Dealership stories

Some of the most entertaining threads on here are tales of various dealerships deeds, both good and bad (but mostly bad). Feel free to tell your stories here, whether it be the ridiculous sales con, the lug nuts service forgot to tighten, the insane repair quote you got, or whatever. Up to you to include the dealer name.

I’ll start on a high note and let the rest of you bring it down. Bought my most recent Tacoma at Toyota of North Charlotte. This is 5 hours away and the salesman took half a dozen calls from me and took the time to go out to the truck and answer all my questions before I would commit to the trip. He was super easy to negotiate with and was very straightforward. After I bought the truck he and the finance lady actually helped me move my tonneau cover and nerf bars over. I left some stuff in the truck I traded in and he shipped it all to me the day I called to ask. Awesome experience.

Let the storytelling begin.

 

I hope you drank and ate ten bucks’ worth of coffee and donuts.

 

And left a shit load of crumbs on the floor.

 

You'd think they'd slip you a tenner so you'd be on your way.

10 bucks, or dealing with someone for 2 hours? I'd spend the 10 bucks.

 

It’s a dealership, they will spend hours sucking pennies out of you, no way they are giving up the 10 spot till they get the info to sell or bug you with.

 

I wouldn't expect the dealership to pay the 10 bucks. I'd pay out of pocket, or get an employee pool going. Shouldn't be that hard to get $10 up.

You are right though.

 

I would have just made up crap and filled out the form with garbage info.

 

I'll consolidate two other stories:

1) Went to a local dealership to check out a 2018 Taco, they were advertising the normal inventory reduction sales with the 2019s coming in. Guy takes me for a test drive and then hands me off to the senior sales dude. He gives me a price sheet without the advertised discount. Tells me the online price is for military only (which was not stated in the advertising). I stand up and walk out the door. He runs me down, makes up another price sheet that goes below the online discount. In the end I didn't trust the dealership enough to continue to negotiate.

2) Go to a different local dealership to check out a 2nd Gen. Get there and wait for 45 minutes because no one on the sales floor can find the key. I did not end up buying from them.

 

I went in for my FREE 1st oil change service and they quoted me 1 1/4 hours to do it. 40 minutes later they called me back to tell me it was ready.

Is that horrible service, or what????

 

Those bastards.

See, there are positive stories out there...

 

Back in early 2000's my wife needed a new car. She didn't exactly know what she wanted, so we took a couple of days and drove a few different models... Jetta, Accord, some mitsubshi that I can't remember the model... etc.

We go to the Volkswagon dealership, start walking around the parking lot waiting for a salesperson, and I glimpse a dude dressed up as Elvis walking our way (jumpsuit and cape Vegas Elvis)... and I know this is going to suck. He says hello, we tell him our story that we're only wanting to take a test drive of a jetta as we still are debating other models. He says, no problem, the have a jetta that we can test drive. So he gets the keys, and pulls it out of the space (It was parked nose in), and rips the bumper off on the curb it was parked over. he jumps out... and says the only other jetta they have is a demo model, would we be ok driving that? sure. so off he goes to get the keys.

At some point, a jetta drives around from behind the dealership, and anotehr salesman jumps out and says that this is the demo we'll be taking for a test drive... and he proceeds to pull out a baby seat, and a bunch of stuff that was litering the front seat. Weird... but whatever. he says our salesman (Elvis) will be right with us to come on teh test drive. as we're waiting... we see Elvis kind of slow walking towards us and he's power smoking a cigarette. gets to the car, chucks the butt on teh ground and says they aren't allowed to smoke in the cars. So we go on our test drive, and Elvis tells us he's dressed up like this as everytime he sells a car and people drive off the lot he sings them an elvis song. OK, whatever. Dude, you stink of cigarette smoke.

We finish the test drive, and my wife says she's not all that happy with the jetta, too cramped. but they bring us in and do the "what do I have to do to get you in this car today?" routine, and I remind him that we were never going to buy it, we're just doing our due dilegence. he still tries to sell it to us, and I finally say, the only way we're buying this car is if you give it to us free (obviously joking, but while I get that they are in the business to sell... listen to the words out of my mouth).

We eventually leave, and within a week or so we get a Honda Accord*. A month goes by, and Elvis calls us up asking if we're still interested in a Jetta, and I tell him, we purchased an accord, and he then starts asking how can he get us to reconsider and buy the jetta... even after telling him that we already bought an accord a few weeks earlier.

I'll never forget how fast that Elvis power smoked that cigarette.

---------------------------
*when buying this accord, a honda salesman phoned me, called me a liar when I said what another honda dealership was offering, hung up on me, called immediately back, begged me to reconsider his higher offer and try to say we were friends, why would I do this to him, and then hang up on me again. We purchased that accord from another dealer's internet sales manager and I'll never go back to lot salespeople again.

 

This is not the worst story I've ever heard, but it's the weirdest.

 

Several years ago I had a Tundra and my dumbass purchased an extended warranty because it had so much electronic stuff on it. It was a platinum 100k warranty so I figure for a few years I'm good to go. One night while driving to work the gear shift lever (auto) would just flop into nuetral while driving. You had to hold it in D with your hand. When I got off work at 7am, I drove straight to the dealership (30 miles) and blocked their only service bay door. This was intentional, tell you why soon enough. I pocketed the keys and went inside. The kid in service pulled up my warranty and immediately said it would not be covered, could I move my truck, customers were waiting. I said I'm not moving it until someone with a suit on tells me the warranty will pay for it. The service mgr came out then and asked me to move my truck. I said I will be glad to when you tell me this warranty will cover my truck. He asked if we could take a ride and I said that will be fine but I'm still gonna block the bay door when we get back. He said please just move the truck, we will cover it.
Fast forward 2 months. Same dealership. My wife takes my truck for oil chg/tire rotation. That night while driving to work (it's 90+ degrees outside) my truck felt kinda "drifty" in the front. When I get to work (still 90+ outside), I proceed to take all lugnuts off of my front wheel, BY HAND. So now I'm at work sweating my ass off in the parking lot, jacking up every corner of my truck to make sure the wheels are on straight and all the lug nuts are tight. My wife went back up there and talked to them the next day but she said I couldn't go.
I just read this and I sound like a gripy old bastard. Guess I am.

 

We have 2 Accords. Great cars!

 

Great stamina!

 

Nah, you're not a gripy old bastard. I've read too many threads on here about people getting the run around when trying to get issues covered under warranty. I like the approach.