Advertising based on a Lie

I was listening to the radio when a commercial caught my attention, a local Nissan dealership was advertising that their prices were so good that Americans were coming here to buy. With the Canadian dollar being at par with the US dollar many Canadians are going south to buy a car at a better price. So, cross boarder shopping is a huge issue for local dealerships. I thought I'd jump on the information highway to see if they were telling the truth.

I checked a few models and the Canadian vehicles were priced 8-10K more. Now I do realize that features can change the price of a vehicle making it difficult to compare them directly but 8-10K? I was comparing the cheapest model in inventory with the cheapest model in inventory in the US dealership.

I may not have had the right model, sometimes its only one model that's on sale. Nothing drives me nuts more trying to figure out what the real price of a car is going to be. I am not in the market for a new car, in fact, since my husband is a mechanic, there is no point in me owning a new car.

I think the whole automotive industry needs to revamp itself and reinvent it's policies in marketing and advertising. Their image is so tainted and their way of doing business so out of date that if one dealership changed their manner of doing business they would start people talking. Can you imagine if you walked onto a car lot and everyone in the dealership was there to make your buying expereince easier, simpler and more honest? Would you tell your friends about the dealership?

The old way of doing business doesn't make sense in today's information age. Most people know more then the salesman and don't need someone selling them on a car, their already sold on it. What if every salesperson wasn't a sales person but a service person paid by salary not commission? How do you think your buying experience would change? What if you got exactly what you expected when you walked in the door? NO BS, no back peddling, by the salesperson to explain the advertisement that brought you in and how you didn't qualify or that wasn't the car you wanted.

In a dealership the sales people are treated like gold and are given lots of extra incentives and perks. The service people are treated like second hand citizens and receive little in way of perks and incentives. Which department is more important to the owner? Which department is more important to the customer? If one dealership owner took the initiative to change the structure of the dealership and committed to it for a decent amount of time to allow the story to spread, that dealership would be the busiest in the city.