Why does the car-buying process take so long

15
November
2019
In most cases with other dealerships, the financing process is what takes so long.

The salesperson has to send the finance application off to a variety of banks to get you approved and then they only approve you on a certain car within a certain price range. There’s really not much negotiation with that. And then you go back and forth. You switch cars, you get juggled between the sales manager and the finance manager.

Everybody’s got a vested interest in the deal, and there’s three, four, different entities in on it. You got the sales guy who wants the commission, you got the sales manager who needs to make numbers, you got a finance manager who gets a spread on what’s made, and then you got a bank that’s ultimately trying to buy a deal. So, yeah, you got a ton of people in the transaction.

That takes time. Especially if it’s all via phone and then they’re trying to work you too, because they want to wear you down. They know they can’t get you in the $30,000 car with only $500 down, so they’re trying to get you into another car. It’s just a process. It’s a battle of attrition if you will. That’s part of their sales process.

But with us at Complete Auto Sales, we know we can get something done and the max it will take to get an answer is 15-20 minutes. We tell you: This is what it is, this is what we can do.

At that point, we can have you in and out the door as soon as you get your insurance. That seems to be the longest part is getting ahold of your insurance agent. That’s why we started offering insurance on the inside because it quickens the process.

We realize how big of a pain in the rear it is to buy a car. I personally would hate to do it, and it’s our primary business. We don’t have commissioned sales staff. Prices are what they are. There’s no haggling, no real negotiation. It’s a pretty simple, straightforward process.

If you’re prepared, we can get it done in 30 minutes. Most of the time, we’re waiting on you to come up with paycheck stubs or proof of insurance or proof of residence, anything else like that. But if you have everything done, it’s 30 minutes. The time spent here also depends on how long it takes you to drive the car on the test drive and sign the paperwork.