The Doom Room: Why Dealerships Waste Your Time
Common Car Salesman Tricks
Had a bad car buying experience? You’re not alone. Car buying is a love/hate experience for most consumers. In fact, a recent consumer survey found that people love to shop for cars but really hate the car dealership experience. Overall, the main takeaways from the survey results were that people expressed a desire for:
- More pricing transparency
- Less post-purchase upsells
- Fulfillment of advertised prices
The unfortunate truth is that most dealerships don’t listen to their clients. Here at Auto House, we do things differently! In this blog, we’ll share a few things to watch out for when you’re at a traditional dealership.
Traditional dealerships have a lot of pressure on them to make money. One of the car salesman tricks to achieve that sale is to waste your time. Yes, really. While that seems wrong (and it is), the truth is the more time you spend at the dealership, the more likely you are to be tempted by their salespeople, who are trained in psychological sales techniques. At Auto House, most of our clients are in and out within an hour or so. We put you in the driver’s seat and don’t waste your time.
At Auto House, we strive to find a vehicle to fit our client’s wants and needs, whereas the other guys will try to get you talking about the things you want in a vehicle — like how much money you want to spend or what kind of features you need — and then they’ll use this information against you later on in the process by offering a car that doesn’t fit what you wanted at all!
At traditional dealerships there’s a sticker with the MSRP or used price posted on the window, but that’s usually not the price you’ll pay because of hidden dealer add-ons and markups. While all sorts of conversations and negotiations are happening between the salesperson and customer, even more will happen behind the scenes to get to a final price and it will take time. During the negotiations and the “let me just talk to my manager” phases, the customer is left sitting in what industry insiders call “The Doom Room.”
The tactic is to try to keep you there as long as possible. The car salesman will offer food and drinks while they keep you waiting in their office or showroom — anything to make sure you stay put until they’ve convinced you to buy something. No wonder that some of the things consumers dislike the most about car sales include high-pressure sales tactics, car salesman tricks, and the amount of time it takes to get the deal done.
- 60% (of consumers surveyed) felt that negotiating with the salesperson and the post-purchase paperwork were their least-favorite parts of the vehicle purchase process
- 52% would like to outsource the price negotiation process or vehicle selection process to someone else
- 88% would find it helpful, or would consider, a vehicle recommendation from an independent third party
At Auto House we’re well aware of these traditional dealership tactics and how consumers feel about them, that’s why we’ve perfected the car buying process to make it hassle-free, fast, and fun! Not only are our clients in and out in around an hour, but we publish one fair, transparent price on every vehicle we sell, without any hidden dealer add-ons or markups.
Our customer testimonials are five-star proof that a bad car buying experience doesn’t have to be the norm. At Auto House, you can relax. There are no high-pressure tactics, time-wasting car salesman tricks, fast-talking, or jargon allowed. You’ll work with the same auto consultant throughout, so there are no doom rooms, lengthy talks to the managers, upsells, or tricks like other dealers play. The price you see is the price you’ll pay (plus required sales tax, title work and licensing, of course). So come to Auto House for just the right car and the right deal — your way, and be in and out in no time. As it should be.
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