Interesting Non Car Buying Experience

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thatguyoverthere
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Interesting Non Car Buying Experience

#1

Post by thatguyoverthere »

Long, but may be interesting and/or enlightening.

Well, as of Saturday morning, I thought my wife and I would be driving a new car to church on Sunday. But, as the thread title implies, we were in our old car at church Sunday morning instead! :lol:

So we spent most of Friday afternoon at a local new car dealership, looking at various vehicles and driving some. We settled on what we wanted, then went in to start the blood-letting - umm, I mean "negotiations."

That part actually went pretty well. Sales guy only went back and forth to the sales manager three times, and I only had to haggle with the sales manager one time when he came in to take over for the salesman. Normally, I would expect to have to do more of that, but we actually ended up with a very good price that I was happy with. By now, it was late, and the bank I'm using to finance it was closed, so I told them we would be back in the morning to finish up the paperwork. They wanted me to go ahead and drive "our" new car home, but I thanked them and said we would wait until everything is done first.

So we showed back up Saturday morning. Everybody's all smiles. Wife and I are all smiles, salesman is all smiles, F&I guy that my salesman hands us off to is all smiles. Everybody's happy. It's gonna be a great day! :mrgreen:

And it starts off well with the F&I guy. But apparently he didn't get the word, so I can tell he's disappointed to learn that I've decided to go with my own financing rather than using theirs. That means he and the dealer don't get their cut of the financing deal, and he doesn't get to try to sell me his overpriced GAP insurance. So he moves on from there and pitches me the extended warranty. "No thanks, not interested" I tell him. He tries a little bit more on that, but gives up pretty quickly. The smile that was on his face is now clearly a frown, but he trudges on.

About now, I tell him: "Oh, by the way, I have $2,000 worth of rewards points on my GM credit card that I will want to redeem, so pull that off the top, too." So he sort of grouses under his breath a little and whacks on his computer keyboard a minute or two, then prints out the actual contract with all the money numbers and puts it in front of me to sign.

So I'm looking it over, and see that the top starting number is $3,750 HIGHER than the number that the sales guys and I had settled on. So I say to the guy: "What's this number?"

He replies: "Well, you're doing your own financing, so you lost the $750 incentive to use OUR financing." (Which was really not true, since the price I had negotiated I was not counting on any manufacturer incentives). But, I just set that aside in my mind for a moment, because we were still $3,000 over our agreed price and I just wanted to see where he was going with that.

So then I said: "Ok, so then what about all this other money that's still above our agreed price." He says: "Well, we've got to show that the $2,000 that you're redeeming that goes on the top of the price we settled on."

When I hear that, I suddenly get pretty hot under the collar (but nothing drastic, still under control). He's telling me that instead of taking OFF the $2,000 that I'm redeeming (which is my OWN money, NOT GM money or dealership money), he's ADDING it ON the price, so he can then take it back off. :eek6

And I never even got far enough to ask where that one more extra $1,000 above our agreed-on price came from.

So at this point, I just lean back in the chair and say: "That ain't gonna cut it. Better go get the sales manager." So he storms out and is gone for just a minute or two and comes back by himself and says: "Yep, sales manager says that's the deal."

My wife and I immediately stand up together and I say: "Ok, I guess we're done." And we walk out, get into our old car, and drive off.

So the search continues...

Except now, I've got to call my credit card company on Monday and find out how to get my rewards money back, because I got an email Sunday morning thanking me for redeeming my points and hoping I'm enjoying my new car that I purchased from XYZ dealership!!!

Sigh... :banghead:

Tex1961
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Re: Interesting Non Car Buying Experience

#2

Post by Tex1961 »

It's a racket I tell ya... I Racket...
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Jusme
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Re: Interesting Non Car Buying Experience

#3

Post by Jusme »

I feel your pain, I don't know any other consumer product, where if they used the same tactics as car dealers, would continue to stay in business. I walked out after them adding $1500.00 for "dealer prep" which I was told included, "stain guarding" the upholstery, and putting pure nitrogen in the tires. I asked why, since compressed air is almost 80% nitrogen, was pure nitrogen better? The response was a mostly unintelligable, mumble. I asked if they bled all of the factory air out if the tires before putting in the pure nitrogen? And if so how did they ensure that there was no residual oxygen, or other gases still present? Again a sort of shrug. I then addresses the "stain protection" I was told that it was a solution that was sprayed on which caused liquids to bead up and not soak in. I then said, so you want me to pay you $1500.00 for "mostly" nitrogen in my tires which is already available in compressed air, and Scotchguard, which I can buy at WalMart for $5 a can? He said the sales manager requires that add on. My wife and I left after I told him his sales manager just lost a sale.
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rotor
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Re: Interesting Non Car Buying Experience

#4

Post by rotor »

In 1996 I was able to order on the internet an F150 new, with all of the options I wanted with a $500 down payment and picked it up at a Fort Worth dealership as a commercial purchase. I had to wait 6 weeks to get it but it was worth it. I asked the dealer how he was able to do it and he said that there was a franchise every 7 miles and he liked to eat. In a smaller town you aren't going to do that. I saved a lot of money. Apparently that program has been "outlawed".

What I would consider now is going through Sam's Club or one of the other discount stores (Costco) and see what kind of deal you can get ahead of time, order all of the options you want and know a price beforehand.

Fortunately we don't have to go through this misery more than every few years. I still have that 1997 F150.

DocV
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Re: Interesting Non Car Buying Experience

#5

Post by DocV »

thatguyoverthere wrote: Except now, I've got to call my credit card company on Monday and find out how to get my rewards money back, because I got an email Sunday morning thanking me for redeeming my points and hoping I'm enjoying my new car that I purchased from XYZ dealership!!!
:banghead:
Hmmm.... Maybe you should call the Texas AG, (800) 621-0508, in addition to calling the credit card company.
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Take Down Sicko
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Re: Interesting Non Car Buying Experience

#6

Post by Take Down Sicko »

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Weg
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Re: Interesting Non Car Buying Experience

#7

Post by Weg »

Last car I bought, I let USAA do the haggling for me ( I was financing it through them). When I told the lady a the Honda dealership she would be negotiating the price with them, the life fell out of her. Usaa worked them hard and all I had to do was sit back and watch. Never again will I do it myself.
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Jeff B.
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Re: Interesting Non Car Buying Experience

#8

Post by Jeff B. »

I haven't bought a car or truck lately, but have been looking as my '03 F150 is slated for replacement (it'll go to my BIL for which its an upgrade) in the next year. One thing that I've noticed is that when running the USAA Car Buying program (on the site) the prices that come up are a significant amount lower than browsing Kelley's, Autotrader and such...

When we bought my wife's car, the dealer finance guy beat the USAA financing by 1% (down to .5%) which I did take...

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Re: Interesting Non Car Buying Experience

#9

Post by rmr24 »

I have had a GM card since the early ‘80s and think I have used the reward money on three different car deals, like you I didn’t even mention it until the price was settled and never had a problem. They deducted the reward amount right off the agreed amount and never tried to add it back in. Like you say they get reimbursed the amount so no money out of their pocket. Will be interesting to see how the CC company handles this.
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Re: Interesting Non Car Buying Experience

#10

Post by Bitter Clinger »

Well, for whatever it's worth, I just had a really excellent experience at Jupiter Chevrolet in Garland. It's a small, family owned dealership and I negotiated directly with the General Manager - not General Sales Manager, overall dealership manager. Excellent service and was treated extremely well. If you are interested PM me and I will send you GM's contact info.
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LabRat
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Re: Interesting Non Car Buying Experience

#11

Post by LabRat »

I haven't used it myself, but I've heard that Costco can negotiate a pretty good deal if you're a Costco customer. I might give them a try when a new car is my future. My last 2 cars were bought at CarMax (used of course), the sticker is no haggle. Just go to Edmunds.com or another favorite site you like and plug in the car to see if the CarMax price is legit. My last car I got for about $3k below the expected used car price. I took it.

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Re: Interesting Non Car Buying Experience

#12

Post by SQLGeek »

I hate dealing with the Finance manager when buying a car. The last one I dealt with threw a temper tantrum because I refused the extended warranty after pointing out it was useless on top of the certified pre-owned program for the car. I nearly walked from the sale but he finally came down off the ledge but he was incredibly rude for the remainder of the transaction.

Right after that, I went back over to the sales side and let the salesman and his manager know that their finance guy came this close to costing them a sale. As we were leaving, the sales manager was HOT and storming over toward the finance department.
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Re: Interesting Non Car Buying Experience

#13

Post by Lumberjack98 »

Most dealerships make about the same profit in the F&I office as they do on the sale of the vehicle.
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Lena
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Re: Interesting Non Car Buying Experience

#14

Post by Lena »

Recently bought a new Ram pickup, worst experience ever and LIED to was from Rockwall Dodge, employee actually took my Greenville Dodge deal sheet when we walked to look and I told him "You have something that is mine in your shirt pocket"! 5 hrs over 2 days

Best no haggle was Greenville Dodge called on speaker phone from Rockwall and asked if deal was still good YES. Rockwall said they will not do it, they did so, excellent experience.
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mcm730
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Re: Interesting Non Car Buying Experience

#15

Post by mcm730 »

My newest car is an 84 El Camino, I have opted out of the lovely game of bad car dealer jokes and endless haggling.
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