Any dealer Horror Stories?

I found the Subreddit "Askcarsales" and became hooked reading some of them. Any Car Sales horror stories here?

I have a not horror story but a unique chuckle (at least I do) story.

Took my fiance (now wife) to a knockoff Carmax kind of local chain. Had no intentions of buying from there but we were right near there and she wanted to test drive a Tacoma before I bought mine.

Got back from the text drive and I thank the dealer for his time. As were getting ready to go the manager wants to meet you thing is said. I say tell him Hello for me were heading out. As my fiance and I stand up he (the manager) appears in a wife beater and dress pants/shoes. All over his wifebeater/tank top is tomato sauce and his beard is covered in crumbs. He gives me the lecture that they strive for the most professional atmosphere of all of the local dealerships. As he then pulls a roll out of his back pocket and starts eating it.

I still laugh about that one and tell people interested in shopping there just to see if they have such a unique experience. However a relative of my wife got a 2013 6 month old Silverado LT Crew 4x4 for $27,000 OTD with 6,000 miles. I didn't believe it until he showed me his bill of sale one day and I still can't believe that deal.

 

I think "dealer" and "horror stories" goes hand in hand. Its been unusual in my experience to have a good experience at a dealer... Honda, Toyota, Acura at least for me.

 

I bought a new '94 T100 from a dealer whose name I have seen on this site several times. Maybe their act has been cleaned up, so I won't mention names. Part of the deal (as written) was that a factory shop manual was to be included. All they provided was, as I recall, a small manual for electrical problems. It took a letter to Toyota to get them to meet their obligations. And they insisted that the small manual be returned.

 

When I was first in the market for a new vehicle and narrowed it down to a Tacoma, I checked out all the local Toyota dealers. At this time, I was looking at used trucks. At a dealer in Doral, I test drove a Tacoma and sat down at "the table", the way the salesman handled me was the worst ever. He fought me every step of the way and in the end lost a sale, as I walked out. It was so bad that I would never set foot in that dealership again.

It worked out best for me because I ended up buying a 2018 from another dealer.

 

When I was shopping 3 years ago, I was considering a Colorado Z71 along with the Tacoma and a F150. The Colorado's weren't really available yet but for some reason this local Chevy dealer had one used. Seemed weird that they had a used one with 5,000 miles and every other dealer I would have to order one. But, anyway I just wanted to drive it to compare it to the other trucks. It was a crew cab but long bed. At the time, I only wanted a short bed. Went back after the test drive and talked about the possibility of ordering a new one. Skimmed through brochures and all of the sudden the sales manager came up. He asked what I thought and I said it was ok. So, I had a trade in, a 2010 Jetta. He just all of the sudden started throwing numbers at me like $33k for the truck, $7k for your car. I said no thanks. Then he went to $31k for the truck, $7k for your car. Again, I said no thanks. You can tell he was getting irritated. Then he throws out $30k for the truck, $8k for my car. I again said no thanks. He then gets really irritated and said why not with a very loud and angry tone. I told him I wanted a short bed, not long bed. Then for 10 minutes I kid you not, we went back and forth like this. "It's a short bed, no its a long bed, no its a short bed, no its a long bed." Finally I said, "prove to me it is a short bed and I will buy it right now". He stuttered and said "umm, it is a short bed". Again I told him to prove it. And he couldn't. So, in front of me, my wife, salesman, and like 10 other people in the dealership, he yells "order him a new one, no discounts, and $6k for his trade in" and he stormed off. The salesman looks at me and says "you aren't ordering a new one are you?". I said "if I do, it won't be with you guys". And I left.

Two years later, I leave my old job to join a small accounting firm. I do payroll compliance audits for the local auto mechanics union. Sure enough, this dealership shows up on my "to do" list. It was the best feeling knowing they didn't pay contributions correctly and I billed them for $20k in findings.

 

My recent purchase of my Tacoma just reminded me how much I hate car dealerships. Why can't they just answer your damn question with a straight answer, instead of stringing you along for 3, 4, 5 hours before either caving in to your offer, or pissing you off first and making you leave?

I'd been shopping, pulling into used car lots and dealerships, just seeing what was available. Test drove a 2012 at a local Toyota dealer, got him down to $xxx and he said that was ALL he could do. I told him I might be back if I didn't see anything I liked better. Between then (1pm) and 5:30 I had 6 calls from him, his last one was that if I came back, he could probably go lower if it would help me make my decision. I called him back and said I didn't like high pressure sales tactics, they worked the opposite way on me. I also told him if he could go lower why didn't he say so when I was there earlier, and not to call me again. If I wanted to buy from him, I'd let him know.

Next place I saw a truck I liked was another Toyota dealer (Scott Clark, for you guys from Charlotte). Shoot me in the head if I ever say I'm going back there. I did buy my truck there, but had to play the "I'll talk to my sales manager " game for three hours. Salesman takes my offer to sales mgr and comes back, No, we can't do that, he says. I make a counter offer, I'll see what I can do, salesman says, disappears, comes back, Afraid we can't do that. I said, save yourself the walk and call him, tell him to come here. 10 min later, sales mgr shows up. I make my offer to him, he says, I'll have to take this upstairs. I tell him, there's two more trucks elsewhere I'd like to see today, don't waste my time if you won't deal. He leaves and ten minutes later comes back, with the dealership manager. I make my deal pitch, he balks. I said, look, make me feel like I won something here. I know what the KBB value is, I know how much you probably gave in trade, I also know the add-ons are BS to ensure you make a good profit. I know today is the last day of the month and this truck has been here for two months. This is my offer, take it or leave it, otherwise I got places to be. They stall me for another 15 minutes, then make a counter offer $500 more than what I offered. I say, meet me in the middle and I'll sign the paper. Finally, they agreed. Took me four hours to do something they could have done in 5 minutes. They want me to finance it with them, I say uh-uh, it's a cash sale, and I said that at the beginning of this parade. Why does buying a car have to be so painful?

BTW, I got the truck for $2K below the KBB price. It was a low-miles vehicle, they ended up taking an offer for a truck with the avg. miles for the model price, and cut their "dealer prep, etc. " in half..

 

I never had a "bad" experience until I bought my Taco (owned 9 vehicles in the last 6 years). It wasn't bad, but "bad" in terms of other dealerships I had dealt with.

The salesman was new (started working as salesperson 2 months ago), so I think it had something to do with it. I research my vehicles, including getting the black book value (what dealer prices trade-ins and used cars), on top of that, I had MSRP from Toyota printed out, KBB and Black Book Value for my trade in, and local market retail for trade-in and the new Tacoma. Asking price for Tacoma in my area was $41-$43k for 2018 TRD OR with NO tech/premium package. MSRP from Toyota was $38.7k, Distributor price (basically market price) including up-charge was $39.1k. I had a pre-approved loan.

Salesman only knew the basic of the vehicle he was selling me and I kid you not, he even googled some of my questions lol. I already knew the answer to them, I was just trying to get a feel for the salesman. I know how dealerships work nowadays and the bonuses they get from corporate (which is what made this experience bad for me). The guy just kept trying to do the whole numbers game with me and tried to confuse me and when I caught him just moving numbers around and not actually taking anything off, he started to back track. In short, we took 5 hrs just on getting numbers figured out since as soon as he found out about my loan he just started talking about monthly payment (which is a no-no). I even told him what his dealership would sell my truck for since I got access to the same database they use (from a friend). I finally got annoyed and told him I will take $39.1K which was market price and no more. He had a long "talk" with his manager and came out saying yes, but only will give me $10k for my 2008 silverado (which is not bad, since there were stuff broken, but they didn't caught it during inspection). We just started chatting off topic and he told me he was new (bad move). When we got back to business, I started giving him my printouts and telling him all the stuff his manager will say and do. I guess the manager caught on when he kept going back and forth for help and clarification, that they jumped from $10k all the way to $14.5k for my trade in (database showed $12k to pay for vehicle and post it for sell for $18k).

At this point we were all tired and I was hungry from all the going back and forth and the salesman was getting confused with all the numbers thrown around, so I settled for $39.1K(market price) on the Taco with free window tint and half off on the SunTek clear film paint protection for the front ($700 value + $150 value for tints). They paid me $14.5k for my trade-in which is what I wanted (bought it for $20k 4 yrs ago. Dealer I bought it from wanted 29K at first, but I was more greedy back then lol). I also told the salesman to talk to the finance manager to beat my loan... of course he got confused on why I would do that since I already got a really good interest rate, so I had to school him saying it would benefit both me and the dealership to get financing thru them. Banks give a certain percentage to dealerships and I knew my credit before I went in so I knew it would work since I have credit/identity theft monitoring. After 15 mins later, finance manager came back out and told me Chase had won the bidding and offered me 1% lower than what my bank had pre-approved me. Took only another 10 mins to sign everything and look it over since I already knew where all the important stuff were going to be and what I needed to focus on.

That was the first time I bought a vehicle from a dealership that took that long (6 hrs total). Normally I am in and out within 2 hrs since as soon as a salesman figure out I know the ins and outs, they would just have the manager deal with me or they talk to the manager and get what I want since I don't low ball them. I understand they have bills too, but if they are going to make more than 4k off of me (including the bonuses they receive from manufacture), that's when I draw the line.

Oh and a week later they posted my trade-in for $18.9k lol. Was sold the following week (hope the guy that bought it knew that they would accept $16k for it based on black book). haha maybe they used me to train the guy cause I was suppose to have an appointment with the manager (talked with the manager before I came in to see the options they had).

 

I have 2 from last year when looking for a truck to replace my Wrangler.

1st is from my very first test drive of a new vehicle. Had an appointment to go test drive Colorado and Silverado at 6. Had several hours to kill so I set up a quick one down the street at Honda to drive the Ridgeline. I knew I wasn't going to buy this truck since I'm looking fora truck, something that looks good and can take off roading. Ridgeline has 1.5" less ground clearance than the Taco but gave the car a chance. It was a rainy Tuesday and the dealer was virtually empty so I wasn't wasting anyone's time. As ugly as this car is on the outside; the interior, features and the way it drives on the road are the exact opposite. Interior is easily the nicest of the mid size market while the blind spot camera, dual action tailgate, bed speakers and power seats are all features I would love to have. Now for the dealer horror part. My salesman was a rookie, I know this because he told me multiple times. Guy just kept repeating other things multiple times. Test drive was only 5 minutes and I already had a headache. I told the guy I wont be ready for several months since I need to test drive other vehicles and get my finances in order. Even if I wanted the Ridgeline I just wouldn't be ready for another 3 months. So we get back to the dealer. Salesman kept pressing me to buy now. Tells me why would you wait? You wouldn't buy a winter coat in the summer? Wait what?? Yes you would because it cheaper. Manager eventually comes over and tells me the Ridgeline is a luxurious pickup and isn't right for me and I should go somewhere else. I was stunned, didn't know if he was politely telling me to get out the hell out or actually wanted me to find the right vehicle for what I need. Im going to go with "get the hell out" since I look real young, I have my sister with me so someone can tell me how comfortable the 2nd row is and I gave them a secondary email account. Didn't want to give main and get blasted with emails from a company Im not buying from. Just thanked them for there time and left. Will never go back to that dealer again. Went to Chevy and had a great experience. No pressure, truck was great, salesman showed me some of the features but also kept quiet to let me enjoy the drive. Truck was also the exact one I wanted. Red z71 and would have bought it if I didn't like the Taco so much.

Now for horror story 2. Went to a local Toyota dealer to test drive Tacoma. Drive was 5-10 minutes, truck was great so we get back to dealer to talk numbers. I had my father with me to walk me through the process and make sure they don't take advantage. We settle on 15k trade in and I think 36k for a black off road long bed. I wanted a inferno or red short bed off road but almost every local dealer had only a handful of Tacomas. Told them we would call back next week. Read online about gear shift issue so I request a extended test drive on the highway. Drive is only up 1 exit and back, lasted 10 minutes. So already annoyed. Get back to dealer to talk numbers again. Asks if I have the sheet from last time when we settled on numbers. I 'forgot it' to see if they would try to take advantage. This time I have my friend, now the trade in has dropped to 14k and the price of truck went up to 37k. Told them I would have to think about it and left. Blessing in disguise because I did end up finding an Inferno TRD Off Road DCSB 2 hours away. Didnt even go for a test drive, bought the truck that day and its been love ever since.