History Repeats as the Marketplace Rears its Ugly Head.
2 February 1998
Well its been more than 35 years since I was a young International truck sales consultant on Long island new York. My older readers will remember them .For my younger readers, International Trucks was a manufacturer of a full line of trucks from the breakthrough 4x4 Scout and Travelal l(the first SUV) to heavy duty trucks for all sorts of uses. Well back to the point--sometimes I would come across a customer whose automotive needs could not be met by a product made by International so I would recommend another dealer who sold what I thought the customer wanted and who promised to pay me a bird dog fee of $15-$25 as compensation or commission for a lead that resulted in a consummated deal. In 1961 this fee amounted to almost 50% of a days wages and all I had to do was recommend--wow what a concept. Flash to 1998 and guess what folks your new car request to those online new car sales web sites is still worth a $25 Bird Dog Fee, no inflation no COLI , in fact this bird dog fee is probably the only thing in the world that has remained the same for more than a quarter century...how could this be and why and what does it mean to you our loyal clickers. It means that a price war is looming between the Internet's Autowebs Auto-by-Tels Autoconnects Autovantages and on and on. It means that was once an exclusive club where on line sites could dictate what a dealer had to pay them for the privilege of getting leads from online consumers will soon be open warfare--how low will they go--you are witnessing the rise and fall of an industry in the Internet time frame--what a ride. With so many of these services popping up like fungus after a warm summer rain the advantages that they offer the Franchised New Car Realer are rapidly diminishing. Every time you the wise E shopper requests a low price for a new car from each of the whole lot of them your leverage increases in the purchase cycle.(see Robert J Eaton's speech at the NADA). My recommendation get your unbiased info here from TACH's New Car Buyer's Guide requests, then take the TACH New Car request form along with a list of what you can buy the car for to your friendly local dealer and tell them that The Auto Channel sent you and they should have a good reason why they can't sell you that particular car for the same price you can buy it up the road or across the country--I'll bettcha you can buy for the price you want to pay, directly from the dealer, and ask him to take the $25 and donate it to your favorite local charity. Ain't technology grand? Happy buying. Bob (your bird dog) Gordon