ST. LOUIS — It’s 2020. Surely the car buying experience has improved for women, right?
Not for Becca Zeable who wrote on Facebook: “I hate to be so blunt, but I am a woman. I’ve never had a positive experience. I started bringing my dad, brother, or husband anytime I have to deal with car issues because I got so sick of being talked down to, and lied to. I just gave up.”
New wheels are exciting and exhilarating, but sometimes exhausting, especially if you’re a woman.
Pat Vogelsang’s Facebook comment: “If I go by myself, the salespeople are often condescending because I’m a woman. So I hand them a calendar and remind them it’s the 21st century.”
It all sounds familiar to car sales veteran Adam Novik.
“I spent 15 years in retail, automotive, held every position in the dealership,” said Novik. “There's not enough representation for women. Most dealerships don't have a single female employee. So it's like walking into a boys club. They (salesmen) make these terrible assumptions upfront that they're (women) uneducated, they don't know anything about cars, which is ridiculous in today's age.”
Besides sexism, Novik said the hours spent researching, then haggling over price are among the biggest car-buying turnoffs.
“People spend about 10 hours on average researching a car through all the information sites available on the internet. Then they spend another three to four sitting in a dealership is after they've even negotiated price and they know what they want,” said Novik.
While helping friends and family buy cars, Novik saw an opportunity and founded Tailored Auto. He is a new car negotiator who will do all of the work for you. If someone told you you’d only have to spend one hour at a car dealership, would that be worth $600?
“Saving the money upfront. I will save you $600 on the transaction,” said Novik. “Obviously a lot of professionals that value their time reached out to me, but I also had a lot of women reaching out and realized that they were just desperately searching for somebody to be on their side that didn't exist.”
If it takes 10 to 20 hours to research and buy a car, how much is your time worth, especially if you don’t enjoy the process?
“People want to save time, so I’ll do all the research for them. I will negotiate the deal. I will set up their paperwork so then they can get in and out of a car dealership in about an hour,” said Novik.
Some car buyers enjoy conventional car buying and don’t mind doing the research and legwork. Novik hopes to attract consumers looking for a different experience.
“With a peace of mind knowing that they bought what was right for them and that they're fully protected in a way that they had representation doing it, as opposed to walking in and spending four hours and just saying ‘yes’ to whatever's being offered so that they could get on with their day.”
For more information, www.tailoredauto.com
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