Selling above sticker price at a time inventory was just returning is “a bad look,” said Keith Powell, owner of Yes Chevrolet and Yes Ford near Charleston, W.Va. His group does not exceed sticker price on any model except for the Corvette.
“It’s not good for CSI, it’s not good for customer retention,” Powell said. In a small market like West Virginia, he added, “we gotta take care of the people that do business with us.”
Rob Shabe, fixed-operations director of Murphy Ford in Chester, Pa., thinks it’s possible dealers who charge above sticker might undercut their service department.
“I could see how a customer would feel that way … ‘If they’re overcharging me because [of] supply and demand, they would do the same in service,’ ” said Shabe, whose store doesn’t exceed sticker.
Mercedes-Benz of Edison in New Jersey doesn’t charge above sticker price. But general manager Doug Wells doubts that retailers who price above sticker would need to worry about their service department losing business.
The negative sentiment found by GfK reflects consumers shopping outside their market, rendering the issue moot, Wells said. A customer who searched the country for a pickup truck during an inventory shortage found one in New York City and traveled there to buy it at a $5,000 premium.
“They weren’t gonna service the car in New York anyhow,” he said.
Powell said he doubts customers would forego a particular automaker’s brand because of a dealer’s pricing. He likened it to a customer who quits patronizing one McDonald’s perpetually lacking milkshakes in favor of another location in the chain.
“They’re not gonna stop going to McDonald’s,” he said.
