Sort of...in a if I squint my eyes and hold my mouth like this kind of way.

 

keep us posted

 

i HATE the gillman guys. went to the one JUST north of SA (not san marcos) and they gave me the biggest run-around EVER. it freakin sucked. i hate them. look elsewhere. manny villereal in Victoria can probably hook you up (dealership Whoosh was talkin about)

 

Thought I might add my .02.

I stopped by the Austin Gillman; they didn’t have any EVO’s. Sales person seemed cool, but the sales manager was a jerk.

Next stop was the dealer down the road in San Marcos. I spoke for a while to the sales manager. He thought I was out of my mind asking for below invoice pricing on an Evo. I told him I might be, but I would probably find someone willing to deal.

Last stop was the Gillman in Shertz (SA). The sales manager was nice enough to do most of the negotiating face-to-face (normally unheard of in this industry). He read me well, and understood that I was looking to buy TODAY if he would lower his price. As it was a slow day (Rita in the news), he agreed to invoice price!

While I did catch him (sales manager) in a one lie (about the extended warranty price) my overall experience was good. I don’t claim to have bought my Evo at the best price available, but considering only two were left in my general region, invoice pricing is pretty good.

All in all, I don’t think it would be fair to label Gillman “bad” based upon one or two sales managers… they do after all have many Mitsubishi dealerships in Texas.

PS… I thought I might add: The extended warranty (10 years/100K miles) that Gillman offers can be sold as low as $850. That was the “one lie” I caught. The sales manager said his cost was $1050. Just thought I’d add that so you know when the next person buys, he can get it the same deal.

 

I talked to a salesman at Gillman (Schertz) today about the IX's. I asked him when they were getting them. He said the end of November. And get this, he said there wasn't going to be a difference between the VIII and IX---nothing at all. He told me I should get one of their last 2 VIII's instead. I said no thanks and hung up. What an idiot.

 

That's a good sign you can buy one of those VIII's below invoice.

 

That's alright, I have a IX MR on order with another dealership in SA.

 

i think i may call the gillman who said no difference b/w VIII's and IX's and talk to them. just for kicks. ask about MIVEC, front bumper, 286/289, 4.4, blah blah blah.... if i do, i'll report back. hee hee

 

Guys & Gals,

I hope I dont seem like the *** here when I say what I am fixing to say, but after reading the barage of replies and responses I have to say something.

I am the Internet Director for Gillman Mitsubishi of San Marcos! I am here to make money (not your life savings and not your first born). Any business in the entire world is in business to make a profit. If you dont make a profit then you wont be in business. Enough said!

First, I know salepeople have this terrible reputation in the eyes of customers. You guys have a right to feel that way, because there are some bad apples out there. Just like some of you Evo owners race your cars, void your warranties, and then come back and complain to the dealership about your warranty being voided due to an aftermarket installation where the part (or installation of the said part) went bad. I understand your frustration and so does the service department (believe it or not). Now please understand mine:

I did not get into this business to rip people off, screw them on their trades, insult their intelligence, etc. I got into this business to make an honest and decent living for myself and my family. I got into this business to help people! I want to help! Due to the reputation that "salespeople" are given, this has proven to be a difficult task in the past 2.5 years at my dealership. I am always questioned about price, price, price, price, price. Followed by "my car is worth more than that"!

Bottom line, I understand where you guys are coming from. Let us face the truth it is hard to trust someone that is selling you the second largest purchase you will ever make in your life. If you do not do your homework and get a bad salesperson then you will definately get shafted. Although this is the case, I would like to bring a couple of points to light:

1.) The Automotive (and related industries) and Real Estate (ask that guy that sold you your last house how much he made off of you. I bet is was more than $250.00 which by the way is the national average on a car sale. That is right the average salesperson makes $250 for each car he or she sells. I have personally made as much as $1,200 (only one time in the 2.5 years I have sold cars) and as little as $50.00. Realestate people make an average of $5000 per home they sell) are the last two industries left that you can negotiate price.

Ask yourself this question: Would you like there to just be one price that the dealership or manufacturer sets on each and every vehicle and that is the price you pay?

2.) Do you go into WalMart and ask to pay $250.00 for that television that is marked $450.00? If you have did you ever get what you wanted? Do we go to the grocery store and say "I am not paying $3.59 for that gallon of milk, I want it at your cost"? No we dont, because that would be unreasonable and the grocery store would go out of business.

Secondly, you guys are trying to purchase one the most exciting, reliable, inexpensive, attractive, etc. sports compact in the marketplace. These cars are in extremely high demand (go find out what a Chevy dealer owns a Corvette for and what kind of mark up they have) and the supply is limited. We all know how supply and demand works.

Let me just say this: If you can buy one of these EVO's for $1.00 under MSRP, then pat yourself on the back buddy cause that salesperson didnt make more than $250.00 to take home to his wife and kids for 1-5 hours worth of negotiations. You really won! The mark up on EVO's is about $950 - $1200 from invoice to MSRP! That is the gods honest truth! If you dont believe me I will be happy to show you an invoice when you come buy your next EVO from Gillman Mitsubishi in San Marcos.

Let us now address the trade in issue! As dealerships, your modifications are not a postitive improvement to your vehicle (at least for us). Imagine after you complete your transaction and 3 days down the road, a customer comes to look at your modified Toyota Celica that has been road hard and put up wet with about $3,500 - $5,000 in aftermarket additions that have voided factory warranty. This customer wants to buy your car from me for what KELLY BLUE BOOK says it is worth on trade in value (which by the way is what you demanded for your vehicle when we traded it). Now this customer says that he didnt ask for all of those modifications and that he actually doesnt want to pay for them.

Do you see the dealership side yet?

The definition of a "good deal" is : when value exceeds price.

By the way folks, Kelly Blue Book and NADA trade values are just a guide and do not dictate what the actual true market value for your vehicle is. IF you want a more accurate estimate of what your car is REALLY worth, then go to www.manheim.com, which is one of the largest auto auctions in TEXAS. Type in your year, make, model, and miles and you will see what you can expect (truly) from a dealership. Why? Because we have to detail your trade, fix anything that is broken, advertise your trade, etc. There are tons of costs that the average consumer is not aware of!

Some of the others gave you great advice! Work out the details of the price and trade first. Money down and financing will work out in the end. There are plenty of payment calculators on the internet or at your banks web site. All of the information is out there for you folks, just remember that the dealership is going to try to make a profit (on an EVO they will not sell one if they dont period). They wouldnt be doing their job if they didnt! They want to sell you a car! They want you to be happy!

I promise, we dont sit around and dream up new and exciting ways to stick it to our customers. In fact, we try to figure out how to educate our customers and help them understand our position.

In conclusion, I hope I did not offend anyone who reads this, because that was not my objective. My objective was to give you a salespersons point of view and help you purchase your next vehicle. In fact, if any of you need any assistance in negotiating or purchasing a car, please email me and I will be happy to assist you.

P.S. Gillman Mitsubishi of San Marcos is one of the best dealerships to buy your next EVO or any Mitsubishi. We are fair, honest, and really would like to help you! We also offer $17.95 oil changes on most makes and models!

Look forward to seeing you all in our sales and service department soon!

Best regards,

 

Mark--although part of the discussion is about price and how to negotiate, most will agree the negative things said about dealerships in this thread and others center around dishonesty and a lack of ethics. I'm a total capitalist and I realize dealerships need to make a profit but they also need to play fairly.

I bought a CRV for my wife at $500 above invoice at Classic Honda and had an infinitely better experience than I did at Gillman in Austin...even though my Evo was $5,000 under sticker. I refuse to do business with somebody who lies, no matter how good his price. I'm not implying anything about you or your dealership in San Marcos. You may be the best in the country. I'm just telling you what happened to me at Gillman Austin.

 

Mark,

I understand what you are saying. But I have to make a few observations on your post. If you are comparing real estate to autos, you need to make sure you're comparing either, actual agents to salespeople, or agencies to delaerships, not agencies to salespeople. like you inferred. Real estate agents rarely get the full brokerage fee when they dale a house, just like salespeople rarely get the full profit off a new car sale. I recently sold my house and had a $8K fee to the agency. They agent only received about a 10% commission off this. Not bad I agree, but nowhere near the $5K you suggested. Also you said EVOs are only marked up $950-1200 from invoice. Well let's look at msrp and invoice. MSRP is $36,894 and invoice is $34,727. This gives us a difference of $2167. Now that we're talking numbers, don't forget about other factors such as holdback(appr. 3% of vehicle price), and cash back to the dealer for certain financing deals. Let's not make the dealer out to be some altruistic entity that makes very little on any deal. If that was the case, then they wouldn't be in business for long. What most guys on here are talking about is getting the run around, being told one thing and then getting another just before signing, or worse, a few days later (i.e. oh you're interest rate changed, forgot to tell you). It has and does happen. As for the trade-in, for the most part I don't have a problem with what you said, but a "fair deal" as you said it should go both ways. Plese don't lowball me on the value of my car, I have and will walk out because of this. I'll be more than happy to settle on a price with you before I even come into the dealership to keep you from having to spend so much time working with me. That way you can make more per hour than you stated. I'm not mad at all about what you said. You have a right to give us your point of view, but let's lay all the facts on the table and compare apples to apples. I'm not mad and anything you said, just wanted to clarify a few things.

Kelly

 

I meant Classic in Round Rock and it was the Sales Manager who caused the problems. Anyway, I'll keep you in mind if I ever get the Evo X.

 

Went to Gillman SW Houston yesterday and the parts guy tried to sell me a quart of Mobil 1 syn 10w 30 for $11.95 .......................


Mario

 

Kelly,

You make some great points here! I agree with most of what you are saying.


When you talk about holdback and dealer cash you are right we do make money there but those areas are not designed for the customer to negotiate in. On some deals you make a decent profit on others you may "loose" money. The holdback and dealer cash (if available) is designed to balance out your "loser" deals to keep your average front end gross profit above the "you're fired" level.

I appreciate the fact that we can have an intelligent conversation and not get frustrated or angry with one another! Thank you for your input and sharing your feelings. I like to understand where my customers (or hopefully future customers) are coming from!

By the way my General Manager is going to put together a pricing list for 2006 EVO IX's that will be a special for forum customers only! You guys and gals get ready because Gillman Mitsubishi of San Marcos is leaning to become an Evo, Eclipse, and Raider store.

I hope I can help you all accomplish your goals and service your automotive needs.



Best regards,

 

I hate Gillman SW. That's where i bought my Evo, but i don't plan on going back there for any type of service.