Its worth the paper its written on.
Deceptive car salesman loses a sale
- Thread starter Elkins45
- Start date
We marked used cars up a minimum of $3K-$5K, and that was over 20 years ago. I would have offered him less. Odds are he told his manager your offer and the manager told him to come back with that number hoping to meet somewhere in the middle. The deal is dead now so I would chalk it up and look for another deal. Or threaten to sue him using the texts as evidence. Then hope if they cut the deal that they don't mess with the car prior to delivering it to you.
lol, yep. When we were shopping for our newest car, one dealership had some sort of $500 theft recovery fee and another had a $299 nitrogen fill package. Neither one would waive the fee. I reported them both to Nissan. It obviously did no good, because one of the two still has the nitrogen package on their website. The other tried sneaking it in. If as a dealer you’re going to let some fraudulent add on coast you a sale, then rock on. The theft recovery dealer gave me an estimated payment at 8% interest, even though Nissan finance had 2.99% and our credit ratings are over 800.
Nissan Dealers are the equivalent of pond scum on a summer day.
They can mark them up all they want. But- under A NORMAL MARKET anyone who pays above retail Blue book better be keeping that vehicle a long time.
I once went searching for pricing on a new Mazda. I made a vain attempt at trying to avoid the situation you just described here by using their “Internet manager“ and getting pricing specifics in an email. When I got to the dealership, test drove the car, and decided to purchase, The “manager” came over and said, “we have a bit of a problem”. Our Internet manager made a “mistake” in his calculations and the car is actually going to cost you another $500. This was my last experience purchasing a new vehicle. Should I ever do so again, I may choose to use a car buying service to see how effective that might be. I swear, the only new car purchase that I ever had that was actually pleasant was when I bought my first new car. It was a Saturn. I had gone looking at Honda Civic’s and really wanted a Civic, but the Honda dealers were jerking me around, and I felt like I was in some sort of comedy review act. I went back and looked at the Saturn, and the experience was so stress-free, I felt like I had just bought a washing machine. Unfortunately, GM could not help themselves by screwing up a good thing and Saturn is no more. The MSRP on those cars was based on market predictions and worked pretty well for them for a while. But yeah, whenever you finish a car purchase deal, you often find that you need to go home and take a shower. 
When I worked at BMW I was primarily a product specialist but I could sell cars if everyone else was busy. I responded to emails and phone calls and I would provide a price in either case. That said, most of my sales were to people who appeared in person and wanted to test drive one or more cars. The NCM called me "the anti-salesman" because of my extremely laid back approach. What would often happen is that a customer would want to look at other brands in the same market segment and I always refused to bad-mouth other manufacturers. The customers almost always came back and bought from us because the other stores were pushy and/or didn't know their product.
On a Toyota, yes. They know that some moron will come along and pay full price, or more.
My response to that would be that's not my problem.
If you go to the wrong dealer they can be. I’ve got a great dealership in NW Ohio, family owned, good honest people. Unfortunately they had next to no inventory and she wanted a certain color. We then drove to a dealer in Indiana to be greeted by 4 salesman standing out front like a pack of hyenas. This dealer continued to pull one shady move after another. They even had a hockey net in the showroom that would win you free all season mats if you could make the shot. They had the exact car we wanted, price was right and had AWD, which we weren’t looking for but were willing to take. That’s when the high interest rates and theft recovery fee came out. When I asked why they were quoting such a high interest rate when I showed them my Fico score was 829, the response was “we can’t give you an exact payment till we actually pull your credit”. We left. I even tried buying the car at home from another dealer and they had a $299 nitrogen scam going on. When I called to have it removed, they refused.
QUOTE="CKN, post: 7131387, member: 66423"]
Nissan Dealers are the equivalent of pond scum on a summer day.
[/QUOTE]
QUOTE="CKN, post: 7131387, member: 66423"]
Nissan Dealers are the equivalent of pond scum on a summer day.
[/QUOTE]
At one point in my younger years I was interviewing for a job in car sales. During the interview process, I was meeting with the owner of the dealership. He was discussing the typical "sales cycle", and said that he would let customers walk even if the difference in offers was within $100. He said the business wasn't worth it to him at that point if the customer was haggling over $100. Needless to say, I didn't accept that job offer.
The Nissan dealer - where I bought my '14 Versa and then later a '14 Rogue - were one of the better dealers in the area (So. NH).
It was their service department that was a BIG letdown.
Then Auto(un)fair moved into the area. There was your high pressure sales tactics - but at least no silly add on like pinstriping, vin etching or scotchguard or ADMU. I love the "What would you like your monthly payment to be?" with no discussion of final price until you pay earnest money to "demonstrate you are serious" hours of note paper negotiations then the yellow sales contract comes over from the floor mgr.
But not done yet. At one notorious dealer on the coast, I was held hostage in the finance office - literally - by some femme fatale finance lady pressing thousands of aftersale garbage. I wish I had a hidden camera - those two lost hours would be fun to re watch and share.
- Arco
That's a tale of another time. Pre "C" the car business was extremely competitive in most states. Dealers would do anything to make a deal.
This is a common tactic around here. I've had dealers do the "earnest money" tactic, as well as dealers asking customers to basically sign a letter of intent once price negotiations start that basically says you intend to purchase the vehicle and are entering in to negotiations in "good faith".
The letter of intent was an interesting one when I bought a Hyundai almost 15 years ago. The first offer the dealer gave me was MSRP. I said "No, I never pay MSRP for any car. I was looking at more like $XX,XXX." The sales rep returned with the letter of intent and said I needed to sign it before they would proceed with price negotiations. I had spent several months shopping and test driving cars (never at their dealership), and knew I was going to buy the car so I signed their "letter". Four hours later the deal was done and I was on my way home in a new car...3.5 hours of that was price negotiations (we ended up meeting in the middle) and then saying "NO" repeatedly to the finance guy.
They sure do push hard. Did they offer to knock some off the value so as to make it easier for you to sign up for those extra services? At Auto(un)fair (good one @ARCOgraphite !) they did that to me. I just kept saying no and the process wasn't too bad--I was buying a cheap car so at some point I think they realized they were just wasting their time when there were others out in the lobby.
I'd walk as soon as that was brought up.
This was back in the mid 1990's...at a Buick/Pontiac dealership. Imagine working potentially several days with a customer, only to have the Principal turn away a deal over $100. Then they were paying a flat $100 commission on every car sold regardless of sales price. Sell at full MSRP...you get $100. Sell at $300 over invoice...you get $100. He said "We would ideally be looking for you to sell 10-15 cars per week." At a dealership in the rural suburbs...when you won't even budge on $100?? No, thanks.
Happens quite a bit. Until you put paper to pen (or signoff on electronic forms) the price is all speculation on the buyer's part.I once went searching for pricing on a new Mazda. I made a vain attempt at trying to avoid the situation you just described here by using their “Internet manager“ and getting pricing specifics in an email. When I got to the dealership, test drove the car, and decided to purchase, The “manager” came over and said, “we have a bit of a problem”. Our Internet manager made a “mistake” in his calculations and the car is actually going to cost you another $500. This was my last experience purchasing a new vehicle. Should I ever do so again, I may choose to use a car buying service to see how effective that might be. I swear, the only new car purchase that I ever had that was actually pleasant was when I bought my first new car. It was a Saturn. I had gone looking at Honda Civic’s and really wanted a Civic, but the Honda dealers were jerking me around, and I felt like I was in some sort of comedy review act. I went back and looked at the Saturn, and the experience was so stress-free, I felt like I had just bought a washing machine. Unfortunately, GM could not help themselves by screwing up a good thing and Saturn is no more. The MSRP on those cars was based on market predictions and worked pretty well for them for a while. But yeah, whenever you finish a car purchase deal, you often find that you need to go home and take a shower.
