How “Disruptors” Fooled the Consumer

How “Disruptors” Fooled the Consumer

dis·rupt

disˈrəpt/

verb

1.   interrupt (an event, activity, or process) by causing a disturbance or problem.

Thanks to the internet it put car dealers on an even playing field. It has brought transparency to the consumer and the “Disruptors” well they continue, with the power of frequency, to tell a different story.

Misdirection – this is how the “Disruptors” like CarMax, Vroom, and Carvana have been gaining momentum. With the power of frequency.

Side note: Now there are some bad employees in a lot of organizations that can give the “Car Dealer” a bad name, but there are I’m sure bad employees that work with these “Disruptors” as well. Glad I got that out of the way for the other side of the people that will agree with the “Disruptors.”

Misdirection comes in the form of telling the consumer as loud and frequent as possible by saying these 2 things consistently:

1.      It’s so hard to get the price you want. With the help of the internet and companies like TrueCar and CarGuru the Car Dealer has had to put very competitive pricing online, and has essentially taken the “haggling” out of the equation.  I recommend shopping online to save yourself a little time. Negotiations don’t take much longer than a couple of minutes so long as the dealer isn’t buried in a car and you’re offer is realistic. ? Every dealer pays essentially the same price and today there is so much information that can help you understand that the “Car Dealer” is in business to make money. Which in comparison the average dealers net to gross sales is roughly 2 to 2.5%. When looking at giants in online retailing like Amazon their net to gross sales is 2% http://www.nasdaq.com/symbol/amzn/financials?query=income-statement which is about the same as your average Car Dealer.

2.      Trust – Now this one is crazy. Dealers are scrutinized more than any other industry and must put a disclaimer on every price the consumer sees or hears. Now unfortunately there are some evil people in this world, and thank god there is the internet because it makes everything transparent. Call me naive but I try to believe most of the world is good, and there are just those people that everyone needs to be careful with in every industry.

The internet has essentially made every Car Dealer put their very best prices online.   So contrary to what these companies are telling you, you can get a better deal or price doing your due diligence and comparing before you buy. The dealership I work for on average is lower than the “Disruptors” by $1500, and if there are vehicles that compare apples to apples with, that we are somehow higher we can easily match or beat them. If they have the “unicorn” vehicle and we have nothing similar they will for sure beat us on that one. For the other ones make sure you compare before you buy. You can save yourself time and money going the traditional way:)