According to a recent study by market-research firm J.D. Power and Associates, women report higher customer satisfaction when buying a car from another female than from a male. Good luck finding one, though. Yet it might not have made a real difference in what we paid. In fact, because women expect a better deal from a woman, they might actually get a worse one. Eckel has conducted experiments on the subject with Phillip Grossman of Wayne State University.
Women get the guilt-trip treatment.
The salesmen s primary strategy was to make a play for Heidi s sympathy. Again and again, they would try to make her feel that she was somehow being unfair by reducing their commission when she bargained for a lower price. As time went on, though, Heidi actually began to enjoy the game-and to get prices and services closer to those offered Joseph. She came to appreciate that unlike a business contract that requires you to work with the other party afterward, car buying is one-short deal. She resisted the impulse to fill in conversational silences or make friends with the salesman.