Dodge Auto

University Dodge Tempts Dodge Ram Buyers With 'Buy One, Get One Free'

Buy one, get one free? This isn't spaghetti sauce at the supermarket. It's buy one Dodge Ram, get one Dodge Ram free at University Dodge near Miami.

Word is spreading, because here on a big college football Saturday afternoon, "University Dodge" is the nation's hottest Google search item. People are wondering if it's for real.

Well, yes, it's for real. Of course, the first truck is a Dodge Ram Quad Cab 150 with four doors and a whole lot of the expensive extras. The second truck is a two-door Dodge Ram that pretty much sticks to the basics. You can't pay cash, and you possibly will be steered through Chrysler Financing with a steep interest rate. And so on.

Owner Ali Ahmed of University Dodge doesn't try to hide the point that he is employing a gimmick. He was stuck with 150 Dodge Rams when the price of gasoline was surpassing $4 per gallon, so he says he needed to do something.

"You have to be creative, " Ahmed says, according to local10.com. "Sales are down across the board. We're reaching outside of Florida to keep our numbers up."

Furthermore, Ahmed says that customers will figure out whether they want to go for the bait and switch. If they want the big truck without the little truck, then they can apply the value of the little truck to the price of the big truck. Now we're back to old-fashioned rebates. Plus, the strategy is similar to a grocery story selling "loss leader" items such as that spaghetti sauce. Once the auto dealer gets you in the door with a spectacular ad, you can become their captive for other sales pitches.

Ahmed says his strategy is working. He indeed is luring buyers from outside of Florida. As of late last week, he had his numbers down to 60 Dodge Rams on the lot at University Dodge.

Still, there are plenty of skeptics. Dealers often claim that they only profit by $1, 000 to $2, 000 per vehicle sold, so how could University Dodge do a 2-for-1? However, there also are "factory to dealer incentives" that may come into play, and Chrysler no doubt has plenty of incentives to get their factories back rolling again, at least to some extent.

Still, as they say: "If it looks too good to be true . . ."

SOURCES

http://www.curiousread.com/2008/11/six-things-you-should-never-say-to-car.html

http://www.walletpop.com/blog/2008/11/18/buy-one-dodge-ram-get-the-second-free/

http://www.local10.com/automotive/18022569/detail.html

http://www.techbanyan.com/2704/university-dodge-buy-one-get-one-free/