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Almost everyone I know has a story about at least one bad experience at a car dealership and it is interesting to look at some of the things they will do to try to make a sale. I can remember hearing about someone having the keys to their car thrown on the roof of the dealership so they couldn’t leave, granted that was a while ago.

Most dealerships have rigid sales systems that they follow to ensure that they get the highest profits and close as many sales as they possibly can. One of the main components of the system is the salesman. In case you didn’t know it, the reason these salespeople will fight for an hour over $100 is because they typically receive 20-35% of it as commission for making the sale! This is also the reason why YOU must be educated and look out for yourself because the salesman is definitely looking out for themselves.

Dealerships spend thousands of dollars on training systems to teach salespeople all the closing techniques and “tricks” to turn shoppers into buyers and increase profits. There is a multi-million dollar industry in training automotive sales people. These companies usually come to the dealership and teach salespeople through audio, videos, and seminars and many guarantee results to the dealership so they are confident in their methods.

One thing that many dealers are trying to do now to get past the old image of the car salesman is to have the salesperson present themselves as a “trusted advisor”. You need to always remember that almost all dealers still pay their salespeople by commission with the exception of Saturn, and even those that pay a flat rate usually pay bonuses for more sales so they still have something to gain to get the sale. Don’t trust the car salesman, that would be like letting the fox in the henhouse!

Another key part of the system is the advertising. I am sure you see tons of advertising in your area from car dealers. They usually dominate local Sunday papers and the visions of the screaming car dealer on TV will stay with us forever. It is quite obvious that these businesses make a lot of money; otherwise they could not spend so much on advertising. One of the tricks that they still use that is amazing to me is the old bait and switch. That’s where they will have an ad in the paper with a car at a super low price and then in tiny print it they list a stock number and says only one available at this price. You go to the dealer and it has already been sold. Don’t get taken by this.

Hopefully this has helped you to see some of the tactics used by auto dealers.

Gregg Hall is a business consultant and author for many online and offline businesses and lives in Navarre Florida with his 16 year old son. For great car care products for your car go to http://www.stopwaxing.com

Claiming any one new sports car is the most affordable is a great way to start an endless debate. Even if the list price of a particular sports car is less than its competitors, a forthcoming model is likely to sneak in at a few dollars less. Meanwhile, limiting discussion to current models overlooks the truly most affordable sports cars-used models.

Used sports cars can be bargains, particularly older models from less glamorous manufacturers. Fiat sports cars from the 1970s, for instance, can often be found in running condition for under a few thousand dollars. Any sports club car membership will undoubtedly boast scores of stories detailing great bargains found from individual owners on classic sports cars that are more coveted by collectors, too.

If you are looking for a truly affordable sports car and are not intimidated by the prospect of the necessary maintenance issues inherent in older models, you should certainly seek out a used sports car.

There are a variety of ways to find affordable sports cars. The traditional method of looking through your local classified newspaper advertisements on a regular basis can still yield amazing values. Sellers are motivated to part with their sports cars for a variety of reasons and sometimes their needs can be immediate. This will encourage them to sell the car at prices sometimes well beneath market value. Bargain hunting via classified advertisements is a great way to stumble upon a real bargain sports car.

Mechanics can be a great source of bargain cars, too. Often, customers will leave a sports car for work at an auto shop. Once repairs are completed, they will be unable to afford the repair bill and may be forced to default the car to the shop. Mechanics acquire liens on the vehicles and are able to offer them for sale. Mechanics are experts in repairing vehicles and are primarily interested in maintaining cars-not in selling them. A mechanic holding an abandoned vehicle still lacks payment for the work performed, too. As such, these cars can often be purchased at bargain rates. As an additional benefit, buying from a mechanic may indicate the car has had any known problems already repaired. At the very least, you will have a great source of information about the car’s mechanical status-a benefit frequently missing from other bargain sources.

Internet auctions also provide an outlet for sports car bargain-hunters. The auction market is always tricky-sometimes a car may actually sell for far more than one would think it was actually worth. In other cases, there may be a window of opportunity to snag a used sports car at an amazing price. Poorly timed auctions or auctions that do not feature a highly sought after made or model of car can result in very low prices.

Of course the bargain shopper needs to enter the market well informed. Many seemingly great deals can really be busts for a buyer if they are not sufficiently educated. However, affordable sports cars are out there on the market-one need only find them.

Classified advertisements, repair shops and internet auctions are all great opportunities to find a sports car at a bargain price. One need not resign themselves to the prospect of paying top dollar for a sports car. By choosing less popular models, or simply by hunting out great deals, a prospective buyer can save literally thousands of dollars on their sports car purchase.

Gregg Hall is a business consultant and author for many online and offline businesses and lives in Navarre Florida with his 16 year old son. For quality car care products go to http://www.5starshine.com

If you drive up to a car dealership in the vehicle you intend to trade you are setting yourself up to be taken, unless you have done your research first. One of the first things a salesperson will want to know is whether you are trading or not. The reason for this is so they will know what they have to work with as they are showing you vehicles. This is especially dangerous if you are looking at a used vehicle since there is generally no price displayed so they can name whatever price they want.

In order to be sure you aren’t being taken on a trade in you should do a couple of things first. If you go to Kelly Blue Book online and honestly input the information on your vehicle you will get a fairly good representation for what it is worth. The dealer will give you somewhere between loan and trade in value depending on what kind of vehicle you have. The other thing to do is to take your car around to several dealers and tell them you want to sell it outright and get them to give you a price they would buy it for. This will usually be a bit lower than what you could actually get on a trade in but this in combination with the internet research will keep you from getting totally robbed.

The other thing to take into consideration in deciding whether or not to trade is the tax implications. In most states there is a sales tax on vehicles which can be substantial. If your trade in is a fairly new model it may be more beneficial to trade due to the tax benefit (You are only taxed on the difference). If you have an older vehicle you may get more money by selling it outright. In either case, you will usually get more money by selling the vehicle yourself. You have to see what you can get and weigh the benefits of selling it yourself versus the benefit of the tax savings.

Have your vehicle detailed. It will usually cost you around $100 or so to have your vehicle professionally detailed but it can get you several hundred more dollars in trade in or resell value. As a former car appraiser and buyer myself I can tell you, the cleanliness and appearance of a car is very influential in the price given for it. I have appraised cars that I wouldn’t even sit in because they were so filthy and yet once we cleaned them we made a fortune on them because they were worth far more than I paid. I will say it again; get your vehicle professionally detailed.

Gregg Hall is a business consultant and author for many online and offline businesses and lives in Navarre Florida with his 16 year old son. For patented quality car care products for your vehicle go to http://www.carcarewizards.com

Ask anyone what a sports car is and they will probably invent an answer. Ask a dozen different people the same question and they will probably provide a dozen different answers. There are a variety of ways to define what constitutes an actual sports car. With no standardized definition available within the industry, the term “sports car” is without certain meaning.

Originally, it was easy to differentiate between a sports car and a regular production automobile. If a regular person could buy it, it wasn’t a sports car. Sports cars were toys for the extremely rich and automobile-obsessed. They are also used primarily in situations that represented a radical departure from conventional driving. Road races, rallies and other competitions were the home of the sports car as manufacturers and designers went head to head, testing their newest technological advances and inventive ideas.

These sports cars were almost always designed for a single driver and no additional passengers. Occasionally a “co-pilots” seat might have been added. The notion of a backseat made little sense considering the purposes for which the cars were being used. They tended to be extremely small and exceptionally faster than most regularly produced cars.

This historical moment gave birth to a notion of the sports car that survives today among many automotive enthusiasts. These traditionalists will consider a car a sports car only if it is a two-seater and designed for racing.

This perspective was antiquated somewhat by the post-war experience in the United States and elsewhere. Cars based upon the test car technologies began to make their way into the garages of the public. With a more mainstream audience, some changes were made to the traditional sports car, including the frequent addition of a small back seat.

As time passed, sports cars slowly grew and the technologies pioneered by sports cars found their way into vehicles, which were not undersized or built for racing.

In the 1960s, John Delorean decided to drop a large V8 into a Pontiac Tempest. His new invention, the GTO, ushered in the muscle car era. Purists might argue the American muscle cars were not sports cars, but simply cars making use of sports car refinements. The distinction however, began to become lost in regular conversation and “sports car” began to refer to any fast or high-performance vehicle.

The line becomes increasingly blurred with every year. Traditional sports cars are becoming increasingly rare as automakers recognize a need to maintain some level of functionality if they are to entice buyers. The innovations spurred by traditional sports cars are being adopted into vehicles of every size and shape. While traditional racing style sports cars are maintained in many product lines and though some boutique manufacturers still focus their efforts on small high-speed cars, it is impossible to ignore the “crossover” appeal of many traditional sports car features.

Some may say there are sports cars, sporty cars and sporting cars and that they are all different things. To the average person, however, they blend into one.

Which cars are sports cars? Today, it’s hard to tell. You can be a hardliner and say only the racing-based two-seaters qualify, or you can be liberal in your interpretation and proclaim all high-performance vehicles sports cars. Either way, you’d probably be right.

Gregg Hall is a business consultant and author for many online and offline businesses and lives in Navarre Florida with his 16 year old son. Get quality car care products from http://www.5starshine.com

You may be interested in purchasing a used sports car, but may have concerns associated with the deal. A new car purchase, after all, includes warranties and assurances that reduce your need to be concerned with potential later problems. Additionally, a never-used car cannot suffer from any past damage or misuse.

New cars are wonderful, of course, but there is something special about older models. In the sports car realm, many older automobiles are very coveted collectible items and have surprising value. Sports car aficionados recognize quality and seek to preserve it.

Although one can never be sure they will pick a winner and not a lemon, there is a two-pronged approach that should be followed: Research and Investigation. Research refers to gathering background information on the vehicle make and mode. Investigation refers to carefully evaluating the automobile itself.

Research

Research the car in question. Research it thoroughly. Yes, consult the Blue Book and determine its estimated value, but don’t stop there. Find out what kind of problems the car in question most often experiences. Find out what telltale signs of problems might be evidenced in a used version. Learn the car inside and out before making the deal.You can perform this research at the library, via the internet, by discussing the matter with experts and experienced professionals or through any other number of potential means. Your research methodology is not as important as your research results. You need to know what to look for and what the car is probably worth before making an offer.

Make notes and formulate a checklist of things you will want to investigate on the car you are considering. Take your notes with you along with any questions you might have for the owner that have been spurred by your research.

Investigate

Knowing about the car in general terms is essential. Your research has provided you with a great overall perspective on the make and model you are evaluating and you have an idea of what to look for. Now, it is time to take the next step and investigate the car being sold.

Ask to see service records. If you are very interested, invest in obtaining a CarFax or similar vehicle history report. Find out everything you can about the car you might be buying.

Your investigation is not just a matter of pushing papers, however. Now is the time to put your knowledge to work. Physically inspect the car closely, noting deficiencies that will require repair work, and paying close attention to any areas your earlier research indicated might be troublesome. When test-driving the car, keep your mind on specific issues and problems you know to be common or possible with the car.

Don’t rely on your own investigation alone. Get a second opinion. Find a mechanic who specializes in working with the type of car you are considering and take the car to them for an inspection if it passes your initial check. The seller should be happy to let you do this. If he or she is not, that should be considered a warning that all might not be well with the car. A mechanic may or may not charge for a once-over on the auto. However, if there is a nominal charge involved it will be well worth the expense if it helps you avoid a horrible purchase.

If your research indicates it is a sports car with which you could be happy and your investigation shows it is free of visible problems, the buying process can proceed. It’s at this point that one begins to discuss price. If your research implies this may not be the right kind of sports car for you and/or your investigation shows problems with the vehicles that are in excess of your willingness to undertake repairs, you should not buy the car.

If your research and investigation lead you to avoid a car, it will seem as if you learned a great deal for very little. In reality, however, your effort not only increased your knowledge base for future car shopping but also may have saved you from a nightmarish investment.

When considering a used car purchase, always be sure to emphasize both research and investigation.

Gregg Hall is a business consultant and author for many online and offline businesses and lives in Navarre Florida with his 16 year old son. Get car care products from http://www.5starshine.com