It Was 2001 & I Needed a Car
Tell me if you’ve ever experienced a situation like this.
Back when Eminem was the biggest pop star, The Sopranos was the best show on TV, and America Online dominated the internet, I bought my first car.
I had moved from Alaska to Oregon to work at a snowboard resort for $6.50 an hour and a season pass. I needed a vehicle that could get me up and down Mt. Hood every day through heavy snowfall for work and play.
I knew nothing about cars; I only knew the problem I needed solved.
I had a friend drive me into Portland, Oregon to a used car lot in search of the perfect vehicle for my situation. I was greeted fairly quickly, but also a bit reluctantly (due to my age and perceived cash flow), by a used car salesman.
I told him my problem:
"I need a dependable vehicle that can handle a heavily trafficked mountain road through rain, sleet, snow, and ice.
I had a lot of questions for him, but he only had one question for me:
"How much money do you have?"
I told him I could go as high as $2,000.
“Perfect,” he said. “I’ve got a 1987 Subaru GL Wagon for exactly $2,000.”
He took me for a test drive in what is arguably the ugliest station wagon you’ve ever seen. It wasn’t going to turn any heads (at least not in a good way), but he promised me it could get me anywhere I needed to go.
During the test drive, he had me stick to residential roads near the dealership. Twenty-five MPH was the top speed I was able to hit. I wanted to get it out on the highway, but he seemed insistent on getting back to the dealership quickly to talk terms.
At the dealership, I attempted to haggle on the price a bit. He entertained me some by giving me the old, “Let me talk to my manager,” as he stepped into another room for less than two minutes.
He came back and said, “Sorry, $2,000 firm. Take it or leave it.”
Not being an experienced negotiator at all, I practiced what a friend had coached me to say.
“Well then, I’m going to drive up the road to another dealership and see what they have to offer.”
He quickly countered, “This Subaru just came in here yesterday. They are the most popular used vehicles we sell. If you leave here right now, there’s a good chance it will be gone when you come back. $2,000 for this car is a sweet deal. Trust me. You’d be foolish to leave.”
He called my bluff, and I forked over the cash.
He shot me a shark-toothed grin that I still remember distinctly to this day as he said, “And it’s ‘As-Is.’ You drive it off the lot, it’s yours.”
As soon as I drove off the lot and got onto a highway up to 55 mph, I noticed the RPM tack was slipping a little.
Two days later the clutch went out, and I had to spend a couple hundred more dollars replacing the flywheel —not easy to do on a minimum wage budget.
I felt cheated. I had been duped. He must have known there was a problem with the clutch and had kept me off the highway so I wouldn’t notice the problem.
I had buyer’s remorse.
Everything I knew about that vehicle I had learned from the salesman. With no other resources at my disposal, I was forced to take him at his word that this car was a good fit for me.
Here's What Happened 14 Years Later
Fast forward to 2015, and I needed a new vehicle for my growing family. I was back living in Alaska and wanted something large, safe, affordable, easy to fix, and able to tow a trailer.
While the internet was around back in 2001, it wasn’t quite the amazing research machine that it is today. This time around, I was able to study the living heck out of my problem and set my heart on getting a Toyota Tundra.
Image Source: MotorTrend.com
Don't bother whining, Chevy, Ford, or Dodge fans. This was my purchase, not yours. 😎
I found a Chevy dealership in town that had a slightly used Toyota Tundra on the lot. The listing for the vehicle was on their website and I was able to look at all the details of the truck.
I went in, met with a sales rep, took the truck for a drive, and decided I wanted it.
When it came time to haggle, he wouldn’t budge on price. I told him I might be back after I drove to the next town’s Toyota dealership.
He gave me the exact same reply I had heard nearly a decade and a half before: “These trucks are some of the most popular vehicles out there. If you leave here today, I can’t promise that it won’t be here tomorrow.”
But this time, I dropped this knowledge bomb on him: “Well, it’s been here for 72 days already.”
He flinched a little and sat back. “What are you talking about?”
“Well, I found the truck through your website. And on the page with all of the info about the truck it also shows the truck has been here for 72 days. So, I’m not entirely worried that it’ll be gone by tomorrow if I do a little more shopping.”
An hour later, I drove away in my new truck. I not only got the dealership to knock a couple grand off the sticker price, but I also got the windshield replaced, a lifetime of oil changes, and an extended warranty at no additional charge.
"Kevin, what does your car buying experience have to do with Content Marketing?"
When I bought my first car in 2001, I was at the mercy of that salesperson.
He had all the knowledge, and he was able to pick and choose what he wanted to share with me. I was a young, uneducated buyer; he chose not to share any of that knowledge with me.
Back then, if you had a question you weren’t able to ask Google, Alexa, Siri, or even ChatGPT for help — you might have "Asked Jeeves," but I wasn’t even aware of that resource. Also, there was no Facebook, Twitter, Tik Tok, or Reddit to crowdsource your answers. And there definitely weren’t YouTube tutorials or video reviews to browse.
Heck, Wikipedia had launched, but most of us didn’t even know about it yet.
Instead, if you wanted to research a purchase decision, you asked friends and family first. If you were really digging in, you’d go to a library. Savvy internet users — which were few and far between — might be able to find pages or use AOL chat rooms to ask around.
Too often, you were stuck getting all your information from the salesperson you were buying from and had to trust they were being square with you. It sucked.
Fortunately for Consumers, a Lot Has Changed Since Then.
We now have access to the same information these sales folks have.
The power dynamic has shifted. We no longer have to rely on the transparency of the people selling us products and services, we can look up the information ourselves. We can dive as deep into any topic we want and gather all the information we need to make the best purchase decisions for us.
Salespeople are no longer the gatekeepers of information.
It’s a great time for consumers.
So, how can businesses adapt to this shift? What is the best way for them to communicate with today’s sophisticated consumers? Rather than continue to play your cards close to your sleeve or rely on misleading advertisements, it’s time to get honest.
And this is where content marketing can help you attract, educate, convert, and close happy customers.