The host mentions using Google ratings as a proxy for seller reputation. While ratings can help flag consistently bad experiences, they’re not a complete substitute for vehicle history checks and an inspection.
The idea is that reviews can give you a realistic picture of how a dealership usually treats people. It won’t be perfect for every case, but it’s a useful clue.
“Tax and all” means the final price after taxes and extra charges. If you only look at the listed price, the real total can be higher than you expected.
The Ford Bronco is a Ford SUV built for off-road driving. If you want it “equipped” a certain way (options/trim), that can make it harder to find and more expensive.
“Not even in the same ballpark” is a common way to say the buyer’s budget and the market price for the exact configuration don’t overlap. This often happens when the desired trim/options are rare, or when the buyer’s target price is unrealistic for the current used/new market.
Shopping online means looking at car listings on websites. It can be convenient, but you still have to deal with what’s actually available and what the final price ends up being.
Online photos strongly influence buyer perception, and poor presentation can hide issues or make a good car look worse. The speaker’s point is that sellers should clean the vehicle and present it clearly, because buyers are using photos as a key part of their decision-making.
Seat wear is how worn the seats look. If the seats look very worn compared to the mileage, it can be a sign the car was used more than the listing suggests.
Carfax is a report that tells you what a car’s history looks like. It can show things like accidents, title problems, and sometimes how many owners it’s had.
Searching beyond your local area gives you more choices. The downside is you can’t inspect the car in person as easily, so you have to be more careful with history reports and checks.
Insurance is what you pay to protect the car and cover accidents. Different cars can cost more or less to insure, so it’s smart to check the price first.
CarGurus is a website where you can search for cars and see pricing info. Even if it says “Good Deal,” you still have to add things like tax to know the real cost.
Sales tax is the extra percentage you pay to the government when you buy the car. The sticker price online might not include it, so your real total can be higher.
BDC is the dealership’s “lead” team. They talk to you first and collect details, but they usually can’t set the final numbers like the price or trade-in value.
Those ads can make the monthly payment sound tiny, but the real deal usually depends on conditions. The only safe way to know is to get the full offer in writing.
A buyer’s order is the paperwork that spells out the exact deal you’re getting. If anything changes later, you can point back to what was written down.
If the left rear tire is worn out, it means that tire has been getting more wear than it should. That can be a sign the car needs an alignment or suspension work.
Financing approved means the bank or lender has already said they’ll likely approve your loan. That makes the dealership more confident you’ll actually buy the car.
A total repaint means the whole car’s paint was redone. If the seller said the paint was original, that mismatch is a big warning sign.
LIVE
Hey folks, welcome back to another edition of my car guru, your guide to a great car
deal, whether you're buying it online or on the lot today, though, we're going to focus
on buying vehicles or shopping for vehicles or both online.
It is a dangerous thing to do for one reason.
It's simple.
Humans are involved and a lot of them are not honest humans and car dealers in general
are for the most part honest folks.
It's just that while the people that work for them aren't.
I know some really good guys that own car dealerships.
They are wonderful Christian men and they've got hoodlums working for them because I've
had to deal with some of them.
And I tell them, you know, I say, listen, this guy, I don't recommend you continue
with him, but in many cases they make him a lot of money and they do it illegitimately.
So what I'm going to do is guide you through a internet buying process and hopefully you
will pick up a few tips that will keep you safe, keep your loved ones safe.
Here's the problem, folks.
People think that if you buy something online, it's clean, it's pure, it's great.
Those are the ones that haven't been burned.
And there's plenty of people who have been.
It's just that the word doesn't always get out.
Maybe they give a dealer a bad Google rating or something like that, but how often do you
look at Google ratings?
You may say, well, I always look at Google ratings.
Well, I never do.
Well, I might if I'm trying to buy some tennis shoes or something like that.
But certainly it's just not something that I do.
And maybe it's what I recommend it.
Well, what I've said many times is that don't look at the good ratings
sort by the fewest number of stars, find what the bad ratings are.
Because when you read those, that's who the dealership probably really is.
That probably describes a lot of the transactions, not all of them.
You know, you'll have some people even come into my dealership maybe and say,
you know, it's a wonderful experience.
Most of them do, but there's some of them that will say, you know,
I couldn't get anybody to wait on me or I beat their price someplace else.
You're going to have those.
I don't know if it's true.
You should only say something if it's good, but I really do believe
if you really get the shaft at a business, the best thing to do is call
the people who own the business and tell them first, give them a chance
to make it right. And if they don't make it right, and if they're jerks as well,
then OK, blast them, use both guns.
They deserve it. OK, let's talk about online.
So there is no doubt that shopping for a used car online can save you time.
Or it can cost you thousands if you do it wrong.
People are buying more cars or at least shopping for more cars online.
I was shopping for a car online just a while ago.
I got a customer who's wanting to Ford Bronco.
And he comes in with a budget, met him in the showroom yesterday.
He comes in with a budget.
I'm not spending more than $40,000 tax and all.
Well, I knew that if he wants a new Ford Bronco, the way he wanted it,
I'm sorry, a used Ford Bronco, the way he wanted it equipped,
that was not going to happen.
So I tried to let him down easy.
And I said, are you flexible any on that price?
Because that's going to be very difficult to find.
And he said, well, maybe see what you can find.
So I've been looking.
I looked yesterday evening.
I've looked today. I talked to him on the phone.
And we're just not even in the same ballpark.
Well, now he's changed his tune.
And he's raised his price limit.
Now, did he have that price limit all along?
And he was just trying to get me to find a Bronco at a much lower price?
Possibly. I don't know. I don't question his motives.
I'm just trying to help him find the right thing for his daughter.
And so we have exhausted all possibilities.
And I got back in touch with him and I said, OK, this is what it's going to be.
And he said, well, I really didn't want to spend that much.
But if that's the way it's got to be, then let me consider it.
And that's what I'm doing.
So where was I shopping?
I was shopping online.
See, car dealers do that all the time.
You think, well, you're a car dealer.
You know, you're at the end of the end of the road.
People are shopping your store and shopping another store.
No, when people come to me and I don't have what they want, I go online.
I found a particular Bronco for this guy that might work on car gurus.
Now, how do I buy that car?
Well, probably not the way you do.
But I buy it in a manner that will allow me to make a little bit of money.
It's not going to be much, but maybe a little bit.
Satisfy my customer and, most importantly, get him something
that he can count on that's a good vehicle that's been taken care of.
Right. So I'm since I'm a Ford dealer and it's a Ford Bronco.
I didn't sell it, but it's out there.
I can pull the warranty history.
I can check and see was this a good vehicle.
Was it in for a lot of repairs while it was under warranty?
You think that's important?
I certainly do.
I mean, sometimes problem vehicles reveal themselves while they're under warranty.
So this one still has some remaining factory warranty.
So that's good.
But as I was looking at the pictures, I just noticed, you know,
if you're going to take pictures of a vehicle online,
you think you would clean the vehicle up a little bit.
And this one just it looks a little rough on the inside.
I was looking at the seat wear.
It's got 30,000 miles on it.
I said, you know, that's that's a lot of seat wear for 30,000 miles.
People getting in and out.
So I don't think this thing has been babied.
And I just want to make sure it's been taken care of.
I'm going to pull a car fax.
I'm going to pull an auto check.
I'm going to make sure that it doesn't have any damage history.
And we'll see how many owners it's had.
That's also important.
I mean, I don't mind buying a two owner vehicle,
but I don't want to buy some three, four, five owner vehicle.
Something's wrong there.
And if it's come from Michigan or Pennsylvania, no offense to people
in Michigan or Pennsylvania, but I don't want that one either,
because it's been on a lot of salty roads.
So these are some of the things that I'm doing.
Let's get back to buying online.
One advantage is huge selection beyond your local market.
I was able to extend my search.
I went out 500 miles.
I'm not going any further than that.
So that's an advantage.
You can't do that.
Well, I guess you can.
If you if you want to put a lot of miles on a vehicle,
you can go to different dealerships and do it.
But you know, that's one of the best things about shopping online
is you can let your fingers do the walking,
just like the old yellow pages.
Remember, you can let your let your fingers do the shopping.
So there's an efficiency of time when shopping online.
However, what are the risks?
Misrepresented vehicles, hidden fees.
I always tell folks, find the disclaimer.
I don't care what price you find online,
whether it's a new car dealer or used car dealer.
Scroll down to the bottom of the page.
And some dealers really hide them very well.
But scroll down and find the disclaimer, the fine print.
I call it the disclaimer.
That's where, you know, everything that they said
as far as a price is modified with fees, extra charges.
So you think you have a price nailed down.
You drive 500 miles to get to that place or you fly.
You get there.
Oh, now the game has changed.
Well, what's that fee?
Well, that's for out of towners who don't read the fine print.
Well, that's not right.
You know, it's that type of situation.
And what do you do then?
I mean, you've spent all this money,
plane tickets, waited in the TSA line for three days.
You finally get there, you're exhausted.
You're excited, you want to buy a car.
Then they throw a bunch of add-ons on to you.
And you just cave.
You just give in and then you go home
and don't tell anybody.
I always heard that people would brag
about what they paid for their house
and lie about what they paid for their car
because they don't want people to know it.
Oh, I got mine for $10,000 off Windows Sticker.
Well, that's interesting.
There's $1,500 markup in it and that's probably not likely.
I've heard that so many times.
People will lie, even customers.
Okay, I'm gonna take my first break
before I say anything else that's offensive.
Okay, let's get back online and shop for a vehicle.
Well, though, before I do that,
I wanna make sure what I can afford.
Most people are payment buyers.
You don't shop and buy based on the monthly payment,
but you gotta prepare yourself.
You have to talk to your banker
where you have to go online
and go to the different things
where you can calculate monthly payments.
And if you're looking for a Ford Bronco
and you know it's gonna be $50,000,
then how long do you wanna finance it?
What kind of interest rate can you get?
That'll determine what the monthly payment is,
but you gotta add for sales tax in your state.
And then you have to look at your other costs.
Call your insurance company.
Find out what's gonna cost if you buy a Ford Bronco.
They should be able to tell you, hit it pretty close.
Think about fuel economy.
If you're driving a, like, I don't know,
a Nissan Centra now,
and you're thinking about a Ford Bronco,
you're gonna be spending a lot more on gas.
Will that fit into your budget?
Get all those budgetary things figured out
before you go shopping.
So now you've done all that
and you understand that if you can finance for 72 months
with the down payment that you have,
you can afford a $50,000 Ford Bronco.
Are there any $50,000 Ford Broncos out there?
Maybe you want one that is an Outer Banks
with leather and Sasquatch package and all of that.
Well, that's $65,000, so you might need to reload.
Maybe you need a big bend.
Maybe you don't need the Sasquatch package.
I know you want it, but you can't afford that.
And that's important to know
before you start firing off internet inquiries
at all kinds of dealerships and thinking,
well, you know, this is the most I'm willing to do.
Well, it's just not enough.
So get that figured out first.
You can shop, go to Cargurus, for example,
and let's say you pull up a 2025 Ford Bronco
and it says, you find one that says Good Deal
and it's $52,000.
Well, if you add sales tax to that in your state,
then you're gonna be over your budget.
Can you come up with the additional cash down
to cover that?
If not, you might have to change the equipment.
You know, you can go to Ford.com or Chevy.com,
Toyota.com, I guess, and build and price of vehicle online.
You have to recognize on a new vehicle
that that's gonna be MSRP.
And then you can go to some of the sites like Auto Trader
or Cargurus or someplace like that
and find out what dealers are actually selling those for.
And that's the big advantage of doing it online,
but that's not the way I like to do it.
I like to go to the dealership.
I wanna drive the car.
I'm not intimidated by a salesperson, you might be.
Not if you read the MyCarGuru guidebook,
32 pages of automotive information
that will help you negotiate with any salesperson,
regardless whether they work at a ethical diggler ship
or an unethical one.
You'll see right through them.
Just send me your email address, text it to me,
423-552-2020.
I'll send you a copy of the MyCarGuru guidebook.
And you will be armed, so to speak,
with what you need to be able to defeat the crook.
Or the salesperson, maybe he's not a crook,
his sales managers are crooks.
And they know how to maximize gross profit.
That's what they're looking for.
So I prefer to do that in face to face with somebody,
but you can do it online.
And if you do it online,
you're working with something called the BDC,
the Business Development Center.
They're nice people, but they can't make the final decision
on the price or on your trade in or anything.
Everything has to go through the sales tower
where the sales managers sit and the use car manager.
They're taking all the information
from that business development person
and translating it into a deal
on a particular car that they have in stock.
And then that person may go back and forth with you
with information and you can negotiate online.
It's just not as effective as being face to face.
But at least you know what you want at this point.
You know what you can afford based on your economic parameters.
And then you really have to be careful.
Let me put it this way.
People are easily fooled by online pricing
or even newspaper pricing as it used to be.
No dealers use the newspaper anymore.
Or you see something on TV,
payments as low as $2.99 a month.
I mean, people just fall for that stuff left and right.
And that's not reality.
I mean, unless you read the fine print and you can't read it
and you certainly can't understand it on a radio commercial
because they're going to be, you know, it's just ridiculous.
So your only defense is really to be in the dealership
and have them print you a buyer's order.
If you're shopping online and you want a final commitment,
do not trust what they say.
Trust what they print and send to you that is,
now here's the other critical thing,
that is signed by a manager at the dealership.
You insist on that.
The salesperson said, well, I signed it,
that's, I appreciate you signing it.
Maybe your autograph will be worth something someday.
But I want the sales manager to sign it, if you don't mind.
The man who is your boss.
Okay, I'll ask him.
And then he signs it, he either faxes it to you
or, you know, does a PDF and sends it to you that way.
And you look it over.
And just like I say to people when they're buying a car,
and just like I say to people when they're buying a car
at the dealership, think about it.
Tell them you'll let them know tomorrow.
That's got to be good enough.
What about today?
The deal's only good today.
Well, if they say that, then you're done with them.
You know, that's just an old high pressure trick.
So I'll let you know in the morning,
what if the car's sold?
Then it's going to be sold.
You know, I can't help that.
It wasn't meant to be.
Can you live with that Mr. Salesperson?
Oh, gills, I'll try.
And then you hang up.
You've got their information, you've nailed it down,
you've got it on paper, you've got a commitment.
Again, if they sell the car, fine.
And don't send them a deposit.
Because, well, I mean, you can if you're really,
really locked in, and you know you haven't seen the car,
you haven't driven it, you haven't got the smell test done.
You don't know if it's a used car,
if it was a smokers car, and you know,
you're highly allergic to cigarette smoke,
and there's so many things that can go south.
You know, the paint can look really good in the picture,
and then when you look it up close,
there's all kinds of nicks and dings and scratches,
and the tires, you know, one of the left rear tires worn out.
And, you know, you've already left a deposit,
and what if it's non-refundable?
I mean, I'm never gonna leave a deposit
if it's non-refundable, and the only way
to make sure it's refundable is to get another document
signed by the manager saying that this
is a fully refundable deposit,
if you decide that you do not want the vehicle.
Sometimes managers and dealerships like deposits,
they don't like refundable ones,
but what are they gonna do?
I mean, if somebody's saying,
well, this car isn't anything like what y'all described it.
It doesn't even look like it did in the pictures.
That's too bad.
You send a deposit, and you're not getting it back.
You know, if anybody does that,
gosh, I don't know what I'd do.
I would just try to talk to the general manager of the store.
The best way to protect yourself, though,
is with documentation, but just don't send them a deposit,
especially on a used car.
On a new car, you're safer, but make sure it's refundable.
Okay, there's one caveat to that,
is if it's on a new car, they're not gonna hold it for you
if you don't leave some type of deposit for very long.
Now, I won't, I mean, I'll keep a car in stock
for maybe 24 hours, maybe 36 if I feel really good,
and we've already got financing approved and all that,
and these people are coming from eastern North Carolina
or someplace, and they have to drive to get here.
I am not gonna disappoint them
and sell that car out from under them.
But they have to understand also that I've got,
you know, $50,000, $60,000 invested in this thing,
and if they just decide to shop on the way here
and find something they like better,
I could actually miss a sale of somebody
that's standing in my showroom wanting to buy the car.
You have to understand that.
So don't try to get them to hold a car very long.
On used cars, gotta get an inspection.
If you're not near that dealer,
you have to be willing to pay a mechanic,
$300 to $400 to do a full inspection on that vehicle,
and not the mechanic at that dealership,
but somebody else, you know, a third party.
And sometimes you have to do research to find that, say,
you know, if you're trying to buy a car in St. Louis, Missouri,
then you find people who do car inspections in St. Louis,
and you have them go look at the car and inspect it.
I've gotten burned on that a couple of times
in my youthful years.
I bought a Porsche one time.
I should have had somebody inspected
because I never would have bought it.
And when they showed up at my dealership
with that Porsche on the back,
as I was walking down the steps,
I could see that what that dealership had told me was a lie
because I could see the paint.
They said it was original paint,
and I could see it from 30 feet away
that that car had was a total repaint, and I was sick.
And I called the dealership and said,
man, you guys really took advantage of me,
and said, well, you signed all the paperwork,
but that was before they had Google ratings,
so I couldn't do anything about it.
I only lost $8,000 when I sold the car.
I can laugh about it now.
Yeah, a visual inspection by an intelligent,
experienced third party is very good.
Okay, as far as paying for a car,
you know, I love it when people do wire transfers to me
because I sell a lot of cars through Bring a Trailer,
and these people are all over the country,
and they trust me because I've sold so many cars
on Bring a Trailer,
and so I have a really high rating with them,
and so they see that the transactions all went well,
so they don't mind, oh, and they know I'm a Ford dealer,
new car dealer, I'm sure they Google me,
and the only people that come up
when you Google Lenny Lawson is me
and a serial killer who was executed in New Jersey,
and they're pretty sure that that's not me,
so they feel pretty good.
I'll be back in just one minute.
All right, I'm back, so if you're buying
from a dealership, Google the business,
find out, make sure they're real.
Call the Switchboard Operator.
Ask to speak to one of the service advisors.
If they go through that, that's fine.
If it sounds like you're talking to the same person,
it's probably a bad sign.
It's better to see the car in the person,
like I said, hire a third party inspection, local mechanic.
They need to check the engine, the transmission,
the brakes, the tires, the frame.
Just because the car doesn't show any damage
on a car fax doesn't mean it hadn't been wrecked,
because a lot of those damages are not reported
to insurance companies.
And then to pay for the car, like I said,
wire transfers coming to me are great,
but I don't wanna send a wire transfer out
to a dealership that I don't have any confidence in,
especially a used car dealer, or an individual,
especially an individual, because you just don't know
if that car's gonna be there when you go to pick it up.
So just remember this, a great deal on a bad car
is not a great deal.
I mean, if you get a super price,
and it's way lower than everything else
that you've been able to find on the internet,
there's a reason for that.
And it's not because they're just nice folks.
It's because they haven't been able to sell that car
to anybody else because of some type of damage,
some type of historical situation with the car.
There's a reason, and you just have to find it.
Well, thanks for listening to this edition
of My Car Guru.
If you need any more tips like this,
feel free to message me on my cell phone,
423-552-2020, and if you wanna send email,
Lenny Lawson, 2020, at gmail.com,
and I'll see you next time on the next My Car Guru.
Thank you.
About this episode
Buying vehicles online can save time and expand your search radius, but it’s also a minefield because dishonest people and hidden fees can turn a “good deal” into a costly mistake. The host walks through how to protect yourself: read the fine print/disclaimers, budget for tax, insurance, fuel, and financing, verify vehicle history (warranty records, carfax/autocheck, owners, damage), and don’t rely on online pricing or payment ads. Get a manager-signed buyer’s order, avoid nonrefundable deposits, and use third-party inspections for out-of-town used cars.
