Southland Mazda Dealer Tries Haggle-Free Pricing : Retailing: Competitors doubt Campbell Mazda can stick with a policy of not bargaining over discount prices.

By JOHN O’DELL

Feb. 29, 1992 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

COSTA MESA — An Orange County Mazda dealer jolted customers and some competitors Friday by launching a discount-pricing, no-bargaining policy.

In doing so, Campbell Mazda became the first new-car dealership in California and one of just a handful nationwide to institute non-negotiable prices--a common practice for most retailers but revolutionary in the car business.

John B. T. Campbell, chief executive of Campbell Automotive Group, said he has been considering the move for several years but “got the guts to do it” after securing the Saturn franchise for Orange County in 1990. Saturn, a General Motors division, has discouraged dealers from bargaining by pricing the cars low.

Malcom Wilson, a sales manager at Beverly Hills Acura, said fixed-price selling “would be heaven. . . . Dealers are cutting each other’s throats, and customers are uneasy about the process. We wouldn’t be playing against each other.”

But not all dealers like the idea.

Craig Shearer, general manager of Anaheim Mazda, said he doesn’t believe that Campbell will be able to stick with the program. “The haggling is just expected. It’s so entrenched in the customer’s mind. I don’t see this as being able to work.”

“There will always be someone willing to undercut the next guy,” said Ed Bryan, general sales manager of Glenn Thomas Dodge and Suzuzki in Long Beach. “It’s a dog-eat-dog world; it’s greed. I just don’t see it happening.”

Reginald Barron, owner of Barron Chevrolet in Danvers, Mass., began a no-bargaining policy last year. “Most of my sales, even after 14 months, come from people who get my price, then shop around and end up coming back. They don’t want to believe that I’m not trying to trick them,” he said.

Several customers at the Campbell dealership Friday said they were surprised when they walked onto the lot and were greeted by a salesman who launched into an explanation of the fixed-price system.

“I thought, ‘Sure, just another gimmick,’ ” Mark Thury said. “But then I saw the price tags and I heard some other salesmen talking about it to their customers and I decided it was legitimate.”

Thury bought a black limited edition 1992 Mazda Miata for $19,000 just 30 minutes after being greeted by Campbell “sales consultant” Jack Demirjian. “I hate haggling,” Thury said, “and this was painless.”

“We are pricing to make a profit,” Campbell said, “otherwise, I’d have a going-out-of business sale. But we looked at the range all these cars are selling in, and we priced to the low end of that range. We want to be the Wal-Mart of car dealers.”