When does a car dealer cross the line?

[SpectorV]

After all of the recent discussions going on about car dealerships and their tactics used I was wondering when people think they have gone to far in their methods. At what point to you feel they have went to far in trying to sell you a vehicle?

Do you feel your rights as the buyer are neglected after the purchase? Perhaps even so far as to be aginst the law?

[PureVenom]

In my opinion, they cross the line when they don't let me even get out of the car before they run over to help me. Leave me alone, when I need help, I will find you.

Beyond that, yes, I think there are some that once they make the sale figure to hell with you. The place I bought my cobra at is a prime example. While they offer lifetime oil changes, there is no where in the contract that says they will only change your oil every 5k miles. So, when I show up after 3 months and only 1200 miles, they tell me I have to pay for it because it hasn't been 5k yet. I argued and said I was 200 over where I wanted to change the oil at already.

It seems that most of the dealerships you hear about only care about today's sale...they don't give two shits if you ever come back again. You don't hear much about the good ones though like where I bought my explorer that doesn't care about today's sale, they care about the sale 2 years from now.

[Riversnake]

The Ford dealer in Athens had sold my dad's truck BEFORE he even got close to a deal. I walked out to the truck with mom to wait (she had determined we were not trading that day :-) and this guy was putting his stuff in the truck. He was getting ready to leave when we asked him what he was doing. Said he had just wrote a $1500 down payment on truck signed papers and was leaving. If they had been smart, my parents should have let him leave. Prob could have gotten whatever they wanted since NOTHING had been signed or even verbally agreed to.

Would say that is little too far.

[Rollinthundr]

I used to sell cars years ago, and the trick was for the managers to get the sales staff so pumped up on speed they would be there from morning 'till late night selling cars. It also kept them on a string. Most of the owners and managers are crooks. If you want to go to a good dealer, try CarMax. I'm buying my second Ford Excursion from them. They're totally professional and there's no pressure to buy.

[JROC]

How about this. I went to a dealership a few weeks ago, and told the salesman that walked up to me that I wasn't looking to buy a car, that I just want to look at a knew Saleen that they had on the showroom. But the whole time I was there he follows me around, and acted like a snob, and talked like he new stuff that he didn't. He started trying to convince me that Saleens are better than Roushes, and he didn't think Roushes were very good, because of this, and that. I told him that their both good, and alot of it is a matter of opinion. When I first pulled up he was telling me what a nice car I had, and how much he liked it. The dealer sells both brands.

[Seph]

When I was looking to get my first car, we went to this one dealership and I was interested in this blue 2000 or 1999 Mustang. I thought it was alright, but the alignment was messed up a bit, and the radio was all messed up.

The "manager" was talking with me saying it's a good car, we'll fix it, blah blah.. but they wouldn't allow me to take the car to MY mechanic. Suspicious.........

so we went back and forth, why can't I take it to my mechanic? Why do I have to take it to your guys?

It was bullshit, then the guy says "Listen, everytime we sell one of these cars I get a chance to go to Hawaii."

I told him "I don't care if you go to Hawaii!" My parents were laughing and we left. I was pissed.

I also hate it when I go to a dealership and these guys wanna throw prices around before you test drive a car. To me, it's quite a fucking pain in the ass and a waste of time. I have $5, how's that? Let me drive the fucking car so I can make up my mind if I even want to put any money down.

[Thomas91169]

i hate it when they push the issue and try their hardest to get you to sit down and talk numbers.

I went in to Mitsu about a week ago, looking for used(but low mileage) Evos for 25k and under, they had no used evos on the lot, but the salesman narked that they had just gotten one a few days ago and it was in the shop because of crank pulley seperation(common problem). then their auction guy came over, this guy was packing heat in his talk, he could sell ice to the eskimos, but he dam sure wasnt gonna snow the snowman. ill play into his little game, so i sat down and discussed the situation, boredom over the stang and wanting something thats more moddable that i didnt have to include a forged bottom end and 10k to break the 400hp mark and still be a daily driver. i tell him ive never driven an evo let alone sit in one, and while ive not been in one, i am full aware of their potential. i tell him of the GST and how similar the two are and the history of the 4g63. i tell him i could easily get 16-18k on the street for the mustang, and he laughs and spouts all these blue book numbers. i tell him, "lemme pull the stang around, see whos laughing now" and when i get around and pull it up to the showroom floor, jaw hits the ground, "youre gonna trade that in! what the fuck is wrong with you!". so we talk a little bit more, i tell him i came in here looking for a used evo and he had none, but he says he will(he didnt divulge the one in the shop, the one i knew about that he didnt know i knew about). he asks if he can appraise my car if i were to trade it in, i tell him to knock himself out, he gives me the keys to a brand new Evo RS(the stripped down racing version) and says "knock yourself out for 4 minutes or less". i ran that car through its paces, impressive, but did not feel like something id be happy with unless AMS worked their magic. upon returning to the stealership, guy comes out with a 12k offer, knowing full well he can turn around and sell my car for 25k. i tell him "yeah its definately a badass contender, but it just doesnt feel like me", guy goes "WTF ARE YOU HUMAN?" as i throw him the keys. "dam what a waste of time" he says, i reply, "Shouldnt waste time with numbers until after a test drive" as we drive off.

[lowflyn]

Man...dealerships are so much fun to mess with. Every once in a while I'll get bored and decide to go test drive some cars at the dealerships. They start telling me this and that on what the car has and I normally end up correcting them.
But it's fun to pull up at a lot in my car, salesmen come running lol.

But try this one, I went last weekend and testdrove a 04 Mach1, torch red, 5 speed, 6800 miles. I parked beside it and started looking it over, found the door unlocked, popped the hood, etc etc etc. Salesman walks out and starts his spill on the car. I ask him what he wants for it, he says 31k. I laugh and say it isn't worth over 25. He argues for a few minutes and I say let's go inside and look it up on the net. We go inside to his little booth, he pulls up kbb, types in all the stuff etc etc, and it pulls up 24,538 or something around there. He closes the window real fast and starts talking about how it's a collector's car and such. I say 24 is a good starting point for negotiations and go back outside. He comes back with the keys and asks me if I want to drive it...like I'm gonna turn that down. The car was on low fuel so I didn't drive it very far, but when I pull back in, hand him the keys, say it's a nice car but not worth 30k and leave lol.

[jimmy_beaner]

there's a dealership in town... they sell almost everything BUT Fords and a couple other brands. Anyway, I was driving through there looking at cars, and a salesman jumped out in front of my car, from the passenger side. Well, my head was turned all the way to the left, looking at cars, and I was moving. Well, I hit him,
I stopped right away, and got out, and he was like "HOW COULD YOU HIT ME??"... and all this, and tried to guilt trip me into a sale. I ended up telling him how fucking retarded he was, and eventually, enough of a scene was made that the 'shift manager' was brought out. After HE tried to guilt trip me into a sale, I said, "alright, let's just call the cops so you guys can realize I'm not liable for anything, and then I can go, because I would never ever buy SHIT from you". I would say THAT is going way over the top.

[SpectorV]

Quote: Originally Posted by EclipseGSTdude i hate it when they push the issue and try their hardest to get you to sit down and talk numbers. I went in to Mitsu about a week ago, looking for used(but low mileage) Evos for 25k and under, they had no used evos on the lot, but the salesman narked that they had just gotten one a few days ago and it was in the shop because of crank pulley seperation(common problem). then their auction guy came over, this guy was packing heat in his talk, he could sell ice to the eskimos, but he dam sure wasnt gonna snow the snowman. ill play into his little game, so i sat down and discussed the situation, boredom over the stang and wanting something thats more moddable that i didnt have to include a forged bottom end and 10k to break the 400hp mark and still be a daily driver. i tell him ive never driven an evo let alone sit in one, and while ive not been in one, i am full aware of their potential. i tell him of the GST and how similar the two are and the history of the 4g63. i tell him i could easily get 16-18k on the street for the mustang, and he laughs and spouts all these blue book numbers. i tell him, "lemme pull the stang around, see whos laughing now" and when i get around and pull it up to the showroom floor, jaw hits the ground, "youre gonna trade that in! what the fuck is wrong with you!". so we talk a little bit more, i tell him i came in here looking for a used evo and he had none, but he says he will(he didnt divulge the one in the shop, the one i knew about that he didnt know i knew about). he asks if he can appraise my car if i were to trade it in, i tell him to knock himself out, he gives me the keys to a brand new Evo RS(the stripped down racing version) and says "knock yourself out for 4 minutes or less". i ran that car through its paces, impressive, but did not feel like something id be happy with unless AMS worked their magic. upon returning to the stealership, guy comes out with a 12k offer, knowing full well he can turn around and sell my car for 25k. i tell him "yeah its definately a badass contender, but it just doesnt feel like me", guy goes "WTF ARE YOU HUMAN?" as i throw him the keys. "dam what a waste of time" he says, i reply, "Shouldnt waste time with numbers until after a test drive" as we drive off.

12k isnt an awful price for a 02 gt from a dealer but you could get a coupel grand more maybe 15k for it selling it yourself. I wont ever trade a car in again unless its at all possible not to.

[Thomas91169]

Quote: Originally Posted by SpectorV 12k isnt an awful price for a 02 gt from a dealer but you could get a coupel grand more maybe 15k for it selling it yourself. I wont ever trade a car in again unless its at all possible not to.

yeah but i still owe 14k on it, so im not about to slap another 2k on top of a 30k Evo, when i can sell the car for 16K Easily if i wanted to.

bottom line was, they tried to talk numbers and they didnt even have a car i was remotely interested in.