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Another Saturday show, (#6 if you are counting), and it was a beautiful sunny Saturday with a steady stream of customers in our dealership. The three “Regular Guys of Car Connection” were ready and relaxed to air another informative show. We were all calm without panic as the communication equipment was successfully relaying our show to WGKA Talk 920 studio in Buckhead. That was a good sign that we finally knew what we were doing with the exception of the static on the speakers spewing out our message inside the dealership to our members buying cars as the show rolled on.
Herman, (the German) does the show’s intro with Alvin, (the Chipmunk) my top salesman who announces me as the Godfather of the car biz in Atlanta (I’m old enough) and that makes me an Italian guru. (Don’t tell anybody I’m half Irish and my left toe is green). This initial question was how has the internet changed the car business and is it for the better or worse.
The obvious answer is that there is more knowledge to the general public, especially on pricing or dealer cost. I think having the buyers wiser is a good thing. Consumers should know a good deal when they see it. Years ago, I said 85% of the public did not like to negotiate, especially when they didn’t know the cost of the vehicle. Today, the internet is a wide open book. Now everybody knows, (or they think they know) what the dealer pays for their new vehicles (still some secret cash back manufacturer schemes). The knowledge allows them to shop around more by e-mail instead of letting their fingers do the walking even though most people still don’t like to negotiate. They have the courage to ask, “Is that your best price?” When it is, you can look them in the eye and say yes. If you can find a better price some place else, then you should buy it. At Car Connection we are dealing with like new vehicles and the buyer has to compare apples and apples and not a used banana of a vehicle.
By now we had a break and Alex from last week called back with another question about vehicles and his three dogs and a future baby. We had fun with his Brazilian accent and told him about the danger of dogs roaming around inside a moving vehicle causing many accidents for the owner/driver.
Next my friend, Walter, e-mailed me about thieves punching holes in the passenger door to gain access without setting off the vehicle’s alarm. Then they can steal whatever and the theft could go unnoticed for several days. From now on, I will walk past my passenger door before going to the driver’s side. At least at the moment, it was a good thought.
The show moved pretty quickly and we three felt it was a good informative show. Other than Alex, we had no other callers, so we will have to work on creating more listeners to call the show. If you are reading this blog, we request you volunteer and call 770-226-0920…and for those of you from Fulton County call during the show (3 to 4 pm). Till we meet again and hopefully on the air…Vince