Dealer deceptive sales practices

I go to Best Buy, Sears and the rest all the time. They do ask if I want an extended warranty and I politly answer no and move on. This does not happen with a scum bag dealer. After they hear no they start with the BS.

When I bought my Prius they told me after 36,000 miles the battery would no longer be covered and it could cost over $6,000 to have it replaced. They explained that the extended warranty would protect me from that expense. If you look up items covered by the extended warranty the battery is NOT covered. The dealer was trying to sell on fear and lies. I have never had that at Best Buy, Sear or the rest. Dealers are scum bags.

When I go to the bank for a special item the teller normally directs me to the correct person. I never have to go to each department and listen to a sales pitch on all the things they want to sell me. When you buy a car many scum bag dealers play this game. You first talk to the sales person, the you talk to a service person that trys to sell extended warranties and pre paid care. The you talk to a finance guy that trying to sell you GAP insurance and a loan that is 2% higher than any bank. Sometimes you meet with another person that wants to sell you things that will protect your interior, exterior, rust prevention, and other things,

 

Life must be tough being a victim. Good luck fending off those scumbags.

 

Nor is there an agreement that you agree to buy a car when you walk into a dealership and spend hours of their time <shrug>

That said, I was unaware of the Costco fee, and retract my earlier argument.

 

Anyone that is Ok with those actions has to be one of them.

 

Speaking of Costco and dealers: I started the Costco process, entering what I am looking for, a Prius, level III, sunroof, pearl white or silver, light grey interior,and no other options, entered my zipcode, and contact info. I received an email with the name of three sales reps at the local dealership three blocks away and a costco authorization number saying they would be in touch within 24 hours. No one called.

Costco sent out a followup email asking a couple days later if I was happy with the service and an option to do it again, so I did. Still no call from any of the sales reps five days since starting this.

Not sure what this means; Probably means that demand is exceeding supply at the dealership and they don't need my business, but it also means that the Costco car buying system doesn't ensure anything (and I'm a big fan of Costco for lots of stuff).

 

I had a similar situation a few weeks ago when I purchased my 2012 Prius Liftback Two from Toyota of Pasadena:

Even after I told them that I was going to write a check for the car, they financed the car without telling me and basically used my check to pay off the loan, probably so that they could get a kick back from the financing bank. I only found out about this when I met with the Finance person to sign all of the paperwork. And even then, he didn't tell me about it...when I saw the paperwork and told the Finance person that I was not financing the vehicle but was going to write a check for it, he said "no problem, that's your choice. You can write a check of it and we'll pay off the loan or you can finance it.".

I think this all began when the salesperson asked for my SSN and the types of information that would be used to apply for a loan. When I asked him what this was for because I was not going to finance the vehicle but write a check for it, he said that they have to run a credit check to see if they can accept a personal check from me. And all this was before we even began discussing the price.

And the salesperson was an idiot... They had an advertisement in the Los Angeles Times that day so I took it in with me and when I showed it to him, his questions were: 1. "Are you sure this is our ad (even though it had 'Toyota of Pasadena' on it)?"; 2. "Are you sure this is in today's paper (even though it had that day's date on it)?".

And after they agreed to match a previous quote that I got from another Toyota dealer (which I should have gone to thinking back now...), the salesman told me "oh by the way, we installed an alarm system on the car which wasn't listed on the window sticker so it will be an additional $695. Right. I told him to remove this alleged 'alarm system' because I didn't want it and they were able to remove this 'alarm system' in about 5-minutes... Hmmm...

And the delivery process? The salesman drove the car up from the car wash area, handed me the two sets of keys, and told me to read the owner's manual and let me know if I have any questions. Oh, and to give him all high scores when Toyota contacts me with a survey. Right.

Needless to say, I will not be going back to Toyota of Pasadena for anything, not even the complimentary Toyota Care service, even though I only live 10-minutes from them. I will gladly drive further to not have to deal with Toyota of Pasadena.

 

Those are pretty harsh words my friend. You seem more judgmental, than "Judgeless". It really is all about the price you negotiate.

 

Just go to the dealers website and contact the "internet sales manager" directly. You'll bypass the sales clowns and pretty much get the car at the same cost as if you went through the Costco program.

 

You must have a very special Costco, Mine charges $50 a year.

 

You read the fine print, finance with the dealer, get your 20% off and then refinance the next day with your bank. Auto loans are not like a mortgage they are simple interest, and as long as there is no prepayment penalty (there usually isnt) then it will only cost you a few days worth of interest. So you might only get 19.9999999999% of the 20% discount.

If a dealer puts unwanted accesories on a car, then don't buy the car. Nobody is putting a gun to your head.

If you don't want to pay the doc/prep fee see above.

 

When you go swimming with sharks it's best to be aware you are swimming with sharks. If the salesman isn't a douchebag, the finance guy you tries to sell you ineffective paint, glass and upholstery protectants at 5 times what they are worth and extended warranties at twice what you would pay if you did little shopping will be a douchebag.

Which part of the sales business are you in?

 

It's not deceptive, all the fine print is right there on the coupon.

 

A dealership is a business, and if you are too naive to believe that businesses exist to make money then maybe you should hang up driving and go get a bike, or maybe a horse.

You let yourself get ripped off more on a daily basis without even knowing it then you would ever get at a dealership, but you whine and complain when they try to hold on to the 6% markup in a car.

 

"A fish rots from the head"