New 08 Prius owner...NOT!

Negotiate by phone and email. Get a final bid in writing by fax. It saves a lot of screwing around with @ssholes like that.

 

Agreed. Go to www.carbuyingtips.com and follow their advice. Since you know what you want it should take a minimal amount of time at the dealer. Take another look at trading in the Jeep.

 

Thank you for standing your ground. The con either works or it fails. You made it fail. It takes dicipline....and it sounds like you had that.

 

Congratulations, you experienced a stealership at full throttle.

 

You did the right thing: They gave you an out-the-door price and then tried to shaft you. In the Movie Fargo, at the beginning, the couple pays the crooked dealer the extra money, and my guess would be that most people in real life do the same. But the lesson here is to get an out-the-door price in writing before proceeding with the paperwork.

In most states a verbal contract is as binding as a written one, although it may be impossible to prove in court. I think you should at the very least write to your BBB about this dealership. I would leave out the long version of the story and just say that they gave you a verbal promise of an out-the-door price and then tacked on $500 and refused to honor their verbal agreement. Maybe you could file a criminal complaint as well, but since your only "damage" was your lost time, maybe not.

 

Something you should remember about about many car salesmen (and some salesfolk in general) is that they will always try to make you feel like you're being a ball-breaker. It's the same sort of hemming and hawing and "Gee. My manager isn't going to let me give you this price" and "Wow! He's giving you that price," etc., etc., etc.

It's all a show put on to get you to part with your money faster. If a salesperson is straight with you, they deserve your respect, but when they start to act like they did with you, you shouldn't feel like you've done anything wrong. They're clearly trying to make you feel bad so you say, "Oh well" and hand over your money. They're very experienced at that (and you're not), so they know exactly what they need to do to make you feel bad and feel like you're the one that's wronging them.

Trust me. I'm sure the conversation after you left was something like, "Well, the act didn't work this time. Who's next?"

 

thats exactly why car salesman have the reputation they have. i was quoted an otd price and didnt realize til i got home that they used fuzzy math on the financing and added 2 types of insurance that added up to almost $700 more..big hassle but after i told the biz mgr i would give a negative survey he agreed to take it all off, and i then cancelled the extended warranty cause he lied about that saying any other warranty ie; from pc, would not cover certain things...be patient and you'll see this was a good thing..

 

Bought a 2008

Good job for you walking out of there!! I have purchased my Prius and one other car in the last 3 months and discoverd one glaring thing about dealerships: The experience has degraded radically from years ago (I used to even sell VW's in 90's) when you were treated as a valuable customer and on average, great effort was made to ensure you had a good buying experience because the dealerships reputation and additional client referrals was at stake.
Somehow, they have taken the incentive away from the sales people to do a great job. Numerous times I walked onto lots for test drives or inquiries and was not even asked my name or introduced...!!
I did a lot of work on the Prius purchase. I contacted probably 15 dealerships directly online, signed up with Carsdirect.com etc.., used the Costco car buying program (warehouse club in CA), and went to local dealers in person--very few if any were competent, listened the first time, or were ever able to provide a valid quote. It was an absolute joke.
I am in computer hardware sales. The basics of politeness, introducing yourself, getting to know the customer, being responsive and helpful, are fundamental to my getting the sale. How or why this has vanished from the car buying process, I really can't explain.
Get a referral from a happy Prius owner in your area. Buy the car from that dealer and sales person.
Good luck
Andy

 

'08 Ride

I'm sorry to hear that the deal did not work in your favor the first time. With enough patience, I know you'll find the car you are looking for.
But don't wait too long...dealers don't carry a lot of Prius inventory and they are selling like pancakes.

Good Luck.

 

"Always" is a pretty intense word. When I bought my Civic (my last car before the Prius) the salesman was upright, 100% honest, and completely courteous. After that, whenever I went in for an oil change I was treated like a VIP and offered a loaner (which I usually declined because their service department was so punctual).

When I bought my Prius, at the only Toyota dealership in town (I lived in Fargo, ND at the time) the salesman was not well-informed about the car (in November of 2003, when I placed my order, few people knew much about the new 2004 model!) but he was polite, he quoted me MSRP, and they only added about a $50 "document fee" (but the original quote was not an OTD price). I paid cash, so there was no financing, but the documents man offered me all the worthless add-ons, and accepted my polite "no thank you" to all of them and did not press the matter.

When I bought my Xebra, the salesman (who owns the dealership) was super-nice about everything.

That's three car-buying experiences, and all positive. No nasty salesmen out of the three. I am aware that there are sleazy car salesmen and dealerships. But "all" and "always" are not justified and say more about the anger of the speaker than about the collective natures of car salespeople.

I was much less happy about my experience buying my CJ-5 Jeep (1976, the car before the Civic) but when you are selling American-made crap you have to be dishonest or you'd be out of business. Wasn't there a Twilight Zone episode about a car dealer who was compelled to tell the truth? It used to be that "Made in Japan" meant garbage and "Made in America" meant good solid quality and built to last. Those two labels have changed places now. At least as far as cars go.

 

"Selling like pancakes"? Pancakes!
You're not originally from PA, are you?

 

dealer honesty

Our dealer tried a fast one too. Found the car I wanted, it was at a dealer 5 hours away. We worked out a price, my dealer said he'd try to get it from the other dealer and I put down a deposit. I kept a print out of the car including the end of the VIN. A week later they call me up, "your car is in". I take off of work, find a baby sitter, scoop up the wife and arrive to find out the car is the same color, but it's not the same car! He was in a real hurry to get the paperwork signed and I said WAIT, the car is the same color and the same price, but we've got a lot of missing options here! I was pissed but civil and said hey if you can make this car match the car I wanted for the same price then I'll take it. They said OK and we were out the door. From that point all the paperwork was honest, but the finance guy went from super nice to "hurry up mode" when I declined all of their extended warranties, etc.. Also the finance guy tried to convince me the hybrid parts were only covered for 3-yr 36k miles. NOT TRUE! Read the Toyota warranty manual; the hybrid electronics are good for 8-yr/100k-miles and mg1 and mg2 are in the 5-yr/60k-mile powertrain warranty. He was completely trying to rip me off! So in the end the only thing I'm upset about is the tint. I wanted factory tint (in the glass, like my Tacoma) but ended up with a really nice film tint job. That was partially my fault, but hey we ended up with a really nice car and I'm having a great time driving it so in the end I'm happy.

 

Hotcakes!

I had a rough one when I bought the RAV4, dealer added delivery cost to a used car which isn't normal, you normally have delivery on a new car but not on used. If I go back there I'll screw them down harder. They knew I was stuck for a car as we had our Mazda 626 stolen.
Buying the Prius was all good, the salesmen of 2 yards undercutting one another was fun to watch and good for the bank balance. I ended up getting the car for $2000ish less than the window sticker price. Also had the bonnet resprayed and a new front strut. The finance guy tried it on by adding finance insurance but I got that taken off. I have enough insurance. He also tried to sell me insurance on my insurance in case I wrote the car off and the value was less than I owed on the car, no way, it was going to cost more than my comprehensive policy.

Wife is now making noises about wanting another car so looks like I'll be doing it all again soon.

 

That's why I said "many" car salesmen. I know that there are reasonable sellers out there, but my (admittedly short) personal experience is uniformly negative. I'm not saying that every dealer was trying to totally rip me off (although a couple were), but I never felt that if I had gone into the dealership trusting them that they would have given me a reasonable deal.

It certainly seems like there are a lot of people that come on this board and complain about their car-buying experience. I understand that people are much more likely to come and complain than they are to write a post saying, "Look at the great experience I had," but the sheer number of posts suggests that many car salespeople deserve their bad reputation.

I wonder if it is perhaps a regional thing. I have friends who are from Indiana originally and they always talk about how people are so much more rude in the Northeast. Perhaps that carries over to the car sales industry, too.