I Hate Car Dealerships: Episode 5,003,432,343

Mike K

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Apr 11, 2008
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We've been down this road so many times before. Probably the only people in the US that will tell you dealers benefit the customer or the manufacturer are people who work at dealerships. They are absolutely useless. The number they give you on the phone is never the final number, they're always trying to add extra services, they act confused when you ask direct questions about the numbers they're giving you or try to re-frame their answer by not answering the question at all but telling you in a different way how the deal works.

So why am I so sassy today? Well my father in law has a 13 year old Toyota Camry with 160,000 miles. Instead of fixing that mess I suggested he look into a slightly used Chevy Volt. He doesn't drive a lot so it would be perfect for him. After punching the numbers, a lease actually made more sense. It would get him a new car instead of a used one, a warranty, more range and he'd be driving the new body style instead of the old.

So the national Chevy offer for this car is $299 a month and $1600 down plus doc fees, first month's payment, tax, etc. So my sister in law calls a dealer about 40 minutes from his house and tells them they're we're ready to buy today and can they beat the national offer? The guy heavily infers that this is something that can be done but we should come in. I know better than that but she made an appointment so hey, what did we have to lose.

Nitrogen in the Tires

So we pull up and my father in law checks out the car. The salesman comes out and asks us what we're looking to do and I explained to him that we're looking to beat the Chevy national offer and that we were told on the phone that was likely to happen if we came in.

Well he explains that there are no discounts on the Volt and they can't really do that. Ok, well that flies in the face of what we were just told on the phone prior to our 40 minute drive. He then goes on to explain that on top of that price we need to add their $495 doc fee. Ok, fine. That's completely ridiculous but a lot of dealers charge exorbitant document fees. Whatever.

Then he really hits a home run and starts telling me about how all their cars have an option package on them that the dealer installs and you're obligated to buy whenever you buy a car from them. The option package consists of tinted windows, nitrogen in the tires (yes really) and 3M clear bra material installed in high use areas like under the door handles and the lip of the trunk.

The cost of package? You might think $500. You'd be wrong. $750? Try again chump. $1500. One Thousand, five hundred dollars for what amounts to a tint job, and a couple pieces of clear bra slapped on the car. When we ask the guy why they bothered telling us to come down if they knew full well they couldn't beat the nationally advertised price he told us that they could beat that price. When I explained to him that if I'm obligated to buy a $1500 option package then they can't beat that price, he just acted confused and kept insisting that they could beat the price before the option package and that those were valuable options.

I went on to explain to him that this was similar to me advertising a 99 cent cheeseburger but then when someone tries to buy one I tell them I've already put mustard on it and that mustard is 20 cents additional. Realizing he was caught, he pulls out the national ad and points out in the fine print where it says dealer options are extra which I fully understand. The problem is the options aren't optional.

Cliffs: Dealers suck. The last 5 I've dealt with have all pulled this shit. When you need lobbyists to prop up your industry you know you're shit.
 

FirstWorldProblems

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Sep 6, 2006
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Crown point, IN
I agree completely, most dealers are complete scams. What's crazy though is that the general public, and even the decently educated public, has no clue how bad they get screwed on vehicle purchases. It's simple math that nobody pays attention to because they're just looking at a payment

when we bought my wife's Passat the finance guy was flabbergasted when I did the quick math (purchase price + taxes + $195 doc fee) and told him if the payment wasn't within $1 of what I calculated, I would leave. It resulted in him removing $20/month ($1440 on a 0 x 72 loan) worth of complete BULLSHIT. Tire and wheel package, some special additional theft insurance that made no fucking sense, clear coat protection, leather seat protection, blahblaahblah. He barely even mentioned any of it before adding it to the purchase and writing down what the payment was. He was pissed at the end of it all, and I wanted to smash his face in to his desk for being such a shyster

and this was at a dealer where the GM and sales guy really worked a good deal for us and seemed to be stand up people. It was the finance crook that tried to ruin the experience

I told the GM after it all how much of a scam I thought it was, but it won't change anything.
 

FirstWorldProblems

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I do have to say though, GM dealerships are the worst. Bar none.

I've purchased a couple used GM vehicles and have been to 4-5 GM dealers and they were all just awful. Every time I went I had some fat old loser telling me how they couldn't discount their $47k 6 cylinder piece of shit truck, or how their used 2011 Camaro is very sought after so he couldn't do anything on the price and also that I couldn't test drive it

i'll never buy a new GM vehicle
 

guspech750

Guspech Superdriller
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Jan 23, 2010
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North Aurora
This is why I bought my last 4 cars at Carmax.

No fucking around there. Usually.



Yeah. Same here. 3 for 3 from Carmax. Pretty straight forward there.

We did by our SHO new. Took us a little while to get to a price we were ok with plus incentives. But they too were pretty straight forward.

I felt pretty scummy at the GM/Chevy dealers. Just seems like a trailer park experience.
 

Mook

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May 23, 2007
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Mike
I actually had a very pleasant experience with VW. They matched the number I told them they needed for the sale, without hassle....gave me way more for the Honda than I was expecting...didnt force bullshit down my throat. I was impressed.
 

Jeffs FRC

TCG Elite Member
Aug 10, 2006
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Lakemoor, IL
We just bought a 3rd car last month and the experience is the same. I know we have some dealer guys on this site and I understand it's a business. But I am really hoping the Tesla model takes off. I hate dealing with the bullshit, and it's always bullshit.

I've been researching the new Tesla Model 3 and am very intrigued. Very tempted to put the $1000 reserve in and wait. Just wish there was solid facts about the car and interior photos. Plus I want to see what the options will bring the price to.
[MENTION=396]Mike K[/MENTION] I know you're the resident Tesla nutswinger, any info on the Model 3 that's not on the Tesla site?
 

IDAFC21

WOW.
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May 23, 2007
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Every car in AZ has the Nitrogen tires, tints, and clear bra bullshit too. You can't *not* get it. I forgot the price of it, but $1500 sounds right. They can right fuck off with that.

When I bought my ST I didnt have nitro in my tires, but they did have tints on it, which was of course tacked in, and instead of clear bra, they claimed to have applied that xzilon paint protection coating on all their cars when they get them in, and of course thats tacked in too, and THATS even more of a rip than the clear bras. Who the hell knows if it was ever actually done or not. Yet you gotta pay for it.
 

Sprayin

Public Enemy #1
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Oct 8, 2008
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When I bought my ST I didnt have nitro in my tires, but they did have tints on it, which was of course tacked in, and instead of clear bra, they claimed to have applied that xzilon paint protection coating on all their cars when they get them in, and of course thats tacked in too, and THATS even more of a rip than the clear bras. Who the hell knows if it was ever actually done or not. Yet you gotta pay for it.
Really? Maybe it's dealer dependant. We have San Tan Ford over here and literally every car on the lot has that "desert protection package" on it.
 
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