Originally Posted by Hemi 007
Well the dealerships seem to have forgot what dealer incentives are.
Here I go...
the factory has squeezed margins to a point where huge discounts are not as easy to come by. aside from pickup trucks, the markup on a vehicle is very slim.
caliber may have a $500 - $1000 markup and a $600 hold back.
a 2009 srt-8 challenger has about a $2600 markup and around a $1400 hold back. that is a $4000 profit on a $45,000 vehicle - in round numbers. not even 10% margin on a performance vehicle that even the factory won't put a rebate on. this vehicle is not primary basic transportation. if you want one at a lower price, you have every right to shop around.
people sell the nintendo wii on ebay for huge markups - i wonder if people are telling nintendo they should do something about that? i didn't - i had to buy my wii setup off of ebay because the retailers DIDN'T mark them up. the price at the register is lower than the market value, so people buy at a retailer and then resell for a profit and there are none in my area to purchase at a store. now if best buy would have marked the thing up to the point that the potential markup by a reseller would put the item out of its market value, then i would have bought it from the bricks and mortar.
i guess it just miffs me that because someone sells a product for what the market is willing to pay, they are called greedy. we live in a capitalist society. if we were charging too much for a vehicle, then we would have 9 Challengers sitting on our showroom right now. We have one that is still here - only because the buyer is out of town.
i also wonder if any of you who see dealerships as greedy benefitted from the housing market? when your "greedy" neighbors were selling houses for tens of thousands more than they were worth thus raising the price of your house by no other means that people were willing to pay more money for something?
the only difference is that the auto industry has the gov't mandated window stickers and houses don't.
well end of rant as i need to go sell another car at my "greedy" dealership
PS - i sell many vehicles and make great deals for people every day - please do not think i am in this to "rip someone's head off" -
