Why Don't They Post The Prices?

"If you must ask...."

[insert photo of scene from "Pretty Woman" here - I'm too cheap to buy a subscription which would enable me to post photos]

 

When I sold cars the reason we did not list prices was we wanted people to call or come to the dealership, so we could sell the car. If you give a price up front, you (as a dealer) are putting yourself behind right from the start. Also your competitors will know what your price is and they can beat it as well. I'm not sure if this is the reason everyone uses, just the one my employer used.

 

Conversion.
Converts advertising dollars into phone calls.
Convert phone call into dealer visit.
Convert dealer visit into butt in the seat.
Convert butt in the seat into cheque writing wheels over the curb happy camper.
Thanks for coming.

 

On more unique cars, I have a sense that they could be "testing" different prices out sometimes, to see what the market is like. There was one car where the asking price went up over a 3-4 week period. I saw it first hand at about $645K, then I heard it was higher, then I heard they were asking even more, at $725K. Not listing the price gave them more freedom to move the price around. But most of the time for most cars, it's just to get you to call and talk to someone.

 

I used to sell new cars and the only prices we advertised was MSR or we would advertise specials (usually one or two that were sitting on the lot too long) to bring people in. I sold Chrysler/Jeep/Dodge in Southern California and we would never give a price over the phone but would do everything to get the customer in by telling them "we will make a deal that you will be happy with" not overly suggesting that we would give any discount.

The bottom line is you wanted them in the store. If you get them in the store than you have a much higher chance of getting them in the car. You get them in the car and ask questions that should get a yes answer and if you get 3 or more than you go for the kill .

The same would apply to an exotic car dealership.

Alexander

 

I asked the same question to a dealer, actually a sponsor here. I noticed he used to post prices and then stopped so I asked him why. He said his calls picked up dramatically as soon as he stopped posting prices. I think if you're in sales, which I am, you want the opportunity to speak with someone about your product. By increasing the calls you increase your chances of making that sale.

 

If you're talking about one of our local spots, I know the car you are speaking of, I suspect. I heard numbers all over the place as well!

 

Yes. You probably do

 

I never call an ad that is missing the price.

 

Same here...

 

ditto

 

I'm surprised that getting the bodies into the showroom is such an issue with exotics. My car happened to be for sale locally but I fully anticipated having to buy long distance, as many of us have done.

I guess if I liked the car from the specs and pics I'd call a dealer who didn't post a price, but if his price was out of line I'd be more irritated than if I saw the price up front and could move on w/o wasting my time.

 

A dealership isn't Ebay.....we all wish it was, but it's not. A dealership has costs associated with it that requires a 'markup' along with an expected profit margin. Dealerships expect to make a profit from the sale of the car, and they should. Not all of them can just make money from their service department. This dealership 'markup' is something that can bring a car under or over the market value of the car itself. Ever wonder why dealerships seldom if never offer used 308s for sale? The dealership markup puts the pricetag well-over what a 308 is worth on the street, and they seldom sell. The last time I saw a 308 on a showroom floor, the dealership markup brought the pricetag above $41K. I bought mine from a broker for less than $32K, same model/mileage. I didn't get the tangible benefits buying from a dealership brings (pre-sales service/prep, maintenance verification, warrantee, etc.) but that's difficult to put a price on for most people.

If you're in the market for a 308, and all you saw was the dealership pricetag of $41K, would you jump on it, or look further at all the cars in Hemmings/DuPont that were offered for $35K? Dealerships are competing with everyone selling Ferraris - private owners, brokers, independents, etc. Getting a face-to-face meeting with a prospective customer allows the dealership salesman to explain the tangible benefits of buying HIS car, versus someone else's car. And that can be the difference in paying a bit more for the car from a dealership vs. buying from somewhere else.

 

I get three times as many inquiries from my website and a better quality of inquiry (seriously.....much more pre-qualified) than I did when I posted prices.

Go figure........NOCAR hit the nail on the head.

Anyone can figure out with the internet what given price band a car should probably trade within........as in $80-90K for example........so posting prices is really irrelevant as none of you are going to pay what we post anyways....are you ???

Personally I do not want to deal with people whose primary and overriding concern is merely price. This is a way of flushing them out with their own psychology....for they are the ones most likely NOT to call you if you do not have a price posted. Less hassle all around.....no skin off my ass.

 

You are failing to mention many dealers list insanely high prices in ads. Based on the horror stories we read here about dealerships, how much premium should anyone put on this pattern of non-service? If a dealer lists a price a few thousand over market I assume we can negotiate. When a dealer asks $15,000 over market or lists no price at all I just assume they are unreasonable and choose to not waste any of my prime time minutes listening to them fluff their feathers.

Would you walk the aisles of the supermarket filling your cart without knowing the costs of any of the items you've loaded? Would you respond to a real estate ad that says 4BR colonial on 1/2 acre lot if the ad had no price?

No price = what are you hiding IMO.

 

I guess there are two schools of thought here.

Autoweek classifieds have several large dealer ads with multiple cars listed and then there are all the single car ads from dealers and private parties. Most of the private party ads have prices listed and about half the dealer, multicar car ads don't.

I use Autoweek as a guage to see what the asking prices are currently and I gloss right over the ads without prices. If I was seriously in the market for a specific car I would probably call every ad for that car regardless of whether there was price posted or not.

 

If they don't list the price, even they think that they are asking too much.

 

ditto

 

Maybe I should try this technique. That way when you guys order parts you never know what I'll charge you!

On a serious note when I was looking for a 360 for my friend. If I saw a price that I knew wasn't what we were looking for, I'd skip it right away and move onto the next car. But when I didn't see a price, I was forced into calling. Then conversation strikes and the salesman has a better chance of getting you to buy the car.

 

Same here--not wasting my time if the dealer can't do it.

 

I only sell used motorcycles which range in price from $5000 to $25000. I ALWAYS post the prices on my website and all my Ebay ads have a (I feel) reasonable buy-it-now price.

For my purposes, I think posting the price works much better in conjunction with an over-the-top detailed description of the machine. An informed, educated buyer is a happy buyer in my experience.

If a customer chooses not to call my shop after reading my description including the asking price, well, quite frankly, they weren't a buyer anyway.

kie

www.redlabelmoto.com

 

If they don't post the price, I assume it's too high(almost always is )- the ones that post a resonable price get me to the phone. It's the price that generates the interest to me.

 

I agree. No price translation: "We want too much and if you will call, we will give you the hard sell and see if you will pay too much".

If it's a good deal, they should advertise the price likethey are proud of it!

PS: I am in the business of selling stuff. Everything is priced.

Dave

 

Read FML-- every ad has a price (and a serial number). That's a requirement for advertising there.