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.
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.