Have I Got a Deal for You!
By Jane Flaherty, Sr. Consultant
Working as a consultant, I spend a considerable amount of time in my car. Recently, my old “beast of burden” topped 128,000 miles and started indicating–through a series of sputters, screeches and occasional “pops”–that it was time for me to buy a new car. And did I have a dream car in mind–a midsize, sporty, two-door convertible!
Having recently co-authored a book on negotiation, I felt perfectly ready to negotiate a great deal. So on a sunny Saturday morning, full of excitement, I drove to the nearest car dealer. A salesman immediately approached me. Full of smiles, he eagerly shook my hand and introduced himself as Mike. In hand, I had a newspaper ad clearly displaying my dream car at a most attractive price. When Mike saw the ad, a look of deep disappointment crossed his face as he said, “That baby left the lot just last night. It was a sweet deal that was almost too good to be true. While we don’t have that car at that price, we have some great buys on several similar models. Let me show you.”
Okay, I’d already fallen victim to the old “bait and switch” tactic. I spent the next hour looking at various models with Mike, becoming more confused as the hour wore on. Although the dealer had several similar models, the prices were far more than the price for the car in the ad. Yet the advertised car had been touted as “top of the line.” If it was top of the line, why were models with fewer features selling for more? Plus, the more cars we looked at, the further away we were getting from my dream car. At the end of the hour, I was rapidly losing interest in my quest. Sensing this, Mike made a last-ditch effort, saying, “If we could knock $1,000 off the sticker price of this model, would you take it today?” Insisting that I needed more time to make such an important decision, I fled the lot.
