You know, I don't support massive dealer mark-ups in any way, but a bit of reality does intrude here. Supply looks to be outstripped by demand by quite a bit. And when there is less supply than demand, prices do go up.

The problem here is that if the dealer is honest and sells all of their Evo's at only a modest profit - a large percentage of lucky buyers that did get them at that cost will turn around and resell them for a quick 5-10k profit. That's happened with quite a few hot car launches in the past, and will continue to happen in the future.

So on one side, you feel ripped off because of the high markups. But when the dealer who has invested the millions of dollars to open this business sees their customers buying the car and then turning around and reselling it for a profit, they too are frustrated.

There is no easy answer to all of this. I would suggest that people wait a bit for the initial frenzy to die down, there's no sense in doing something you really don't want to do just so you can be the first on the block with an Evo. For a 10 grand markup, you can buy yourself a fun, used Miata to drive around for the next year, have money left over, and then resell it and get most of your money back to buy a Evo at list with.

Cheers,

Paul Hansen

 

Jay,

Why shouldn't we be mad at the dealers? It's just plain old fashioned greed dude ! Are you all feeling the pinch of a sluggish economy that bad dude? You're realing running the risk of driving some of you sales over to the Subaru dealerships! Any one who's lived in a capitalist nation for 15 minutes understands supply and demand, but 33% mark up on what is essentially an economy car based hot rod is what's normally known as "price gouging" or even extortion. You or any one else wouldn't even consider going to a retail store and paying 33% more than what's on the price tag for any other product.

Your dealing w/ an informed public here ( I hope ) and anyone willing to pay 10,000 over MSRP just proves the axiom, "A fool and his money . . . " Besides, charging this exhorbedent mark up will just give those of us who would be leary about buying an essentially new model in it's first year of production another reason to wait at least one year to buy.

I agree w/ MyCre8n, we might as well wait for the AYC/ACD in the following year as well as a decent price and to see that any production/design issues be worked out. This is not a limited supply or even limited production it's merely the same thing that happens when a manufacturer ramps up a new, highly anticipated model. Demand always intially outstrips supply and then catches up in the second year of production.

What you and most other dealers have seem to forgotten is that most people have a car when they show up at the lot. Virtually no one walks or takes the bus to a car dealership and is desperate to buy that day. Thanks for giving us one more reason to wait, Jay.

 

This Jay character is just a product of being an employee at a greedy dealership. He actually buys into his bosses "supply and demand" rationalization for price gouging customers. And of course he'll buy in to that ideal, he as a salesperson stands to make a good bit more commission on an Evo sale if the car is sold above MSRP.

But the problem with the Supply and demand theory here is simple. You have to be able to quantify the supply and the demand in some rational means before you can judge how each relates to the pricing of a product.

In the case of the Evo, we have a fairly strong idea of the supply that will be available, but no quantifiable idea of the demand for the product.

So dealerships do the knee jerk thing, when they think demand will be high....they jack up the prices really high at launch to see what people will pay.

Dealerships in most areas will quickly realize that at a $5-10k mark-up above MSRP, there will be few buyers for their Evos. Because at $35-40K, there are many more appealing auto purchase options than the dusty Evo sitting in their showroom.

SC~ who will not pay over MSRP

 

Personally, I know a little about mark-ups and customer loyalty workin in retail for the last five years. I'm now a sales manager at a CompUSA. It is the dealer's "right" to abuse the price market. But just because they have the "right" doesn't mean that they have to. Profits mean alot, especially when dealing with a hot item, but it means **** if you don't have customer loyalty. You give me a dealer who forces me into 10K over and you give me a dealer who I will go out of my way to make sure they don't get mine or anyone I know's business. My store thrives off the fact that I have given gracious discounts to customers in hope that they would return. I have had a $28,000 solely from the fact that I had previously given the customer a deal on a printer. Granted it's not the same market but in a capiltalist society the structure applies to all situations. Basically dealers, you can charge over if you want, personally I think it's even as far as an issue of morals. I look down upon the dealers who gouge like this. I think everyone else should too. Dealers, FYI, you can do this, and you will probably sell those Evos but don't expect to get any of those customers back for anything ever again. But then again just being the consumers who buy your product and patron your stores what do we know, what do our opinions matter if you can make an extra buck??

 

Your theory is based on the false assumption that price = customer satisfaction, which couldn't be furthest from the truth. I generally get the lowest survey scores from the customers who got "the best deal."

It's about perception, not price.

Suppose for a moment the EVO comes out price right at $30,000 only there is no sticker on the window so you don't know it's $30k. If the retailer tells you its actually $32k and you have no way of knowing any different, would you still percieve the product as a good value?

 

I'll just buy an old muscle car for about 3 grand then rebuild it and enjoy a car that will be increasing in value rather than depreciating. Screw

 

Ain't that the truth. And then people who I sell who pay full sticker, but have iffy credit are mainly glad that I was able to get them into the car they wanted and send me referrals and are very grateful. While those that break me down to pennies over invoice, internet price matching, invoice up buyers are the ones that are never satisfied. Price most certainly does NOT equal customer satisifaction.

 

As soon as I found out that the actual MSRP was 30K then I would be pissed and there would be many avenues to express my dissatisfaction with that dealer. As for stating that "there would be no way of knowing any different", that's not going to happen. Today's consumer is way to educated to not know basic values. And further if the dealer tells you that the MSRP is 32k when it is actually 30k then that plain and simple is fraud. Now Mark I know you are a dealer and I know you guys catch a lot of grief but some of it is deserved. I am not saying all of it is deserved as there are dealers that provide a rewarding buying experience for the buyer. But too many times you hear about some poor schlub who gets taken by a dealer. I know that you will probably say that for every one of those there are a dozen that don't complain, but who yells the loudest.

I would hate to be the jackass that buys the EVO for 10k over sticker drives it off the lot, totals it and has the insurance company get the chance to rape him too.

 

This is just all heresay and conjecture on my part but....

The ones who got the best deal from you likely had to endure some sort of bartering process between you, him and some sales manager. You were likely getting mad and a bit frustrated that you couldn't close the deal easily and that the lowering of the price was eating into your commission. Frustration and anger bleads into a persons mannerisms very easily....no matter how hard you try to hide them. The customer was also likely angered and frustrated that you weren't going low enough to a price he felt comfortable with.

The bartering process creates alot of anxiety. Anxiety can easily lead to anger. Anger leads to discontent. If a person is angered or discontent when he leaves the dealership with his new car, you are very likely to get a low rating....and you are not likely to ever see that person again as a customer.

 

Mark F,

Actually, legally dealers are required to list on the window sticker, the MSRP price and the cost of any additional options on the car. So they can't just say this is the price of the car. In my experience, you look at the sticker and go up to them to find out that they have a mark up. Usually they don't list the mark up on the window.

 

Although this was directed at Mark, I want a crack at it too. Whenever somebody comes in and wants to "deal." the first thing I tell them is that if they offer me a fair profit over my COST they can have it. I show them my invoice and ask for their offer. All the stress is created by the buyer who is unwilling to accept the fact that I have a cost, and must have a profit over it to stay in business. Profit is not a dirty word. There is no berating or back and forth with me.

 

key word "profit"

dealer paying invoice

sale at msrp and sale interest rate to coustomer

thats' alredy profit

jack up the msrp and put a " market adjustment vaule "

i call that gredd not profit

so keep your words to yrouself

i'm sure ppl will go else where instead payig 38k for it

notice the "true" evo from japan by ai with titan. turbo is only 40's

so why ppl want to pay 10k more for a detuned us spec when they can buy the real thing

and you got the ***** to explain on here? LOL

i admire your courage but then i gotta take you down

 

All I have to say is more power to you if you can find a rich sucker willing to shell out $10k over MSRP. But remember the whole supply and demand thing. Cause you will be supplying something at a cost people dont want to spend, therefore the demand goes down. I'll wait for the price to come back to MSRP, but then again, if you take too long to do it, you might just find me waiting over at Subaru instead.

 

...why doesn't one of you "evo hopefuls" make an initiative
of contacting Mitsu HQ and just inquire of this dealership issue
and see if they can do something about it

 

this is a free marketing country it is not china " this is where communist is good "

well communist suck tho

so mitsu cant' really control how much the dealer want to sale