AOL Blog Asks Readers About Buying Car From Hot Model
June 19, 2007
Here’s what we found today on AOL’s Auto Blog! The title is “Would You Buy a Car From This Woman?”
They feature a photo of Audra Baltrukonyte, a 21 year old Lithuanian model and car enthusiast who is selling cars in the UK.
Quote from the Press Release: ‘I do find that many female customers come to me for help because they prefer dealing with another woman. But most of my sales are to men who only commit to buying the cars long after they’ve stopped caring what I look like!’Cliff Freeman, Dealer Principal at MK SEAT, is certainly glad he saw past Audra’s attractive exterior and recognised the gifted sales person within.He said: ‘ Audra’s been a fantastic addition to our team and we’re delighted to have her on board. She’s a very bright and natural saleswoman.’
There are several different comments from both men and women, but we really like what April #36 had to write:
“I used to sell cars – successfully if my sale numbers were anything to go by.Being female means you need to know waaaaaaayyyyy more than your male collegues, for both them and the customers to take you seriously. When you work 6 days a week, evenings, weekends, and holidays especially, it’s hard to find time to learn every aspect of an expanding line, from options to financing, as well as future products – and then there is the all-important fact finding with regards to the competing brands. So in states like California where hours are wide open, salespeople rarely have time for family and are usually divorced. No wonder folks with other options in life go do other things – with a few notable exceptions of course.Customers who want a date (or more) can be an occupational hazard (especially when they try to tie it to the deal), and when possible it’s nice to get past gender stereotypes as quickly as possible. Basically, I’m a car, and you’re a car nut. Let’s see what this baby can do, and work out a fair deal for everyone.
In the end though, customers till try to grind you down on price, and often think that if you’re female, you’ll give in easier or if they make rude (improper) personal comments it will shake you up. Yes dear readers, some customers are just as nasty and unethical as any lot lizard.
So hats off to anybody (but especially women) who can do the job right, take the slings and arrows from co-workers and customers, and keep doing this over and over.”
April, hats off to you! And Audra, our hats off to you as well! You go ladies!
To Trade-In or Not to Trade-In…Here is the Scoop
June 18, 2007
Most car buyers feel that it takes a long time for a dealer to evaluate and appraise their trade-in. Here’s why: One of the most popular ways a dealer will calculate the value of a trade-in is to: (1) Evaluation: Look at the car, write down the VIN, the miles, all of the options and equipment, the condition, what needs to be done. (2) Call the lender or bank and get the payoff on the car. (3) Goes to KBB online to find the three wholesale figures, deducts the costs for reconditioning. (4) Goes online to the auto auctions to find out what a dealer can buy that similar vehicle for. (5) Calls two or three used car managers or wholesalers in the area to find out what they would pay for that car if the dealer were to take it in on trade. (6) Taking all of this into consideration, the dealer will have a fair trade-in value to offer the consumer, as long as the vehicle is registered to the consumers trying to trade it in.
If you are a car buyer with a trade-in, we suggest you (1) Look at your car, write down the VIN, the miles, all of the options and equipment, what needs to be done (not what you’ve already put into it). (2) If there is a loan on it, call the lender and get a payoff or have your current reg and title in hand to show proof of ownership. (3) Visit KBB.com and get the three figures for Trade-in and three figures for Private Party Sale. (4) Look at Edmunds.com to find a similar vehicle to your’s and look for the TMV or True Market Value for the zip code area you live in, since markets vary city to city. This figure is what the vehicle has sold for previously. (5) Call three different used car managers from three different dealers and areas and find out what they would buy your vehicle for out-right and not being traded-in, understanding that they haven’t seen it yet, describe it to them clearly or you will only be setting yourself up to be upset. This will give you an idea of what ranges you can expect to get on the private party market and for a trade-in. With this knowledge, you will also know how much equity you have or do not have, depending on your payoff figure from the bank, if you still owe money on it. If you decide not to trade it in, you may consider selling it to another dealer or private party.
A dealer will not “over-allow” on your trade-in, meaning they will not give you more than the appraisal figure. Instead, consumers will get a bottom line figure on the car they want to buy and a bottom line dollar figure on the car they want to trade-in. It’s up to the consumer to decide what they will ultimately do. Keep the trade-in out and give it to a relative, sell it themselves, keep it as a second vehicle. If too much money is still owed on it, a dealer may tell you that down payment is needed to off-set the “upside-down” figure (ie: your car is worth $5,000 and you owe $7,000 so you would come in with $2,000 plus any additional down to help lower your new monthly payments.
The bottom line: do your homework so you will have a better understanding of what to expect value wise for your possible trade-in. Being prepared will also give you a more pleasant experience at the dealership in that you won’t feel you are going in blindly and that the numbers won’t all seem like voodoo to you. You will also know if your dealer is being straight up and honest with you because their figures will be pretty close to the ones you researched before you went to the dealership.
Please also consider that some cars depreciate more than others while others retain their value depending on condition and model; car markets vary from city to city; the auto manufacturer may have over produced your particular vehicle being traded in and thus there is a market filled with them for sale…all supply and demand and condition. You now see that many factors determine the ultimate figure.
Best of luck! WomensAutomotiveNetwork.TV, the auto industry connected video web site. Explore. Discover. Experience. Expand. Evolve. (and ) WomensAutomotiveNetwork.com, the easy tutorial on how to buy and sell cars in today’s world. Empowerment in Motion!
Step in the Right Direction
May 21, 2007
A few days ago, we had mentioned that we were wanting to post a video to iVillage, to help the awareness that there are sources for women to learn about buying and selling cars.
Well, let’s give iVillage a hand, because we heard that on My 15th, they had a segment featuring a women’s auto related group on a topic called Wheeling and Dealing. This is a good start to stepping in the right direction for women’s media acknowleding our cause.
Unfortunately, the spokesperson iVillage had on that segment, has never worked in the auto industry, but she does invite a lot of people to use their input on her site to help out.
We hope that women’s media in television, magazines and web sites will start to open their eyes to getting connected in helping women to learn about the opportunities available to them in the car buying and selling process.
WomensAutomotiveNetwork.com and WomensAutomotiveNetwork.TV have been in place for four years online and the knowledge available to women comes from more than 40 years of experience of actually being in the auto industry.
Thank you iVillage, for starting to take a step in the right direction. We look forward to the media assisting us in helping reach the women (and all auto consumers) in this nation to change the way we buy and sell cars in today’s world.
It’s still thought of that the auto industry is a male dominated field when it comes to buying and selling cars.
The fact is that 85% of the decision makers to purchase cars are women and 50% of the actual car buyers are women. A shockingly 2% of women are employed in auto retail sales and finance positions in dealerships.
Most women used to depend or leave the car buying to dads, husbands and brothers. Many women in the United States are now single, working full time, raising children, working the budget and buying the cars. Women of all ages, walks of life, White, Black, Hispanic and Asian. This is why the ratios are high for car buying decision makers and buyers as being women.
There are also excellent job and career positions available in the auto retail and finance field that do not require a formal education, have excellent benefits with a nice pay scale. Most women do not know about these positions being available for women.
We’re on a mission to help women consumers, employees and career seekers to become educated and “in the know” and we need the help of WomensAutomotiveNetwork.com and WomensAutomotiveNetwork.TV to get this signed petition to the women media giants on TV and in the movies to join together as women in a united venture and to get this concept promoted via WomensAutomotiveNetwork and into a cable channel on television and spread across the nation.
With your truly appreciated signatures, we will change the way we buy and sell cars in today’s world. We will open up more employment and career opportunities for women to make a nice living for themselves and be able to take care of their family and themselves.
We feel that with an incredible amount of signatures, we can get the women in the media that have the power to lift this side of the table in the automotive sector and balance in more women to become educated to use the right tools and techniques to buy and sell cars in today’s world and to learn about the job and career opportunities.
Let’s face it, when you turn on the TV to watch a women’s talk show or pick up any of the hundreds of women’s magazines, you will find topics on moms, children, closet organizing, cooking, dieting, romance, dating, shopping, fashion, horoscopes, what he really wants, what the talk show host is interested in and all about, how to decorate your home and garden, health advice…everything and anything but the automotive sector!
And today we have a woman mentor who’s lived in the auto industry for over 25 years and who has helped thousands of women, one by one, to learn about credit, loans, negotiating, buying, selling, how to get a job, and more…now we can do this on a national and global scale.
Men are very supportive of this and often inquire on how we can help their wife, daughter, sister or friend…they say that “it’s about time WomensAutomotiveNetwork came along.”
We’re here and our concept is no longer an idea but has come to fruition. Now we need the leading ladies of this country and the media giants to help us further succeed.
WomensAutomotiveNetwork.com “Empowerment in Motion” and WomensAutomotiveNetwork.TV is “Explore. Discover. Experience. Expand. Evolve.”
Ladies of the Media, What Aren’t You Thinking?
May 16, 2007
Last night, I submitted the video shown in yesterday’s post to a a few video publication web sites, which posted the video. Most don’t post your videos right away, of course, because they need to make sure the material is safe and legal…just like I do on our dot TV site. Plus, I’m not too happy with the technology of their video uploading capabilities…the quality is watery or the sound is off, ahead of the streaming video as we experienced on AOL and forget Yahoo these days. The better sites so far are Google and MSN…we’re trying Brightcove and One True Media but are experiencing glitches, which is why we prefer to make our own and host them on our own site. We do pick up g-rated informative and entertaining videos from Google, MSN, MetaCafe and now trying Brightcove, just to offer a variety…but when we embed their code into our web pages, our viewers may experience a big lag in time in even seeing the video player and look at a blank screen for awhile…hopefully we’ve found some gems and we are really happy with MetaCafe and the others at this point.
Getting back to the actual subject
This morning when I read my emails, I was surprised that iVillage, a women’s web site, would not want to post our material on women consumers in the automotive sector. Here’s what they sent me:
Dear Deanna,
Thank you for your recent video submission to “iVillage Live”.
Unfortunately, we cannot post your video at this time for one of the following reasons:
It contains material we consider inappropriate for a family Web site. See your terms of agreement for guidelines.
This is not a personal statement against your work and you should not let this stop you from continuing to submit in the future. Thank you again for your submission.
The “iVillage Live” Team
So I’m asking myself, what is inappropriate about that video for a family web site? We’re a family web site. In fact, the numbers are in…85% of the car buying decision makers are WOMEN and 50% of car buyers are WOMEN…and women have babies and would want to learn about CHILD SAFETY in cars and when their kids become teen agers, would they not want to learn about teaching them to drive safely and the new technology that allows us to do so? I’m not getting iVillage’s lack of support.
For the last 25 years, I have helped thousands of women consumers with a simple and pleasant car buying experience on a one to one basis…and trying to take this to a grander level, yes, we are receiving a lot of attention from the media and women’s groups and men…but what is with the non thinking media employee behind the desk at iVillage, not thinking to pass the info on to a “higher up” for review to perhaps see how this might make a grand difference in everyone’s life? Maybe I should approach the King or Queen of the company and find out.
Women don’t have in the media, what we have to offer. I’m seeing that many women in the media are content with projecting women as making pies, making babies, nesting, dating, dieting…but not as being educated and yet still thinking that the car buying thing is really left up to Dad or the husband.
Guess what…many women are single…their men off to the armed services, divorced, passed away…most of the sons, young men these days aren’t savvy with money. this is why we have such a high ratio of women making the decisions to buy cars and actually are buying cars…
More women than ever, Hispanic and Asian in culture as well, are experiencing the loss of a spouse and having to make the decisions in real life. They work a career, bring in the money, raise the kids, make the financial decisions and car buying decisions…this isn’t something that was just made up…it’s a fact…most women I dealt with in real life had gone through those experiences and were learning the ropes from me on credit, loans, researching, insurance and more…women have to be savvy…
Plus, women need to know that working in a job or career in the auto retail industry brings good money and very good benefits…does not require a formal education and all walks of life sell cars because all walks of life buy cars.
I know over the last 25 years, I’ve helped thousand of women in the auto buying, selling, credit and career sector, one at a time…but to the ladies in the media such as iVillage, we can get our dating and horoscope advice from thousands of magazines, web sites, day time TV talk shows…but no one is offering the important free information that I am…information that really matters to women of all ethnic groups, walks of life and from teen agers on up in all age groups.
The perfect way to get this across is to sit down and have a meeting with Barbara Walters, Oprah, Martha Stewart, Arianna Huffington, Hillary Clinton, Rosie, Ellen and other women n the media’s eye and make this an actual united venture for all women.
Do you realize how supportive men are of our creations and actions? Men who tell us are men in the auto industry…Fathers for their daughters…sons that want to learn the ropes…husbands and ex husbands for their wives…more than enough have said that “it’s about time you came along with this for women.”
Women want to be ‘in the know” and I guess my real dilemma is getting this out to the multi media outlets and getting them to change so we can bring inspiration and education to everyone on a grand scale…and I’m not stopping until we do, and then some!
Announcing New Inspiring Up-Lift for Viewers
May 15, 2007
The above video demo of our site was uploaded to Google in order for us to post it on our blog. The quality of videos on our site have a better viewing quality, but at least we were able to give you a quick look!
Hello, Deanna here…back in action from having a lumbar and a neck surgery…I can’t believe it’s May when I started having operations in the middle of January, due to a major car accident suffered 25 years ago. Thank the higher powers that we have the technology available for doctors to make me, as my spinal specialist put it “a six million dollar woman.” And I do feel like one!
A lot has been happening with our web site. To start with, we have given WomensAutomotiveNetwork.TV a new up-lift with a new look and feel.
This web site is designed to bring women, consumers, car dealers, automakers, auto related companies and career seekers, all together on the same page to improve relations in making the car buying and selling experience simple and pleasant, in today’s world.
We have added more of a complete New Car Models section, with news and information in the form of a video and photo gallery. Each auto manufacturer has visited and approved our site to deliver up to date educational news and info straight from the automakers. Check out the Exotics and slip into a Ferrari or Maserati…you’ll also be able to see the latest in police cars, police women, new technology and exciting videos we found from around the web, from around the globe! Clean and Green to learn about hybrids and alternative fuel vehicles.
There are dot TV Shows with “do it yourself and how to” mini webisodes. One is Curb Side Chat and the other is Make That Savvy Car Deal. Learn how to buy and sell cars in today’s world. We deal with every day topics on owning a vehicle, credit, negotiating, how to handle or avoid dilemmas and more!
We’ve also launched our news program called CARNUZ with video news and information that matters most to women and consumers. Opening features include Child Safety, Teen Drivers plus a special featured segment with Barbara Walters, Martha Stewart, Arianna Huffington, Hillary Clinton, Meredith Vieira, Thelma Golden and more!
Accessories, Books and Gifts is our virtual online secure shopping mall featuring spectacular items from The A&E and History Channel, Circuit City, Barnes and Noble, MyFico for credit, Smart Auto Warranty, Tire Rack, Auto Anything, Sirius Satelite Radio and more! You’ll even find great online auto loan rates at Capital One Auto and Road Loans…insurance at 21st Century…we have a very complete selection and have tested and used these services ourselves.
National Dealer Directory is a cool new way for dealers to introduce themselves, their sales, service and parts departments and their staff to the consumers or potential employees. You’ll meet our award winning Dealer of the Month, DCH Tustin Acura in California! Watch their video presentations and what they’re women employees have to say about buying and selling cars there! Note: This is a new feature that we have just launched and dealers are being added on every day.
You’ll also enjoy entertaining and educational g-rated videos we selected at Your Videos and not all of the videos are auto related…some are on safety and protecting yourself, some are on global thinking…explore and discover!
The greatest thing of all is that when I started this site concept over four years ago, I knew that when technology caught up, everyone would come out with wonderful video programs via web sites. In the auto industry, NIADA is the National Independent Auto Dealer Association which has ties with AutoTrader and Cox Enterprises (both companies have frequented our dot TV site in the past few months), opened up a dot TV site for used auto dealers and they are coming out with one similar to ours that is another consumer video site. DriverTV is another site that is trying to use HD technology for their videos of vehicles which you can also download, if you really wanted to, however, the size of the files are so large and the time takes so long, we clicked off before it could finish. Why would a consumer need to download a car video and take up their computer space when they can just watch it on the site, if the video ever comes up…Edmunds.com, one of our favorites, has also opened videos on their site, however we find that they have TMI for most consumers…even the auto magazines and newspapers have great video coverage and auto information…most of the material, look and feel of the web site is geared towards 23 year old + men…
Women automotive sites have been sprouting up all across the globe…though many of the people have never worked in the auto retail industry nor have been true auto consumer advocates and are trying to be another search engine for dealers and consumers…folks, there are too many auto search engines…and they want teach car dealers how to talk to women…let me tell you, it’s not just the car business…look at any industry (real estate, restaurants…) and a few of these women have made the mistake of taking women on the front of society back to the back of the bus, so to speak, by saying women should use their “sex” to buy and sell cars…what’s up with that? I know many professional males in and out of the auto industry that were offended by the thought.
Four years ago, I designed WomensAutomotiveNetwork.com and WomensAutomotiveNetwork.TV to be simple, clean, giving just enough information, how to use it to one’s advantage, definately woman, consumer and dealer employee friendly, and our technology allows our short videos to have great quality and fast loading time (depending if one is using a lap top, we are experiencing heavy site traffic, and the viewer’s online connection technology of dial up, cable or DSL)…our videos and information are designed to be inspiring to the viewers.
We don’t want to be another “car search” company because there are hundreds…dealers and consumers are bombarded with “car search” sites…being a dealer professional for over 25 years, we have found that the best customer/dealer relations come together at the dealer’s own web site…we don’t want to be another YouTube…we don’t even want video ads in the start, middle or end of our productions…and our video presentations of dealers are just that, presentations for the consumers to meet the dealers before they visit. You won’t find video ads in our productions because consumers don’t want them nor have time for them…
Our motto for WomensAutomotiveNetwork.com is “Empowerment in Motion” and our motto for WomensAutomotiveNetwork.TV is Explore. Discover. Experience. Expand. Evolve.
We feel that if our viewers find they are inspired by or learn even just one thing from us, then that is a really good thing. Our viewers forward our web pages to their friends and family and recommendation by word of mouth (and friendly forwarded email system) is one of the highest compliments one can ever receive and achieve.
We look forward to your visit! You won’t believe what we’re up to next!
