Shady dealership advertising

I'm just going by hearing a friend, who was a general manager for a dealership, talking a couple times about what a pain in the ass DMV was in regard to car dealership ad compliance and the stiff fines they levied
dealers for breaking the rules.

 

What used to work really well for me when I helped friends etc buy vehicles that I considered commodities (4Runners, F150s etc) is to find the exact config you want, features etc. Then find who has them and send a fax. The idea was, you send the fax, and make sure it says, only contact if exact config at the exact price offer.

You could quickly find out the real floor price by using this method.

I guess this worked for a couple of reasons.

1. The guy manning the fax machine is usually not very experienced, or experienced enough to know you have to jump on these opptys because it's a common vehicle and other people could match too.

2. You can't negotiate with a fax.

Have me all the power. I would save people unbelievable $$$ .

 

An update: the internet sales lady from the dealership (who has been incredibly nice throughout) called to check on how the visit and test drive went. I told her what happened. She apologized, "what can I do"? I said, give me the truck for dealer invoice. I'm pissed off and quite frankly it's the only way I'll buy a truck from you guys, I said. She talked to the sales manager (of course!), said she felt awful about what happened and offered me essentially the same deal with the numbers moved around a little bit between elements. I said, no need to call me again.

On a side note, I was surprised that the financing APR went UP as the number of months of the loan rose. You can only get 1.9 for 48 months. A full 72 is 3.49. Which is still a great rate but I feel like in the past the better rate was for a longer loan. Maybe this is the result of the Fed raising rates. Regardless, I couldn't do better than that financing this through my bank.

I will now be going with plan B which is a used truck, probably a 15. I'll buy and sell privately if I can.

 

I take advantage of shady dealers by getting a written OUT THE DOOR price on the exact setup I want from them and then using that as a starting point with better dealers.

They play their games, I play mine.

 

Yep, the out the door price is critical. How they get there with the math doesn't matter.

 

And I have my financing squared away before I ever start shopping. I want to talk dollars, not APRS and payments.

 

Luckily I’ve never played the pricing game. I contact the internet sales department, explain exactly what I want and then tell them I would like their best price and that I won’t be haggling. Then I take that quote and show it to the next dealership’s internet department, then the next, etc. whoever has the best price wins.

There’s no way I’d have the patience to actually sit at each dealership and go through that.

 

How in this day and age, people are still acting surprised at dealer tactics, I will never know.

 

The dealer doesn't care if they piss you off, they know a sucker is born every minute and that most people buying a car are too uniformed, non-confrontational, scared, nice or whatever else to call them on their BS, which is what their counting on.

The way they really get you is when the worksheet starts going back and forth between you and the back room, better take a picture of it before it leaves your sight because every time it comes back to you they will have slipped a new fee or increased a price somewhere else, better add it all up also and make sure it totals the correct price.

Yeah, they all suck.

 

I recently had a bad experience at a dealership despite going through the Costco Auto "No Haggle" program. Long story short I filled out the Costco app online, got in contact with the local dealer, showed up and asked to see the per-arranged Costco price sheet. The salesperson was very aggressive-sat me down and asked for a lot of personal info (everything short of my SSN). Had me pick out a car (they didn't even have the one I wanted) and tried 4 times to get me to test drive. Despite the guy being insulting and rude I stayed in order to get an idea of pricing, plus I had driven over 30 miles to get there. 40 minutes into his pitch and my persistence in asking to see the price sheet, he comes over with a hand written "costco price". It wasn't at all how the costco program works which I even called costco about and confirmed. The salesman event told me there wasn't a costco pricing sheet. I ended up leaving and they chased out after me with a manager. I've purchased a car through the costco program before and it was very seamless but this dealer appears to be taking advantage of the Costco program. They were about 5% higher than another dealer that costco paired me up with. Very shade.

 

LOL. I've used my kids before as well. We arrived at the dealership at 6:30pm and told them my kids needed to be in bed by 7:30pm because it was a school night. Fastest deal I've ever made.

 

Hmm. I've always seen rates rise the longer the terms. It's because their money is tied up longer so there is more risk.

 

Right. I don't care it you added gold floor mats and irredium coated TRD shifter garbage. It all gets discoubted away when .you deal with out the door price.

 

Today I found a truck I like and called the dealership to negotiate an out the door price. Guy says, the price listed IS the out the door price, tax tags title etc included. I was dumbfounded. Exact opposite of my original experience a few days ago. I’m buying the truck pending an inspection.

 

I think of people I know who just don't buy new vehicles. My father had never in his life ever even considered buying a new car. He always bought used, bought on value, drove it till it died and then repeated. I bet he has zero clue what dealers do, but by his spartan nature, he would not fall for it.

About 3 years ago I tried to buy him a new F150 for his retirement present. His answer was that they were garbage and wanted a 2003 Ford Ranger. Wow. I mean WOW.

Did I mention he spent 30+ years as a mechanic at Ford?