REBATE BAIT
When I see or hear that a car dealer is offering me thousands of dollars “back” if I buy a car or truck from his selection, I cringe and reach to protect my wallet almost automatically.
The way I hear the offer is not the way the dealer intended me to hear it, for sure.
When he, or the manufacturer of he vehicle, offers me a generous sum of money, discounting the price I am to pay, I always get a feeling that he is admitting that he has been charging too much for the product or service;that he is currently overpricing the car to others, and would be to me had I not become the blessed .anointed one chosen to receive this special discount. If he can make such price cuts and still stay in business, then he has been gouging everyone to whom he sold a car in recent months.
I realize I am not conversant with the inside language business people use among themselves suited to their particular niche, but much depends on what such terms as “invoice” can mean. One may be talking about or even telling the actual cost incurred when a dealer gets a car from the manufacturer, providing the true cost of the unit to the dealer, or one without considering transportation costs to display room or lot. Or, it might be quoted as the price of such a unit if bought by itself, but the dealer bought it, at a greatly reduced figure, as part of a “fleet” order. There are many variations of what an invoice might be said to be. Your chances of knowing all of them are about the same as any estimates you might make at the casino tables. You can be sure only just on thing: that the
“house” percentage is assured.
If such rebate are to handed out frequently, why in the world should anyone buy a vehicle at any other time? I, personally, am not one who enjoys “haggling” over prices. I find something I think I want and, if the price seems reasonable enough, I buy it. If not, I have learned long ago to do without.
It could be a matter of semantics, I suppose. One could see it as entirely possible that the word “rebate” has mutated over the years. Could it have originally been spelled “re-bait”? I still hear an overtone of such a possible meaning. I picture a trap being fitted out with new, tempting supply of sucker-luring tidbits.
Beware of all re-bait offers.
A.L.M. October 23, 2003 [c501wds]
