The Weather

The Weather is often a factor in how much business you do. Typically when the weather's bad, the customers are less likely to come.

Foul weather can also actually be a blessing though, because it sorts the buyers from the tire kickers. If someone gets out in the pouring rain to peak in the windows of a used car, you know they are serious about buying.

Sometimes it can work the opposite, and good weather is the curse. The first nice days of Spring, the lots will be desolate as people are spending the weekend catching up on yardwork and cleaning.

It also affects the salesmen's attitude and drive. After two months of solid snow and dreariness, pretty much everyone feels like crap and doesn't want to wait on anyone. But on the other hand, those first nice days of Spring, salesmen will be so excited for the break in weather that they will find other things to be doing than waiting on customers.

The weather is used as an excuse far more often than it actually affects business, though.

"How's your month going?"

"Terrible! Well you know, how are you supposed to sell anything in this darn weather?"

It's tough to budget when.....

So a young man who works as an apprentice in the union but is currently layed off fills out his credit application. He puts that he makes $6000/mo. Immediately, the finance manager asks him if that is correct, and if he can verify it, as it seems a hefty sum for such a young man. The customer assures him that it is correct.

When it comes time to verify the income, the customer hands in his most recent pay stub. Which is from October. And shows $7800 year-to-date earnings. "Not to worry," says he, "I have proof of my unemployment income as well." It shows $2300 year-to-date. In this particular case, I don't believe that he was lying about his income, like so many others do. I believe he really didn't have a clue how much money he makes. No shocker- his credit was awful. It would be difficult to budget when you're working under the premise that you make $72,000/yr, and you actually only make $10,000.

Toys!

Yesterday it was slow, so we went outside and tossed the football around. We get in the mood to toss around the pigskin every fall. I have a drawer in my desk dedicated to toys. In it are many superballs of various sizes, the football, a magic kit, a remote controlled car, a toy Hummer, a couple MatchBox cars, and an Etch-A-Sketch. I wouldn't have it any other way.

Month to Month

In the car business, the only time period that matters is between the first and last day of the month. Not the day, week, season, year, or career.

Sales goals, store goals, Dollar goals, unit goals, etc., are all set for the month. At the end of the month, everything needs to be totalled and turned into the office. There they crunch the numbers and eventually issue the statement for the month. Then the monthly paychecks can be issued. Then you analyze everything to try to decipher what happened, and why. You compare to previous months and years. By the time you've figured out what happened last month, it's the 15th of the current month, and you haven't focused a bit on making sure it's going properly.

Sales managers across the country are saying, "OMG! It's already the 15th, and we only have 10 cars out? What are we going to do? Let's have a sale! If anyone has anything working, let me know, I'm ready to deal! We've got to get something going this month!" It's hilarious.

So what does this mean to you, the consumer? I'll share a trade secret with you:

By far, the best day of the month to purchase a car is the last day.

Chances are, your salesperson is one unit away from a bonus. Or the store is one unit away from their goal. Or they're only a couple units shy of breaking the record. But whatever the case is, they are far more excited about selling a car on the last day of the month than the first, which means you could get a much better deal.

In fact, with new cars, the manufacturer will set a unit goal for the dealer. They might call up on the first, and say, "Your goal is 15 trucks and vans." So what happens if they meet the goal? The manufacturer will retroactively pay the dealer extra money for each unit. Let's say it's 750 Dollars this particular month. Say the dealer has 14 trucks and vans out, and here you come looking at a van. If you buy it, the store will get 11250 Dollars. Do you think they'll cut you a deal? You bet! They'd be stupid to not lose 4 thousand Dollars on your deal to pocket 11250 Dollars, right? But that's a best-case-scenario, luck-of-the-draw type situation. But one thing is for certain, it can NEVER happen on the first of the month.

Happy shopping!

I Am Optimistic About Humanity in General

Why, you ask? Because working at a car lot, I have access to a simple exercise to demonstrate the good in people: turn on a blinker.

You see, with so many cars out there on the pavement, chances are one or two of them have a dead battery because someone has left the key on, or the dome light, or whatever. What's the easiest way to charge a battery? Leave the vehicle run. And how do you remind yourself to not let it run all day or until it runs out of gas? Turn on the blinker.

Now for the amazing part. A guy pulls in, parks, gets out of the car, walks into the building, and says, "Hey just wanted to let you know you have a car out there with the turn signal on." Then the phone rings, "Yes, I just drove by your lot, and just wanted to let you know that you have a van out there with the turn signal on."

Happens every time! It's amazing to me. I can't imagine why people feel the need to tell us, but they seem completely willing to go totally out of their way to help us out by letting us know.

I can only come to one conclusion: there is hope for humanity after all!

Dealers Get Ripped Off By Customers

I'll bet you never gave a moment of thought to dealers getting taken by customers. They do. Not only do ordinary folks see fit to lie and cheat in an attempt to get a better deal, but criminals often target dealerships as well.

A few years ago a young man came in to look at our 98 Tahoe. The Tahoe was a hot vehicle then, especially this one with its 20" chrome wheels. He wanted to trade his 02 Cadillac Seville, which he just purchased only a couple weeks ago from our rivals down the road. That is an incredibly bad idea, and he was losing like 3 grand, but people do stupid things, and it's hardly our place to be financial counselors for people that just want to buy stuff from us.

I forget the exact numbers, but let's say the Caddy was worth $15,000, and the total of the Tahoe came to $11,000. So we owed him 4 grand. Now if someone gave us a check for more than we needed, we wouldn't give them a check back for the difference until it cleared. But in this case, even though it seemed suspicious, he had a free and clear title with no lien. So we gave him his check, and off he goes.

Two days later, we get a call from our competitor down the street. His check he wrote to them for the Cadillac bounced. Apparently, they were stupid enough to run the title and give it to him without waiting to see if the check cleared. We would have waited, they didn't, and now WE have a stolen car in our posession because of it.

Well long story short, after working with the detectives, eventually we got the Tahoe back. He spent the 4 grand on a stereo for it (that we took out and gave away, so the truck wouldn't get broken into so his buddies could steal it). The Caddy went back to the other dealer. But what of the 4 grand check? It was spent, no getting it back. So we split the loss with the other dealer.

Stuff like that happens all the time.

Dang Kittah!

So a customer asked us if that was our dumpster out back, which it was. He then informed me that there were two kittens in it. So we went out to investigate together, and sure enough there were two tiny kittens, one grey and one black. They were laying together quite calmly, looking totally pathetic. We figured that they wouldn't make it much longer judging by their appearance and demeanor.

The edges were far too high for them to get out on their own. I seriously doubt that they got in there by themselves either, most likely someone dumped them there.

Several thoughts went through my mind. If I rescued them, what would I do with them? Nurse them back to health? What if they died, or needed to be put down? Arrgh, what a mess! But in the end, I decided that there was no way I could just leave them there to die a miserable death of heat and dehydration (had to be like a thousand degrees in that dumpster!).

So we gathered up a suitable box for them, and into the dumpster I go. As soon as I landed, they sprang to life. They ran to opposite corners, one actually finding it's way into a bag of refuse. "Well, I think they're going to be OK!", I immediately commented. Seems we had misjudged their condition, they were actually quite frisky.

I grabbed the bag containing the grey kitten and managed to wrangle it out. As soon as I grabbed a hold of it, I realized I was making a mistake. It fought and kicked and clawed, and eventually sunk it's teeth deep inside my left index finger. I shouted a curse word as I clutched it with my other hand, and wrestled it into the box that Groucho was holding with lid ready. It immediately escaped and ran off.

With my finger now bleeding profusely, the customer comes over with two baseball gloves that he had in his car to handle the next one. We decided that my bloody finger inside his kid's ball gloves was a bad idea, so into the dumpster he goes. With the aid of the extra layers of leather, the removal of the second kitty went quite well, and off it ran.

There was some discussion and we decided that a bite from a wild kitty that lives in a dumpster could be a bad thing, so I went to the urgent care center to open a workman's comp claim. I got a tetnis shot, and a script for antibiotics just in case it gets infected. Then I got to go to the hospital for a breathalyzer and drug screen, company policy following an accident.

Three hours later, and I'm back to work.