Almost everyone owns a vehicle, and the stakes are higher than ever. Not only is your credit rating at risk in the long run, when you buy a car, but you also have maintenance costs, payments, and fuel. Used car prices have skyrocketed and the cost of maintenance, parts and service have also followed this upward trend. As much as the auto industry wants us to have a loving relationship with our vehicles, at the end of the day, a loving relationship only works when everything works right and costs us nothing. People need vehicles to be reliable, simple and functional, like a loving companion.

I’m on the front lines, as a small independent car dealer, for seventeen years, in the same city. There is a huge difference in my customers’ buying experience vs. a large dealership experience. I listen carefully to my clients and try to learn from them, often changing the way I do business, based on the client’s needs. This is not the case with the big dealers, who have their clothes set in stone. Customer animosity exists a lot in the auto business, and I am sometimes on the receiving end of this anguish. Most of the time it comes from past customer experiences, at the big dealerships.

Buying a car in real life is not how it is portrayed in TV commercials. What customers need is to listen and help customers during the stressful time of buying a car. Unfortunately, the same complaints from the auto industry that I heard twenty-five years ago still exist and are getting worse. I used to think that people were unfairly biased against the car business, until I spent enough years in this business to see how big car dealerships and car manufacturers treat people. I’ve learned, through the years, exactly why this business is “buyer beware,” and I’ve learned, firsthand, why the car business can’t be trusted. That’s why bad airbags, bogus emissions software, and faulty starter motors happen. Building a good, reliable customer vehicle should be a given, but it’s not. As a buyer, you have many important decisions to make during the buying process, and it’s hard to find a professional at the dealership with your best interests in mind to help you with these important buying decisions.

Here are the top ten reasons why you should seek out an authorized independent dealer for your next used vehicle purchase. I am giving you these reasons to go with a small dealer because I would love for you as a used car buyer to have a better overall experience. It is the first step in changing the customer experience in the automotive business.

1. You will save money by buying a used car from a small dealer. Spending more, up front, on a used vehicle never means you’ll get a better used vehicle. It just means you’re paying too much up front. Big dealerships try to play by the rules—Kelley Blue Book retail, to be specific—and these prices are typically one to four thousand dollars higher than the prices you’ll find on a vehicle offered by a small dealer. A small independent, licensed and insured dealer can offer the same vehicle that a large franchise dealer offers, at a much lower price, because they don’t have the huge payroll and facility overhead.

2. You can ignore the local advertising from the big dealers and click on craigslist, Facebook, eBay and auto-trader to find a great selection of vehicles from small independent dealers. Advertising is huge for the automobile business. Millions of dollars every week are funneled into ads that don’t provide concrete information about cars, and for what? While a commercial on the most important things to know about the brand and the vehicle would be helpful, local automotive advertising still tries to entertain us with family, kids, dogs, crazy managers, or sentimental topics.

3. You can buy a good used vehicle, without being pressured to buy half a dozen aftermarket products. It’s hard to trust a business that keeps trying to sell you more and more, when you only wanted to buy one thing, a car. Selling you a vehicle is only the first step, at the big dealership. Today’s savvy customer has noticed and doesn’t like it. The sales process is too long, in the big distributors, my clients say. Large dealerships are trained in the various sales methods and taught to sell you everything. Most people who buy cars from me list this as the thing they hate most about buying from a big dealer.

4. You can avoid costly service department scams. A customer recently told me the story of a $3000 service bill at a Honda dealer. She was upset just for talking about it, and couldn’t get clear on what they really did for the $3000. A single, working mother of two, she was taken in by the big dealership and its sale of over-the-top services. A story I often hear, because people don’t believe this will happen to them at their local “trusted” dealer. That is, until they have to suffer “gotcha.” What this customer needed, from a dealer, was help, advice, and the cheapest possible fix. He needed a fair estimate and price, and he didn’t get it. Needless to say, he won’t be buying a car from them, ever, after this service experience. Service departments have changed and are obviously trained not to share service information. Dealerships are far from headed in the right direction with their service department trust issues. Customers can find cheaper service almost anywhere besides the big box dealership. New studies find that most people can’t even afford a $600 repair, let alone a $3,000 repair. I know mechanics that charge $25-$30 an hour instead of the $100 an hour the big boys charge. Many times a small, reputable dealer in your area can help you with inexpensive service. You just need to ask.

5. You won’t pay full retail price or have a seller devalue your trade-in. A small broker, like myself, would prefer that you sell your own car, or help sell your car, because it’s probably not a vehicle they would keep in stock. I can sell a customer’s vehicle in less than a week, regardless of condition, and help them make more money than trading it in. How can you trust a company that wants to undervalue one of your greatest assets? It can slow down the buying process. I make that very clear to my friends and family. Selling your used vehicle, not trading it in, is the way to keep your money, and it can be quick and easy.

6. You can still get “Certified Pre-Owned” vehicles. Certified Pre-Owned means it’s been inspected, and luckily people are starting to question the exorbitant markup that comes with this label. It was supposedly created to help you buy used vehicles with confidence, but is now recognized as a way to inflate the price, by the thousands, of a used vehicle. It also encourages you to let your guard down in regards to the vehicle. Not a big thing to do while shopping for a vehicle. A single-owner car, in good condition, more certifiably than a three-owner, off-lease or rental vehicle, is likely to be a “Certified Pre-Owned” vehicle at the big dealer, right? Common sense still applies a lot to the buying process. Certified Pre-Owned means something different at every dealership. Shouldn’t a dealer automatically inspect a vehicle before selling it? Grocery stores inspect their food, do not certify, and charge more for it. They just assume you want good food and if they don’t provide it you will buy elsewhere.

7. You will not pay doc fees. How can you trust a dealer who adds $400 to $800 to your newly negotiated deal? This fee is almost never disclosed in advance. A dealer who cares about their customers would never try to charge their customer a fee for doing their documents.

8. You can negotiate your deal. Most people know that negotiating is a good thing, and we laugh at any other sales approach. Buying a car is not like buying chicken parmesan. Most adults don’t feel insulted if a good salesperson is serving them and can negotiate a good deal. You should be insulted if a big used car chain tells you to pay retail, and they have a “no haggle” pricing policy. That’s an insult to all intelligence, and most buyers won’t buy it. I laugh every time I hear the commercial.

9. You have the opportunity to speak with the dealer owner, or the person who made the decision to stock the vehicle you wish to purchase, and they will explain exactly why this is a great used vehicle for you. With a large dealership, you will rarely speak to the owner or buyer of the vehicle. At a large dealership, many times you will come across an unprofessional employee, who will try to sell you as much as he can. What is the most common complaint? Sales staff lacking professionalism. They’re either overly friendly, when you’re shopping, or downright rude, if you’re not shopping, right now. They treat men and women as numbers because that is the system they work under. The friendliest and most helpful seller does not receive prizes. The salesperson who posts the most sales and has the highest gross profit is the employee who receives awards at the dealership. You probably won’t see a friendly, professional female face in most dealerships, like you do in some commercials, because most women can’t work the hours required by the owners and also can’t care for a family. At a small dealership, the same person who thought and spent the time to purchase this particular vehicle is also the person selling it. They know something about the vehicle and bought it for reasons they trust, and they can explain it to you, the buyer, during the sales process.

10. You can make Consumers Reports work for you when you buy a used car, and this is one tool that won’t let you down. This is the most important advice that any automotive professional can give you. Hundreds of owners review their vehicles for Consumers Reports. You can put a lot of trust in the information you get from Consumers Reports, and even I, as a seasoned professional, trust its wisdom.

True automotive professionals want you to love your used vehicle. We take pride in choosing a vehicle that we personally select as a great used vehicle and a great deal. When buying a used vehicle from me, I only want to hear from you in one instance. When you’re ready to add another great used vehicle to your family inventory!