the car and a 40 minute test drive.

 

I'm so glad they made it illegal for those kind of loans.

 

Yeah, I'd heard they did; thank God. Those poor service member need some sort of protection from themselves when they first go out on the town flush with cash. LOL

 

Try being the supervision/leadership team of those idiots. We've started teaching financial stuff to them when they arrive at their first duty station, but not many listen.

 

That sucks, but not gonna lie, makes me feel less bad about my numbers lol. By no means do I consider myself a smart person, but I couldn't sign on anything close to resembling that number. Crazy....

 

A woman I worked with many years ago came in to work bragging about the car she bought at some ridiculous interest rate. One of the other women was ready to call every consumer line to complain about how the car lot cheated her until we explained that the buyer did this on a regular basis. She'd buy a car with $100 dollars down (a decent amount in the late '70s), an outrageous interest rate, and no intention of making a payment. This is long before the internet and easy credit checks and reporting. Most small used car dealers didn't bother checking for, or reporting deadbeats. She'd drive the car until it disappeared (midnight repo), then she'd go out and put down another $100. She drove most cars around 3 months.

 

That’s the first problem - these kids are getting their FIRST lesson on budgeting/finance after being handed a diploma or GED from a high school.

Look - I’m not an educator, and I think there is plenty of need to improve on the STEM education these kids get - but don’t matter if the next young Einstein can split the atom if he can’t manage to balance a checkbook or keep from getting evicted every 8 months.

Like I’ve said - we were all young and dumb. Priorities at 19 are different than they are at 49. I’m sure I wasn’t too concerned with my retirement savings, health insurance or portfolio at 19 - it was more going fast and looking good doing it. Of course I had a couple of decent teachers and parents who helped me realize teaching those goals was easier when the basics were covered first.

My high school actually had a “consumer Ed” course - this was damn near 30 years ago - but you learned not only budgeting - but topics like basic maintenance, sewing and cooking. The guy who taught it was also the football coach - and I think it was originally designed as his way of keeping jocks academically eligible. It then became a favorite class to dump off tech/trade school bound youth - keeping them out of the hair of “serious” educators.

Funny thing - I guarantee you anyone who took this course had a 5 year head start upon graduation from most any of those “college prepared” youth. They knew how to fix a simple meal (and not eat out daily), they knew how to change oil in a car and fix simple things, and they knew what the stock market was and why to not just buy things that they overheard a guy on the subway talking about how it’s gonna be the next Microsoft.

We need more of this stuff out there - but the other funny thing to me. I swear some youths out there are MORE aware of credit scores and investing than most of the 40+ crowd. The majority are probably using some kinda app - be it CreditKarma or some investing app. Now to just teach them that hoarding a stock like GameStop is NOT the way to revolutionize Wall Street.

 

That’s the problem - they are not flush with cash. They are flush with the idea that a money tree is about to sprout in their backyard and that Uncle Sam is gonna start giving them $2500 a month free and clear.

Then it hits them that those deductions take more than half what they thought they were getting - and dreams of having everything come crashing down - but not before they have already signed some pretty hefty promissory notes.

There are interest rate protections in place - but the sharper places know how to get around this.

Worse - you can cap the interest, but not the price. Hell - I sell you a 12k car at 0% interest and have you sign a 49k loan like DriveTime does - it only takes me a year of payments tops to be highly profitable. Even better - 6 or 7 months and repo/resell.

 

Sorry, I'm slow. How do you get someone to sign a $49k loan for a $12k car?

 

They're flush with *some* cash. LOL Just not as much as they think they are. But you're not wrong.

 

Some people shopping for cars only look at how much it costs per month instead of how much they are paying in total.