The FSport wheels are temperamental to balance and I want it on the dealer if there's any issue with vibrations. I needed a replacement tire awhile back and the independent shop could not balance it properly - I gave up after three tries - strikeout. Dealer had it perfect on first visit. I know it will cost a bit more but i don't care and the dealer includes road hazard in their price.

 

I know numerous people in the car business, all have told me the market upcharges don't make up for the volume by a long shot and they are making less money, not more.

 

Interesting but could it be the employees are making less and not the owner though? The local dealership here pays their sales people a fix amount for each vehicle sold like $100. If you work there longer you get a bit more but it is a flat rate regardless the transaction price.

 

I know owners, GMs, salespeople. All say the same thing.

 

I'm reasonably confident that what you have said is accurate. With dealers having only a handful of cars to sell, they are losing out, not only on any profit that might come from the sale of the car, but probably more importantly, any profit that they might make from financing, extended warranties, pre-paid maintenance plans, etc., and no amount of "market adjustments" is likely to make up for that.

If you check the websites for Lexus and other car brands, you will see that rebates this year are much smaller than what we would normally expect at this time of the year. While I don't know for sure, I suspect that there has also been a reduction/elimination in the unadvertised incentives that the manufacturers normally give to dealers to help them reduce their inventories. With minimal inventory, there isn't any point in having manufacturers help dealers to reduce inventories. The lack of incentives, both advertised and unadvertised would also affect the prices relative to MSRP that dealers are selling cars for.

I know that those in the car business have a bad reputation. Much of it is deserved, but I'm sure that some of it isn't, and we tend to judge car dealers, car sales personnel, etc. much more harshly than we judge those in other walks of life. If I want to finish my basement and if contractors in my area are extremely busy and booked up for the next 6 months, they are likely to bid my job at a much higher price than they would if they had no jobs lined up. Yet, we don't bash them for the "market adjustment" that they make. A few months ago when lumber shortages caused the price of lumber to spike, did we get upset with the carpenter who raised his prices or with Lowe's when we bought lumber ourselves? If I have a clogged drain in my house and I call a plumber, I don't feel a need to know how much the plumber is making on my job. Instead, I just figure that, if his rates are similar to those of other plumbers in the area, that is okay. Yet, we feel a need to know how much a car dealer is making on a car that it sells to me. If I buy a new Samsung Galaxy phone a week after that model is introduced, it is likely that I'll be paying twice as much for the phone than what I would have to pay 6 months later, but we don't seem to be concerned in the same way as we would with cars about that kind of "market adjustment".

All things considered, I can't image that car dealers are, in the current auto market, making the killing that some seem inclined to think is the case.

 

That's it - I'm starting a go fund me page for these poor poor auto dealers.

 

LOL. I am sure they are crying all the way to the bank.

 

Ultimately we’re the ones paying the higher costs…so set up a go fund me for us…