Graham Hill Car Finance Expert Explains How Dealers Con Customers To Gain Business

Tuesday, 16. March 2010

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Dealers have not got the best reputations for being totally honest so we all make allowances when they make promises and commitments to our customers, in all good faith, and they let us down. But even our ‘allowances’ seem to be a little short of the mark of late as dealers get desperate to take orders. And to make matters worse we are back into the position of dealers making false promises regarding delivery of the car in order to secure an order, then of course make an excuse when the car doesn’t turn up but by that time making it virtually impossible for the customer to go anywhere else. This is bad enough when the dealer is our dealer but much worse when the customer has been in for a test drive and then told that if they place the order there and then they will receive their car within 4 weeks when the lead time is 12 weeks. Unsuspecting customers are becoming desperate for their cars and, as a result, placing the order with the dealer, only to be let down further down the line when the car finally arrives 12 weeks down the line. Customers should be more wary of the convincing salesman saying that he can arrange a faster delivery. I don’t know of any manufacturer that operates on anything other than a first come first served basis, so unless the dealer has a cancelled order that is free stock the chances are that our lead times are theirs. Don’t get suckered in by a desperate dealer. By Graham Hill