I've had similar experiences. I don't consider myself a good negotiator (in fact, I'm a bad one), and I'm not really good with my money. When I leased my car, I probably paid too much. But what are you gonna do?
It's easy to label car salesmen the scum of the earth. Oh, and by the way, I am NOT a car salesman or any kind of salesman. Nor do I even know any. Car salesmen, which if I understand correctly, work largely on commision. The more they sell, the more they're paid. For me, that's a hard job. If you're a car salesman, and you wake up on the wrong side of the bed, you still must try to put on a smile and be nice to the customer. If you have a bad week (or month) and don't sell much, you might have trouble feeding your family and making your mortgage payment. That can be stressful.
A car dealership is in the business of making money. They need to make money. They need to run their operations, pay emplyees, and make a profit at the same time. Therefore, the more money they make per sale, the easier it is to run the business and be successful. It seems like a lot of people want to buy a vehicle for factory cost price or close to it. I don't think that's reasonable. In fact, that bothers me more than the salesmen themselves. It's like people who want lower taxes, but then complain about lack of healthcare, education, and city improvements. EVERYONE tries to squeeze as much as possible out of their income taxes.
I'm not saying people should willingly fork over their hard-earned money to a car dealership as the salesman sees fit. But some people expect a lot for nothing. Salesmen are not 'the scum of the earth'. They're just civilized people trying to make they're way through life. As an outside observer, I see 2 major rewards of being a car saleman. 1) The satisfaction of making a sale (or the satisfaction of accomplishing your task). And 2) the chance to make some money in order to provide for your family, try for an early retirement, buy a nice house, etc... I bet the money making is a larger motivator. No doubt though, since we live in a society of capitalization, and wealth is held as a high commodity.
So the individual salesman uses his learned tactics to make money from the customer, in order to better the outcome of the dealership and his/her personal (financial) success. I'm an artist. I make my money by creating visual imagery. I use my learned tactics to fool the observer's eye into believing an attractive image, or to evoke some kind of emotion. People pay for this when they buy videogames and watch movies. Am I the scum of the earth? For using my skills to 'fool you' into giving me your money at your discretion? I'm not forcing you to give me your money. You do it willingly.
I'm not trying to justify the sometimes questionable tactics of a car salesman. Your above dialogue seems like a textbook example of how a salesman tries to find out how much you are WILLING to spend, and can adjust the vehicle price accordingly. If the dealership's initial sale price was less than you're spending allowance, they have some room to make money. So why do salesman do this? Read my above paragraphs.
Sure, there's some scum salesmen out there who will try to rip you off. These are the kind of people who will fudge vehicle history records and roll back odometers. But I bet there are more decent ones who are really trying to help the customer. Sure, they're gonna try to make money. But thats their job. What else do you expect.
As I mentioned above, I feel I paid too much for my car. I didn't over pay, and was not rip-offed, but I paid the full amount. Do I kick myself everyday for not getting a great deal? No. By my calculations, if I would have negotiated for a better deal I would have been paying maybe $15-$20 less per month. That's not a lot. It's only money. It means one less dinner out per month. Or one less trip to the movies per month. I don't make a lot of money, but I wouldn't really notice the difference. Maybe I say this because I'm one of the last remaining persons in this country who doesn't value his money more than life itself. Money can be made. There's a sea of money out there if you really want it. I have learned some lessons from buying a new car. My next purchase will be more informed.
So I guess to answer you're question: No, I don't think salesmen are the scum of the earth. The scum of the earth are those who willingly participate in organized crime. There's a lot more organized crime than people think, and it's damaging our good nation.
B2
