Buying A Car Project

Purpose: To understand how a salesperson works, so you don't get worked.

With your table members, you will act out the experience of purchasing a car. You will have a list of cars to choose from. One table member should be the cars salesman, one the dealership manager, and the rest can be a couple and/or family. Create a google slideshow to assist you with your acting. You can have different cars on your slides to make it seem as if you are walking through a dealership lot. You can have a group of four chairs oriented so it seems like you are sitting in a car for a test drive. You can have a picture of the dealers office where the paperwork will be done. You can sit around a table to act out the paperwork scene. Get creative and have fun!

The slideshow should be very simple. You only need to have a couple pictures of cars, their interior, and the dealership office. A majority of your time should be devoted to planning out the dialogue that will take place between all the people involved. Utilize the resources below to get a better idea of the tactics that can be used to the benefit of the dealer and those by used to the benefit the buyer.

Steps:
1. Determine group member roles
2. Build a slideshow
Slide 1: Title slide with names and roles
Slide 2: Picture of dealership
Slide 3: Picture of car in lot
Slide 4: Picture of inside of car you are test driving
Slide 5: Picture of dealership office
Slide 6: Numbers during negotiation
The price of the car and interest rate on loan will fluctuate during the negotiation.
A warranty may be added. You may go up or down a trim, package, or model.
Slide 7: Final numbers regardless if they car was purchased or not
State the monthly payment and the total cost of the car over the loan term.
Important: State the total amount of interest you will have paid at the end of the loan term.

Show a list of monthly and yearly vehicle expenses for your new car.
3. Create the dialogue
Create a google doc for the dialogue. This must be turned in after the presentation.
Part 1: Customers walk into a car dealership and are greeted by a salesman.
Part 2: Customers describe what they are looking for and salesman shows them options on the car lot.
Part 3: Test drive (Customer 1 is driver, salesman is front passenger, customer 2 is back passenger)
Part 4: Negotiation (Customers sit in the salesman office. Initially, negotiation takes place between customers and salesman only.
You need to go over realistic numbers. Use the loan calculator. Then the manager enters. This is where you demonstrate
the sales tactics used.) You choose if the customer purchases the car or leaves to think about it.
Part 5: Final Numbers
4. Practice presenting/acting
5. It's showtime!

Important Questions:
1. What kind of discount do you get when you pay for the car upfront in cash?
2. How does your credit impact the loan rate you get?
3. What is a credit score and what impacts it?
4. What is the minimal down payment for a car? Do you get a discount if you pay more for your down payment?
5. What difference can adding all the extras have on the price of the car?
6. What is the price difference between buying new and used?
7. Why is the Kelly Bluebook important?
8. Why is knowing what type of fuel the car takes important?
9. What are the pros and cons between a gas fueled, hybrid, and an electric car?
10. Does the color impact the price of the car?

Videos:
The following videos will give you an idea of the types of tactics sales people use to make you pay more for a car.
How to Haggle for a Used Car
30 Year Veteran Salesman Tries to Take Me Down!
How are car salesman will trick you into buying car car
A woman who feel into a buying a car trap

Articles:
10 Steps to Buying a New Car

Resources:
Car Loan Calculator - Used to determine what you monthly payments will be and what the total cost of the vehicle will be.
Kelly Blue Book - Used to determine what the cost of the type of vehicle you are looking for should be.
Car Gurus - Popular site used to find and purchase new or used cars.
Build and Price - You can do this with any car company. On Google, simply type in the car company along with “Build”.
CarMax - Very well-known used car dealership
Carfax - get a vehicle history report

Self and Group Member Evaluation

Grading:
1 to 10 points for each category.
Time used productively in preparation for presentation
Steps and guidelines for project followed
Correct use of numbers
Realistic dialogue
Quality of performance