Buying a car should be a straight forward experience. You negotiate a selling price, and if you are trading in a car, then you negotiate that trade, and then if you are financing the vehicle, you walk into finance to negotiate on an interest rate and potentially choose among different "services" offered by the dealer. This should be a straight forward process.
Straight forward my experience was not.
Through the use of available tools and a fair amount of research, I arrived at a buying price for a new vehicle (Using the KBB Price Advisor as well, an advisor). An associate of mine tipped me off to a dealer and 'salesperson' who was offering a desired vehicle that was priced within my preferred buying price range.
Through text messages and emails, the buying price of the vehicle was sorted out before my arrival to the dealership, and upon me speaking with the salesperson, test driving the vehicle, and going down the pricing sheet, a clear as bell statement was made by the salesperson concerning the 'dealer-adds' for the vehicle.
"We don't put all the adds on the vehicle..., we let you, the buyer, determine which adds you want"
"Okay. I want none of the listed adds. Wait, maybe the wheel locks."
A phone call with an associate.
"Scratch the wheel locks; I want none of the adds."
Great. Buying price sorted, now onto the trade in vehicle appraising...
The salesperson takes the trade-in vehicle to be appraised. After some moments, he returns with the pricing sheet and a newly scribbled "best bid" valuation of the trade-in vehicle.
"Lowballed." I think inside. "By not a small amount. No worries."
"Okay, don't worry about the trade in vehicle." I say. "I'll be putting cash down instead; got a better offer from a private buyer."
There is a turn in salesperson's expression...
"I'll be back bright and early tomorrow morning to finish the rest of the deal." I say.
"I have an appointment at 11:00AM", the salesperson says, "And another at 2:00PM".
"Okay. Ya'll open up at 9:00AM, right?"
"Yeah"
"What time do you get here?"
"Around 8:30AM", the salesperson says.
"So ill be there around 9:00 AM.", I reply.
We shake hands.
The next morning I arrive with my associate to finish the deal. After waiting an extended amount of time, approximately 13 minutes of standing, shuffling, and sighing, the salesperson finally comes out.
The three of us walk back to the desks where the salespersons drag the potential customers back to be scalped and sheared. We three sit down, and the salesperson brings out the pricing sheet. They then takes a pause, gets up, grabs the pricing sheet, excuses themselves, and walks off to some unseen locale.
The person who returns was not our salesperson.
"A shapeshifter?" I think. "No, just the prelude to some shady crap."
"I need you to help me out with $2,000 dollars here." The person who was not our salesperson said.
"NO." I say, as I place the two good fingers on my right hand down on the pricing sheet that the person who was not our salesperson was holding.
I stand to get up and leave, as it becomes more than apparent that this deal is dead.
Our former salesperson returns and says, "I knew they were going to do that."
"Oh really? You knew they were going to attempt to shuffle the deal? To make me buy something that I said I was not going to buy? You knew this was going to happen? Thanks for being forthcoming with that little feeling; you could have texted this premonition to me a bit earlier, don't cha think?", I think.
Analysis on What Happened and Who Shot First
The salesperson lowbidded the vehicle in the initial text message, and continued to work with this low bid price with an assumption that there would be a trade-in. The thing is this, the existence of a trade-in was never discussed during the initial messages. The trade-in as appraised by the dealer was lowballed by about $2500, and during the pricing discussion (not mentioned in the dialogue above), the salesperson made a strong effort to gather information about the trade in and whether or not payments were currently being made to the vehicle.
(Dealerships don't need to know this information when it comes to the pricing of the vehicle and the structure of the deal; this information is only relevant during financing. They will try their hardest to get you and your loved ones to discuss the state of your finances prior to walking into financing, but for you, the purchaser, they don't need to know this information and you'd best be served by ignoring the question until they realize that you won't be answering it, or if you got a bit more fire in your belly, by saying, "Your question is not relevant, and don't ask me again or I will get up and leave.")
Once the salesperson and their manager realized that there would not be a trade-in, they knew that they would be losing $2500 dollars or more in this deal because of my refusal of the dealer adds.
In short: they got egg on their face. read more