Comments on: Clay Car Dealerships: We Hide Nothing*

By: LENNY THE RAT

LENNY THE RAT — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 23:31:29 +0000

THIS ADV. WAS DONE IN THE BEST OF TASTE. THE NAKED TRUTH………
LONG LIVE CLAY DEALERSHIPS. BRAVO……….BRAVEO

By: Insurance Saper

Insurance Saper — Mon, 12 May 2008 00:38:03 +0000

Its no accident that car dealerships have gotten the reputation that they have “earned” and so rightly
deserve
If you can believe any of the ads – then you are living in alice in wonderland
Most people only buy cars when theirs breaks down or become unreliable – so they are sitting ducks in a not so good negotiating position
Even with internet car sales departments it is just another means of getting prospects in the door
Overall its a numbers game

By: Mae

Mae — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 21:11:10 +0000

I came to the site to see if I could get information as to which government agency regulates car dealerships. How do these guys get away with all of this stuff?! Who is in control of the business practices of car dealers public and private taking advantage of innocent, uninformed consumers, like me.

Edgar replies: Mae, consumer complaints about car dealers are generally filed at your state Attorney General’s office, the consumer protection division.

By: RS

RS — Sun, 06 May 2007 20:07:57 +0000

It seems that we need to do away with any fine print related to price.

And the price must be listed next to the product being sold (unlike above where it’s at the botom of the ad and the picture is at the top…they could have used mor fine print to indicate that the car shown is not the one being advertised at that price.

The only exception I would allow is price because our US system allows tax at the city level, county level, state level and national level so they can add “+tax” and leave that to be determined by government regulation.

Fees? Nope…gotta include that in the price, or at least show an itemized list of fees and who gets charged those fees.

By: Jasper

Jasper — Wed, 02 May 2007 13:45:28 +0000

The problem with pricing is more complex than just this. Compared to e.g. Europe, Russia and Japan, Americans give themselves a really hard time because they allow taxes and fees not to be included in the “price”. When you shop in Europe, Japan or Russia, the price equals the amount of money you hand over to take the product home. Taxes and fees are not the problem of the customer, they are the problem of the vendor.

Having been in Europe a lot and having experienced the ease of their system, I keep being surprised that Americans are willing to deal with the hassle of all these different sales taxes and other fees that are added when leaving the store. It is virtually impossible to understand as a customer what taxes and fees will apply. Even a simple trip to the supermarket is horribly confusing. Different sales tax rates apply for food, drug and alcohol products. And if you live near a state border, it gets al the more confusing because the next state has a complete set of different rules, making comparing prices even harder.

In all, when you shop and watch the prices in a store, adding those numbers is useless, because some semi-random amount will be added to the total anyway. I believe that this practise is at the root of all evil here.