Allowance Buyers    : Customers who are primarily interested in the amount the dealer gives them for their current car.

Book Value    : The wholesale value of the car as quoted in any of several used-car guidebooks. The figures in these books will frequently vary from book to book. This is because some books collect their data from dealer-reported transactions and some collect their data from the prices paid at dealer auctions. Because salespeople know which books quote high and which quote low, they will often use a particular book when trying to convince a customer that the amount the dealership is willing to pay is fair. Case in point: Because Kelley Blue Book figures tend to reflect West Coast averages, East Coast dealers use the figures to help support an inflated used-car price. Beware of signs that read:"Prices Below Blue Book Value." They may be below Blue Book, but they could be well above the Black.

Bump    The effort by a saleperson to raise a customer's offer.

The Close    The process of finalizing the deal and signing the order.

Closer    A person in a dealership-whose primary job is to get you to sign the buyer's order.

Demos or Demonstrators    Cars used by the dealership to provide customers with test drives. Frequently these demo cars are driven home at night by salespeople and other dealership employees. If you buy a demo, treat it as a used car. Most dealerships will try to convince you it's somewhere between a used car and a new car, in a class all its own.

Dealer Hold-Backs This is money that the manufacturer "holds hack" from the dealer until after the car is sold. This usually amounts to two or three percent and was begun so that dealers could, if necessary, show their invoices to customers to prove "how little we're making on your deal" without revealing the additional money that will be collected after the sale.

Difference Buyers    People who are primarily concerned with the amount of money required to span the gap between what the dealership "allows" on the trade-in and the price of the new car.

Equity    The amount of money that the owner can expect to take out of his or her trade-in once all outstanding payoffs are made.

Floor Planning    The practice of having a financial institution buy the cars from the manufacturer and then charging the dealer interest between the time of dealer purchase to customer sale. The bank then remains somewhat diligent in checking to be sure that the dealer hasn't "forgotten" to report the sale of a car. Sometimes dealers like to postpone reporting a sale so that they can use the cash received on a deal to cover other expenses. Obviously the financial institution frowns on this type of "forgetfulness."

Gross    Front-end Gross: The profit a dealership makes from the sale of a vehicle.Back-end Gross: The profit the dealership makes from the sale of add-ons like insurance and rustproofing.

Loan Value    The amount of money that a lending institution will lend a buyer against the purchase of a used car. Usually the loan value is figured at 80 to 85 percent of the book value, but it can vary cording to the vehicle and the applicant's loan history.

The Monroney Sticker    The price sticker on the car is called the monroney, after the senator who introduced legislation in the late fifties to require that each car have a label detailing the price and identifiying the car by make, model, and identification number. Know that it Is a gainst the law for this label to be removed prior to the sale and delivery to the customer. What this does is prevent the dealer from inging the price on a given car to reflect an increase in factory pricing

MSRP or List Price The manufacturer's suggested retail price. This is the price that appears on the paper form displayed on the rear 1e window. It is also referred to in the industry as the Monroney sticker

Packs Extra profit added to the invoice by dealers. This is parularly prevalent when the dealer knows that a certain car is hot and demand.

Payment Buyers People who are mainly concerned with the .nount of their monthly payments.

Retail Price   This is another way of expressing the MSRP.

System Selling or Track Selling    A system designed by the deal¬ership to control the customer and to hand him or her off from one person to another to assure maximum dealership productivity. Avoid these stores.

Tissue    Another term for the dealer's invoice, i.e., the actual price of the vehicle charged by the manufacturer to the dealer.

T.O.    The process of turning over a customer to another salesperson, usually to help make a better deal for the dealership.
"Up" System    A salesperson-rotation system that assures that each salesperson gets to take his or her turn with customers as they walk into the dealership.

Wholesale Value    This is the value of a car to a person who plans to resell it for a profit.