I recently had an experience at my store about a girl trying to buy a car. She came in to our store and had all the typical defensive walls up. She seemed to be very cautious and deliberate with almost every action and word she said. It just seemed as if she was nervous and intimidated with coming to a car dealership on her own. But little did we know, she had a plan and was prepared to "do battle" with us when it came time to discuss the price of her new vehicle. She said she wanted $5000 off the price of our new car. And not only off the MSRP, but off the sale price! Now as many of us in this community have sold vehicles before, being in that situation, you can't help but give a little smirk or smile when you hear something like that. It just seemed so out of place at that point. The salesperson asked why she said that. She replied, "In school, they teach us in 'Life Skills' class how to buy a new car. That we should always ask for $5000 off the sale price. Our teacher said the dealers can afford to do that and you guys are still making a lot of money from other profits you hide." Yes, you read all of that correctly. Besides being told this information with no creditability, it was told by a teacher!

I was immediately disturbed by this newly learned information. We all know about all those websites out there to "teach" people how to buy a car. But this is coming from within the school system. Think about the idea of "Life Skills" for just a moment... was she really taught a life skill? NO! She was misled by a trusted person who is supposed to teach people "Life Skills". Now, can you get $5000 off of some cars out in today's market? Of course you can. But I think it's easy to see what's wrong with this scenario. As a father of 3 that are no older than 8 years old, I have no experience with any "Life Skills" teaching.

Has anyone heard of car buying skills being taught in today's schools or colleges? I'd like to hear from the community their thoughts on this.