Brutal Truth Motors

Brutal Truth Motors

Open for business

I would like to welcome everyone to Brutal Truth Motors. First, let me start by saying this isn’t going to be your usual column about great customer service or the largest selection or all of our great deals. It also won't be a column about daisies or tulips or anything nice like that. It’s going to be about things that bother me, things about the car business that bother me, consumer perceptions that bother me, and anything else that just ticks me off.

The best part about it, is that you, the reader, will be privy to some of the most brutally honest content about the car industry ever available. You probably won't like most of it. But all of it will always be true. For example, here's a small sample of things to come:

• Unless you want to finance your new $35,000 dollar pickup truck for ten years your payments will never be $300 dollars, and there is not a thing we can do to get you there.


• Yes, a GMC truck is the same as a Chevy, no matter how much more they charge for it.


• No, it's not excessive for a car dealership to hope for a 3% profit margin on a new car when furniture stores happily rake in 200%, 300%, or 400% profits!


• Yes, if you don't change your oil for two years and your car breaks, it is your fault!

So, I would hope you continue reading. But I understand if you don't. Brutal honesty is honest, yes, but also brutal.

Today's episode: Yes, the employee price is the bottom line; no we cannot “do any better”

On June 1st General Motors made a monumental move in the automobile industry by offering nearly all of their vehicles to the general public at their employee prices. How this works is that most auto manufacturers have a special price on every vehicle that an employee of the company can buy it for. It is highly discounted off the vehicles sticker price, and employees of all auto manufacturers have enjoyed it for some time now.

Well GM ruined it for all us employees. Our price isn’t special anymore, anyone off the street can buy a car for that sweet, low, price that we could. I don’t like it, but you certainly should take advantage of it. Here is what really bothers me though: for the first time ever, cars are thousands of dollars cheaper then they have ever been, and you still want more. “Is that your best price?” I quiver when I hear those words. Do you realize that GM has to send us, the dealership, a check to reimburse us for the hit we take on a vehicle that is sold at an employee price? That’s right, we actually sell the vehicle to you for less than what we paid for the vehicle. GM then sends us a check to cover that amount, plus a small commission so it makes sense for us to continue to sell cars. So the answer to your question is YES, the employee price is my best number; NO I can’t take another thousand dollars off the price.

Don’t worry though, employee pricing will be ending soon, and then you can go back to begging, pleading and demanding for another three thousand dollars off that brand new car. You might get it, you might not, and at least car buying will be fun again right? Stay tuned for next week when I explain just why those three thousand dollars more you want off is just an insane number and why it usually just won’t happen.