There are books on how not to get ripped off by car dealerships, because most dealerships are crooks. I've read those books, and I'm a very paranoid buyer. To buy a new Prius for my wife, I bought Consumer Reports' online pricing guide on the Prius. That tells me dealer invoice, holdbacks, incentives, and generally gives an idea of what a fair price on a new car is. It can't tell you what internal metrics a dealer has that might make them lower the price, like making way for new inventory, but it's about as good a picture as you can get. This time around the system was a little different, and in addition to the standard info, it showed me several price guarantees from local dealerships. However I had to click to the next page to see the actual names of the dealerships -- and when I did, it automatically sent them my email and phone number info!! I was infuriated, and it seemed very unlike Consumer Reports to bury that in the fine print. Within seconds I was getting emails and phone calls, and I don't want to talk to anyone until I've decided what I want to do. As it turns out though, I think dealers who are contacted via Consumer Reports understand that people don't want to be unduly pestered, and so they don't start dogging you after the initial contact.
When I finally calmed down and looked at the emails, it turned out that Cabe's was the lowest offer, by a significant margin. It also seemed to be a fair price right out of the gate. I didn't know anything about Cabe, but apart from the significantly better offer, I stumbled on all the positive reviews here. I saw a handful of negative reviews, but I'm sure other dealerships occasionally dog the competition with fake reviews, or perhaps there are occasional misunderstandings. I saw that Cabe tries to address concerns, and I would do the same if I were an honest dealer. That and the huge number of 5-star reviews gave me confidence that Cabe was the right choice -- though I still approached with my usual caution. So I emailed Stacy back, and eventually sent a number of emails back and forth with Meghan, who was very understanding in dealing with a paranoid customer. ;)
Now, by that time I had already secured financing through my credit union, since it would never occur to me to finance through a dealership. There are even more potential ways to get ripped off if you do that. But based on the positive reviews I stumbled on here, I decided I would go for the 0% financing though Cabe as well. Anyway my guy at the credit union wanted to see Cabe's numbers, both for himself and because they use a nationwide auto-buying service, and that service's numbers couldn't come close to Cabe's. So I had Meghan send me the offer on a form that included the VIN of the vehicle and sent it over to the credit union guy. He called me back, and the tone of his voice was incredulous. He couldn't understand how I got this deal, and would be pleasantly surprised but amazed if it went through as stated, etc. etc., but the paperwork all looked fine. He sounded confused. ;)
SO I grabbed the wife and headed down to Cabe. We chatted with Meghan while filling out paperwork, checking out the car, etc. Basically you couldn't ask for a smoother, simpler, more pleasant car deal. The finance guy was nice as well, and before too long my wife was happily driving the new Prius home.
The next day I was at my mechanic's shop getting our old car, and I mentioned that we bought a new Prius at Cabe. What he said was very revealing. He said that as an independent mechanic, dealerships are his parts warehouse. He said Torrance Toyota rips him off on part prices, and Carson Toyoto, while they don't screw him on prices, will promise that a part will be to him by a certain time, and then it's not. So he only deals with Cabe, and he's happy with them. That's a great data point that Cabe is an all-around class operation.
Frankly, in a sea of crooks, it's just a smart business model to be the rare, up-front, honest dealer. It's the right way to be in a perfect world, but in the far-from-perfect world of car dealerships, Cabe is the only dealership that I can recommend as actually doing it. read more