Several years ago on Memorial Day weekend, my family and I went to a local dealership to look at new cars. This started out as one of the most pleasant buying experiences that has ever happened to us. Instead of trying to sell us a car, the sales person actually let us buy one! He patiently showed us around and courteously answered our questions until we finally came across a car that everyone liked.
At this point, the whole family said, “We’ll take it!” The salesperson was appreciative and informed us that his role in the sales transaction ended at this point and that now he would turn us over to the finance person who would get our loan approved.
After forty-five minutes of waiting, the finance person informed us that our loan was approved at an interest rate of 15.11 percent. I said, “Isn’t that interest rate a little high?”
His response was, “Oh no, that’s what banks are getting these days for new car loans.”
I then looked him in the eye and said, “You wouldn’t lie to me, would you?”
He said, “No way!”
I then explained to him that I was a consultant to one of the larger banks in town and that I had a meeting scheduled on the next business day with one of its vice-presidents. I asked this finance person to hold our loan application until I had a chance to find out for myself if the 15.11 percent he was trying to charge me was legitimate.
When I met with the bank vice-president and found out that 11.9 percent financing was definitely available for new car loans. With this information, I went back to the car dealer to have a discussion with the finance person. As I walked into his office, I waved the bank vice-president’s business card and informed him that 11.9 percent financing was available. At this point, he reluctantly inserted a new contract form into his computerized typewriter and said, “Well, if you want 11.9, you’ve got 11.9.”
Doing a little legwork saved me some money, but the very idea that this dealership had tried to take advantage of me in the first place left a bad taste in my mouth. During the next two years, nine of my friends bought cars similar to mine. Each of them asked me before they went looking, where I bought my car and what kind of experience I had. And what do you suppose I told these people with a little evangelistic zeal thrown in for good measure? I told them to avoid this dealership like the plague. Had this dealership treated me with fairness and dignity instead of trying to con me, it could have chalked up nine additional sales. The profit on these nine additional sales would have been far more than the dealership would have made had it succeeded in taking advantage of me.
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