Seattle Dealer Tries Apple Store Approach To Running A Dealership - Do You Really Want No Haggle Up Front Sales?

Brad Miller, who owns Honda and Toyota stores in booming downtown Seattle, knows the traditional way of selling cars. And he knows he doesn't like it.

So last year, the 60-year-old dealer, along with COO Babak Mohammadi, decided to do everything differently. They decoupled sales commissions from the profitability of a sale, eliminated the handoff to the F&I office, and adopted no-haggle pricing and no-haggle financing to help build trust and speed customers out the door.

The new mantra at Miller's stores is "One Buyer, One Price, One Hour."

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MDarringer - 3/30/2015 10:56:54 AM

-5 Boost

When a company price fixes (i.e. no haggle / no competition) it is a win for the company and a total lose for the consumer. Apply price fixes and gouges the price of its products making them more expensive than the competition.

If a consumer wants "no haggle" pricing, they are free to pay list price. But if they are incapable of knowing what they can afford and be unable to walk away when the numbers do not work, they deserve to get screwed over.

Haggling is not rocket science.

TheSteve - 3/30/2015 12:13:10 PM

+2 Boost

Your view is 100% true when there are no alternatives. Examples include Apple products (same price anywhere you go) and places where auto-insurance is mandatory, like Ontario, Canada (all insurance companies have extremely similar high rates, much higher than Buffalo, NY, just across the pond.)

However, in this example, this one car retailer is just one of many retailers who sells a specific brand. If a buyer doesn't like it, they can always go to another retailer and get the same car. Similarly, if his no-haggle prices aren't competitive, then he'll be just one of many quotes, and people can always go to a competing dealer where prices are lower. This is a VERY different scenario than if all car retailer moved to this same approach.

gkearns56 - 3/30/2015 6:03:39 PM

+4 Boost

You know jacksh@t MD!!

I have chuckle at some of your stupid insulting comments you make about consumers. You think because you peddle cars (or whatever) qualifies you to understand every person buying habits or abilities with the blanket comment. You under estimate people who walk into a dealership.

With the internet capability; edmunds.com; KBB.com; NADA.com; credit unions with new car buying services (no haggling then); even AARP has new car buying services; Costco has them; SAM's has one.

If you do sell cars as some of your posted comments have mentioned, they need to can your a@@, when a person walks into the dealership you have this attitude of, "screw the customer if they haven't done their homework or are afraid to haggle".

As I once seen on NBC news poll: The top three professions who most people don't trust: Politicians, Lawyers and Car Salesman were the top three.

vdiv - 3/30/2015 11:26:42 AM

+2 Boost

Oh, you mean the Saturn approach? Yeah, they're screwed, only because competing dealerships nearby will underprice them just for kicks. Kind of the same thing happens with car sales through Costco or "special price" discount plans.

If the whole brand went that way they could have a better chance.

dumpsty - 3/31/2015 1:42:11 PM

+1 Boost

Reading through the article, I kinda like how they fixed vehicle prices & fixed interest rates based on credit score into a readable chart that the consumer can read & follow. Then its left up to the consumer to accept the car price, their corresponding interest rate to complete the sale. Most of the work for sales staff would be to get the consumer to accept the realization about their credit score (if its much lower than they expected).