B.C. by Mastroianni and Hart for April 06, 2024

Pearlized granite undercoating is included at no extra charge on every wheel.

Eh?

Back when I was selling cars in 1983, we had a seminar where the presenter introduced the concept of “documentation fee.” That’s right, it never was a thing before. We started by charging $25, the customers didn’t complain…now I hear some dealers charge as much as $800 for it. Don’t pay it, I never do. It’s a total scam. It is “blue sky.”

He told us about dealers in New York posting a term on their price stickers: “EDP.” It stands for Extra Dealer Profit.

Always an “angle”!!!!

Then they add the mark-ups. Question: if, as reported, auto mfgs complain about how dealer mark ups are slowing sales a bunch, why don’t they apply a bit of their usual coercion and restrict those add-ons?

And that in a nutshell folks is why it doesn’t matter who or what party is in the White House, it is the various companies themselves that are putting the screws to you monetarily. They will hide behind political parties and scream it isn’t our fault, but yeah it usually is.

And don’t forget the custom floor mats. Or in this case axel mats.

One does what one must. Or wants to.

Back when the Internet was much younger, I was in the market for a new car. I went Online and looked up all I could find on the car I wanted. I discovered a Site that listed all the Dealer “Codes” and their actual cost, not the cost they are telling you. Loaded for “Bear”, I went in to the Local Dealer and, during our “haggling”, I hit him with the Codes and the actual costs, after finding out how much they were offering for my Trade-In, so he couldn’t just lower that total to “make it up”. I’ll never forget the look on his face when he said “You know our Codes!” ☺

Really?

There’s a lot of that going around. And they wonder why their lots are so full, and buyers are not around.

He’s made some wholesale changes.

When did a Ford F150 hit over $70000? Guess Ford raised the F150 prices for the loses on the failed sales of Ford’s EVs.

I remember my first trip to a foreign country, in this case, Baja CA, as a young sailor from San Diego, in the mid 70’s. It was my first experience with bartering for goods. I soon got the hang of it and wanted to do it back in the states as well!

Expect the MSRP to go way, way up when EVs are mandated

YEP!!!!

Car makers would go broke if they only did that.

We looked at a car on week and came back the next when they were having a “$6000 for any trade-in” sale. The price had gone up $6000 due to an increase in the “dealer preparations and environmental protection” cost.

…but then you can have a tremendous sale : 20% off!

Duh

must be following Tesla’s pricing model then

Businesses have been doing that for ages. If they knew how much something cost to make, and distribute, people would be furious when they saw the price