Employee Pricing!

[fastball]

Originally Posted by KarlChev

This is my problem. Lets say you are buying a $40,000 tahoe. You would offer a 1% profit to the dealer? A dealership would not stay open very long making 1-2% profit on their cars. When you go buy a new pair of jeans, do you offer them $1 over cost? When you go to McD's, do you tell them you will give them .06 for a Coke? New Plazma TV for $20 over net?

I'd like to ask those that feel this way, what do you do for a living, and if there are products sold, what is the markup?

Buying jeans, a Coke, or a burger is a bit different than buying a car. Bad analogy. And if you shop at Best Buy, their salesmen don't work on commission..... so buying the 56" plasma from them is a no brainer. I go there because they usually have exactly what I'm looking for. They have a no haggle policy, and they usually have the best price amongst their competitors. When they don't, they easily match.

Like I said, I work in a hospital. We sell life improving and life saving. I'm the wrong person to ask about the markup there. Can't put a price on someone saving your life or improving the quality of it.

There's the other part of the equation: only the dealer really knows where the profit margin is on any certain car. All consumers have access to invoice, holdbacks, and an estimate on advertising profit by vehicle - this info can be found on consumer reports' website. But they can't be certain how long a car has been sitting on a lot, and don't know the true cost of that one specific vehicle to that dealer. After invoice, holdbacks, advertising, and any factory rebates and incentives, what's to say you still don't make 1500.00 on the sale?

I'd love to pay a reasonable price to where I know I'm getting a good deal, and the dealer still makes a comfortable profit. But the problem is, where is that line? You're certainly not going to show me your books, and I wouldn't expect you to.

[JEFF2010SSMANUAL]

$39k Camaro LS3 SS manual for $31k ???

[Blackwolf]

Originally Posted by KarlChev

This is my problem. Lets say you are buying a $40,000 tahoe. You would offer a 1% profit to the dealer?

Ok, so I guess I'm way off the mark on my numbers. (but I did say it was dependent on the vehicle being sold.) Then what do you think is a fair profit for the dealership on every sale?

Originally Posted by KarlChev

A dealership would not stay open very long making 1-2% profit on their cars.

No, I suppose your right about that. But doesn't a dealer also make money on things like parts, accessories, repairs and especially used vehicles? Couldn't some of this be made up in volume sales (due to favorable pricing) as apposed to trying to bleed every last drop out of each customer? Again, what is a fair price from a dealers perspective?

Originally Posted by KarlChev

When you go buy a new pair of jeans, do you offer them $1 over cost? When you go to McD's, do you tell them you will give them .06 for a Coke? New Plazma TV for $20 over net?

When I go in to buy a pair of jeans I know exactly what the price is when I take them to the register. The dept. store does not have a policy of negotiating from a position of advantage over their customers. They post a price on the product and sell it for exactly that. If I want THOSE jeans on that day, I pay THAT price, just like the person before me did and the people after me will. The same cannot be said about an auto purchase. But really, this is all apples and oranges and not a fair comparison.

Originally Posted by KarlChev

I'd like to ask those that feel this way, what do you do for a living, and if there are products sold, what is the markup?

Well, I don't personally sell a product. I construct and maintain equipment for a utility company. One of our services is to provide natural gas to our customers. And guess how much we mark up that product. Zero percent over our cost. What we pay per unit for the product is exactly what is charged per unit to the end customer. But again........ apples 'n oranges.

I just want it to be fair on both ends. But now I'm not sure what fair is. When I walk into a dealership, I enter with the attitude that I want to be fair to the dealer/salesperson. It's a rare thing to be offered that same attitude from inside those big fancy showrooms.

EDIT:
I posted this before I realized that fastball had already posted a very similar (but better worded) response.

[ULTIMATEORANGESS]

i got something from GM saying i can combine my GM card points with their emp. disc. a vette for under 40k is tempting but im buying a camaro.

[ColdFuzion]

There are some people (no names again) that exist only to wear out salespeople because they think that they are better than the person who is waiting on the lot to sell them a car. Want to know why you're not aloud to walk out on the back lot by yourself? Because it's not your lot. And if the person who owns the lot wants a salesperson to assist you in your looking, then you will have to deal with it if you want a car.

My question to everyone who hates dealers/salespoeple is this...Why not just buy your cars on e-bay and save us all the brain damage of putting up with you? You would be happier because you didn't have to deal with us and our day will be brighter because we didn't have to listen to you whine for hours on end about how $50 over invoice is too much and how you want the holdback too and how you're not paying a dealer fee either.

I can go on for days how there are angels and assholes in my workplace, you dont have to like everyone (coworker or customer) just know how to work with them to get goals accomplished.

Personally, Im bit harder on sales people beacause I want to test their knowledge, I want to feel comfortable they know what their talking about, once I feel them out I choose whether or not to do business with them.

Now if I wanted to I could choose to interpret your posts as preying on peoples sympathy and determine your a salesman I dont want to do business with. I'll give you the benefit of the doubt that your an honest person but disgrunted about some aspect of the career you've chosen. I would ask you stop posting about how much or little you make on a car sale because we dont really care, the customer always wants the best price and if you treat each person right, they will return.

I have agree with fastball on this one.

I don't know you from Adam, and yet you take everything I've said personally. I never once accused you directly of anything, and you probably are the exception to the rule. The only thing I said was it wasn't a good idea for you to complain about making only 300.00 in one day. I'm sure there are plenty of people on this forum who would give their left arm to make 300.00 in one day, and while there are ups and downs in the car sales business, those people who don't make very much might see that kind of comment as snide, arrogent, rude, and boastfull. Certainly not helping improve the image of a car salesman. I hope you can see what I'm saying. It's all about perception. If you hadn't posted that, good chance I wouldn't have said anything further about anything having to do with the car sales business. I probably wouldn't have even responded to this thread.

Post of the year.