Advantages and Disadvantages to Leasing a Car

I’ve written many articles on leasing, most of them cautionary. Car dealers and manufacturers prefer to lease you a car because, on the average, they make a lot more money when they lease you a car as opposed to selling it. Before I get to the “advantages” of leasing, here are some of the disadvantages. 

When you lease a car the leasing company, often owned by the manufacturer, owns the car, not you. This means that you must return the leased car at the end of the lease to the car dealer you leased it from. This gives the manufacturer and dealer a chance to lease or sell you another car. You will begin to be contacted by the car dealer and leasing company several months before the expiration of your lease making you “special offers” if you lease or buy another car from them.

Leasing is a far more complicated transaction than buying a car. Some people believe, or are lead to believe by the salesman, that leasing is the same as renting; if you don’t need the lease anymore, decide you don’t like the car, or are ready to lease or buy another car all you have to do is bring it back to the dealer. That is not true. When you sign a lease contract you’re obligated for the total number of months of the lease…be it 36, 48, or 60. If you’re lease payment is $400 per month, you owe the leasing company $24,000 even if you keep that car for only one month. 

There are several things hidden in the fine print of a lease contract that are rarely fully disclosed to the lessee. In addition to the monthly payment and down payment you make on a lease, there is fee charged by the lessor (and sometimes a portion is returned to the dealer) commonly called an “acquisition fee”. This is simply profit to the lessor (and sometimes dealer). A typical lease acquisition fee is about $900. When you turn in the lease there’s another fee commonly called the “disposal or disposition fee”, usually around $350. 

Another hidden cost of your lease is the charge for driving over the allowed annual mileage. The amount of mileage allowed varies from as little as 7,500 to about 15,000. The charge for driving over this varies from as little as $.15 to as much as $.50 per mile. Imagine not knowing that you signed a 60 month lease contract allowing only 10,000 miles per year and charging $.50 per mile for each mile above that. If you’re an average driver, you drove 15,000 miles per year and in 5 years you put 30,000 more miles on your lease car than was allowed. You owe the leasing company $15,000!

The leasing company insists that you take good care of their car. They will allow you to inflict only “normal” wear and tear and they define what they mean by “normal” in the lease fine print. The definition is more subjective than specific. It’s not unusual for leases to get a bill in the mail a few weeks after they return their lease car for several hundred dollars. 

The lease transaction is more complicated than a purchase transaction. The monthly payment is calculated from an interest rate that is camouflaged as a “lease factor” and the predicted value of your car at the end of the lease known as the residual value. These variables are applied to the “capitalized cost” usually abbreviated cap cost. The capitalized cost is close to what the price of the car would have been if you bought it. Many people don’t understand this and sign lease contracts for cars with capitalized cost at MSRP and higher…something they would never do if they bought the car. 

If you trade in your old car when you lease, this is supposed to reduce the capitalized cost of the lease, just as it would if you purchased the car. It happens all too often that the car dealer will not allow the full value of your trade-in in reducing the capitalize cost or even not allow anything! I’ve talked to many victims of this practice who paid the car dealer profits of up to $20,000. 

If I haven’t totally frightened you away from leasing a car, there are some advantages. The first is that, if your car is involved in a collision, you don’t have to worry about its diminished value when you turn it back in. If you owned the car and had a serious collision that required extensive repairs, you would suffer diminished value of several thousands of dollars when you traded in or sold your car. You must be sure that you have your car properly repaired by a good body shop. If you don’t, the leasing company will come after you for money to make the repair right. 

Another advantage is exercising your option to buy your car at its residual value at the end of the lease and the right to “walk away” with no obligation if the residual is higher than the actual market value. This option exists in all lease contracts for closed end leases. Almost all retail leases today are closed in, but there are some dealers leasing cars which are “open ended” that make you responsible for the residual value being less than the leasing company can wholesale the car for. NEVER sign an open ended lease. 

There is one more advantage to leasing and that is that manufacturers/leasing companes will often “sweeten the pot” toward the end of your lease to keep you leasing from them. You will begin to receive offers about 6 months before your lease terminates which can include waiving some of the remaining lease payments, waiving the lease termination fee, and special lease payments on the new model. 

The bottom line is that, if you are a sophisticated buyer/lessor that does their homework, leasing can be the best option for you. You must read the fine print of the lease contract and understand it. You must realize that you are obligated for costs of any wear and tear on your car above “normal”. You should know the amount you must pay for your “acquisition fee” and “disposition fee”. You must be sure that the capitalized cost equals the price you would consider fair if you were to buy the car. You must know that the full and fair value of your trade-in was applied to reduce the capitalized cost. You should verify that the allowed annual mileage falls within the number of miles you will put on the car.

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Holdback or Holdup?

Back in 1968 when I first went into the retail car business with my father, I can remember asking him, “What is holdback?” I was learning the business and had been studying the invoices on new Pontiacs that General Motors sent us when they shipped a new car that we had ordered. We had to pay the invoice immediately when it was issued, sometimes even before the car arrived at our dealership. Actually, in most cases, it was our bank or GMAC who paid GM and we borrowed the money from them to pay for the car. 

My father’s answer to my question about holdback was that it was an increase in the amount of the invoice that we paid General Motors which was not really part of the price of the car. It was just an extra amount added to the real price of the car and included in the invoice. At that time it was 2% of the MSRP [suggested retail], so if a new Pontiac Bonneville had an MSRP of $10,000 and a true cost of $9,000, the factory invoice would be $9,200. I asked my father, “When do we get the $200 back?” He said, “At the end of the year”. I asked him if they paid us interest on our money and I can remember him laughing loudly and saying no.

Of course my next question was why they do that. He told me that the reason they gave him was to be help dealers sell their cars for more money so that they didn’t go broke. He said that because they didn’t get their holdback money for such a long period of time, they began to think of their invoice as being the actual cost of the car. General Motors felt that many dealers were such poor businessmen that they might sell their cars so cheaply that they would go out of business. Now, because GM was kind enough to hold back hundreds of thousands of dollars of the dealers’ money [and pay them no interest on it] but return the money to them once a year, they could help the dealers make a bigger profit and maintain adequate working capital.

At that time I thought this was the biggest bunch of boloney I had ever heard and I was sure that this was a scheme by the manufacturers to keep a free float of millions of dollars of their dealers’ money under the guise of helping the dealers. I asked my father why the dealers didn’t strongly object to this and he said that most dealers actually “liked” the idea of holdback. When I heard that, I thought that maybe GM and the manufacturers were right about the dealers not being smart enough to sell their cars for a reasonable profit.

It took me a few more years in the business before I understood what was really going on with holdback. It was a “no brainer” as to why the manufacturers liked it but at last I understood its attraction to us dealers. Because we had to pay an extra amount over the true price of the car and not see that money for up to a year, we began to think of the invoice as the true price, even though it was actually inflated by hundreds of dollars. Because all manufacturers added holdback to all dealers invoices, the net effect was to raise the price of all cars to all buyers by the amount of this holdback. I know this is a dirty word, but it is price fixing on the grandest of scales. This might have been something that Henry Ford, Alfred Sloan, and Walter Chrysler concocted while playing golf at Bloomfield Hills Country Club outside of Detroit.

Another neat thing about holdback for us dealers is being able to tell our customers that we are only charging them “X dollars” over invoice. Or, we can tell them that we will sell them this car at invoice with no profit to us at all! [There’s a sucker born every minute] Dealers often have “invoice sales” with copies of the invoice pasted on the car windows. Who doesn’t believe that an invoice is the cost of the car? The truth is in the semantic skullduggery …”Mr. Customer, I solemnly swear to you that this the exact price that I paid the factory for this car. In fact, here’s a copy of the invoice.” That’s what the dealer “paid” the factory all right, but it’s not what the he paid the factory after he got his holdback check in the mail.

You might be thinking, so we’re talking about $200 more or less on a $10,000 car. Who cares? Don’t forget, that was over 40 years ago. Holdbacks have expanded considerably and now instead of several hundred dollars we’re talking several thousand. Also, dealers no longer have to wait a year to get their hold back money back. Now they get it back monthly. Manufacturers even changed the names of these monies they hold back. These are innocuous names so that, if you see them on the invoice, you will have no suspicion…names like floorplan assistance, advertising, PDI, Administrative or DAP. Of course there are also cash rebates to dealers that don’t even show on the invoice. I estimate the average car invoice today includes $3,000 to $4,000 in hidden holdbacks to the dealer. Holdbacks are also applied to factory or distributor accessories like “protection packages” [wax, undercoat, window etch, roadside assistance], floor mats, window tint, etc.

The bottom line is that you don’t rely on the dealer’s factory invoice to determine the price you are willing to pay for a car. And be especially suspicions when the dealer quotes you a price of “X dollars over invoice” or actually shows you the invoice. You’ve heard the old joke, “How can you tell when a politician is lying?” Answer: When his lips are moving. “How can you tell when a car dealer is lying?” Answer: When he shows you the invoice.

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"Electronic Filing Fee" (aka "Dealer Fee")

After a decade of authoring newspaper columns, blog posts, and hosting radio talk shows, I like to think that I’ve contributed somewhat to Floridians’ awareness of the “Dealer Fee”. For those who still don’t know what a “dealer fee” is, it’s extra profit to car dealers that they take from you by adding an amount to the price of the car they advertise or quote you when you ask for the price. The Florida legislature has addressed this issue by making a law that car dealers must include their “dealer fee” in the price of the cars they advertise. There is no limit on the amount a car dealer can charge for dealer fee and there is no regulation on what the dealer can name his dealer fee. Most other states do have limits and do require that that the dealer fee be identified by name. 

Some of the other names for the Dealer Fee are Doc Fee, Documentary Fee, Notary and Closing Fee, Administrative Fee, Handling Fee, Dealer Prep Fee, Dealer Pre-Delivery Fee, and Dealer Services Fee. Oftentimes dealers use more than one dealer fee. I’ve seen three dealer fees by different names on the same buyer’s order. The dealer in this illustration has two, “Dealer Services and “Electronic Filing Fee.” These two dealer fees total $1,597.99. Bear in mind that this is additional price mark-up, profit to the dealer in addition to the price you were quoted. 

A few years ago with the advent of data processing technology, companies were formed that offered a new service to car dealers. These companies take the raw data from the car sale transaction and automatically register and title the car that the dealer sells. Up until this time, car dealers had been performing this task in-house and paying someone called a “title clerk” for this. The new automated service saved car dealers lots of time and money and today every car dealer now uses this service. The cost to the dealer is minimal, about $10 per car sale. These data processing companies take the data directly from the car dealers’ computers when they process the sales transaction and almost instantaneously register and title the car. I would estimate the dollar-savings in time and the clerical cost to be over $100 per car sale. My dealership sells over 400 new and used vehicles per month and this service is saving me about $40,000 monthly! 

What most businesses would do with this windfall savings in expense would be one of two things. (1) Pass the savings along to the customer to increase the sales volume and/or (2) take the $100 expense reduction to immediately increase the profit. 

Unfortunately, that’s not enough for most car dealers. Almost all car dealers in Florida took this cost savings, called it an expense, marked it up, and charged it to their customers! Only some dealers disclose this on their vehicle’ buyer’s order as Florida law requires, disclosing that this charge represents “profit to the dealer”. Florida law considers the “Electronic Filing Fee” just another dealer fee. Soon dealers realized that this windfall “cost savings” to them could be multiplied thousands of times by marking it up and charging their customers. The “beauty” of the electronic filing fee (aka e-filing fee) is that it sounds/looks like it is the charge for the dealers registering and titling your car. Remember that in the past this expense was absorbed by the dealer and the companies that automated this for only $10 per transaction represents a $100 cost savings! The example that you see in the illustration in this article marks up this dealer’s cost of the automated data service by 5,989%! 

Many car dealers do not disclose the fact that the electronic filing fee is, in fact, just another dealer fee. This is illegal but our regulators claim they are understaffed and too busy to enforce this law, or they claim that they aren’t receiving complaints on this issue. If you have paid an electronic filing fee that was not legally disclosed you can access the method to file complaints at this website, www.FloridaCarDealerComplaints.com.

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Why You Almost Never Read the Truth About Car Dealers in Local Newspapers

Update: The following post was submitted to The Hometown News to run on March 6th, but was rejected for the following reasons: "We cannot be a platform for criticizing other newspapers or media outlets. We hope you understand our position in this matter.Please re-submit a column that offers car-buying advice, car maintenance or the like."

If you’re reading this article in the Hometown News (which you aren't; please refer to update), you’re very fortunate to be reading a local newspaper that has the courage and journalistic integrity to print the truth about car dealers and to recognize our rights of free speech. In contrast, The Palm Beach Post has repeatedly refused run this weekly column. In the recent past, I’ve even met privately with the publisher of the Palm Beach Post. I was told that he would love to publish my weekly column but he feared he would lose most of his local car dealer advertisers. The sad fact is that car dealers are among the largest advertisers (if not the largest) in local newspapers. As you know, with the historic rise of digital media, print newspapers are on the “endangered species list” and the loss of their largest advertisers would likely result in bankruptcy.

Last week I was approached by an advertising salesperson for the PB Post to run an advertisement. I don’t do a lot of print advertising because newspaper circulations have dropped precipitously. But she offered me a large discount and I agreed to run an ad in last Friday’s paper. The ad I submitted was a column that I’d already run in the Hometown News and my blog, www.EarlStewartOnCars.com. I figured that as long as I was paying for it they wouldn’t refuse to print my advertisement. I was wrong.

I’ve reproduced the email exchange between me and Sharon Garden, the Palm Beach Post advertising salesperson here, and below that, I’ve displayed the advertisement that they refused to print. They claimed that the denial was because the “copy submitted for the vehicle profile promoting the 2015 Toyota Camry does not meet the standard for promoting the 2015 Toyota Camry adjacent to the promoted vehicle profile vehicle.” If that’s true, then I challenge the Palm Beach Post to allow me to run that same advertisement alone without the “Toyota Camry promotion”.  Email from Palm Beach Post sales representative Sharon Garden:

“Good morning, I have been advised that the copy submitted for the vehicle profile promoting the 2015 Toyota Camry does not meet the standard for promoting the 2015 Toyota Camry adjacent to the promoted vehicle profile vehicle.

The Friday Vehicle Profile special feature is comprised of the top half page telling the story about the featured vehicle. The bottom portion of the Vehicle Profile special feature is the half page ad space promoting the sale of the featured vehicle. A dealer can put additional vehicles in the ad promoting the sale of vehicles. The copy below does not meet the ad format of this Vehicle Profile special feature. 

If you would like to send me an edited version of instructions for creating an advertisement that reflects the nature of the article, I would be happy to assist you.

The online portion of the vehicle profile is still in production this morning. I will send you a copy for your review as soon as it is out on proof.

Thank you for the opportunity to serve you.

Regards,

Sharon”

 Advertisement:

Open Letter to Florida Car Dealers, Part II: Stop Your Bait and Switch Advertising!

Dear fellow car dealer, in case you missed my last letter to you on “dealer fees”, you can find it on my blog, www.earlstewartoncars.

The subject of this letter is the ads most car dealers run which are designed to motivate prospective car buyers to come into their dealerships believing that they can buy or lease a vehicle for less than they really can. These ads appear in newspapers, direct-mail, TV, radio, and the Internet. If you are one of the few car dealers who do not do this, I know you will enjoy reading this column and agree with me.

One of the most common lures is advertising the new vehicle below your cost. You spend thousands of dollars advertising monthly and consider losing a little money on one or two cars as part of your advertising budget. The problem is that you deliberately limit the number of cars you will sell at this price and you do this in a deceptive manner. One way this is done is to show a stock number next to the price of the car. This translates into there being only one car available at that price. 

Another technique is to use the phrase “other cars available at similar savings”. First of all, how do you define “similar”? Secondly, Florida law requires that you include “dealer fees” in all advertised prices, but not in cars that are sold for “similar savings”. Adding back that dealer fee can turn a “loss leader” back into a profit.

Another trick is to show huge discounts from “list” when list is defied in the fine print as including “dealer installed” options. By simply marking up whatever options you choose to install on an advertised car, you can generate as much markup as you like. 

Bait and switch is also aimed at monthly payments. By disclosing in the fine print that a very, very high credit score is required to qualify for an advertised low payment, lease or purchase, you limit the possible buyers that can qualify to a very small percentage of the population. The vast majority that cannot qualify ends up with a much higher payment and higher profit to you. 

A favorite deception is to advertise very large “minimum trade-in allowances”. I have seen trade-in “minimums” as high as $15,000. These ads are clearly aimed at prospects from the lower economic strata that are currently driving older cars and may be less sophisticated and informed buyers. A smart buyer knows that you cannot possibly allow someone $15,000 on a trade-in worth $250 unless you make back that deficit in additional markup on the car you are selling. 

Another deception aimed at the lower economic, less educated portion of our society is the “no credit, no problem” ad. Having bad credit or no credit most definitely is a problem. It might not be a problem for you but it is for the person with the bad credit and it is for the bank that will refuse to finance that person. Another version of this trick is “no credit application refused”. A sophisticated buyer knows that all you are saying is that you will allow anyone to fill out a credit application and you might even agree to submit it to a lender. But you are not telling him that her credit application will be refused if her credit is too bad or not sufficient. 

There are other examples that I could cite and there will be new ways that many dealers will come up with to lure buyers into their dealerships. As I said in my last letter, I am asking you to voluntarily stop this form of advertising before the regulators make you stop. I am not suggesting what you are doing is illegal, but I am saying that it is not right. I am also saying that it is bad business. If I can’t get your attention by asking you to treat your customers with respect and consideration, how about if I tell you that you can sell more cars and make more money if you do? You are successful in luring lots and lots of people into your dealership, but you sell only a small portion of these people cars. Those you don’t sell are probably angry at you when they learn they cannot buy the car for the price they believed. Even the ones you do sell may be angry because they had to pay you more money than they wanted. Unhappy customers don’t come back and they tell their friends. You have to spend more and more on advertising because your repeat and referral business is so bad. This is not good for your bottom line and your manufacturer is probably “on your back” because your customer satisfaction rating is so low. If you would like to discuss this with me, please call or email me. My numbers and addresses are below. 

Sincerely,


Earl Stewart,

561 844-3461
Email: earl@estoyota.com

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Understanding Your New Car Warranty

When you buy your new car your salesman will tell you that it has a “bumper to bumper” warranty. The most common coverage is for 3 years or 36,000 miles whichever should first occur. “Bumper to bumper” warranty sounds like it means that everything is covered. Unfortunately this is not the case. For example, your tires are not covered at all by the car manufacturer but under a separate warranty by the tire manufacturer.

It can be tedious, but the only way to completely understand your warranty is to actually read it. All warranties now are required to use the word “limited” unless there are absolutely zero exclusions and this, to the best of my knowledge, is never the case.

Some of the most common items that are mistakenly believed to be included in warranties are tires, rental car coverage, maintenance, and faded or damaged paint from various kinds of air contaminants.

I don’t know why all car manufacturers choose to exclude tires from their “bumper to bumper” warranties. After all, they choose the tire manufacturer just like they choose the manufacturer of other components on your car which they don’t manufacture themselves like the sound systems. The owner of a car has an established relationship with the service department of the dealership because she is bringing her car back every 5,000 miles or so for factory recommended maintenance. In most cases, she doesn’t even know who the tire dealer is. It would be far more customer friendly for the manufacturer to allow her dealer to handle warranty claims on tires. My suggestion is to ask your dealer’s service advisor or service manager to “broker” the warranty claim on your tires on your behalf. The dealership is more likely to have an established relation ship with a tire store and they can be your advocate.

New car warranties virtually never provide for a free rental car unless the vehicle must be tied up overnight for repairs. All too often, car salesman will promise you a “free loaner” anytime your car is in for service. Verify this with the service department before you rely upon it. There are extended service contracts which you can buy in addition to your new car warranty which will provide rental car coverage.

A new car warranty covers only “repairs” not maintenance items. A very common request is that a front end alignment be performed under warranty. Your alignment should have been checked before your car was delivered. If your car goes out of alignment after delivery, it is usually considered owner’s maintenance. Brakes are another item often misunderstood as being covered under warranty. Brake wear is almost always a maintenance item. Only a mechanical defect in your brakes is covered under warranty.

Faded or pitted paint can be from defective or improperly applied paint or from external causes like industrial fallout or foreign substances sprayed in the air (crop dusters or insect control airplanes). Of course there can be a good argument made that paint should have resistance to a certain amount of air pollution. This type of claim may require the inspection by a factory representative to determine the cause. From my experience, certain colors of paint seem to have more problems than others. Red and white come to mind. Ask the factory service representative if they have experience problems with your particular color. Stand your ground if you feel that the factory should stand good for faded or pitted paint. Get a second opinion from your insurance adjustor. You may even have an insurance claim. If you have your car washed and waxed regularly and keep it garaged it is highly unlikely that you will ever have a paint problem.

The manufacturer’s representative can authorize repairs to your car when it is out of warranty. This is called goodwill. Oftentimes the service manager of the dealership can also authorize goodwill repairs. This is a subjective ruling and depends on how close to being under factory warranty you are, how regularly you maintained the vehicle according to factory recommendations, how many cars of this make you have bought, and how you present your request. A car that is out of warranty by just a few miles or weeks can usually be covered under goodwill. If you maintained your vehicle regularly with your dealer and have bought several cars from this dealer, the further out of warranty you can expect goodwill repairs. Presenting your case in a positive, courteous manner helps a lot. Service managers and factory representatives have high pressure jobs and are often confronted by loud, rude, demanding customers. Your claim may be absolutely legitimate, but your chances of success are enhanced by being nice.

Some manufacturers offer longer warranties than others. The amount of time and number of miles that a vehicle is covered is important, but the quality of the vehicle is more important. Sometimes manufacturers will increase their warranty coverage to sell more cars because the quality of their cars is in question. Quality trumps length of warranty and I would always advise buying the higher quality rather than the one with the longest warranty.

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Open Letter to Car Manufacturers

True Customer satisfaction trumps sales volume

Dear car manufacturer,

Today all of the car manufacturers can’t stop talking about customer satisfaction, especially when it comes to satisfying the car buyer. They are aware, just as everyone is, that customers visiting car dealerships rank their treatment worse than just about any other retailer. The manufacturers have been aware of this problem for about 30 years. As a Pontiac dealer, I can still remember the first “CSI” surveys that were sent out. The surveys have changed quite a bit and the methodology has changed quite a bit, but essentially it’s the same. When somebody buys a car from a dealer, she is mailed a questionnaire, sometimes it’s emailed, and sometimes the customer is surveyed by phone. The same system is used for service customers. These surveys are scored for customer satisfaction and the dealerships are measured against each other. Typically a dealership is ranked numerically within his local market (about a 100 mile radius), region (geographic section of the USA like the Southeast) and the entire USA.

The problem has been that these surveys haven’t worked very well. Realizing this, the manufacturers have steadily increased the penalties to dealers with bad scores and rewards to dealers with good scores. The penalties can be quite severe, including a dealer’s franchise being terminated, putting him out of business. The rewards sometimes include cash, vacations trips, prestigious honor clubs and societies, and even priority consideration for another dealership location. Guess what? It’s still not working! The scores are getting higher and higher, but the customers are not getting happier and happier. How can that be, you say??!!

The dealers are finding ways to manipulate the survey scores to their advantage. The stakes are so high for a good customer satisfaction score, that “fixing the game” has become pretty much S.O.P. with many car dealerships. This is especially egregious because the honest dealers, who go about improving their scores “the old fashioned way”…treating his customer better, are made to look bad relative to those who are cheating on their scores. In fact, sometimes you actually see dealers who don’t treat their customers very nicely getting higher scores than those who do! As if this wasn’t bad enough, manufacturers sometimes “look the other way” when a large volume dealers has a “CSI problem”. In awards, contests, and honorary societies, the manufacturers sometimes award “discretionary” points to bring a large volume dealer’s percentage score up to an acceptable level. I don’t have to tell you how demoralizing this is to those honest dealers who earn their points fairly. This sends a dangerous message to all of the dealers when they see sales volume trumping customer satisfaction in the priorities of the manufacturers.

The fact is that the manufacturer’s focus on customer satisfaction surveys has intensified to the point where most manufacturers’ executives care more about the numbers than the customers. They tell the dealers to “get those numbers up” which doesn’t necessarily correlate with “treat your customers better”. In a recent Automotive News article, an independent survey company found that 36% of car buyers said the salesperson asked for a perfect score and were asked to allow the dealership to address problems and complaints internally, rather than report them to the automaker. There are also instances of offering a free tank of gas or other perk for a good survey or bringing the blank survey into the dealership for the salesman to fill out. One manufacture recently caught a lot of dealers who had furnished phony email addresses for their customers so that the customer satisfaction survey would come to the dealership instead of the customer’s home.

Here is my recommendation to the car manufacturers. You can keep the surveys, but let them be used only as an information tool for improving the way the dealers treat their customers…no penalties or rewards. Replace the surveys with the “proof of the pudding” for customer satisfaction which is how many customers who buy a car from this dealer come back to buy another from the same dealer? Also, what percentage of the customers return to that dealer for service after they buy their car? What more do you need to know? Customer loyalty is the bottom line, plain and simple. If you must use a survey, use an independent survey company who surveys the dealers’ customers when he doesn’t know who is being surveyed or when it’s being done. The hardest thing for a manufacturer to do is to make customer satisfaction to trump sales volume, not the other way around. The manufacturers will find, if they have the courage to do that, the will “have their cake and eat it too”.

Sincerely,

Earl Stewart

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Quick Reference Guide to Fine Print in Car Ads

If you look down at the bottom of virtually every car advertisement in your local newspaper, Internet or direct mail advertisements, you will see some fine print. Sometimes you literally cannot read the print because it is so small. There’s always fine print in TV advertisements too, but it’s so small and flashed on the screen so fast that it’s impossible to read. The disclaimers you read below were taken from the PB Post. I didn’t make any of these up. Basically what these disclaimers do is to totally negate the validity of all of the prices and payments the car dealers are advertising. The prices and payments are always much higher when you factor in the almost invisible fine print.

Combining a very short lease term with a high down payment: Nothing sells cars like low monthly payments. A car dealer can make a monthly lease payment as low as he wants by both reducing the number of months of the lease and increasing the down payment. I’m looking at an ad in the PB Post right now advertising an SUV for $19,999 or just $199 per month. In the fine print it says 27 month lease and $3,000 down plus a $799 dealer fee.

"Plus dealer installed options": The price you see advertised in the paper is not the full price. This loophole allows the dealer to tack on thousands of dollars in overpriced accessories to the price that was advertised.

"With approved credit": The lease payment or purchase payment you see advertised is based on someone with very, very good credit. Sometimes the ad will specify a minimum Beacon score of 750 or even 760. An almost negligible percent of people have a credit score that high. This payment gets you in the door and then they tell you your credit isn’t good enough to qualify for that payment.

"Advertised offer good on select in-stock vehicles only": Dealers often advertise just one car at a price below their cost. They don’t pay the salesman a commission if he sells that vehicle. The chances of that car being available for you to buy are “slim and none”. Even if the car was still there, the salesman would do everything in his power to sell you a different car that he could earn a commission on.

"Owner Loyalty Rebate": Manufacturers offer special cash rebates to current owners of their car. These rebates are not available to you if you don’t currently own that particular make of car. For example, if you own a Honda, and want to buy a Toyota, you don’t qualify for a Toyota loyalty rebate. That price you see advertised won’t be available.

"Conquest Rebate": The inverse of the Owner Loyalty Rebate. In this case you are required to trade in a vehicle of a different manufacturer than the dealership's. For example, if you wanted to buy a Mazda, you would be required to trade in a non-Mazda. Here's the crazy thing: many dealers indicate that they require BOTH loyalty and conquest rebates in the fine print! How is that possible?

"Price …plus, tax, tag, and fees": The red flag word here is “fees”. The fees these dealers refer to is a “dealer fee” which is synonymous for dealer profit. Most people think it’s a federal or state tax of some kind. It’s nothing more than more money for the dealer that is not disclosed in the price of the car.

"Offers expire date of publication or may be cancelled at any time without notice": This simply means that the prices, payments, etc. you have read have no validity whatsoever. The prices are not good tomorrow, but they aren’t even any good today because the dealer can cancel the offer without notice.

"Not responsible for typographical errors": This is just one more way for a dealer to explain why they can’t sell you the car for the advertised price…We don’t have to honor that price because it was a “typographical error”.

"Vehicle Art for illustrations only": This means that that car you are looking at with the really great looking wheels might not have those wheels on the one you buy. Or, maybe it doesn’t even have that sunroof you see in the picture.

"Minimum trade based on dealer list price": The dealer list price is not the same thing as the manufacturer’s suggest price. Dealers add markups to the Monroney label also known as MSRP or manufacturer’s suggested retail price. They label this markup (often on a sticker designed to imitate the official federal Monroney label). Dealer markups of $3,000 and much more are common on such “counterfeit Monroney” labels. In this case, the dealer has marked up the MSRP far enough so that he can offer a minimum $10,000 trade-in allowance.

My advice to you is to ignore all car dealers’ advertising. Most car ads are designed to “get you in the door” so that they can sell you some other car than the one advertised so that they can make more money. If you must respond to a dealer’s advertisement, please be sure you break out your magnifying glass and carefully read the fine print.

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Open Letter to Florida Car Dealers IV

SUBJECT: DON’T UNDERESTIMATE YOUR CUSTOMERS' IQ

Dear Florida car dealer, this is the 4th letter I’ve written to you. The first asked you to stop charging your “dealer fee” on top of the price you quote your customers. The second asked you to advertise cars at a price you were willing to sell the car for and have an ample supply of. The 3rd asked you to accept the responsibility, and not blame others, for the fact that car dealers have a terrible reputation comparable to politicians and lawyers.

I’m looking at a used car ad about a special one-day sale in the newspaper that, by the time you read this column, will have taken place.

Here are some of the claims in this car ad:

Claim: The dealer is forced to sell used cars for $9 because he is overstocked.
     
Fact: If a car dealer was overstocked with used cars he would not sell them below his cost and no used car costs as little as $9. A car dealer can sell a junk car that won’t even run for $150 just for the scrap metal.

Claim: We can afford to sell used cars for $9 because we are a large volume dealer.

Fact: No matter how large a dealer is, he cannot afford to sell his product below its cost.

Claim: You are asked to pick out the used car you want and then “sit behind the wheel”. Only then will you be given  the discounted price.

Fact: This is a tactic invented by a promoter who charges dealers to put on these sales. This tactic is meant to instill irrational excitement in the mind of the potential buyers. The promoter will have a fast-talking pitchman with a bull horn trying to whip everybody into a buying frenzy. He goes from car to car “ripping” the old price sticker off and showing the new price. One thing that keeps people sitting behind the wheel of their chosen car is the hope that it is a $9 car.

Claim: The General Manager of this dealership states, “I mean, a quality used car for as low as $9? That’s irresistible!”

Fact: There is no such thing as a quality used car for $9. You would be lucky to find one for as little as $5,000.

Claim: “After 1PM Saturday, all cars will return to their usual prices.

Fact: You can buy any used car from that dealer (except the two $9 cars) for the same price that they were advertised for in that sale.

You know that all the claims in this car ad are false and so does virtually everybody that reads this column. Unfortunately there is a minority of car buyers who are unable to pick up on this deception. These are the buyers who will flock to this kind of a sale. I know what I’m talking about because I put on this very kind of sale many years ago. I’m not proud of this. We had overflow crowds, people actually arguing over who could sit behind the wheel of the car to find out what the discount would be. We would sometimes sell 50 or more used cars during the one day of this type of sale...More than we would normally sell in 2 weeks. The people who flock to these sales are the very young, the uneducated, minorities who have difficulty with English, widows or others who have never bought a car before, and generally those most vulnerable member of our society.

So, you say. If these sales are so successful, why do you warn me not to “underestimate the IQ of my customers”? Here’s why. Far more people read your ad than the poor souls who succumb to your deception. For every person who fell for your ad, there are probably ten people who read your ad and understood how misleading it was. How many of those will you ever sell a car to? What does an ad like that do for the image of car dealers in our community? Ads like these and the sales practices encountered by those who are fooled by these ads make a car salesman the butt of as many jokes as you hear about lawyers and politicians.

I don’t ask you to stop running these kinds of ads out of the “goodness of your heart”. I am asking you because it’s simply good business. Your image is important and the only reason you are doing OK now is that most other car dealers don’t offer a better alternative. But, as Bob Dylan said, “The Times, They Are a Changin’”.

Sincerely,

Earl Stewart


Cc: Pam Bondi
Warren Buffet
Ted Smith
Adam Putnam
Jeff Atwater
Rick Scott
Andy Gardiner
Steve Crisafulli

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Open Letter to Florida Car Dealers III

Subject: We Have Met the Enemy & He is Us! 

 

Dear Florida car dealer, even if you weren’t a good history student in school, you probably remember the quote from Commodore Perry from the War of 1812, “We have met the enemy and they are ours”. The satirical comic strip, Pogo, has a memorable quote satirizing Commodore Perry, “We have met the enemy and he is us”. This fits the image problem we car dealers have today. We brought it on ourselves through our devious advertising and sales practices. However, we blame everybody but us…our customers, lawyers, the media, and car dealers like me who dare to speak the truth.

This is the 3rd letter I have written to Florida car dealers in my weekly column. The first asked you to stop charging your “dealer fee” on top of the price you quote your customers. The second asked you to advertise cars at a price you were willing to sell the car for and have an ample supply of. In both letters I made the point that there is a minority of car dealers like me who do not charge dealer fees or resort to “bait and switch” ads. I also confessed that I used to be one of those dealers that I am writing about today. I did charge a dealer fee once and I did advertise cars that I hoped the customer would not buy.

At the end of each letter, I asked that you call or email me to discuss my letter. So far, I have received no phone calls and the only emails blame me and others like me, for the negative image that car dealers have in our society. Here is an example of the emails I have received from dealers: 

“I read your sanctimonious babble in today’s paper and you are correct in assuming your comments will garner the attention of other dealers. It is comments like the ones you made that keep public opinion of our chosen profession in the doldrums. Like it or not we’re together in this battle and your “holier than thou” claim will only fuel the fire. Want to show the world your true compassion? Donate 20% or more of you net profit to charity then you’ll truly be the “great guy” you aspire to be.”

We can see this sort of “shoot the messenger” attitude with our politicians who blame the media for their negative image. It always amazes me to hear Republicans accuse the media of left wing bias and the Democrats blame the same media for a right wing bias. Sure there is bias in the media just like there is some bias in all of us. But, when your image in the eyes of the American public is as bad as that of politicians and car dealers, how can you not understand that there is a problem? The only profession I can think of that ranks as low in the public esteem is that of lawyers. 

If you will call or email me to discuss my position in an open minded manner, I think you will be surprised and happy that you did. My business has grown steadily since I began to really understand that satisfying and respecting my customers was the most important single ingredient for my overall success. I’m certainly not making the claim that my way of doing business is the only path to success. I know a lot of car dealers who sell more cars and make more money than I do who do not take my approach with their customers. You can “fool some of the people all of the time”. However, that minority that can be fooled all of the time is shrinking daily as our customers become more educated and sophisticated. One day soon, there won’t be enough of them to go around and the majority of car buyers will be doing business with guys like me. 

Sincerely,


Earl Stewart

Cc: Pam Bondi
Warren Buffet
Ted Smith
Adam Putnam
Jeff Atwater
Rick Scott
Andy Gardiner
Steve Crisafulli

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Open Letter to Florida Car Dealers Part II

 SUBJECT: STOP BAIT & SWITCH ADVERTISING

Dear fellow car dealer, in case you missed my last letter to you on “dealer fees”, you can find it on my blog just by clicking here Open Letter to Florida Car Dealers

The subject of this letter is the ads most car dealers run which are designed to motivate prospective car buyers to come into their dealerships believing that they can buy or lease a vehicle for less than they really can. These ads appear in newspapers, direct-mail, TV, radio, and the Internet. If you are one of the few car dealers who do not do this, I know you will enjoy reading this column and agree with me.

One of the most common lures is advertising the new vehicle below your cost. You spend thousands of dollars advertising monthly and consider losing a little money on one or two cars as part of your advertising budget. The problem is that you deliberately limit the number of cars you will sell at this price and you do this in a deceptive manner.

One way this is done is to show a stock number next to the price of the car. This translates into there being only one car available at that price. Another technique is to use the phrase “other cars available at similar savings”. First of all, how do you define “similar”? Secondly, Florida law requires that you include “dealer fees” in all advertised prices, but not in cars that are sold for “similar savings”. Adding back that dealer fee can turn a “loss leader” back into a profit.

Another trick is to show huge discounts from “list” when list is defined in the fine print as including “dealer installed” options. By simply marking up whatever options you choose to install on an advertised car, you can generate as much markup as you like.

Bait and switch is also aimed at monthly payments. By disclosing in the fine print that a very, very high credit score is required to qualify for an advertised low payment, lease or purchase, you limit the possible buyers that can qualify to a very small percentage of the population. The vast majority that cannot qualify ends up with a much higher payment and higher profit to you.

A favorite deception is to advertise very large “minimum trade-in allowances”. I have seen trade-in “minimums” as high as $15,000. These ads are clearly aimed at prospects from the lower economic strata that are currently driving older cars and may be less sophisticated and informed buyers. A smart buyer knows that you cannot possibly allow someone $15,000 on a trade-in worth $250 unless you make back that deficit in additional markup on the car you are selling.

Another deception aimed at the lower economic, less educated portion of our society is the “no credit, no problem” ad. Having bad credit or no credit most definitely is a problem. It might not be a problem for you but it is for the person with the bad credit and it is for the bank that will refuse to finance that person. Another version of this trick is “no credit application refused”. A sophisticated buyer knows that all you are saying is that you will allow anyone to fill out a credit application and you might even agree to submit it to a lender. But you are not telling him that her credit application will be refused if her credit is too bad or not sufficient.

There are other examples that I could cite and there will be new ways that many dealers will come up with to lure buyers into their dealerships. As I said in my last letter, I am asking you to voluntarily stop this form of advertising before the regulators make you stop. I am not suggesting what you are doing is illegal, but I am saying that it is not right. I am also saying that it is bad business. If I can’t get your attention by asking you to treat your customers with respect and consideration, how about if I tell you that you can sell more cars and make more money if you do?

You are successful in luring lots and lots of people into your dealership, but you sell only a small portion of these people cars. Those you don’t sell are probably angry at you when they learn they cannot buy the car for the price they believed. Even the ones you do sell may be angry because they had to pay you more money than they wanted. Unhappy customers don’t come back and they tell their friends. You have to spend more and more on advertising because your repeat and referral business is so bad. This is not good for your bottom line and your manufacturer is probably “on your back” because your customer satisfaction rating is so low.

If you would like to discuss this with me, please call or email me. My numbers and addresses are below.

Sincerely,

Earl Stewart

Cc: Pam Bondi
Warren Buffet
Ted Smith
Adam Putnam
Jeff Atwater
Rick Scott
Andy Gardiner
Steve Crisafulli

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Open Letter to Car Dealers

SUBJECT: ELIMINATE THE DEALER FEE

Dear fellow Florida car dealer,

I started in the retail auto business in 1968, almost a half-century ago, and I have seen a lot of changes in the way we dealers sell cars and the expectations of our customers. My remarks in this column are made sincerely and with a positive intent toward you and your customers. I am not trying to tell you how to run your business; I am suggesting a change that will reward both you and your customers.

Virtually every car dealer in Florida adds a charge to the price of the cars he sells, variously referred to as a “dealer fee”, “documentary fee”, “dealer prep fee”, “electronic filing fee”, etc. This extra charge is printed on your buyer’s orders and is programmed into your computers. It has been capped, typically below $100, in most states but Florida allows you to charge as much as you can “get away with.” You charge this fee to every customer and it ranges from a few hundred dollars to THOUSANDS. In South Florida the average dealer fee is about $1,000. Your attorney probably advises you that if you charge a dealer fee to any customer, you should charge all customers, but that is to avoid lawsuits against discrimination. THERE IS NO LAW requiring that you charge all customers a dealer fee. Florida law does require that you disclose, in writing on the buyer’s order. that this charge represents profit to the dealer. Florida law also requires that you include this fee in all advertised prices. You don’t always do this and you get around the law by limiting the number of advertised vehicles (as few as one).

The argument that I hear from most car dealers when I raise this issue is that the dealer fee is fully disclosed to the buyer on his buyer’s order. But, most car buyers are totally unaware that they are paying this. Who reads all of the voluminous paperwork associated with buying a car? The few who notice it assume it is an “official” fee like state sales tax or license and registration fee. Those few astute buyers who do question the fee are told that your dealership must charge this fee on very car, which would not be true if you were to make the decision to not charge the dealer fee to anyone. You could easily avoid charges of discrimination by simply reducing your selling price by the amount of your dealer fee. These astute buyers are also told that all other car dealers charge similar fees. This is almost true, but, as you know, my dealership does not.

The reason you charge this fee is simply to increase the price of the car and your profit in such a manner that it is NOT NOTICED BY YOUR CUSTOMER. This is just plain wrong. Dealers will admit this to me in private conversations and some will admit that they have considered eliminating the fee as I have, but are afraid of the drastic effect to their bottom line. By being able to count on an extra $999 in profit that the customer is not aware of or believes is an “official fee”, you can actually quote a price below cost and end up making a profit. Or, if the price you quote the customer does pay you a nice profit, you can increase that by several hundred dollars.

This “extra, unseen” profit is even better for you because you don’t pay your salesmen a commission on it. That’s being UNFAIR TO YOUR EMPLOYEES AS WELL AS YOUR CUSTOMERS. When the rare, astute buyer objects to the dealer fee, you should decrease the quoted price of the car by the amount of the dealer fee. This would have the same net effect of removing it. The salesman will argue against this because he will lose his commission (typically 25%) on the decrease in his commissionable gross profit. When you’re talking about cutting a salesman’s commission by 25%, he can come up with all sorts of “creative” reasons that the dealership MUST charge the dealer fee. 

If you don’t know me, I should tell you that I don’t profess to be some “holier than thou” car dealer who was always perfect. Although, I never did anything illegal, when I look at some of my advertising and sales tactics 20+ years ago and more, I am not always proud. But, I have evolved as my customers have evolved. My customers’ expectations, level of education, and sophistication are much higher today. Your customers are no different. As I began treating my customers, and employees, better I discovered that they began treating me better. Yes, I used to charge a dealer fee ($495), and when I stopped charging it a few years ago, it was scary. But I did it because I could no longer, in good conscious, mislead my customers. Just because everybody else was doing the same thing did not make it right.

Now here is the good news. My profit per car did drop by about the amount of the dealer fee when I stopped charging it. But, when my customers realized that I was now giving them a fair shake and quoting the complete out-the-door price with no “surprises” the word spread. My volume began to rise rapidly. Sure, I was making a few hundred dollars less per car, but I was selling a lot more cars! I was, and am, selling a lot of your former customers. My bottom line is far better than it was when I was charging a dealer fee. You can do the same!

Why am I writing this letter? I’m not going to tell you that I think of myself as the new Sheriff that has come to “clean up Dodge”. In fact, I am well aware that this letter is to some extent self-serving. Lots of people will read this letter to you and learn why they should buy a car from me, not you. And, I am also aware that most dealers who read this will either get angry and ignore it or not have the courage to follow my lead. But maybe you will be the exception. If you have any interest in following my lead, call me anytime. I don’t have a secretary and I don’t screen any of my phone calls. I would love to chat with you about this.

Sincerely, 

Earl Stewart

Cc: Pam Bondi
      Warren Buffet
      Ted Smith
      Adam Putnam
      Jeff Atwater
      Rick Scott
      Andy Gardiner
      Steve Crisafulli

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The Gap Between Educated and Uneducated Car Buyers

We read a lot about “gaps" in our society. There are wealth/income, achievement, health, education, morality, employment and many more gaps. The current focus seems to be on the widening wealth gap. The very wealthy are getting richer and the middle class net worth is static or declining. I truly believe that most, if not all, of these gaps can be traced back to education. I’m not going to write an article on why education should be given a higher priority than it is; however I do believe that this problem is not being addressed adequately in our country and I do believe it’s one of the most serious problems we face. 

My “thing” is cars and advising you on how to buy, lease, service, and repair your car without being taken advantage of by your local car dealer. I do that with this column/blog, my radio show, “Earl Stewart on Cars” (Every Tuesday and Sunday from 4-6pm on 900 AM The Talk; stream it on www.900TheTalk.com. I also speak before groups such as Kiwanis, Rotary, public libraries, women and men’s clubs, schools, computer clubs, etc. If you are a member of a group in the South Florida, area, just give me a call. I wrote a book on how to buy and service your car entitled “Confessions of a Recovering Car Dealer.” You can buy it on Amazon and 100% of the proceeds go to charity. 

Because I’m totally accessible to the public (my personal cell phone number is 561 358-1474), I hear all of the stories of how car buyers are taken advantage of by car dealers. I have to say that there are good car dealers out there, more than there were 20 years ago, but there are more car dealers that do business the wrong way than the right way. Listening to these stories by victims of car dealers is one of the main things that motivate me to do what I do. Three of the most frequent complaints I hear are “I paid way too much money for the car, way too high interest on the financing, or got way to little an allowance for my trade-in.” 

There is one thing that sets buying a car apart from almost every other product you buy. That is that everybody pays a different price for the same car, gets a different trade-in allowance for the same car, and pays a different interest rate to finance the same amount of money. That means that if you were to buy a Ford F150 pickup truck today and your next door neighbor bought an identical truck tomorrow from the same dealer, the chances are that your neighbor would pay substantially more or less than you. The price difference could easily be thousands of dollars. 

What determines who gets the lower price and who gets the higher one? It has nothing to do with your race, sex, age, religion, or income; although there are studies that allege this is true, when you drill down in these studies you will learn that the underlying common denominator is “education”.

When you buy or lease a car, you are playing a game for money with the salesman and his manager. Both of them are paid a percentage of the profit they can make on the car they sell you. The higher the price they can convince you to pay, the higher their commissions are. The salesman and manager are professionals and you’re an amateur. They do this many times every day but you buy only one car every 4 or 5 years. They hold most of the good the cards in this game. They know the true cost of their car, the cash incentives to you from the manufacturer, but more importantly the secret cash incentives to the dealer. They are highly skilled negotiators and masters of psychology in winning your trust. Likability is one of the most important attributes of a good car salesman. When he looks you in the eye and says, “This is as good a price as I would give my own mother”, you want to believe him. 

The educated car buyer that has done his homework by reading Consumer Reports, www.TrueCar.com, www.KBB.com, www.Edmunds.com, and other very good sources of Internet information on buying cars can win this high stakes game. Those who do not educate themselves, take their time in the car buying process, and get competitive bids from different dealers will end up paying a lot more money. In almost any car dealership the profit on a vehicle can vary from as little as a few hundred dollars to several thousand dollars. You want to be the savvy buyer that will save thousands of dollars. I’ll leave you with one thought which will save you money in your next car purchase…Time is on your side. The longer you take in the car-buying process, the lower the price of the car will be. Never buy a car on impulse on the first day or even the first week of car shopping. The car salesman will give you a lot of reasons not to do this, but they are untrue.

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