From time to time, readers recount awful experiences they've
encountered at auto dealerships -- often involving money. But the
recent, miserly news out of California ranks among the most penny-
wise/pound-foolish examples.
Some dealers there are now requiring customers to pay for the gas
consumed in test drives. According to published reports, they're
demanding that prospective buyers return cars with the same amount
of gas that was in the tank on departure. The stated reason, of
course, is the Golden State's ever-rising fuel prices, which are
substantially higher than the ever-rising prices in the Garden
State.
Could this customer-unfriendly practice reach the East Coast?
Just asking such a question drew a frosty response from the head
of NJ CAR, the New Jersey Coalition of Automotive Retailers.
"I'm not commenting on anything that happens in California," said
Jim Appleton, president of NJ CAR, "but it doesn't sound like smart
marketing."
No, it doesn't.
"Ludicrous!" complained Fort Lee reader Susan Vena.
Susan did some fast calculating for a car that gets 30 miles per
gallon: At an inflated $5 per gallon, she came up with $1.67 for a
10-mile test ride.
"What nickel-and-diming," she said. "Gas for test drives should
be part of the cost of doing business.
"Do they want to charge for wear and tear on the tires, too?"
Reaching into our pockets for annoying fees seems to be a common
revenue producer. Who hasn't fretted about $1 E-ZPass billing
charges or $2 for the privilege of putting a car registration fee on
a credit card? But this tactic would appear only to work for
uncompetitive services such as E-ZPass or the Motor Vehicle
Commission.
We're their captive audience.
But automobile sales is a highly competitive business -- and a
vulnerable one, too. Might the real reason for tightening test-
drive policies have less to do with rising gasoline prices and more
to do with the fragile business of sending strangers out on the road
with expensive merchandise?
Consider the bizarre transaction that occurred in California
shortly before dealers began demanding gas money. A woman in San
Joaquin County negotiated with an 83-year-old man to sell her his
old Chrysler for $2,200. He refused to let her test-drive the car
alone, but when she asked him to drive her to a bank where she could
withdraw cash for the sale, he agreed.
The buyer went into the bank while the seller waited outside in
the car. When she returned with the money, they drove away.
He didn't realize his Chrysler had been turned into a getaway
car. The woman had robbed the bank -- a fact that didn't become
clear until police pulled them over with guns drawn.
"They could have shot me," the man told reporters later.
That aborted sale was private, but even professional sales can go
wrong. Despite their own insurance policies and other safeguards,
such as screening a customer's digital driver's license and
insurance card, car dealers sometimes get tripped up by unscrupulous
people, too.
"We know of carjackings that happen even when salesmen go with
customers," Appleton said.
The scams are endless. A customer might drive to a pre-arranged
place where an accomplice hijacks the car, he noted. Bogus buyers
might lure a salesman out of a car to check a phantom noise, then
leave him standing in an exhaust cloud, said Sgt. Robert Held, the
traffic safety officer in Westwood.
"Customers have been known to use a test drive just to steal
valuable dealer plates," said Held, who once sold used cars.
If a customer can drive away alone, he might make an impression
of a key or replace it with a similar-looking key, he added. "Then
he can return to steal the car."
Shouldn't salespeople always accompany a test drive? Not always,
Appleton said.
"Generally, dealers will only let long-term customers drive cars
alone," he explained, "often to drive it home for a wife [or
husband] to see." But small dealerships -- especially used-car lots -
- often employ small staffs, Held said, "so they might let people
drive away while they stay behind."
"They have to screen their customers carefully by asking the
right questions," he added.
