Ethics vs. A Car Now...

guys i may be in the minority(again) but its the law of supply and demand. im NOT going to pay over list but if you want to there is nothing wrong with it, unless the dealer is scratching off someone elses name who put a legitmate deposit down for a agreed upon price. if youv ever wowned a new harley you know that the price can really vary. for me my dealership beamnan toyota will not sell over MSRP.
fred in nashville

 

I'm waiting for the '05 model to come out, but now I'm feeling guilty after reading efusco's post about all those poor people on the waiting lists. Now I'm thinking about waiting for the '06 just so someone else can have my '05 model. I mean, my '03 Matrix is still working fine....of course it does have that rock chip that really bums out my commute. :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen:

Atoyot

 

I just bought a #4 Prius 9 days ago for $1,000 over MSRP. A 2 weeks ago I totaled out my '00 Honda Civic. The insurance company just paid it off so I was looking to get into something quick (since I commute 80 miles round trip to work & back). I stopped into a Toyota dealership last Tuesday & the sales rep said they did not have a Prius for sale. I received a call 3 days later that Friday & he said they could sell me a #4 & quoted me $1,500 over MSRP. Of course I agreed because I really liked the car & I needed something quick. By the time I drove off with it they knocked $500 off the price, which meant I paid $1,000 over MSRP. If I didn't need something right away, I would have waited. But I didnt want to buy something & get rid of it 6 months later. For me it was worth the extra $$$. Now I am getting 50 MPG to & from work. I love the Prius. If I were you, I would wait & save the $1,000 unless you really need to get into a car.

 

If nobody on the deposit list should get that car then there's no harm buying it.

And I think we all agree that if the dealer is not honoring their deposit list order, then that dealer is not engaging in fair trade practices. I personally believe it's important to vote for what I believe in with my purchasing dollars, and since the car is one of the biggest "votes" I have, I want to use it well. That's partly why I'm buying a Prius, to vote with my dollars for cleaner emissions and less foreign oil dependence.

So perhaps one of the best things you could do is to make it explicit to the dealer that you will only buy if you're not leapfrogging someone else's order. Tell them that you want to see their order list, and go down it and see if there's anyone who's waiting for this particular color/options. If not, you're golden. Yeah, the dealer could have doctored the list they shared but even if they do that, you have voted with your dollars, showing the dealer that there are customers who care more about integrity than scamming the best terms.

Of course you have to be careful because dealers can use integrity against you, i.e. "You took my time showing you the car so you are obligated to pay the price I ask or else you will have stolen my time." So you have to be careful.

I think that car salespeople are justifiably a pretty cynical lot of people, just because they deal with a wide variety of people and probably run into a fair share of unethical customers. So they project the most unethical customer stereotype onto everyone who walks in the doors. Just like we tend to project the "unethical salesperson" stereotype onto them.

Doing something like refusing to buy a car because it's been promised to someone else is a great way to show them there are ethical people out there.

On the other hand, I don't think you have a responsibility to check up on the ethics of the dealer. I'm sure I've bought clothes made in slave sweatshops just because I didn't have the inclination to investigate my clothing's origins fully. So if you don't want to look into it and just want to complete a transaction, that's completely fair.