Auto Chain Expands Its No-Dickering Deals to Corona : Retail: Santa Ana-based Campbell will post flat prices for cars at Buick-GMC showroom. Under the policy, sales zoomed 45% at its Costa Mesa Mazda.
Campbell Automotive Group, which rocked the local car retailing industry earlier this year when it launched a no-dickering policy at its Costa Mesa Mazda dealership, is shaking up the conventional car market in Riverside County.
After three months of refusing to negotiate prices at the Mazda outlet--where sales have jumped 45% from a year earlier--the company is beginning the same policy Friday at its Buick-GMC dealership in Corona.
While the Campbell group still is the only Southland new-car dealer pursuing the unorthodox sales approach, at least one other--Theodore Robbins Isuzu in Costa Mesa--said it is seriously considering making the switch.
The Santa Ana-based Campbell group owns two other competitive franchises: Campbell Ford in Garden Grove and a Nissan dealership in Huntington Beach. John Campbell, the company’s chairman, said he hopes to eventually switch both over to a one-price, no-dickering policy in all his outlets.
“But I can’t tell you when, because we are taking this slowly, one store at a time,” he said. “Making the transition is enormously time-consuming. Among other things, we have to completely retrain the entire staff to eliminate the us-versus-them sales mentality. This is a whole new way of operating.”
Campbell, a corporate financial manager before joining the automotive group, said he believes that car sales should be run just like any other retailing operation.
“You don’t go to Sears and negotiate the price of a refrigerator,” he said, bemoaning the traditional sales office bargaining session that turns most car deals into ordeals.
He was introduced to the no-dickering selling system when his company won the Saturn franchise for Orange County. Unlike other new-car makers, Saturn issues large exclusive territories to its dealers, creating an unconventional dealer network. Campbell has two franchises covering all of Orange County and has no other Saturn competition.
Saturn dealers nationally, supported by the new General Motors division, typically sell their cars for the sticker price, less the agreed-upon value of any trade-in.
Campbell liked the system so much that he decided to try it at one of his conventional dealerships, Campbell Mazda. Unlike the Saturn franchise, the Mazda store has several competing dealers in the county.
Campbell started the program at his Mazda store Feb. 28. By the end of May, his dealership had sold 290 new cars--up from 200 during the same three months in 1991.
At the no-dickering car lot, customers see the legally required manufacturers’ suggested retail price sticker on each car and, next to it, the Campbell sticker, which usually reflects a discount and also shows the typical price a particular model sells for at other dealerships in the county.
Rick Heronime, general manager at Campbell Mazda, said he has lost a few sales because of the no-dickering policy but overall finds that his staff and customers are enthusiastic about it.
He also said he has been called by a dozen or more dealerships from throughout the state and asked to send information. With the exception of a short-lived effort by Santa Ana Honda, however, no other new-car dealer in the county has adopted it.
Heronime said he understands the reluctance of dealers to make the change because it represents a major rethinking of the entire car retailing business.
But he said he is sold on it. “At this point, we are experiencing a high level of satisfaction with our customers,” he said. “And our sales consultants are very happy with their new status. They can concentrate on the product.”
