It's been a long time since I've been in a big 3 dealer looking at cars but there's this perception that everything has changed and dealers aren't shady any longer. I had no reason to assume this was not true and maybe in Chicago it is true. Out in LA, they're pumping out the crazy in full swing. Let me regale you with the story of my interest in leasing a Ford Flex.
First Contact
I'm hungry for Tacos. I get tacos and on the way there's a Ford dealer. I stop at the Ford dealer and ask a salesman to show me what option package Flex's fall under the lease special. He shows me. They're nice. I explain to him that I'm in a hurry but want to bring my wife back. He says no worries. He wants to know what additional options I would want (if any) above and beyond what the lease special includes which is a Flex SEL with the 202a option package and Titanium appearance package. I tell him Nav, vista roof and HIDs. HIDs are a deal breaker.
He explains to me that HIDs are not available on the SEL model and that I'd need to step into a limited for that. I explain to him that for the cost of leasing a limited I'm no longer interested in purchasing a Flex. That kind of money opens up the door to a lot better cars. He responds by asking me if I think I can close the deal if he can get HIDs installed on it. I explain that pending wifey approval we would have a deal with one stipulation: stock HIDs. Not an eBay conversion kit, the real deal. Stock headlight capsules. If the wiring isn't plug and play don't sweat it. I'll take care of that portion. He says he understands.
He calls me the next day and confirms that he can get me the HIDs. Great. I tell him I'll be in touch in the next 24 hours.
The Loaner
I speak to my wife and explain the situation to her. She's on the fence about the Flex after looking at it. She thinks it's too big for our neighborhood where there are winding, hilly streets that are barely the width of two cars. These streets were paved in the 20's. When two cars pass one generally has to pull over. I say, what if I get them to give us a Flex for a couple hours for you to try out? She says go for it. So I call the dealer and tell them I'm coming down.
At this point I'm speaking to salesman number 2 since my original was not in the office that day. This is where it starts to get fun. He says he needs just a bit of info off of me, nothing personal. Insurance card, driver's license, etc. Suddenly I notice he's writing this all down on a credit check sheet. I don't want my credit checked. I was planning on just paying for the lease out of pocket anyhow. He assures me this isn't to run my credit and he won't even need my social. Ok, no problem.
Salesman 2 excuses himself and returns with the manager to ask me about other issues (explained later). After filling out the form he hands it to the manager who explains to him that he needs my social security number and I need to sign the credit check. I told him I wouldn't and that a credit check was not a viable release form for a vehicle. It was not relevant to me borrowing the car. He responded that he wouldn't run my credit but needs it signed. I refuse and again ask why it's necessary. He tells me it's so they know who I am if I take off with their car. I explain that:
a. I'm leaving them with a BMW
b. They have my ID and my insurance info
c. They don't collect credit reports from customers who take loaners and
d. they're fully insured against theft regardless
Baffled, he now claims it's company policy and again starts repeating his reasons for needing it. I again refuse and explain to him that Audi and BMW have handed me cars with just my ID and told me to take them for a night after getting that and insurance info. He didn't believe me.
The missing HIDs
The original reason the salesman went to get the manager is because I told him that salesman 1 promised that he could get the vehicle equipped with stock HIDs as part of the deal. The manager told me flat out that he wasn't going to honor this. So I asked him how there could be such a large discrepancy between what he's telling me and what his salesman told me, not to mention the fact that the salesman didn't promise it to me until he got permission from his manager. He said he didn't know but that he would need to remove the HIDs from a limited model and how would he replace those. My response was to remind him that his salesman made the offer, not me. I just went with it. Likewise it wasn't my job to figure out the logistics of where the lights would come from or how the cost would be absorbed by the dealer. He didn't seem to understand this. At this point I'm ready to walk but then…
The Mandatory Security System
Then I remembered that every car on their lot I looked at had an aftermarket immobilizer on it, something you had to key in a code on before the vehicle would start. It was an awful looking thing, something like those old CD changer controls that people would double side tape to their dashboards. Now I'm overtly upset and I remember this thing and the first thought that pops into my head is I bet they're going to force me to buy this. And so I ask…
In the midst of fighting about HIDs and credit checks I stop them and I explain that I remember seeing this in all their cars. Do I have to buy that? They confirm that I do. At this point I know I'm walking but I want to fight the point because this is absurd. So I ask how much it is. $500. I bet this thing costs maybe $100 and they had thousands of cars on their lot, every one of which was equipped with this so if I were a betting man I'd guess they had less than $50 into each unit.
Here's the deal with a lease… You're not paying for the full price of any aspect of the car. If I add a moonroof or navigation and the option costs $1000 I'm not paying that $1000 over the course of the lease. I'm paying a portion of it. Yet this cheap security system? That's $500 on top of everything. They said they could disable it but I would still need to pay for it.
This is the most disingenuous business tactic I've ever seen from a car dealer. It's basically a guaranteed $400 - $450 extra for the dealer on every deal and they don't tell you that you'll be buying it. I wouldn't have seen it until the paperwork was in front of me and I was ready to sign and guess what… You got John Q Jones in there with his family, they've picked out their car, they've picked out their options and now they're so far into the deal that once they see this yeah, it might piss them off but their salesman tells them "hey, it's spread out over 60 months. It's an extra $8.00 a month. Don't let the deal slip by over $8.00!".
This is just a flat out cash grab. There is absolutely NO reason you should install any aftermarket device on a car and then force the consumer to buy it, let alone not tell them until they're signing the paperwork. So at this point I've made it clear that I thought they were full of it. The manager pushed the window sticker for the Flex at me and told me that if I reconsidered and could live without the HIDs to come back. I pushed it back and told him that wouldn't be an issue for me. Unfortunately it doesn't end here…
The Other Dealer
So I'm leaving and I decide to call another dealer. I explain to the salesman on the phone what's happened, what was promised to me and what the dealer is trying to do. I go on to tell him what I wanted with respect to the HIDs and told him that if it could happen, great, I'd come on down and if it couldn't happen I totally understood. He tells me he'll get it done and to come on down. I go in and at first all is well. Dude is super nice and he walks me up to his manager who once he is made aware of the situation immediately tells me I can go pound sand on the HIDs. It's not going to happen.
Missing HIDs redux
He starts down the same road about how he'd need to pull them from a limited model and then he calls the parts department and finds out they're $1600 for the pair and basically starts laughing about it. Again he asks me what I expected him to do and again I explained to him that the logistics weren't my concern. I told him that I didn't ask for them to take the lights from a limited. I simply asked his salesman not more than 15 minutes prior if it could be done and he told me that he would get it done. He keeps trying to explain to me why it won't work and how I'm being unreasonable. At this point, pissed off because I'm getting the same song and dance from this dealer as I was getting from the other, I stopped him and just said "I don't care about the how and the why. I asked if it could be done and was told it could be. Now you're telling me it can't be" to which he responded "Oh it can but you're going to pay for it".
We won't force an aftermarket immobilizer on you, but…
He tells me he'll call parts and see if he can work that price down and the salesman suggests that we go check out the car in their overflow lot in the meantime. Fine. I'm already here. So we hop in a car and drive over there. He asks me about the other dealer and what happened. I explained it all to him and then started up on the aftermarket immobilizer they forced you to purchase and how they had it on EVERY car. His response was "every car?" as if that was unbelievable and I said "Yeah and they'll disable it for you but you still have to pay for it". At first I thought the look he gave me was a look of surprise like "oh how terrible of them!" but then I realized it was a look of concern. He followed up by telling me that they don't do anything like that but oh yeah… we install LoJack on all of our cars and you have to buy it. $500.
You. Have. Got. To. Be. Kidding. Me. Is this a practical joke?
So I bite my tongue because I'm in a car with him and I still want to see what they come up with for the HIDs and guess what, $1600 but the manager says he'll eat $400 of it. So I'm back to square one. I've wasted something like 5 hours out of my day dealing with liars.
Listen, I'm not trying to be a brand snob here but I was so put off my the idea of dealing with these people that I decided no Ford, GM or Chrysler again. I won't do it. I don't trust any company that lets their dealers operate like this. I've had two BMW dealers arrange for specific loaners for me because I just wanted to check out a car. I've had bunches of dealers loan me cars to take on nothing more than a driver's license and insurance card. What is the appeal here? Are they shooting for the lowest common denominator with respect to customers or are they just under the impression that their customers are shopping by price and they have them bent over the barrel?
Whatever it is I can't believe that Ford let's their #1 dealer FORCE you to buy an aftermarket accessory (LoJack). No choice, not an option. It's preinstalled and you're paying for it. This is just comically bad business. These companies finally realized that their cars were shit… I wonder when they're going to realize that their dealer network is still shit.
I'd gladly pay double for a BMW not to have to deal with stuff like this. Seriously… I'd go all sickmint and spite myself by paying more just on principal.
Oh, and for the encore… On the trip back from the overflow lot the salesman at dealer 2 explains to me that he knew I had been looking on the internet because I knew the exact lease special and dealers don't tell customers about that. I'm like what? He makes a comment about it being his job to get as much as he can for the car he's selling. For real? So you will actively not inform a customer that there is a deal out there that might apply to them? This dealer (this salesman at least) will apparently not make you aware that any particular car you're looking at is on special. Great. That's just great. The sad thing is the guy was really nice.
Double encore - The manager says if it were up to him they wouldn't honor these lease deals that Ford national advertises because he loses money on them. He's just moving units.
First Contact
I'm hungry for Tacos. I get tacos and on the way there's a Ford dealer. I stop at the Ford dealer and ask a salesman to show me what option package Flex's fall under the lease special. He shows me. They're nice. I explain to him that I'm in a hurry but want to bring my wife back. He says no worries. He wants to know what additional options I would want (if any) above and beyond what the lease special includes which is a Flex SEL with the 202a option package and Titanium appearance package. I tell him Nav, vista roof and HIDs. HIDs are a deal breaker.
He explains to me that HIDs are not available on the SEL model and that I'd need to step into a limited for that. I explain to him that for the cost of leasing a limited I'm no longer interested in purchasing a Flex. That kind of money opens up the door to a lot better cars. He responds by asking me if I think I can close the deal if he can get HIDs installed on it. I explain that pending wifey approval we would have a deal with one stipulation: stock HIDs. Not an eBay conversion kit, the real deal. Stock headlight capsules. If the wiring isn't plug and play don't sweat it. I'll take care of that portion. He says he understands.
He calls me the next day and confirms that he can get me the HIDs. Great. I tell him I'll be in touch in the next 24 hours.
The Loaner
I speak to my wife and explain the situation to her. She's on the fence about the Flex after looking at it. She thinks it's too big for our neighborhood where there are winding, hilly streets that are barely the width of two cars. These streets were paved in the 20's. When two cars pass one generally has to pull over. I say, what if I get them to give us a Flex for a couple hours for you to try out? She says go for it. So I call the dealer and tell them I'm coming down.
At this point I'm speaking to salesman number 2 since my original was not in the office that day. This is where it starts to get fun. He says he needs just a bit of info off of me, nothing personal. Insurance card, driver's license, etc. Suddenly I notice he's writing this all down on a credit check sheet. I don't want my credit checked. I was planning on just paying for the lease out of pocket anyhow. He assures me this isn't to run my credit and he won't even need my social. Ok, no problem.
Salesman 2 excuses himself and returns with the manager to ask me about other issues (explained later). After filling out the form he hands it to the manager who explains to him that he needs my social security number and I need to sign the credit check. I told him I wouldn't and that a credit check was not a viable release form for a vehicle. It was not relevant to me borrowing the car. He responded that he wouldn't run my credit but needs it signed. I refuse and again ask why it's necessary. He tells me it's so they know who I am if I take off with their car. I explain that:
a. I'm leaving them with a BMW
b. They have my ID and my insurance info
c. They don't collect credit reports from customers who take loaners and
d. they're fully insured against theft regardless
Baffled, he now claims it's company policy and again starts repeating his reasons for needing it. I again refuse and explain to him that Audi and BMW have handed me cars with just my ID and told me to take them for a night after getting that and insurance info. He didn't believe me.
The missing HIDs
The original reason the salesman went to get the manager is because I told him that salesman 1 promised that he could get the vehicle equipped with stock HIDs as part of the deal. The manager told me flat out that he wasn't going to honor this. So I asked him how there could be such a large discrepancy between what he's telling me and what his salesman told me, not to mention the fact that the salesman didn't promise it to me until he got permission from his manager. He said he didn't know but that he would need to remove the HIDs from a limited model and how would he replace those. My response was to remind him that his salesman made the offer, not me. I just went with it. Likewise it wasn't my job to figure out the logistics of where the lights would come from or how the cost would be absorbed by the dealer. He didn't seem to understand this. At this point I'm ready to walk but then…
The Mandatory Security System
Then I remembered that every car on their lot I looked at had an aftermarket immobilizer on it, something you had to key in a code on before the vehicle would start. It was an awful looking thing, something like those old CD changer controls that people would double side tape to their dashboards. Now I'm overtly upset and I remember this thing and the first thought that pops into my head is I bet they're going to force me to buy this. And so I ask…
In the midst of fighting about HIDs and credit checks I stop them and I explain that I remember seeing this in all their cars. Do I have to buy that? They confirm that I do. At this point I know I'm walking but I want to fight the point because this is absurd. So I ask how much it is. $500. I bet this thing costs maybe $100 and they had thousands of cars on their lot, every one of which was equipped with this so if I were a betting man I'd guess they had less than $50 into each unit.
Here's the deal with a lease… You're not paying for the full price of any aspect of the car. If I add a moonroof or navigation and the option costs $1000 I'm not paying that $1000 over the course of the lease. I'm paying a portion of it. Yet this cheap security system? That's $500 on top of everything. They said they could disable it but I would still need to pay for it.
This is the most disingenuous business tactic I've ever seen from a car dealer. It's basically a guaranteed $400 - $450 extra for the dealer on every deal and they don't tell you that you'll be buying it. I wouldn't have seen it until the paperwork was in front of me and I was ready to sign and guess what… You got John Q Jones in there with his family, they've picked out their car, they've picked out their options and now they're so far into the deal that once they see this yeah, it might piss them off but their salesman tells them "hey, it's spread out over 60 months. It's an extra $8.00 a month. Don't let the deal slip by over $8.00!".
This is just a flat out cash grab. There is absolutely NO reason you should install any aftermarket device on a car and then force the consumer to buy it, let alone not tell them until they're signing the paperwork. So at this point I've made it clear that I thought they were full of it. The manager pushed the window sticker for the Flex at me and told me that if I reconsidered and could live without the HIDs to come back. I pushed it back and told him that wouldn't be an issue for me. Unfortunately it doesn't end here…
The Other Dealer
So I'm leaving and I decide to call another dealer. I explain to the salesman on the phone what's happened, what was promised to me and what the dealer is trying to do. I go on to tell him what I wanted with respect to the HIDs and told him that if it could happen, great, I'd come on down and if it couldn't happen I totally understood. He tells me he'll get it done and to come on down. I go in and at first all is well. Dude is super nice and he walks me up to his manager who once he is made aware of the situation immediately tells me I can go pound sand on the HIDs. It's not going to happen.
Missing HIDs redux
He starts down the same road about how he'd need to pull them from a limited model and then he calls the parts department and finds out they're $1600 for the pair and basically starts laughing about it. Again he asks me what I expected him to do and again I explained to him that the logistics weren't my concern. I told him that I didn't ask for them to take the lights from a limited. I simply asked his salesman not more than 15 minutes prior if it could be done and he told me that he would get it done. He keeps trying to explain to me why it won't work and how I'm being unreasonable. At this point, pissed off because I'm getting the same song and dance from this dealer as I was getting from the other, I stopped him and just said "I don't care about the how and the why. I asked if it could be done and was told it could be. Now you're telling me it can't be" to which he responded "Oh it can but you're going to pay for it".
We won't force an aftermarket immobilizer on you, but…
He tells me he'll call parts and see if he can work that price down and the salesman suggests that we go check out the car in their overflow lot in the meantime. Fine. I'm already here. So we hop in a car and drive over there. He asks me about the other dealer and what happened. I explained it all to him and then started up on the aftermarket immobilizer they forced you to purchase and how they had it on EVERY car. His response was "every car?" as if that was unbelievable and I said "Yeah and they'll disable it for you but you still have to pay for it". At first I thought the look he gave me was a look of surprise like "oh how terrible of them!" but then I realized it was a look of concern. He followed up by telling me that they don't do anything like that but oh yeah… we install LoJack on all of our cars and you have to buy it. $500.
You. Have. Got. To. Be. Kidding. Me. Is this a practical joke?
So I bite my tongue because I'm in a car with him and I still want to see what they come up with for the HIDs and guess what, $1600 but the manager says he'll eat $400 of it. So I'm back to square one. I've wasted something like 5 hours out of my day dealing with liars.
Listen, I'm not trying to be a brand snob here but I was so put off my the idea of dealing with these people that I decided no Ford, GM or Chrysler again. I won't do it. I don't trust any company that lets their dealers operate like this. I've had two BMW dealers arrange for specific loaners for me because I just wanted to check out a car. I've had bunches of dealers loan me cars to take on nothing more than a driver's license and insurance card. What is the appeal here? Are they shooting for the lowest common denominator with respect to customers or are they just under the impression that their customers are shopping by price and they have them bent over the barrel?
Whatever it is I can't believe that Ford let's their #1 dealer FORCE you to buy an aftermarket accessory (LoJack). No choice, not an option. It's preinstalled and you're paying for it. This is just comically bad business. These companies finally realized that their cars were shit… I wonder when they're going to realize that their dealer network is still shit.
I'd gladly pay double for a BMW not to have to deal with stuff like this. Seriously… I'd go all sickmint and spite myself by paying more just on principal.
Oh, and for the encore… On the trip back from the overflow lot the salesman at dealer 2 explains to me that he knew I had been looking on the internet because I knew the exact lease special and dealers don't tell customers about that. I'm like what? He makes a comment about it being his job to get as much as he can for the car he's selling. For real? So you will actively not inform a customer that there is a deal out there that might apply to them? This dealer (this salesman at least) will apparently not make you aware that any particular car you're looking at is on special. Great. That's just great. The sad thing is the guy was really nice.
Double encore - The manager says if it were up to him they wouldn't honor these lease deals that Ford national advertises because he loses money on them. He's just moving units.
