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I hate dealers, every time I buy a car it is always a stressful experience. Dealers are trying to cheat me on every my step. Last time I was via PenFed Car Buy

by free652 13y ago

I hate dealers, every time I buy a car it is always a stressful experience. Dealers are trying to cheat me on every my step. Last time I was via PenFed Car Buying Service, got a "guaranteed" web quote: Got the dealer: Sure, we will honor the price. But all of our cars have door guards installed - that's $500 extra. We just don't sell the cars without door guards. Got the contract for the car: Some extra maintenance plans included for an another $900, forced to remove them. Oh and the dealer made an another mistake for $1000, couldn't add up two numbers together (damn liar). An hour later got a fixed contract. Got to the financing guy who is trying to sell me extended warranty and gap insurance for about an hour. And that's over 6-7 hours at the dealership... /vented

B-Con 13y ago
Last time I was at a dealership it was to buy a used car. As soon as we started talking numbers I found there was an additional $800 of work that had been done to the car (window tinting and some door guard thing) that I had to pay for. I started by telling him that the sticker price was disingenuous since this was was already done and they knew they had to charge for it. I ended up negotiating something half-way decent, but that was a very annoying starting point.
beachstartup 13y ago
you are comparing the purchasing experience of a high end car (tesla) against a low end one.
- tim333 13y ago
  Even with fancy cars they tend to give you a crap deal on your trade in.
- s0rce 13y ago
  I've purchased a $60,000 BMW and they still tried to sell stupid crap.
  - beachstartup 13y ago
    did they try to sell you, or did they try to sneak it into the contract without you knowing?
  - smsm42 13y ago
    Only logical - if you've got $60000 on BMW you've probably got more money to spend on stupid crap, so why not try to get it out of you? ;) They'll always try it, but the decent ones won't try it again after you say no.
- MrMan 13y ago
  You are completely wrong. I go to the dealer and pay whatever they ask without haggling. They make a lot of money off of me. I am "sophisticated" theoretically but I get completely taken advantage of. Why is that?
- analog31 13y ago
  Buying a Toyota Scion a few years ago was great. They had fixed pricing and the options were all dealer-installed onto one of two base models containing either stick or automatic transmission. I told him I'd take one with no options, and he handed me the keys. The whole process took me roughly an hour. I suspect that fixed pricing is the appropriate pattern for the low end. Dickering over a few bucks just annoys the customer, and isn't worth the salesman's time. Plus, the dealer-installed options schtick allowed the dealer to maintain a very small inventory.
smsm42 13y ago
If a dealer tells me "yes, we honor the price but..." and the "but" part is not an obvious add-on like insurance or pre-paid service or anything like that that I can refuse and still get a car - I'd just walk. These people are obviously liars, why would you want to spend so much money with liars? It's not like there's only one place where you can buy a car nowdays. Same for extended warranties, etc. - if the guys can't understand "no" there are always guys who can. I've seen both kinds and the best way to deal with liar kind is to just walk. It stings when you've already invested time with them, but it's just sunk costs fallacy - the sooner you cut your losses the better.
tzs 13y ago
> I hate dealers, every time I buy a car it is always a stressful experience. Dealers are trying to cheat me on every my step. I had the opposite last time I bought a car. I'm still a bit baffled by it. The salesman said he could let me have the car for $X. I countered that if he could let me have it for $Y (which was the price a dealer an hour away was offering for people who bought online for pickup, and was the price that my research had said was quite good), I'd write a check right then and there. He said he'd have to talk to the manager about that. When he came back from his talk, he said that the best he could do was $Z. The odd part: $Z was LESS THAN $Y, by something like $1-2k.

by free652 13y ago

B-Con 13y ago

Last time I was at a dealership it was to buy a used car. As soon as we started talking numbers I found there was an additional $800 of work that had been done to the car (window tinting and some door guard thing) that I had to pay for. I started by telling him that the sticker price was disingenuous since this was was already done and they knew they had to charge for it. I ended up negotiating something half-way decent, but that was a very annoying starting point.

beachstartup 13y ago

you are comparing the purchasing experience of a high end car (tesla) against a low end one.

tim333 13y ago
Even with fancy cars they tend to give you a crap deal on your trade in.
s0rce 13y ago
I've purchased a $60,000 BMW and they still tried to sell stupid crap.
- beachstartup 13y ago
  did they try to sell you, or did they try to sneak it into the contract without you knowing?
- smsm42 13y ago
  Only logical - if you've got $60000 on BMW you've probably got more money to spend on stupid crap, so why not try to get it out of you? ;) They'll always try it, but the decent ones won't try it again after you say no.
MrMan 13y ago
You are completely wrong. I go to the dealer and pay whatever they ask without haggling. They make a lot of money off of me. I am "sophisticated" theoretically but I get completely taken advantage of. Why is that?
analog31 13y ago
Buying a Toyota Scion a few years ago was great. They had fixed pricing and the options were all dealer-installed onto one of two base models containing either stick or automatic transmission. I told him I'd take one with no options, and he handed me the keys. The whole process took me roughly an hour. I suspect that fixed pricing is the appropriate pattern for the low end. Dickering over a few bucks just annoys the customer, and isn't worth the salesman's time. Plus, the dealer-installed options schtick allowed the dealer to maintain a very small inventory.

smsm42 13y ago

If a dealer tells me "yes, we honor the price but..." and the "but" part is not an obvious add-on like insurance or pre-paid service or anything like that that I can refuse and still get a car - I'd just walk. These people are obviously liars, why would you want to spend so much money with liars? It's not like there's only one place where you can buy a car nowdays. Same for extended warranties, etc. - if the guys can't understand "no" there are always guys who can. I've seen both kinds and the best way to deal with liar kind is to just walk. It stings when you've already invested time with them, but it's just sunk costs fallacy - the sooner you cut your losses the better.

tzs 13y ago

> I hate dealers, every time I buy a car it is always a stressful experience. Dealers are trying to cheat me on every my step. I had the opposite last time I bought a car. I'm still a bit baffled by it. The salesman said he could let me have the car for $X. I countered that if he could let me have it for $Y (which was the price a dealer an hour away was offering for people who bought online for pickup, and was the price that my research had said was quite good), I'd write a check right then and there. He said he'd have to talk to the manager about that. When he came back from his talk, he said that the best he could do was $Z. The odd part: $Z was LESS THAN $Y, by something like $1-2k.