Trust Me, I'm a Used Car Salesman

On Saturday May 31st we will be having our Customer Appreciation Day. There will be food, drink, deserts, jump castle for kids, prizes and fun. We will be awarding scholarships to 2 deserving high school seniors who are graduating this spring. There will also be a prize for the person in attendance who purchased a car furthest back. Last year 3 customers came in who had purchased a car in 1943. That was our 2nd year in business and 65 years later we are still here. This is our way of thanki...more

There is a great article in the "Arizona Republic" about improving your gas mileage. The interesting thing is that Jim Stack is pictured with the Article. He was the guest on"Frank Auto Advice" last Saturday, April 26th. We spoke of the hybrid, hydrogen and all electric cars. Anything but the standard gasoline powered car most of us drive every day. Since the advent of the instant MPG readings in cars, I have tried to get the number as high as possible. I remember reading a book about drivi...more

Yesterday morning a gentlemen came into our dealership looking for a car. He wanted to look at one of the cars. He said he had good credit so he didn't want to fill out any paperwork. After the 2nd request he let us look at his drivers license. The salesman got up to get the keys to the car, and went with the customer to look at the car. The customer got into the car, the salesman handed him the keys. When he started the car, he put it into gear and drove off. We called the Phoenix Polic...more

I have driven several models of the hybrid car. The Honda Insight, and several different years of Prius. They are quite expensive to buy and maintain, but you do save considerably at the pump. A friend of mine purchased a Prius a year or so ago. He did the studies of cost versus gas savings. He said he would have to keep it a long time for the savings to equal the additional cost of the hybrid over a standard vehicle. I purchased a 70,000 mile Prius. I noticed some warning lights that w...more

I spoke with my friend who purchased the damaged car yesterday. Things came out reasonably well. A lawyer had been retained and the seller will be giving the sale price plus attorney fees back. The title and registration fees, the extra key, the new floor mats, the little goodies you get for a new car to personalize it, these expenses aren't included in the settlement. You could ask for those extras, but if the seller gets upset he may change his mind and not go through with the deal.Conside...more

The new talk show has a name. A name that describes what I will be giving. Nuggets of information that you can use when you are thinking of buying or fixing a car. Bits of information that could save you some money. Part of the first show will be devoted to some of the ways dealerships will try to get a few extra dollars from you. Some of the things they sell that you can get in other places for less.Tune in on Saturday afternoon between 2:00 and 3:00pm on KPHX 1480 AM Progressive Talk Radi...more

The four square is a piece of paper that is broken in four parts. They are labeled payment, down payment, price and trade. By filling these blanks in, you are giving the salesman information about what you think you can afford. Never in this equation are the words number of payments or interest rate mentioned. The following was taken from "Confessions of a Car Salesman" The next step in my training involved the use of the "4-square wor...more

We have been negotiating for several weeks and it's final. We will be hosting a talk show on KPHX radio 1480 on your AM dial. 2:00-3:00 pm on Saturdays. The first show is scheduled for April 5th. It will be fun and informative. I will be giving information on how to buy a car, what your car is worth, what to expect when you go into a dealership. Some information about bills that are in the Arizona House and Senate.This is not going to be a repair oriented show. There are several of th...more

I was reading about a $10 million prize to design a car that gets 100 MPG. This sounds pretty spectacular. When you realize that the Model T Ford averaged 25 MPG almost 100 years ago, what does that say about our current technology. I know that there are other ways to power cars. You can power any internal combustion engine with hydrogen. The byproduct is water vapor. The exhaust is actually cleaner than whey the air entered the combustion chamber. The only problem with this is the stora...more

I was speaking with a friend yesterday evening. He related something that makes me very angry. A mutual acquaintance had been looking for a particular make and model car. This car was something that this person had wanted for several years. She found one that was for sale by an individual. Looked at it, drove it, took it to the mechanic the seller used who gave the car a clean bill of health. She went to the bank, got a loan for nearly $20,000 and bought the car. A few days later, she took...more