So I was in the car business for years and I do feel for car salespeople. Selling cars is categorically not an awesome job by any stretch of the imagination IMO and it still seems to be full of deceit, and all sorts of tom foolery and outright lies, so no, it's not for everyone. I was lucky to get out when I did.
Having said that, I will temper my thoughts regarding my limited interactions with the Stearns Ford, which honestly never even involved me driving a couple of hours to see a used car they had listed for well over book, and while that's not unusual, it's also really not necessary either. There's often massive net profit to the dealer via used car sales in general btw. This was a used car with very low miles, a one owner vehicle in very good to excellent condition, so I expected to pay above book, but within reason. That was not gonna happen here, and after I presented a reasonable number to a sales rep for an out the door price (to include doc, taxes, tagging fees) he texted me "okay, thanks for working with me, let's see what I can do", or therabouts.
Basically what Stearns Ford (actually Stearn's sales management) did was over list the car by about $2500.00 and they did that based on condition, percieved demand (which they apparently determined based on what I refer to as the extortionist prices charged by "convenience" set-fee dealers like Carvanna). Stearn's Ford business model is not the same as Carvanna's FWIW.
The sales rep's correspondence by text was good, and it looked like they would be able to bring the car in at a reasonable price I'd specified. UNTIL, I made it clear that I could finance or pay in cash AND that I didn't want to be "boxed" by a finance type, into any loan that wasn't open (and eligible for early payoff). That seems to have been enough to change the tenor of the text conversation, oh yeah.
You see, the dealerships make money when you finance from one of their lenders. My mistake, a calculated but stupid one, was thinking that Stearns was a straight, transparent, and reasonable used car seller; that the dealership could grasp and comprehend the benefit of a win-win type of sale to an open and educated buyer, READY to buy based on lots of previous correspondence to that effect.
As soon as I made it clear that I was willing to come get the car based on previously texted price requirements OTD, the rep made it, in his (or more likely his manager's) words "crystal clear" that they (his manager) wasn't having any of it; they would sell it for list or very close to it, which is of course the whole idea from the dealership's side of things. I know, I've been on their side many, many times and as the saying goes, "car buyer likes to feel they got a good deal, but a dealership will never sell you a car they're not making a reasonable, or in this instance a probably very high amount of net profit on. Fair enough.
With Stearns, my experience (YMMV) was the same as it was back in the very late 90's and near mid 2000's, and it was disappointing to know by my limited experience with them, the business has not evolved in any meaningful way at independent dealers. In this instance, I don't think Stearn's Ford was driven by reasonable net profits but IMO excessively "greedy" margins. Ahh, capitalism in full bloom at the retail dealership. Some things never seem to change.
Off topic, but IMO and FYI if you want a particular used car AND you don't HAVE TO PURCHASE from ANY dealership, I suggest you don't.
Do your homework, know everything about the vehicle you're set on purchasing, Then, once you find your car, go look at it and/or get very good video of it from the seller, and if you'll be purchasing long-distance provided you're satisfied at that point, pay the seller a small amount to take it to an independant shop that you choose for a Pre-purchase Inspection (PPI) and pay the 150-200 bucks they go for. Then, if everything is still okay, pay for a Carfax (even though these reports are less than perfect) and proceed with the rest of the deal in person.
Finally, watch out for the processing fees at dealerships; they're absolutely NOT a requirement, no matter what the dealer says to the contrary) and are often a way for the dealership to pack the deal in their favor. California, Oregon, to name a few are getting ready to raise their's from about 100 bucks to 500. For Virginia and NC it's a max of 800 at the time of this writing. That's pretty absurd to me.
If you do decide to do business on a used car with Stearns Ford, in Burlington, North Carolina, I suggest you proceed as a well-educated prospective buyer. If at anytime during the process, you feel uncomfortable, well that's very probably not a good sign at all and you can always just walk away.
Peace! read more
