Help Your Customers Understand How To Buy A Used Car Part III

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Used cars

In educating your customers, you have to be cognizant of the fact that they know very little about what they are doing and they are trusting you because you have worked on or in the middle of working on their vehicles. Help them to understand by explaining what this means to buy a certified pre-owned vehicle. You may even want to create a brochure that briefly covers what is means to own or buy a certified pre-owned car.Owning a CPO car removes a lot of the guesswork about the vehicle’s mechanical condition.  

Let them know that most new cars come with a three year/36,000 mile warranty. Therefore, if you buy a car that is from 1-3 years old, with fewer than 36,000 miles on the odometer, it will still be under the factory warranty. 

You can also help your customer by suggesting that they use an Affordability Calculator to help them with their process. Also, let them know that if they found a car they are interested in at a local dealership and it’s online, when setting up an appointment to go see the car, ask for the VIN so that you can get a report for the car before even showing up for their appointment.

Finally, tell your customer to stay firm on their negotiations, there will be others with more experience closing, under a different title, that will try to make the customer buy extra packages and even say that the original salesperson gave a non-authorized low price and they simply cannot sale it at that low price. Say Sorry and stand firm.

Next, set up an appointment to come and take a look at the car. There are many services you can offer that the customer may need. If there are no obvious dents, which there will be, you could also offer auto detailing, odor removal, interior repair, windshield repair, carpet dying, paint chip repair, headlight renewal and more. If this is their first car or it’s a car for a family member, you can up-sell these products easier than you can imagine. Helping them, will help you.

Help Your Customers Understand How To Buy A Used Car Part II

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Buying a used car can be very tricky if you don’t understand what to look for and what to watch out for, The value of a used car is based on its condition, mileage, reliability, performance, and popularity.When speaking of the condition, you have to be certain that there is no permanent body damage, meaning is the frame tweaked? This would be very important to anyone. All other body damage is something you can work on for the customer as long as it’s minimal. Large dents may in fact need to go to the body shop.

Your customers need to spend the time researching the car before purchasing it. There are a few tools available to the prospective owner; one is TCO which is the True Cost to Own, TCO information is not available for all cars. Another such tool is True Market Value (TMV) pricing. TMV pricing is based on sales figures of similar cars across the country.

Running a vehicle history report on any used car you are considering buying is a must. Several companies sell these reports, which are based on the VIN. AutoCheck and Carfax seem to be the most comprehensive. With that said, Carfax has come under fire lately because of falsified reports. Now, not only do you have to check the car out, but you need to run a check on the companies giving you the report. If you have to pay $25-$50 for this report, then make sure the information is true and correct.

These type of reports can reveal vital information including whether the vehicle has a salvage title, which would mean that the car has been declared a total loss by the insurance company, or if the odometer has been rolled back. This is a pretty good time to decide if you want a certified pre-owned (CPO) car. 

Follow me to Part III and we will finish up with how to help your customers understand how to buy a used car.

Help Your Customers Understand How To Buy A Used Car Part I

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Buying a used car can compare to walking through a mine field. You have to pay attention to where you are stepping and have to be hyper-alert to what you are being told. So how does your customer locate, price and negotiate for a used car? Understanding these the questions and then providing the answers could very well set you up for all future work on a used care. Not to mention, if you’re planning on working at a used car dealership, this information could be valuable to you. Understanding how a dealership operates will prove useful for both you and your customer. If you have ever bought a used car or are thinking about buying one, these are things that you probably never considered, but should. 

Buying a used car is generally a very smart decision. You can get an almost new car that’s very close to perfect without having to suffer the depreciation of the car when first leaving the the lot with a new car. You can find a car that is only a year old that is now 20-30 percent cheaper than a year earlier in its brand-new state. There are more good reasons for buying a used car from a used car dealership:

  • The money that you save on insurance alone is worth buying used
  • If you shop smart, the possibilities of finding an amazing bargain are greater
  • Used cars are far more reliable than ever before (We’ll talk about that later)
  • Some of the used cars are still covered by the factory warranty
  • Most, if not all, used car dealerships now have to sell certified used cars, which includes warranties (More on this later)
  • You can track the vehicle history by using the vehicle identification number (VIN)
  • Buying from a private party is extremely risky but less stressful

Follow me to Part II to learn more about used car risks and values.