the ford dealer told me that they only make about $200 on each super duty sale,

Is this true?

I said how do you stay in business ? he said service.

 

Only if they sell it at invoice minus rebates and holdback.

 

Car salesman, lawyers, politicians, they all lie.

 

He is likely speaking of his commission.

 

At the dealership I worked at, a sales manager went into the holdback to make a deal happen once. He was never heard from again.

$200 dollar is probably the minimum commission to the salesman, like ArmyRET said above.

 

Depends on what he's talking about. The profit margin for new car sales is really low for most brands, typically only a couple percent at most. He may be speaking of the actual profit to the organization after all business overhead, salary, commissions, and other expenses are paid.

Dealers go bankrupt every day, and this certainly wouldn't be true if they were making the thousands per sale that everyone thinks they make. Competition is tough, and profit margins are razor thin.

 

what is holdback ? interesting all different answers,its like the Bigfoot mystery! lol.

 

I've heard the same thing over and over. I don't believe it. Of coarse it's an uneducated opinion because I don't have any facts.

There's too much overhead to run a dealership on service alone. $200 bucks a car won't keep the lights on let alone cover salaries, property tax, insurance etc

-Bobby

 

They called me for 3 days begging me to come buy a truck. The guy said come today and my boss will sharpen his pencil to save me big money . So i go to the dealer because they did have a truck i liked. i get there and they would not budge a dime on the price ,other than the ford discount end of year rebate.

why the deceptive bull at the dealer all the time? i know they have to make money but why jerk a guy off? just make a deal we both can live with!! dang...

 

because as Big Al said above, car salesmen are like politicians. they cannot tell the truth.

 

Dealerships pressure salesmen to make appointments and get people in the door so they can get you to buy something you aren't ready to buy. It's a giant psychological game in which the buyer actually has all of the control, whether they realize it or not. The buyer can get up and leave at any time and there isn't a thing the dealer can do about it. The dealership is only in control as long as you're sitting at the salesman's desk.

 

If you're not a strong willed person they make you feel like you can't leave. But absolutely you're in control. I remember working at a place selling fitness equipment. I'm talking top of the line stuff like $7,000-$10,000 treadmills, etc.... The sales trainer told us if we ever ran into price objections from customers to attack them with the "Well is this something you cannot afford?". I've never seen people whip out credit cards or sign up for financing faster. I can only imagine what happens at a dealership.

When I purchased my current truck the sales manager and I were toe to toe kind of yelling at each other. I couldn't believe it. He used the "Can you just not afford it?" line on me!!! Knowing that tactic I stood up, gave him a rundown of sales techniques, and then reamed him out for calling me out on such a thing. People in the other sales cubicles were turning around looking because of how loud it got. I got the truck for what I wanted but I couldn't believe how far this guy took it. The truck was sitting in the lot for 7 months (used) so I'm sure the pressure was in him to get it moved!

The other goofball things I enjoy are when the sales managers take out a business card, write some money number on it, and then say "Just for you I can do this today!". Mostly about the service plan stuff and extras. Then the poor finance guy trying sell more garbage. A friend of mine who worked at a dealer said the finance people only made money by selling that garbage along with their pitiful salary. It's all a sales game.

As for the price of cars. Used bring in much more money than new. It's a volume game with the domestic brands. You don't walk into a Ferrari dealer and see a lot with 500 Ferrari's. That's more likely a high margin sale.

 

If you can find this movie, watch it: Suckers. For the most part, it's pretty a accurate depiction of how the ultra-high pressure dealerships treat customers. It's hilarious too, especially if you've ever been in the car business.

 

Great onfo.

Would it be smart to wait till after you get financed to start trying to knock down the price? My thinking would be once they know the bank will give me the loan and they see a roll of $100 bills for a down payment. Now the ball is in my corner. The only thing stopping me from signing is the price. I am all for every one making money i just don't want to get raped.

I have bought from dealers in the past. I am trying to be smarter about it. Will

 

In a nutshell, holdback is an amount the dealer gets back from the manufacturer on each vehicle sold if they meet certain sales numbers. It's like getting an additional discount off the price on the invoice and varies by vehicle. If they miss their numbers, they're on the hook for the full amount of the invoice, and stand to lose a lot of money.