Edmunds Moderators

That is deliberate. they want to keep you there as long as possible and grind you down.

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It comes up a couple times a year. I even posted the link to an entire discussion from last year, yesterday. Nothing has changed since then. It’s unlikely that it will ever change.

We are lucky to get it at all, through whatever kabuki dance is possible. If you haven’t PMed the Edmunds Mods and offered to send them a gift (which they likely will graciously decline), that’s a better place to focus that attention.

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Think about many millions of people just walk in and buy a car without knowing what a good deal is.

I didn’t know where a MF came from other than a black binder at a dealer. Didn’t know it was negotiable and they could mark it up. Thought it was all standard from the bank is what I was told.

Less info to the consumer means more money for the dealers.

Imagine if commercials and advertisements had the base MF and residuals on all their leases how many more people would ask their dealer to match those figures.

This business has very little regulation and it’s like walking into a pawn shop or flea market trying to buy a car.

A broker is the way to go if you can use one. Keeps the deal straight without dealing with sharks.

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You have to become a member and give your email address to them. This way they have more members and email addresses. Which leads to more money and more ads.

It’s not about being simple or not. Maybe those guys work from Jamaica with endless :tropical_drink: :diya_lamp: who knows :grinning:

I say they’re both Nigerian princes… and everyone usually gets emails from them once a day

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Maybe having Michaell and Kyfdx manually respond keeps the webpage hits up and generates ad revenue?

I couldn’t agree more. My comment was directed towards the statement about antiquated dealer technology. Edmunds is great.

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Do you know how much those cost? They’re about $150-$200k EACH . If you ever see that in a dealership you know that the principal owner of that store shelled out that cash to get that .

I signed on one of those fancy table screens at a Chevy dealership a few years ago. I didn’t know until recently how much they actually cost.

BMW finance manager at a store recently told as we had the same discussion about how technology is old and lease sheets are still printed on dot matrix printers etc.

It was a Hendricks, for some reason, they had some problem running my card for $1500 (it was their problem, I had enough credit limit). They were so rushed to make their quota, he took $1000 instead, I’ve charged drive off a few times before, but I was not going to argue. So they had a fancy table but not a good payment system :thinking:

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How nice for him! :wink:

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Wait what?

Yep, I couldn’t believe it either.

Those digital tables a few dealers have that you electronically sign on the table and can view documents (when you’re sitting across from the finance mgr). I was shocked when I heard.

How do you know exactly? It seems awfully high…

BMW Finance Mgr recently told me as I was inking a deal and shootin the breeze with him while he was putting together my paperwork. He confirmed when he worked for another store with a different brand.

We were discussing technology and how it hasn’t really advanced in the auto industry etc and I had brought that up .

Some of those stores have 3 or 4 of them. Can you imagine the cost to purchase and get those installed for all those units.

I’ve only seen that before at a high volume NJ Chevy dealership few years ago but it’s pretty neat. Everything is done digitally including your signing on the table.

Probably proprietary hardware/software, I’m in the wrong business lol

I’m skeptical of those numbers… seems awfully high for a gimmick with no tangible ROI.

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Yeah, Docusign on a touch screen mounted on a glass table should not cost that much.

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Where are the CPA’s…? Need one to validate this - It’s a capital expense (CapEx) or capital cost that can be depreciated over time, and written off once the asset is retired.

I remember Microsoft had previewed a commercial grade coffee table that acted as a giant tablet on top. Thing cost around 150k/200k so I believe it.

This was back in 2007.

Probably running Windows Vista lol

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