Dealership Moments- When You Know You Won't be Back!

Zee09

$200 Site Donor 2023
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WPB Florida-Maryland-Pennsylvania
Looked at a Toyota Tundra CC a few years back.
I being dumb hand picked my salesperson from their website.
I figured the old gent looked like a nice chap :) Got tired of just getting whomever.

Truck was nice but this dealership only wants 105% of retail.
So I told him I was going to think on it.
During the walk around he is touching me all over- slapping me on the back- softly punching me in the bicep.
Telling cheap jokes of rather low quality.

At this point I'm not really the touchy feely bro- lol
I really wanted to choke him out and put him in the truck bed.
More inappropriate groping continued..
Then he starts this wifey poo nonsense. He said If I'm afraid to call the wife he will do it for me.
I did not tell him I am not married. He kept on and said are you really that scared of your wife?

At this point it was "game on" lol
I said keep my wife out of it. She's dead...........
He said- oh I'm so sorry.... what happened to her he asked ( hand on my shoulder)
I told him she was murdered............. he gulped hard......... he then asked..... did they ever find the killer??????

I said yes, I gave myself up at the scene.......................
He looked like a ghost. He swallowed hard and said I have to catch this call.... never seen him again................ lol

I didn't feel bad because he was a bozo............lol
 
A Ford dealer in Plano, TX (bought out a long time ago) offered an insanely low, totally insulting trade value for my 99 Explorer in 2005. It was so low there was no point in negotiating. We thanked him, stood up and walked out. It was that bad. We went up the road to a dealer in Frisco, got KBB for the Explorer, and a smoking deal on a new 2005 Sport Trac. Needless to say, there was never a reason to go back to Plano. It's no wonder they're no longer in business.
 
A Ford dealer in Plano, TX (bought out a long time ago) offered an insanely low, totally insulting trade value for my 99 Explorer in 2005. It was so low there was no point in negotiating. We thanked him, stood up and walked out. It was that bad. We went up the road to a dealer in Frisco, got KBB for the Explorer, and a smoking deal on a new 2005 Sport Trac. Needless to say, there was never a reason to go back to Plano. It's no wonder they're no longer in business.
Worst part is they’d have on the lot 3 days later with a huge mark up
 
Back in 2011 I was shopping for a small car to use for work. A local dealer had a less-than-year-old Nissan Versa base there. So base it didn't have AC or power windows. They had it priced wayyyy too high, in fact, higher than the car cost new!

I went there to look at it and went for a test drive with the salesman. The TPMS light was on and it was pulling funny but the salesman said I wasn't used to small cars. Okay, odd.

The gas light was also on but according to the salesman, you could "drive forever" with the light on. About 3/4 of the way through our test drive, it stalled taking off from a stoplight. I said I know how to drive manual and that I think we're out of gas. Then it stalled taking off from another one. Then it stalled as we were crossing traffic getting back into the lot and wouldn't restart. Yup, out of gas.

Oh, and one of the front tires was completely flat.

That's also the dealer that was passing off the flooded Frontier in March as an upper echelon used vehicle.


Before that, even, I called about a Grand Marquis that was for sale at a Lincoln/Mercury dealer. I verified it was still there because I was going to drive 70 miles to look at it. Get there and they had sold it a few days before but wanted to sell me something else. Nope, I was interested in a Panther and that's it. Sorry.

Earlier this year in my quest for a used pickup I came across a nice looking 2016 Frontier at a Nissan dealer. They gave me a ridiculously low offer for my 2.5 year old Subaru because No one buys Subarus in Central NY. I finally got them to where I wanted to be for tradein after hanging up on the guy multiple times, but suddenly the 2016 I was looking at had to go to the body shop for new bumpers even though they were perfect the week before and they only had brand new 2019s on the lot (this was in 2020, btw).. Yeah. Done with them. My fiance' has leased a few Nissans from them and I don't like how we're treated there anyway. The sales people are very condescending. But when you can put $200 down and get a $200/mo lease on something, it's worth it. I can't even touch that in depreciation or repairs on an older vehicle!
 
The local Honda's dealer years ago when I had the accord. Went in for a timing belt change and ended up getting front wheel bearings changed and a bunch of stuff. I needed the car with no down time since I was working In Connecticut. They had the keep the car an extra day and gave me the run around. I've only been back if I need parts since I do most of the repairs myself on my cars.
 
While shopping for my truck in 2018, I went to a Ram dealer to look at a new truck priced at $28K + shipping in their online shopping tool. To actually buy the truck would have been about $32,500. They wanted to add a failure to lease fee of $500, mandatory dealers accessory package, and failure to finance with them fee.
When I showed them the offer sheet on my Tacoma from the Ford Dealer which was $8000 they said it was one I made up. They offered $6K. I stood up and in a loud voice "you all are a bunch of crooks" got up and left along with several other people in the showroom who were witnessing the show. As I hit the door the sales manager said he was going to sue me. Outside talking with the other people who left at the same time, we were all laughing at this bunch of clowns.
 
Keeping my fleet for as long as I can. I have never gone to a dealer in all my years that I didn’t think in the back of my mind that this guy is out to screw me. And I have never closed a deal and walked out without thinking that this guy succeeded in screwing me. A true hollow victory.
 
A few years ago my married son was in the market for a new minivan so being an experienced car buyer dad, I went along to tutor him how to negotiate a good deal. Well the dealer we went to had an all female sales staff and it looked like the manager recruited all of the ladies from the local Hooters restaurant. My boy is tall and good looking so he got loads of sales attention. The new car show room was empty and so we had fun for a while. The demos and test rides were great. When I got the chance I told my son that these sales ladies were hired for a special reason and that he wasn't going to get any deals there. Last time I got that much female attention was in a bar in the Philippines. We left and he eventually got a sweet deal on a minivan elsewhere.

Once shopping for myself, I got suckered into leaving my potential trade at a dealer while took a test drive demo shopping. When I returned the sales mgr. didn't want to give me my car back. It is a trick to keep you from walking out before they give you the hard sell. I threatened to call the cops and my keys magically appeared.

I hate new car shopping. 🚗
 
I've had my best dealership experiences a year or two apart when dealing with the 'new guys' at the time. Neither even had desks, we just hashed it out in common-use cube-type areas. No pressure, no BS. When the deal was done, I actually apologized to the first guy for being so standoffish because I didn't even want to buy a new car (my beloved Subaru had died) and I did not want to deal with salespeople. The second guy was a 20-something kid out of college. No pressure, no BS, it was great. We left happy.

Fast-forward to recently when I went back to talk about buying our lease and got handed off to a veteran salesguy who was all slime and bluster, sitting at his big desk covered in accolades and sales trophies and 'manly' tchotchkes and silly crap like that. I'm surprised he didn't have a deer head mounted on the wall. With a straight face he told me it would be nearly $2k in non-specific fees just to sell me the car. Yeah, no. What a tool he was. We went directly to the finance company instead and paid it off through our bank, never stepping into the dealer and not paying anything but taxes.

Sales is such a shady profession. I loathe salespeople.
 
When looking for my Wife's Golf R last Fall:

The first dealer was like a bad caricature of car buying in the good old days; long, drawn out, painful, no discount, "We usually sell these with a markup", "Since you are local, we will reduce the markup", sees the vintage car we drove up in "..these will be prized by collectors....last year of production...you of course know these will only increase in value...". Then the Sales Rep (in between chomps of a slim jim!?!) answered all of my Wife's questions to me instead of her (she's this little thing who is a senior corporate litigator....I was secretly laughing :) and getting ready to duck and cover) We thanked him and got up to leave, but then he had us wait. The Sales Manager then took over, offered $1,000 off and said "...that is it, cant do anything else". Ok here, bye, bye. We left for Bloody Mary's at the place down the street.

The next day, driving to a client I passed a VW dealer. I stopped in later in the day and politely said I wanted a base R, 6 speed, blue with the silver accent wheels, said I didn't need to drive one. Asked for their best offer and said I'd buy it then. I was done and dusted with a satisfactory deal in 35 minutes. To cap it off I told the salesmen that I needed to be back for a meeting. A few minutes later, I hear something and notice that he is jogging up and down the dealership stairs and through the office area getting forms, copies, etc. I heard one of the other salesfolk ask why and he said "customer has to go to a meeting". Can't teach that attitude.
 
A few years ago went to buy a used Cadillac at a BMW dealer. Test drove it but the car had a lot of vibration in the front. The tires were also dry rotted. The dealer said "We'll put new tires and wheel bearings". Came back a few days later and the car drove okay. So I said Ill buy it.

As Im doing the paperwork, I told the sales guy that I wouldn't be able to pick it up that exact day since I need to shop around for insurance. He said no problem. Everytime I bought a car, I would drive it home a few days after all the paperwork gets done.

10 Minutes later the sales manager comes in and aggressively says, "You need to take the car today!!". And I "should have been responsible and picked my insurance already". We got in a small argument and then I stormed out saying I'm not buying the car anymore. The sales guy came out and begged me to reconsider. Got called once a day after asking if I still wanted the car.
 
I have had very good experiences at our local VW dealer and one about 15 miles away. The salespeople are reasonable, know their products and deal fairly. Service is very good and work is well done. Before that, I had some really weird service issues with GM dealers. so I have been very pleased over the last decade with the VW group and their products. I have never taken in any on my VWs for warranty work and have been very impressed with the fit and finish as well as performance of the products I have purchased.
 
In 2016 I went to Courtesy Chevrolet and looked at a 2014 Chevy Cruze for $10k. They had a deal going where any trade in, regardless of condition, was worth $4k trade in minimum. I read the fine print, it seemed legit.

Once we started talking numbers the Cruze all of a sudden became $15k (before any taxes or fees) with the trade in of my 2000 Camry.

So I would have had to pay $1k for them to take the Camry.
 
When I was looking to start up my weekend land surveying business, I was shopping for low mileage used Nissan Frontiers or Toyota Tacoma’s, preferably with an extended or crew cab. Found a Ford dealership about 2 and 1/2 hours away that had 4 used Frontiers in stock, all extended cabs with low mileage. Contacted the delear via their website and me and the wife loaded up and went for a drive. We arrive and walk in and meet the salesman and get the standard introductory schmoozefest. Then we go to look at the trucks. I had my mind set on the dark gray one and wouldn’t you know it, it was dead on the lot. Wouldn’t start. So then I look at the black one that is covered in scratches and has some dings that were not visible in the pictures. Not impressed. So I figure, let me test drive the one with the highest mileage and lowest price thinking maybe I’ll at least get the best deal. The truck vibrates going down the road and the heat shield sounded like it was about to fall off. No dice.
Then I go back to the black one and take it for a spin. Drives better but again, scratches like a 3 year old used the hood for a coloring book and someone played bumper cars with the back bumper. I make an offer that apparently was low enough to insult the salesman. He goes to get the sales manager. The sales manager asks me why I thought it was only worth what I offered and that was way lower than what they wanted for the vehicle. I asked if he had time for me to show him why and he said yes.
So we stepped outside and to proceeded to find and loudly and vocally point out every single ding, dent scratch and issue with the vehicle as we walked around the entire truck. When I was done, the sales manager thanked me for my time and we both walked away.
Ended up in a used Toyota Tacoma with less than 28k miles for under 15k

I’d say it was for the best.
 
A few years ago my married son was in the market for a new minivan so being an experienced car buyer dad, I went along to tutor him how to negotiate a good deal. Well the dealer we went to had an all female sales staff and it looked like the manager recruited all of the ladies from the local Hooters restaurant. My boy is tall and good looking so he got loads of sales attention. The new car show room was empty and so we had fun for a while. The demos and test rides were great. When I got the chance I told my son that these sales ladies were hired for a special reason and that he wasn't going to get any deals there. Last time I got that much female attention was in a bar in the Philippines. . . .

I hate new car shopping. 🚗

And, uh, where exactly is this dealer . . .? Asking for a friend. . . .
 
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My only bad experience this century was at a local Buick/GMC dealer (not the one who sold me the Park Avenue and to which I've gone for oil changes and warranty repairs). Long-time dealer this was, been established for many years. In 2007 I was looking to replace my '97 MB C230. Dealer A had an '06 Buick LaCrosse, the first generation model, for what seemed a reasonable price. I begin to get the idea something was wrong when I ask about getting the little corner chrome strips that go into the recesses on the bumpers. Salesman goes, "Nothing in the parts catalog." I point out that they are on the LaCrosses in that year's brochure. He shrugs. They also offered me an insultingly low trade amount, like $1000, for my MB, which blue-booked at something like $6-7K.

One of the plastic woodgrain trim pieces on the driver's door was loose, and I wanted them to replace it. I'd have been willing to pay something reasonable for this or for the chrome strips. But he shrugged again and said, "It's a used car, what d'you expect."

That did it. "I expect a better buying experience," I said, and left. The next day, here came a phone call: "Are you interested in this LaCrosse?"

"Nope."

I ended up buying the Park Avenue at Dealer B. They let me take the car on an overnight test drive and to my mechanic in the morning, offered me the proper amount for the MB, replaced the worn B-pillar panels, and asked a reasonable figure for the PA. No shady stuff or bait-and-switch. The big car served me well for more than 6 years.
 
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Remember relating this on some board. My apologies if it's a repeat here.

Traded a Renault R16 for a Toyota Corona (remember them?) at a one person used car lot in the mid seventies. The owner said "You're in luck, my father just died a few minutes ago, I'm in mourning and I'll give you a good deal. Come in before ten on Thursday so I can get to the funeral." The deal (and it turns out the car) really wasn't that bad for an eight year old beater so I bit. When I showed up I asked him "Hey, don't you have to catch your father's funeral?" "Nah, somebody called, guess I'll have to skip it."
 
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