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Archive for the 'Fun At Auction Direct USA' Category
People tend to avoid painful things: Root canals…Tax audits…Birthday parties with clowns.
Add the traditional car dealer’s Four-Square worksheet to your personal list of things to avoid.
What’s the Four-Square? This is the car dealership’s mind-control tool. Car salesman are “encouraged” to use the Four-Square worksheet to completely scramble your cognitive reasoning and negotiating abilities. If you have ever been subjected to the Four-Square, you already know it’s crippling power.
Here’s the deal…before you begin price negotiations, your salesperson will fumble through an unorganized mess and produce an innocent looking piece of paper. On it, a simple T-grid, creating “Four Squares.” Easy enough? Hardly.
The salesman adds the vehicle info to the sheet: year, make, model & vague customer info. His handwriting puts your Doctor’s to shame.
Next, he makes a simply absurd request: “Please initial here - this indicates that you’ll buy today if we can see eye to eye on the final price.” [Huh?]
Just about everyone complies and add their initials. You get the same feeling when you buy a scratch-off lottery ticket. You hope to get lucky, but deep down you know the effort will be wasted.
By getting your initials, the salesperson now has permission to enter the office reserved only for managers. They perk up knowing someone is in the cross-hairs. Managers determine the price you’ll pay; the salesperson is merely a paper courier.
After a few minutes your salesperson returns with a few numbers, words and symbols strategically arraigned on the grid. Looks like a math test that you didn’t prepare for in college. Don’t try to grasp its complexities. Google’s sophisticated search algorithm is still stumped by the Four Square.
Then, you’ll get a quick breakdown. It begins with how much they’ll give you for your trade. And no, you probably won’t be pleased with the number.
Oblivious to your visible agitation, the salesperson shoots to the top right square and tells you the price of the car. Suddenly, you’re distracted enough to forget about the fact you were getting heated over the price of your trade. You may try to do simple math - subtracting your trade from the price quoted - but confusion sets in and your math skills are sub-par at best.
Suddenly, the next square’s value is thrown at you. This is your down payment. It’ll probably be somewhere between how much you paid for your first car and the federal deficit. You try to maintain composure. Before the impact of that number sets in, the last square caps it all off. Your monthly payment. This is also the exact moment when blood begins to boil.
Every once in a (great) while, the salesperson gets an easy layup and the customer agrees.
This is where the shell game begins. You’ll tell him you don’t like what you see in either the down payment or your trade-in value. They may try to convince you why your used car is worth less than a rickshaw or try to diffuse the down payment objection.
Next question: What down payment are you more comfortable with? He’ll cross out the original number and replace it with your new down payment. For good measure, he might sympathize with you and tell you something like how his managers always pad the numbers to boost their bonus and they can afford to come down a bit. Now he’s on your side.
But, he warns how a lower down payment could increase the monthly payment. Crap, didn’t see that coming. He may have a solution though. Maybe he can persuade his manager to give you more for your trade. Yes, there is hope. (No, there isn’t)
Amid the confusion, he may ask you for the down payment check. You’re told this shows the managers your commitment and helps them make a better deal. He’ll also ask you to initial the work sheet agreeing to the deal. More control tactics.
TIP: Stayed focused on the price of the car. That’s all that matters.
They will tell you the down payment is good. But, the monthly payment is an issue. If the trade-in value is still a deal breaker, quickly drawn X’s, smiley-faces and dark, thick ink will mask the extra changes made to the purchase price, down payment and/or the monthly payment.
TIP: Stay alert for the simple questions they lob out - they want to get as many YES answers out of you as possible.
The negotiations continue until they either break you down into agreement or you walk out in frustration.
How do you avoid the Four Square? Remove one or more of the elements used to confuse you; tell them you don’t have a trade-in or tell them you don’t need financing. Tell them you are only interested in the vehicle’s final price. You may not avoid all of the negotiations but you might be lucky enough to avoid the wrath of the Four Square worksheet.
The best solution? A used cars dealership offering low/discount fixed pricing with no haggling required to get the best deal possible.
Have you ever experienced the Four Square? Share your story…
If I had to imagine God parking his car in front of the Gates - this would be his choice.
MODEL: Mercedes-Benz SL600
ENGINE: 5.5-liter V12
HORSEPOWER/TORQUE: 493 hp @ 5.000 rpm/590 lb.-ft. @ 1,800-3,500 rpm
TRANSMISSION: 5-speed automatic
WHEELBASE: 100.8 in.
LENGTH x WIDTH x HEIGHT: 178.5 x 71.5 x 51.0 in.
TIRES: 255/40WR18 front, 285/35WR18 rear
CARGO: 10.2 cu.ft.
ECONOMY: 13 mpg city/19 mpg highway/12.8 mpg test
PRICE: $137,640 {That’s for a NEW one}
Here’s one of the best example of our blog’s name-sake: Why Buy Used Cars?
This is why: Fork over 140 Large - OR - pay 50% of that amount on a two year old, like-new model with only 8k miles.
Tough call.
This has to be on of the most refined, and powerful, rear-wheel drive car paired up with an automatic transmission. If you didn’t already feel important, you will as soon as you slide into the soft leather seats and press the Keyless-Go ignition.
Initial engine grumble will startle you while getting the attention of anyone else who hasn’t already noticed this silver sculpture on wheels. If you have any initial nervousness of actually driving it - you’ll get over it in roughly 4 seconds because you’ll find yourself doing 60mph+.
Active Body Control keeps the car super-flat around sharp turns; the ride is just as smooth as the soft leather you’re sitting on. The steering isn’t as tight as other Italian exotics; the Germans left it loose enough for anyone to handle. (If you felt inclined to buy one for your wife.)
Just about anything you can image is outfitted in the SL600: navigation, dual-zone climate control, integrated cell phone, automatic roll-bar, windscreen, HID lights and stability control.
And just think, with the savings you could hook up four of your closest friends with an ‘05 Chevy Equinox.
Imagine crusing down an enourmous hill, three inches off the ground at 35MPH in a car you built…and being only 13 years old.
Calm. Cool. Collected.
Just a normal day at the office for Alex Hoagey, an 8th grader from Webster, NY. He’s been tearing up the courses for over three years now.
In fact, this year marked the third year Alex qualified, and raced, in the All-American Soap Box Derby Championship, held last week in Akron, OH. He made it there with his recent victory in the Stock West category of the regional qualifiers.
“To go three times is such a great honor.” Said Alex.
Not just an honor - an impressive feat reaching the highest level of competition in your sport…three times in a row.
Congrats - keep driving fast and keep having fun!
We just couldn’t wait…the Auction Direct USA Super-Ad Contest is back!
A few month’s ago, we ran a contest asking people like you to make their own used car commercial. First prize - $5,000. Congrats to Eric Pratt, of Rochester NY, the winner of the 1st Super Ad Contest.
The videos starting pouring in right away. (I knew someone would take a shot at the other guys in town.)
This is one of my favorites…the guy on the left is great!
Our second contest is for the Atlanta market. So break out your best creative and send it over.
Good luck!
It’s a rare site to see: Used car dealererships actually having fun. And how about this - having fun with their customers!
Take a look at the fun Auction Direct USA had with some a ton of their customers. Fun, food and prizes…
If you aren’t having this much fun where you buy cars, then you need to visit one of the Auction Direct stores.