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Can you elaborate on your horrible experience? I bought a new car for the first time this year. I went to the Toyota dealer with my wife, we drove three cars, a

Can you elaborate on your horrible experience? I bought a new car for the first time this year. I went to the Toyota dealer with my wife, we drove three cars, and decided the Corolla iM would be enough for 95% of our needs. We came back the next day and filled out all the paper work. Of course, they did try to get us to buy a bunch of pointles s addons and insurances, so it was annoying to have to say "No" over and over again to those.

throwaway98121 8y ago
I knew what car I wanted and had looked around online to figure out what was a great price vs an acceptable one price. I called three dealerships in my area and confirmed if they still had the vehicles I’d seen in their inventory on their website. They did and wanted me to come down immediately. I gave my email address and asked if we could continue over email. I made clear I wanted to settle in the final out the door price and I would come ready to purchase. All three sent me promotional material over email. When I inquired about the final out the door price, one ghosted me, and the other two stated I would have to come down because it depends. One of them finally emailed me again with a full quote and OTD price including all taxes. I went into the dealership where the salesman kept playing a game of going back and forth with me and the sales managers office. You see, he could not offer the original OTD offer, as it did not include some paperwork fees, delivery fees, and one other item, that pushed the cost up by another $1200. I told him I’d honor the OTD cost he quoted me. So he walks to his manager, comes back, goes back, comes back, with me flat out declining each time. This went on for an hour until I left. I gave my final price and then just got up to leave. The sales person changed tactics and tried to get me to take another car which had another 10k miles for about $500 less, which I didn’t want. I then spoke to one other dealer over the phone who called me back within a day with the OTD price for a new Civic. I went to the dealership, but oh no! They just sold that car. They want me to look at an Accord instead. I leave.
- FireBeyond 8y ago
  > I called three dealerships in my area and confirmed if they still had the vehicles I’d seen in their inventory on their website. A new bait and switch technique I saw with a friend. Once they had him interested, they changed the location of the vehicle on AutoTrader to be about 250 miles away (so it wouldn't show up in default searches) and they could claim "they didn't have it any more" (and then of course say "no, you're mistaken, it's not that price", or "I'm not seeing the car you thought you were looking at...").
- ryguytilidie 8y ago
  The key thing to avoid with dealers is the "come on in". I don't "come on in" until we have a car agreed upon, a price agreed upon, and they've confirmed they're okay with me using my own financing/cash. If they won't do this, they're not worth your time.
gnicholas 8y ago
Not parent, but we also had several bad experiences test driving cars in the bay area. One common theme was that reps didn't want to let us see more than one vehicle. This happened at both the Toyota dealership in Palo Alto and the Hyundai dealership in Burlingame. We shouldn't have been flagged as non-serious buyers because we have plenty of money to buy the cars we were looking at, live in an expensive town, and we weren't looking at fun-to-drive cars. We were about to have our first child and were going to buy a family car. And we drove onto the lot in a new car that we'd just purchased! Nonetheless, the reps only wanted us to see one vehicle. Only after insisting did they let us see a second vehicle (and at the Hyundai dealership we were literally shown this one by the janitor, not a sales rep). We were so turned off by the whole experience that we ended up buying our subsequent vehicles used from individuals. I'm sure I'll buy a new car again someday, but I don't look forward to the process.
Raphmedia 8y ago
Bait & switch and fake feeling of emergency are the most common I've seen. "Hurry, if you don't close the sale now on this vehicle it won't be there tomorrow." ... "Oh, the vehicle you called for? Sorry we just sold the last, we only have the model with X and Y options right now. We could order the one you wanted but it won't be there until next month. Don't worry, I'll make you a deal, it will only cost you [original price * 1.5] and you will have all of those fancy useless options right now! We are friends here, you are lucky I don't offer that deal to just anybody." That and trying to have you believe that paying cash for a used car will hurt you. "Oh, you have $7k in your pockets for that used car we have on the lot? Keep your money! We offer such a low interest rate. Use that money for something you truly care about and leave with the car anyway! No, really... I would feel bad to take this money from you. Here, sign this and the car is yours." ... Loses all semblance of false friendship ... "Oh, you really want to pay cash? Alright. Let me call my supervisor and he will close the deal for you."
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
mikeash 8y ago
I had an unusual Toyota experience that really pissed me off. The buying experience was ok. Negotiating the price was annoying but I called a bunch of places for quotes, asking each one to beat the last one, and stopped when they started to say they couldn’t. Everything was fine until much later when I was buying my next car and trading this one in. Turned out the dealer had filed a lien with their finance division even though I bought the car outright. Just finding the right person to contact was a major pain. (Toyota Financial had to do the work to release the lien, but they wouldn’t do it for me. The dealership had to ask them.) Once I did, I had to call repeatedly to get them to move with any sort of speed. (I discovered this problem on Monday and was trying to buy on Tuesday.) I realize this is not the typical experience, but it certainly left me eager to see the whole dealership system burn to the ground.
- ams6110 8y ago
  Filing a fraudulent lien is a crime. You should have said resolve this now or I'm calling the prosecutors office.

throwaway98121 8y ago

I knew what car I wanted and had looked around online to figure out what was a great price vs an acceptable one price. I called three dealerships in my area and confirmed if they still had the vehicles I’d seen in their inventory on their website. They did and wanted me to come down immediately. I gave my email address and asked if we could continue over email. I made clear I wanted to settle in the final out the door price and I would come ready to purchase. All three sent me promotional material over email. When I inquired about the final out the door price, one ghosted me, and the other two stated I would have to come down because it depends. One of them finally emailed me again with a full quote and OTD price including all taxes. I went into the dealership where the salesman kept playing a game of going back and forth with me and the sales managers office. You see, he could not offer the original OTD offer, as it did not include some paperwork fees, delivery fees, and one other item, that pushed the cost up by another $1200. I told him I’d honor the OTD cost he quoted me. So he walks to his manager, comes back, goes back, comes back, with me flat out declining each time. This went on for an hour until I left. I gave my final price and then just got up to leave. The sales person changed tactics and tried to get me to take another car which had another 10k miles for about $500 less, which I didn’t want. I then spoke to one other dealer over the phone who called me back within a day with the OTD price for a new Civic. I went to the dealership, but oh no! They just sold that car. They want me to look at an Accord instead. I leave.

FireBeyond 8y ago
> I called three dealerships in my area and confirmed if they still had the vehicles I’d seen in their inventory on their website. A new bait and switch technique I saw with a friend. Once they had him interested, they changed the location of the vehicle on AutoTrader to be about 250 miles away (so it wouldn't show up in default searches) and they could claim "they didn't have it any more" (and then of course say "no, you're mistaken, it's not that price", or "I'm not seeing the car you thought you were looking at...").
ryguytilidie 8y ago
The key thing to avoid with dealers is the "come on in". I don't "come on in" until we have a car agreed upon, a price agreed upon, and they've confirmed they're okay with me using my own financing/cash. If they won't do this, they're not worth your time.

gnicholas 8y ago

Not parent, but we also had several bad experiences test driving cars in the bay area. One common theme was that reps didn't want to let us see more than one vehicle. This happened at both the Toyota dealership in Palo Alto and the Hyundai dealership in Burlingame. We shouldn't have been flagged as non-serious buyers because we have plenty of money to buy the cars we were looking at, live in an expensive town, and we weren't looking at fun-to-drive cars. We were about to have our first child and were going to buy a family car. And we drove onto the lot in a new car that we'd just purchased! Nonetheless, the reps only wanted us to see one vehicle. Only after insisting did they let us see a second vehicle (and at the Hyundai dealership we were literally shown this one by the janitor, not a sales rep). We were so turned off by the whole experience that we ended up buying our subsequent vehicles used from individuals. I'm sure I'll buy a new car again someday, but I don't look forward to the process.

Raphmedia 8y ago

Bait & switch and fake feeling of emergency are the most common I've seen. "Hurry, if you don't close the sale now on this vehicle it won't be there tomorrow." ... "Oh, the vehicle you called for? Sorry we just sold the last, we only have the model with X and Y options right now. We could order the one you wanted but it won't be there until next month. Don't worry, I'll make you a deal, it will only cost you [original price * 1.5] and you will have all of those fancy useless options right now! We are friends here, you are lucky I don't offer that deal to just anybody." That and trying to have you believe that paying cash for a used car will hurt you. "Oh, you have $7k in your pockets for that used car we have on the lot? Keep your money! We offer such a low interest rate. Use that money for something you truly care about and leave with the car anyway! No, really... I would feel bad to take this money from you. Here, sign this and the car is yours." ... Loses all semblance of false friendship ... "Oh, you really want to pay cash? Alright. Let me call my supervisor and he will close the deal for you."

deleted 8y ago
[deleted]

mikeash 8y ago

I had an unusual Toyota experience that really pissed me off. The buying experience was ok. Negotiating the price was annoying but I called a bunch of places for quotes, asking each one to beat the last one, and stopped when they started to say they couldn’t. Everything was fine until much later when I was buying my next car and trading this one in. Turned out the dealer had filed a lien with their finance division even though I bought the car outright. Just finding the right person to contact was a major pain. (Toyota Financial had to do the work to release the lien, but they wouldn’t do it for me. The dealership had to ask them.) Once I did, I had to call repeatedly to get them to move with any sort of speed. (I discovered this problem on Monday and was trying to buy on Tuesday.) I realize this is not the typical experience, but it certainly left me eager to see the whole dealership system burn to the ground.

ams6110 8y ago
Filing a fraudulent lien is a crime. You should have said resolve this now or I'm calling the prosecutors office.