I watched an interesting YouTube video about car dealership advertising in Alberta, Canada: W5: Undercover shoppers test Calgary car dealerships.
While this documentary only examined car dealerships and their advertisement in Alberta, the same kind of tactics are probably being used all over the world (to a higher or lesser extent, depending on how strict and how strictly enforced the local laws are).
Some prominent examples in the video:
A particular individual car is advertised in a newspaper at a significantly reduced price (compared to its MSRP). However, when the customer arrives asking for that car, unfortunately it has already been sold. But they can sell another car of the same model but, of course, they also unfortunately can't offer it at such a reduced price. They still will offer it at a discount, just not that much. A week later, the exact same car (with the same stock number) that was allegedly "already sold" appears in a new ad.
A car is advertised as "new", but it turns out that it has a mileage of 3000-5000 km. The car dealer still maintains it's effectively "new" because it has only been used by the dealership company, rather than by any customer. (I suppose that it's kind of trying to appeal to a loophole in terminology, as legally a car stops being "new" immediately when it has been sold to a customer, but if it has never been sold to anybody, it's still "new" regardless of how much it has been driven by the company selling it. I don't know of the law in Alberta specifies any particular maximum mileage.)
A car is advertised at a significantly reduced price, but when the customer goes to buy it, there are surprise extra fees to be paid, all the way from $500 to $1500. (This is strictly against the law in Alberta, where the advertised price must include all possible fees, but enforcing this law is very lax, and car dealerships are getting off with it all the time.)
A car is advertised to have a bunch of extra features, such as automatic transmission and a rear camera. At the dealership, however, it turns out that there's a "misprint" in the ad, and it doesn't actually have those things. They can still install them. At a fee, of course. But it's a reduced fee! So you are still getting a bargain, for sure.
While this documentary only examined car dealerships and their advertisement in Alberta, the same kind of tactics are probably being used all over the world (to a higher or lesser extent, depending on how strict and how strictly enforced the local laws are).
Some prominent examples in the video:
A particular individual car is advertised in a newspaper at a significantly reduced price (compared to its MSRP). However, when the customer arrives asking for that car, unfortunately it has already been sold. But they can sell another car of the same model but, of course, they also unfortunately can't offer it at such a reduced price. They still will offer it at a discount, just not that much. A week later, the exact same car (with the same stock number) that was allegedly "already sold" appears in a new ad.
A car is advertised as "new", but it turns out that it has a mileage of 3000-5000 km. The car dealer still maintains it's effectively "new" because it has only been used by the dealership company, rather than by any customer. (I suppose that it's kind of trying to appeal to a loophole in terminology, as legally a car stops being "new" immediately when it has been sold to a customer, but if it has never been sold to anybody, it's still "new" regardless of how much it has been driven by the company selling it. I don't know of the law in Alberta specifies any particular maximum mileage.)
A car is advertised at a significantly reduced price, but when the customer goes to buy it, there are surprise extra fees to be paid, all the way from $500 to $1500. (This is strictly against the law in Alberta, where the advertised price must include all possible fees, but enforcing this law is very lax, and car dealerships are getting off with it all the time.)
A car is advertised to have a bunch of extra features, such as automatic transmission and a rear camera. At the dealership, however, it turns out that there's a "misprint" in the ad, and it doesn't actually have those things. They can still install them. At a fee, of course. But it's a reduced fee! So you are still getting a bargain, for sure.
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