Prelude to a Lesson

There’s a lot that goes on behind the scenes at a car dealership and the front line sales people are usually completely in the dark by design. Occasionally, the sales guys find out how they are getting screwed and the realization of how things really work becomes obvious. I never agreed with what happened this one time and I never will.

I worked a car deal at the Buick dealership. Some folks were buying a new Regal and trading in their beautiful Prelude. This was back when Hondas were the hottest thing on the market. No one had any in stock and they were taking non-refundable deposits to get one. And this Honda I was taking in was low miles and a diamond plus. And, no one knew, but I had a friend who wanted a Prelude in the worst way.

We did the deal and the next day I called my friend and told her I had the perfect car for her and described it to her, told her how nice it was, low miles, shiny, shiny silver paint, new tires, and just perfect. She was excited but hesitant because she only had $7K to spend. We took the car in trade for $3200 and probably didn’t spend more than a couple hundred in the shop. I told her I thought we could get her out the door for her number but hurry up before all the salesmen saw it.

She came in an hour later. She was licking the paint off the car so we wrote it up. She offered the seven grand she had, and I figured we had a really nice deal. I was going to double-end a really nice deal.

The desk penciled the deal for a lot more money. I just figured they were doing the regular go-for-the-bump deal. So I took it back. She was crestfallen. I thought she was gonna cry. I calmed her down and found out she really didn’t have any more money. She was not financable, (she didn’t have a job) and wouldn’t even consider any kind of pick up payments or any kind of financing. So I took the write up back and told the desk that seven grand was all we had.

The desk penciled her one more time for close to nine grand out the door. Now I was puzzled. Deals never worked like that. We had a minimum of three grand made at her seven thousand offer, but the desk wasn’t budging. I questioned the desk man why he was penciling her so hard and let him know that I knew what we took it in trade for because it was my deal, in case he’d forgotten.

He ignored my pleas and told me to get more money or let her go. I was flabbergasted. I went back to her and told her. She did start crying then. I tried everything to get any kind of bump. I offered for her to make payments on the balance, interest free or a one pay for a year, everything I could think of just to get a little bump, thinking they might let me sell it if I got something more. She finally agreed to pay us a hundred a month for five months which was a bump. But it took me a long time to get that. We’d been working the deal for a couple of hours by then. She was getting tired of it and I was way over it all, and I knew this was either a deal or we had to let her go.

I was confused. We should have had a big deal, but I thought maybe the shop found something major we had to fix so I went and talked to the service manager. He was a friend, (well, a couple other sales guys and I always bought him a case of beer on special days, so he was a “bought” friend; a tip for all you sales guys) and he told me they only changed the oil and we hadn’t even detailed the car, so I was at a total loss about why my boss would not sell the car to my friend.

I went to desk and pleaded my case again. My boss showed me the folder with our cost of the car and it was almost six thousand. I got hot. I told him I personally took it in trade and we paid thirty-five hundred for it, and I told him I knew we didn’t spend any money on it. I back-handedly told him I thought he was ripping me off, and started to wonder about all the deals I had done there and whether this was a regular occurrence.

But I could tell he was flustered too. He went to the administration office and came back after a few minutes. He told me he was gonna let me sell the Prelude to my friend for the seventy-five hundred, but it was going to be a small commission. He told me he was really sorry that it was happening that way, but apparently, the used car manager had taken money from some cars we were buried in and put it into the Prelude. It took me a while until I figured out how that works. The used car manager used my trade, my double- ended deal, and my customers to fix his mistakes.

I sold the Prelude to my friend and she was happy, I got my itty bitty commission voucher and a spiff for double-ending the deal, and my boss gave me a house deal the next month so I was sort of happy. But selling a car for double what I took it in trade for would have felt a whole lot better.