Letters to the Editors
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Subject: "Top 10 Trouble Signs at a Dealership"
From: Dean
Excuse me, gentlemen and ladies, this is not the '50s, '60s, or '70s! This is 2005, and any franchised dealership that uses these tactics is not going to be in business much longer, if they are still in business now. I can't speak for the "buy here-pay here" used car lots or other used car lots.

I happen to be the owner of a Nissan dealership, and I would highly advise you to either hire a new staff reporter that is under the age of 60 or do a little research and talk with today's franchised dealer before you put this kind of BS on the Internet. You are a well-recognized automotive consulting company. Sorry your article is from such an antiquated viewpoint.

If you are going to give advice to the buying public, you might consider getting your portrayal of "a dealership" into this century. Remember, your existence is dependent on our existence. So get up to date!!

Now you can delete this because it won't appeal to your readers!!

Subject: "Top 10 Trouble Signs at a Dealership"
From: Anonymous
As a finance manager for a dealership that operates on the more modern and pleasant car-buying experience, I am writing to say well done on your warning signs. With technology, Internet, and knowledge now a big player in the shopping experience the business has to change to keep up. Salesmen make their living on commission only and need to earn and keep the respect of their customers during the process. Customers should approach the buying experience with a positive and well-informed attitude to get the best deal, although caution needs to play a factor also of course. I believe that it is also important that the customer understands that a fair profit is still necessary, as the salesman does a good job and deserves to be paid and feed his or her family as well as anyone else. If the dealership does not make any profit on the transaction, which is often the case with the low economy, the salesman may only make $100 for all of their hard work. Is that fair?

Thank you for your view on the trouble signs of dealerships, as I believe that will keep good customers coming to good dealerships such as the one that I am employed.

Subject: "Top 10 Trouble Signs at a Dealership"
From: Michael
My name is Michael Garrett. I am the New Car manager at a dealership here in Florida. I have read your article entitled "Trouble signs at a dealership." And I have to write this response to let you know just how OFF BASE you are with this article.

1) Salesman hanging around the front of the dealership salivating. What kind of biased comment is this? Of course we hang around the front of a dealership. To help our customers! Customers come to a car lot and don't know where the used cars are vs. new cars or where the models are that they are looking for. They always have questions as soon as they get out of the car. They need direction and that is what a sales consultant is for. They are not hawks looking for fresh meat as you stated. Just where do you get this information?

2) Salesman disappears and another takes over. This is not to wear a customer down. This is simply to make sure the customer understands all of their options. A sales manager normally does this. In my case it is simply because I like to meet anyone who comes to our dealership. How dare you imply anything else.

3) Most Internet departments have designated Internet salesman. But like any dealership, we can get busy and that salesman may be with another customer. There could be a hundred valid reasons why a customer could get another salesperson. But none of them dishonest as you have portrayed.

4) Follow me…. Wait here…. Don't you think a customer wants to know what to do? No one is trying to control anyone. Again, what has happened to you or who has filled you with such an attitude towards car salesman?

5) We do not try to switch people from one car to another unless there is a reason. It is not to satisfy our needs. But to satisfy a customer's needs. You must have no idea what a salesperson has to go through on a daily basis. How hard it is to get some people financed, such as finding the right car that will fit into a lender's guidelines, a customer's budget, or dealing with bad credit.

6) As I said before, the closer is not necessarily a closer, but could just be someone like me who wants to meet his guests.

7) A lot of times ad cars are not available! Just like a good grocery sale, items run out. Especially if it is a great deal on a new car!

8) Come on. Really! Do you really believe a trade vehicle would disappear? What Stone Age are you living in?

9) Buying a car is always uncomfortable. Due largely in part because of people like you who are very uneducated about today's buying process. People like you who spread rumors and lies instead of realizing that we are sales professionals who provide a service and deserve to make a little profit to keep dealerships alive so people can continue to have a friendly place to shop.

I am sure you will not print this. Why? Because it would be admitting you were wrong. Admitting you wrote a false article and continuing to give the car business a bad name that it doesn't deserve.

Subject: "Top 10 Trouble Signs at a Dealership"
From: PHB
Mr. Reed, your article is typical of the misinformed press. Although I'm sure that your intentions are noble, your obvious bias against and contempt of the "dealership experience" diminishes the value of the advice people pay you for. You begin by correctly stating that a good experience begins with choosing the right dealer and follow that up with minimizing the experience by shopping online. You further state that the best defense is preparation and knowledge. Defense of what? A good experience. Knowledge and preparation are what I call due diligence, and that is an important part of any significant decision. By calling it a defense you not so subtly infer a confrontation. Sales is not about confrontation. Sales of any product or service is about guiding a prospective client through what is usually unfamiliar territory. Helping them find what they want, and earning their business both now and for the future is what sales is all about. Every profession has some bad apples and due diligence will keep the educated consumer away from them. Your use of words: "hawks looking for fresh meat," "throwing salesmen at you until you are worn down," "set you up with a regular salesman," "salesman demands follow me," "a big scary guy...the closer," "classic bait and switch," "disappearing trade-ins." I don't know what dealerships you have experience with but you paint with a pretty broad brush and it's not a pretty picture. Sales in general and auto sales in particular take hard work, long hours, market knowledge, and a great deal of patience to overcome the stereotypical bias that people like you instill in consumers. A quality product from a reputable business presented professionally for a fair price is what most consumers seek. A fair price includes a fair profit. After all that's why we go to work. Here's the irony, I do everything right, spend hours advising, test driving, educating a client, and publications like yours suggest I have a nefarious purpose to be defended against. I take personal offense at your approach. If you want to do some good may I suggest that you back off of the insulting rhetoric. Advise people to seek a quality experience and not the lowest price. Your advice actually directs consumers to the arms of the very people you warn against, for the best experience is rarely had at the lowest price. In the market in which I work and am successful I am rarely the lowest price in town but all my clients get what they pay for, a great car buying experience. And that is worth something.

You don't do the things we described in "Top 10 Trouble Signs at a Dealership"? Great! You should be happy we wrote this article because now droves of relieved customers will be flocking to your car lots. We should point out that we get e-mails every day from consumers who have been mistreated by car salesmen. Granted, we don't hear from the much greater number of buyers who are happy with their sales experience. However, as a consumer-based Web site, we felt it was necessary to steer buyers away from your competitors and to you, the good guys. — Ed.

Subject: "Vanity Plates — The 411 On Those CRZE PL8TS"
From: Ron
I believe that Connecticut was the first to have vanity plates and they had them for many years before any other state took on the idea.

I can remember articles in newspapers and magazines like LIFE and Saturday Evening Post having feature articles on the vanity plates in Connecticut.

When I traveled out of state with my mother and father (I was a youth) people would come up to us to talk about our vanity plates. Many times people thought we must be very important people to have such license plates.

I also believe that you needed a clean driving record to get these plates early on. Then it became easy enough for anyone who wanted to spend the extra money to get them.

Thanks for the interesting article.

Subject: "Top 10 Ways to Prevent an Accident"
From: Anonymous
I appreciated your list of good habits for drivers to prevent accidents; but once again the "experts" have failed to provide the ONE clue every driver should assume — THE OTHER DRIVER DOESN'T KNOW WHAT IS IN YOUR HEAD!!! For this reason, SIGNALING YOUR INTENTIONS WELL BEFORE YOU BEGIN TO BRAKE FOR THE TURN/LANE CHANGE is paramount!!! It is one of my biggest peeves on the road, especially with people in very large SUVs and trucks, who assume bigger means right-of-way-er. This is the reason drivers jerk their brakes, causing rear-enders behind them. They're not looking, and they aren't warning others, either. In the future, when you are patting yourselves on the back for saving lives, also remind people that TALKING ON THE PHONE when driving doesn't excuse them from being courteous to others. According to the laws in most states, gabbing while driving is the same as drinking while driving. Please update your list to show bad habits of THIS millennium. Thanks for listening.

Subject: "Top 10 Ways to Prevent an Accident"
From: Marcus
Thank you for this article which I found this morning while on America Online. I wish that there was a way for everyone who drives a vehicle to read this and put the rules into practice.

As an over-the-road truck driver, I see a lot of violations of these simple rules every day, and often think that it is only by the grace of God that more accidents don't happen. People seem to be in such a big hurry these days that they seem to believe that other people will just have to watch out for them. Quite often people are on their cellular telephones while driving and have delayed reaction times when something unforeseen happens.

One of my biggest complaints, as a truck driver, is that people will come up the onramp to the freeway and just assume that they have the right of way to enter that freeway without adjusting their speed and trying to blend in with the flow of traffic operating in the slow lane. We drivers of large vehicles cannot always get over into another lane to allow these drivers immediate access to their lane (remember that a lane change is considered a "high risk" maneuver).

I could go on, but I will leave it at that. Thank you again for your article.

Subject: "What the Heck Is Bluetooth and Why Should I Care?"
From: Michael
Thanks for the article on Bluetooth technology. While I agree that it's a good idea for drivers to get their cell phones out of their hands, I think the BMW motorcycle helmet is a terrible idea. One of the few advantages that motorcycles have over cars on the highway is less-distracted drivers. I don't know a motorcyclist who hasn't had to dodge a car whose operator was talking on a cell phone. In-helmet cell phone conversations introduce a potentially deadly distraction to motorcyclists.

Subject: Gas Mileage on Long-Term Tests
From: Dan
I appreciate the fact that you pick some 4-cylinder, "lowly, po' folk" rides for long-term testing. I purchased a most excellent Hyundai Elantra GT to a large degree due to your long-term Elantra test. Now I see you have a Spectra5 which is a car I am considering for the future.

What I have noticed is that your actual gas mileage inevitably falls below EPA estimates whereas I can consistently beat the EPA estimates with a light-footed driving style. I would love to see each long-term tester being driven for a specific distance with an effort to get the maximum gas mileage so we economy-oriented tree-hugging types could see what kind of mileage a vehicle is actually capable of achieving when driven in the "economy mode."

Thanks for your excellent site.

We drive cars the way most people drive cars, that's the point. The EPA mileage figures are pretty good estimates of what kind of mileage you can expect if you drive with a light foot. — Ed.