Worst dealership/salesman experience?

While shopping for my mom's car, the salesman was just clueless about everything. I got there and asked if they had any Rav4's in Magnetic Grey Metallic, and his response was


"Is that silver one or the dark grey one?"

 

When we were shopping for my wife's Traverse in 2014 one of the Chevy dealerships we went to wanted a $5,000 cash deposit just to send the pricing information to my credit union so they could work up the numbers on the loan.

 

Same thing just happened to me. I went into Larry H Miller and told the rep I was very specific on what I wanted and very patient. I came in to discuss pricing on a truck that was being assembled but slated for another dealership and the possibility of getting it. His first offer was outrageous. $48k for a 19 TRD Sport AC/MT with zero tech or accessories. He shows me the worksheet and it looks like a congressional budget bill packed with unwanted pork. $900 for GAP, $1000 for adjusted market value (because SoCal is expensive), $300 for nitrogen filled tires, $700 for an alarm system, $800 for an extended warranty, and more. I allowed them to run my credit for financing options. They come back with 4% through a local credit union. I had to tell them about Toyota's 1.9% promo. I negotiate a price slightly above MSRP to account for the extra work in getting the truck there instead of another location (turns out the other location was also Larry H Miller but in AZ.) Truck arrived and they refused to honor the original deal. I even showed them the paperwork with the terms. Said they had to trade a TRD Pro for it and they wouldn't let it go for anything less than $48k. Needless to say I walked. Hope they enjoy seeing it on their lot for a long time. lol

 

Man, 48k is outrageous for a TRD Sport lol That amount would get you into a TRD Pro.

 

There are probably a lot more "horror" stories for people that are not fully "aware/educated" on what comes on vehicles they are looking at, standard, options, and pricing. You all have friends that you have heard these same types of stories and you just shake your head.

If a salesman doesn't know as much as I do about a vehicle, I kindly asked for someone that does. If they don't have anyone that can answer my questions or concerns, I go to another dealer. I am about to call a dealer today and inquire about some "Security System" they put on all their trucks (for $300 dealer installed). If it's a good security system, it will cost more than $300, so my question is "what is it, how was it installed".

 

I was shopping for a new Tacoma last year, the local dealer was crap so I contacted a dealer 60 miles away, I knew they had exactly what I wanted in stock. I told the Internet sales manager I’d be out on a Saturday to check out the vehicle, and told him when I would arrive. So I drove 60 miles and got there, the sales manager was too busy to see me and passed me off to another salesman. He had to leave in 15 minutes and passed me off to a third sales guy. I drove the Tacoma and said I’d get back to them. The sales manager said he wanted to make a deal that day and gave me two different “lowest prices” based on whether I financed with them or got my own financing. I said there is only one lowest price and that is independent of financing and walked.

I contacted a dealer 90 miles away and did everything via e-mail and texts, and never met the salesman until I drove over to sign the paperwork. The truck they were going to get turned out to have some hail damage, so they got the exact same one I had test driven from the dealer who was 60 miles from me, but I paid much less than his “lowest prices”.

 

Agreed, look for financing at your local credit union or bank.

 

They all suck and they all lie, just find the one that lies the least.

 

While the rest of your experience sucks for sure... this part is on you. If you finance through them, they get a kickback - sounds like they were passing part of that on to you. While the rest of the negotiation and experience may not have broken your way, this part doesn't sound so bad.

 

Two stories here, my truck then my wife's car. I used USAA's car buying service and got pre-approved financing through them. That part was great. I built the truck I wanted on USAA, it was sent out to approved dealerships, then they responded with offers. Some were laughable, I wanted a BBP TRD OR 4x4, but got offers for SR5 2WD trucks and a couple of TRD Sport 2WD. Some were TRD OR 4x4 but in other colors (these didn't bother me). Anyway, a dealership reached out to me with the exact truck I wanted, knocked around 7k off the sticker without any negotiation. I showed up, the exact truck was there, they honored the price offered and gave me full blue book on my 2005 Ram 2500 4x4 I was trading. Went flawless and took about 20 minutes once I arrived. What went down hill was when I went to "finance," I told them, I was pre-approved and would be going through my own financing. I was told I had to go through financing and hear them out. Walked into the office with some stereo typical Russian dude (shirt half way unbuttoned, giant gold chain, grey hair puffing out of the shirt). First thing he does is tell me the price of the truck, which was some how 10k OVER sticker price, he then tried to breeze past that and ask me to fill out their loan request form. I had to force him to address why the price had changed. Eventually he printed out the "options" sheet showing everything that he had added. A car alarm, some 2k wax job, a GPS system, extended warranty, GAP and a couple of other small things. Told him I didn't want ANY of that. He of course tried to sell me on the stuff, when I continued to refuse he went and got his manager saying he needed his approval to not sell me the extras. The manager then went on to tell me USAA was not a good company and that I needed to finance through them (at a more expensive rate). Long story cut short, it took 3 hours in the "finance" office and me threatening (stood up to walk out) to leave and complain to USAA and ask them to rethink their partnership with them before they finally produced the final paperwork and handed me the keys. The sales guy apologized for the behavior of that department.

Second story is shorter, the wife wanted a Ford Escape with the 8" screen, but did not want leather. We were told over and over again that the vehicle she wanted didn't exist and that we would need to buy the Titanium edition which was 10-15k more than what she wanted to spend. They even "checked their system" and said that the option build she wanted didn't exist. When the sales guy had to go "take care of something." We went out to the lot to consider our options. After just a few moment, my wife calls me over and sure enough, sitting right there was an SE trim package cloth seat Escape with a 8" screen. Even had the upgraded 2.0L turbo engine and several other tech upgrades. We told the sales guy we wanted that specific car and he was dumb founded, said the car shouldn't exist. Amazingly it was in their system. Imagine that.

 

You gotta be either joking or just plain lying. Dealers dont "crush" cars. And even if some do, they need your title signed over before they touch the car

 

Im as serious as I ever was. Even have photos for proof:

 

Many years ago I worked selling Toyotas and used cars at a southern Maine dealership for 18 months. Ended up pissing off the manager myself so the management team started sabotaging my deals thinking that I wouldn't be able to sell anything then when I didn't leave they fired me. I asked why and they said I didn't meet my "draw", or the base amount they would pay a sales person each month in case you didn't sell a minimum amount of vehicles so you were guaranteed to be able to still feed yourself for that month. I requested a meeting with the owner. In that meeting I told them there were three problems with me being fired. One was that it was the middle of the month and that if I hadn't made my draw yet I still had two weeks to get there. The second was that if that was a qualifying determination for being terminated that they should be firing half the sales staff since I had sold more than half the rest of the sales staff that month so far. And third, I did the math, and I had actually already made my draw. He offered me a position working in the service department as a service advisor. Which I took and worked there for 6 months......until they fired me from that position after they had hired another service writer that I trained then they kept them and terminated me since they had too many service advisors. And this occurred two weeks before I was buying my first house, and they knew I was buying the house.

Yes, some sales people are arrogant pricks who know nothing about what they are doing but keep in mind there are good sales people out there, who are professional and know their product and behave with integrity. Sometimes it is the "training" they go through, the "system" they have to work in and mostly, the sales managers who call the shots and that are the true assholes behind the scene. As a sales person I never lied to a customer once. I sometimes apologized for things out of my control and told people they would be better off elsewhere. On the other hand, I was lied to most every day by customers, about everything from being employed to the condition of the trade-in, etc, etc. My favorite was the woman who agreed to purchase a car and gave her employment as Company A. Called the company and she no longer worked there. Called her and she said oops, I have a new job at Company B. Called that company and she was not employed by them either.

I once walked up to a guy on the lot walking through the truck line and said, "Good morning, how are you doing today?". He responded with "I was doing just fucking great until you came out!". I said "Ok, if you have any questions or if there is something I can help you with I will be inside."

I have a lot of stories from the other side of the table that I could tell but most of the sales I remember to this day were the good sales, not the bad ones. Sold a white pearl Supra Turbo to a guy from New Jersey who flew in to drive it home since he couldn't get a decent price anywhere around where he lived. Also sold a loaded 4Runner to a paper mill laborer who came in with a 3 year old brochure on a busy Saturday. Three years earlier he had been in a accident at work where someone dropped a big ass wrench from 3 stories up that clanked off metal decking and hand rails and finally ended up hitting him in the back of the leg. His insurance settlement came in and he had fallen in love with the 4Runner and it was the happiest day of his life to be able to buy it.

Also remember selling a light blue 86 Toyota Pickup with a turbo engine for $1000 below invoice. And by that, I mean the dealership took a $1000 loss on the truck just to get rid of it.

Sometimes I was cringing before the customer was because I knew the message I was delivering from the manager was going to go over like a fart in church. Sometimes I lamented what was obviously a good customer going to an asshole salesperson just because it was their turn to be "up" for the next person who walked through the door.

All in all, I wouldn't change the experience. I started a somewhat shy person in regards to talking to people and hesitant to approach people to someone who was confident about talking to people and most importantly, I learned how to take rejection without taking it personally, probably the most important lesson I learned.

Want to know something from the other side of the sales floor? Ask away.

 

I've had 2..

The first about 20 years ago at a Dodge dealership. Looking at a Dakota, not super serious. They took my keys to look at my trade and then when I was ready to leave wouldn't give them back. They seemed to have misplaced them... I had to get pretty belligerent just to get out of the place. They were bound and determined they were going to sell me something, even if they had to hold me hostage.

Second was just last year, buying a Kia for my daughter. Found what she wanted, but car didn't have window sticker. 300 miles on it, apparently had been used as a loaner. While the salesman goes to the manager to work up the deal, I look online and find the car for 13,500 on their website. Salesman comes over and presents the numbers... $15,500. I'm confused and ask 3 times where this price came from. I bring up my phone to show him the price and it auto refreshes and shows 15,500. Right in front of my eyes, the price changed. I again got rather loud and gave them a few choice words. I eventually got my deal even if the sales manager wasn't happy. He claimed the price on the web was wrong and they had put in for it to be corrected the previous day and it just so happened to update while I was in the showroom and the salesman was working up the numbers... right.

 

did you buy new or used? and when?

i was there in january lots of turnover so its possible just the new group is trash

 

New Rav4 in February

 

Wilde Toyota in Milwaukee & Smart Toyota in Madison, absolute trash dealers. East Madison Toyota on the other hand is fantastic to deal with. Highly recommend them.

 

ha, this is where I bought my 04. They are a bunch of crooks. The amount of BS I had to deal with from their finance dept was practically criminal. That experience taught me a lot about car buying, unfortunately it was quite an expensive lesson on my part.

 

I will list the only two negative experiences I have had. Both were a long time ago....

Approx. 1987, I was in the Army, and went looking to buy my first car. I did my homework, and found a particular car I really liked [was a used car, a few years old], went to the dealership, got into a discussion with the salesman about the car I was interested in. We talked about it for a while, things looked promising. We finally got into the finance questions, and he asked me how long I had been in, and what my rank/paygrade was. As soon as I told h9m I was an E-2, he said "Sorry, we won't finance anyone below E-4", and walked away. I was pretty devastated. Thankfully, my dad has a work friend that was selling his 1980 Toyota Hilux, was buying a new model, and he offered to sell it to me at a very reasonable price, which I gladly accepted.

Approx. 1995, my wife and I were out looking to buy "our" first car. She had been driving a Ford Escort, and I was still driving my 1980 Toyota Hilux mentioned in my example above. We wanted a bigger car, so we had decided on a Ford Taurus at a local dealership. It was a 2 year old trade in, so we knew we could afford it. Now, by this time, I was long oput of the Army, done with college, and was a few years into my job as an Engineer, and was doing ok financially. Since I never got as far as actual discussions around finance terms in the previous example, I had zero experience with negotiating until this experience. I made the mistake of telling the salesman what our maximum monthly payment needed to be, rather than agree ona price first, and then work out the financing details. We ended up spending 3+ hours going back and forth with this jerk.... he would "go talk to his manager, and work the numbers", then come back and offer us something stupid like $5/month lower payments. After 3+ hours, he was still a good $100/month over what we were willing to pay, so we finally walked out.

Ever since that last experience, I don't buy "off the street". I have been using a buying service that takes my required vehicle configuration, locates the lowet priced vehicle that meets all my specs, and will also negotiate the financing if I wish. And they give a gaurantee that if you find the same or comparable vehicle for the same or lower price, they will refund your fee (only $150 last time I used them, in 2017 to get my current Tacoma).

 

Didn't know Clark Griswold was on TW...