Shopping for a new car can be a real pain in the trunk. Endless research, test drives, haggling with salespeople and digging through the fine print of sales contracts might leave you wondering if it’s better to just go around by bicycle instead.
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It doesn’t have to be this way! By working with an auto broker, a professional third-party agent who consults for car consumers and works on their behalf, you can say goodbye to the headache and say hello to your new car.
What is an auto broker?
You’ve probably heard of real estate brokers, but what exactly is an auto broker?
The role of any broker is essentially to make connections between people selling something and people looking to buy. In the case of real estate, an agent works to connect property owners with customers in the market for a house or land.
In the same line, an auto broker brings together people selling cars (usually dealerships or manufacturers) and people who want to buy or lease a car. Their role is not only to make this connection between two parties but to act as a consultant for the buyer, using their professional resources, knowledge, and experience to advise and direct them.
Why is this necessary? Consider that most people selling cars are professional, well, car sellers. Dealers and salespeople know the market, and they know all the tricks in the book to push customers into buying more expensive vehicles, regardless of whether it’s the right car for them. After all, that’s how they make their money. A bigger sell means bigger profit.
With a third-party agent, it’s a different story. Auto brokers are essentially professional car buyers who can level the playing field and act in the customer’s best interests.
Unlike the average car shopper, brokers and auto buying consultants know the field through and through. They can help a customer understand what car they need and make sure they get what they’re looking for.
Consultants don’t benefit from selling more expensive cars. They’re paid by the banks and manufacturers, and whether their clients end up buying a vehicle for $20,000 or $80,000, it doesn’t make much of a difference. They have more interest in making sure the customer is happy with the car so they’ll come back next time.
Just for comparison, think of a (claims? Injury?) lawyer, whose payment comes from the insurance company if the case is successful. Financially it’s a win-win for the client, who doesn’t have to pay the lawyer either way.
With an auto consultant, you don’t pay anything for the time and research they put in. You just benefit from the result: getting the perfect car at a great deal.
How auto brokers can help you
When you’re out hunting for a new car to buy or lease, auto brokers can help you in three main ways.
- Save your time
One of the most common complaints about car shopping is that it takes so much time. Online research, going from dealer to dealer and seemingly endless negotiation eat up precious hours, and leave many customers with a headache!
With an auto consultant, you hand the reins over to a professional and go on with your life while they do the heavy lifting.
Consultants have the resources to work more efficiently and on a much larger scale. They’re linked into a whole network of dealerships and other consultants in their area, regionally, or even throughout the country. They know what they’re looking for, how to look, and where to find it. They know who to call and where to get the information they need.
All this means you spend less time and get a better result.
- Save your money
As I mentioned earlier, dealerships are out to get your money. It’s the hard truth of it. They have no financial interest in giving you a good deal: the opposite, in fact, the average car salesman’s turnover at the dealership is six months with a 67 percent dropout rate.
For an auto broker, client satisfaction is the priority. They will actually work to get you the best possible deal and to form a solid, lasting relationship.
Thanks to their scope and leverage within the industry, brokers are able to get much better deals than their customers could get on their own.
At Capital Motor Cars, for example, we have access to hundreds of dealerships. When a customer wants a specific car, we may find several dealerships that carry it. We then contact those dealerships fleet department which handles sales on a wholesale level and set them to compete against each other, to see which one will offer the best rate.
We also walk our clients through the leasing process and handle negotiations. Negotiating for a car lease takes a combination of confidence and detailed technical knowledge, both of which we have in spades – especially when compared to the average lessee, who may be attempting to negotiate for the first time.
- Find the perfect car for you
As a prospective car buyer, your choices are limited – like so many things in this world – by time and space
You only have so much time in your day, meaning you will only be able to research a limited number of cars, and you will only be able to shop within a certain distance. Most people aren’t about to take two weeks off from work to go on a road trip to some dealer two hundred miles away who has the exact vehicle they’re dreaming of!
Within your local area, there may only be two or three dealerships of the brand whose car you’re interested in. And of course, the problem multiplies if you’re considering several vehicles from different brands.
To make matters worse, what dealerships may be within your range are themselves bound by space. Specifically, by real estate space: they can only keep so many vehicles in stock, meaning the odds are quite low that they will have the exact model and trim level that you want, not to mention with all the features you’re dreaming of.
Here’s where an auto broker’s networking and technology comes into play. Their range of search is much wider. At Capital Motor Cars, we are able to locate specific cars at dealerships across the country, and have them delivered straight to our clients’ doorstep.
And as I mentioned earlier, our consultants don’t have interest in selling any particular vehicle. They don’t benefit from upselling, manipulating customers to move stock and basically making a whole industry out of creating buyer’s remorse. Instead, we analyze our clients’ needs and help connect them with the car that best suits their needs.
Happy customers come back and bring their friends: this is the brokerage business model.
Discover Ignite: the future of car shopping
In this day and age, when all the information in the world is just a click away, has the internet made auto brokers obsolete?
Not at all! The field has just evolved. In fact, third-party consultants are more relevant than ever.
At Capital Motor Cars, modern technology is helping us usher in a new vision of car shopping, one that is uniquely 21st-century. We have developed over the past few months a proprietary technology that allows us to tap into a vast network of dealerships across the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic regions, giving customers the power to pinpoint the exact vehicle they want, locate it and set their own leasing terms.
Ignite brings simplicity and transparency to car leasing. It’s an easy-to-use online tool that gets you a new car in seven steps:
- Apply your search terms. Using the filters, you can locate the exact car you’re looking for or explore different vehicles that fit your preferences.
- Structure your lease terms. Define the length of the lease, mileage, payment at signing and more.
- Apply rebates. Select which extra incentives you may qualify for.
- Add warranties, trade-in or return info.
- Enter credit information. Remember, Good or bad credit, auto brokers will fight for you and try to get you approved.
- Schedule delivery. Capital Motor Cars provides a white glove delivery service of your brand new car lease. We are your automotive concierge
- Confirm your order and check in with an expert from our team.
No more wasting days at dealerships, fending off pushy salespeople or having to settle for a car that you don’t really want. To top it all off, we deliver your new vehicle straight to your home or workplace, free of charge. Talk about icing on the cake.
So, what are you waiting for? Discover the new way to shop for a car by contacting the automotive experts at Capital Motor Cars today and make dealership shopping a thing of the past!
