Tales From a Used Car Salesman…
I usually don’t post about the utter stupidity I’m bombarded w/ on a daily basis, but I’m bored; we’re slow as hell and we can’t seem to get people loans anymore so, I’ll post this most recent one.
A little background: Yep I sell cars, feel free to direct your hatred at me if you like
I switched to our pre-owned lot back in February as it was more profitable than new cars at the time (now it’s tough to say).
In March we signed up w/ a bank that guarantees credit approval. Now this bank is actually a collection agency that loans out very small amounts of money at the state max interest. It’s for people w/ absolutely horrible credit as a last resort; think of it as just a step above a “buy here pay here” type thing.
Us salesman weren’t exactly ecstatic about this as the paperwork involved was immense and we’d receive almost no compensation; we already had sub prime banks to go through, if those banks couldn’t buy them, let the people w/ 3 repos on their credit go to a buy here pay here, was the general feeling.
Well, the program did amazingly well for the dealership in March and April as a lot of folks with bad credit were able to purchase a vehicle due to their cash down from income tax and rebate checks. It actually didn’t seem too bad at first, we almost felt like we were helping people rebuild credit and get a car, sure the money for us on these deals was nothing, but at the end of the month, we were making paychecks from conventional deals and the lot was making money, so everyone was happy.
Then came the sign.
The owner decided to buy a 20 foot long sign to hang on our building that read in ginormous letters “Guaranteed Credit Approval”.
This was not a good move IMHO as the lowest common denominator of our society converged on our lot daily, like a scene from Dawn of the Dead, demanding a loan for a $26k Hummer w/ no money down and a 450 credit score
It got worse as word of the sign spread. The ghetto rats, toothless hillbillies, mentally challenged, all of them drawn to the sign like a Walmart on welfare check day.
The rebate and tax return money had run dry and w/o a down payment these folks were SOL for a car loan, O, the stories are so pathetic and ignorant it’s almost sad.
So, fast forward to last week; obviously car sales are down and we still have the regular flow of bad credit or boges, (pronounced boge like bogey but plural in the industry).
I get a younger (maybe mid 30s) black lady drive in in a horribly beat up 92ish lumina; headlights sagging, front bumper held up w/ bungee cord, the usual boge car.
She walks over to an 04 Blue Maxima we have (A luxury car, leather, heated steering wheel, etc…) and we begin talking.
Now I try to treat everyone respectfully regardless of what I may be thinking about their credit position in the back of my head. You never know when that toothless hillbilly may pull a wad of cash out of his pocket and say “I’ll take it” or whatever the situation is.
The lady is pleasant and seems really interested in the car. Now, I’m respectful, but I don’t feel like wasting my time either so I beat around the bush a little about financing and she tells me w/ a completely straight face:
“O, I’m not worried about financing, I have a 740 credit score and am pre-approved through my Credit Union at 6.99% for 60 months”
I am almost taken back because she really is a pleasant person and says it w/ such sincerity that i almost believe her. Now sometimes I have to talk a little BS at MY job and I’d like to think that over the years I’ve developed a pretty good feeling about when people are lying or not. Despite the factors, she had me pretty convinced that i wouldn’t be wasting my time dealing w/ her so I decide to give it my all and try to sell her this car.
Test drive went well, she asked a lot of good questions and seemed fairly knowledgeable about cars.
Spent about 15 mins getting the boss to discount the car to what would be an agreeable payment using her 6.99% that said her credit union had given her.
Overall it was a pretty smooth deal, we were making a few bucks, she was buying the maxima about $3500 behind book value w/ a 1 year warranty included and we agreed touch up some rock chips on the front bumper for her.
She never comes back w/ her credit union check, avoids all my calls and changes her voicemail message. Ok, I can take a hint, i hate salesman that harass me so i stop calling.
Yesterday she calls to tell me that the girl she deals w/ at her credit union was on vacation
, but she should have the check tomorrow and she’ll be up to buy it. Now we’ve got an appointment on it later so I offer to have her come in take the car and bring us the check later.
This is relatively standard, it’s called a hold contract; she signs an agreement that if she doesn’t bring the check back within a couple weeks, we send the loan amount to a bank and she starts getting monthly bills.
Ever jaded from this biz i actually tell her on the phone: Hey, with your 740 credit score you can take that home and bring us the check in a few days no problem” just to see if I illicit a response.
She is happy about that and says she’ll be in shortly; she lives about an hour away and calls me twice during her travel to let me know that she’s stuck in traffic and is on her way.
You prolly know where this is going, but to do a hold contract, we need to pull her credit to make sure one of our banks can finance her if she fails to bring a check.
She gets here, we pull the credit and what do we see on that “740 credit score”
She’s a 405 Trans Union
She’s never paid Anyone in her life save a personal loan from 01 from her credit union she made 2 payments on and defaulted.
In fact, she owes a car rental agency $1200 from last month
It’s just unreal. So I go explain this, umm, complication to her and of course she is defensive at first and I calm her down, but she knows, she FUCKING KNOWS she was lying to us and says she’ll be back w/ a check from her credit union.
So thats it, it’s not a rant, just a story in a typical day selling cars on our lot.
You can feel free to hate me and say i deserve any frustration because I sell cars and I’m scum. Really, I’m immune to it, but I figured I’d post to pass some time.
