Well, this is kind of funny. So, first off, no commentary on the fact that this car is a 2000 V6 Convertible, lol.

Anyway, I found this car advertised on a new car dealer website (not a Ford dealer), and it is being ADVERTISED as a 1 mile car. Really? I think not....but for kicks, I call the dealer to find out more. I mean who wouldn't be curious?

Me: I'd like to know how this car has only 1 mile?

Sales Guy: Well, it's an odometer disclosure error, more than likely. So the car could have 3000 miles on the engine, but 150,000 miles on the car itself. (huh?)

Me: Then why is it being advertised as a "1 mile car"?

Sales Guy: Well, I'm not sure where you are seeing that.

Me: It is listed that way on YOUR OWN website. Your dealership is ADVERTISING this car as a 1 mile car. I'm not sure how you can possibly advertise this as a 1 mile car since we both know that's highly unlikely, and especially if there is an odometer disclosure error. Isn't that kind of false advertising?

Sales Guy: Let me find out some more information and get the details on it, I don't really know what is going on with it.

Me: Ok, thank you.

Waiting for my call back, lol.

 

Right about now they're calling their webmaster lol...

 

And my call back came.....car has 79,500 miles on it, priced at $7500. He said "they probably just had to put something in until the title paperwork is reviewed".

My thought - hey, how about someone run out and turn on the car and LOOK AT the odometer reading, LOL! Duh.

 

Rut roh Raggy! Yikes lol

 

did they change the add yet? Nice catch by the way

 

I've bought 3 cars recently, and I saw that a lot actually. Cars listed as 0 or 1 miles when they just get them in and are waiting for a number for whatever reason. Usually, I assume, because the person entering them didn't have the info yet.

It made it harder to sort cars based on milage (mainly for my daughter's used car which we wanted to keep the miles lower than a typical first car).

 

Guess that makes two things that make sorting cars more difficult - mileage set at zero, or if you are sorting by price - the ultra irritating "Please Call" or "Please Inquire". I hate those ads! Just post a price dammit! lol

 

Amen just post the **** price!!!

 

That was also irritating. Cycling through a few pages of obviously too expensive cars that went to the top of the list, because the "Please Call" equaled $0!

 

I rank car dealerships and salesmen just below lawyers and dentists. Car dealerships will do anything to drag the customer to their website or car lot. Truth in advertising is just a fallacy.

 

As somebody who works at a car dealership I will say the most likely scenario is probably what just happened with my mother's car that I traded in.

The cars are put on the web by a computer program. In the instance of my mother, she had no intention of buying a car, she was bringing my Mustang to me the other weekend, and she did not have her Acura to trade in. She ended up buying a G37 from my lot and took it home, but of course my dealership did not have an exact mileage of the Acura to verify. When the computer program recognized a new car in our inventory it put it up for sale on our website, and with no mileage entered it defaults to 1 mile. It was like that for a weekend and a Monday, until I drove down to Jacksonville to pick up my mom's trade in, and brought it back here.

Not saying that's what happened in your situation OP, just that it's a possibility.


As for the please call pricing, that is annoying as all hell. Usually if you submit an interest in the car online though, they will talk to you about pricing before you come in. Almost every dealership that isn't a hole in the wall will have an internet manager whose job it is to correspond that info to customers. We have a few go up on our website with "please call" as the price. Usually they are cars that need to go through our service department and have some work done before they are ready to sell, they wait to set a price until they figure out just how much the shop bill will run.

Not to say it isn't annoying as all hell when you are looking for a car though.

 

My husband is the pre-owned director at the dealership he works for, and I can't ever recall them putting up vehicles with "call now" for a price, mostly because he believes it is more off-putting to buyers. Now....if only he worked at a Ford dealer, lol.....I could have my choice of Mustangs!

 

I agree. I'd much rather it say something along the lines of check back later or something like that. I'm not going to call or email for a price when I don't know the starting point.

 

The "call for price" trick is to get your phone number so they can perpetually harass you for the next 3 months with cars they think you might be interested in. If you call they'll just say "ok let me check on that for you, whats your name and number sir" and then you're on the list. Whenever I tell them "oh I can wait" you can hear the irritation in their breath. Usually I just end up sending an inquiry online using their own phone number and email address and a nasty message telling them to quit dicking around and put prices up because now I'm at a competitors page who has them listed.

 

"pre-owned director" AKA used car manager. I'm sure this isn't all stores, but most places that guy can usually be spotted because the loud suits and the fact the salesmice won't look him in the eye when he walks by for fear of reprisal. Back when I was a dealership droid, Those guys used to come back to service and try and bark orders at me and my guys- I would just direct them to the owners secretary- that would usually shut em up.

 

Ha! Yeah, well.....that isn't my husband. He IS kinda the owner's secretary. Pre-Owned Director is his "official" job title. And yes, he is responsible for managing all of the used inventory, reconditioning, etc. but that's where it stops. The rest of his job is doing whatever the owner doesn't want to do so - he's really kind of second in command, but very well respected. No loud suits and no bullsh*t. And he's as honest as the day is long, always. The antithesis of most used car salesman, and his dealership is the antithesis of most dealerships too. In fact, he DESPISES the dishonest ones out there who give everyone, including the honest ones, a bad rap.

 

Having worked for a dealer group for about 14 years, it comes down to being lazy. A lot of the sales guys want to do the bare minimum to get cars in the inventory as fast as possible... If you have decent managers, they'll make sure this type of thing doesn't happen (at least, all the time), but if the managers don't care, then the sales guys don't care.

And nothing makes me look at another car faster than "Call for price"! I am not calling/emailing for a price. Never going to happen! Like RunNGun said, they just want your number/email/info so not only will they call you about the car your looking for, but now your in their system and will get contacted for anything that meets your criteria...

Not all salesguys are bad/lazy, but there seems to be more than not... But honestly, it all comes back to the manager. We had tons of good managers and tons of bad ones as well, and the vibe of the whole place changes depending who's in charge...