Dealing With Car Dealers

My Latest Car Dealer Experience.

Everyone has nightmare tales about if they ever have to go face-to-face with any kind of car dealer. Frequently, these are about used car dealers, but I gotta tell ya, new car dealers can be just as much of a challenge.

Let me share this one with you. Maybe it'll help save you some money somewhere down the road.

We recently came to a season in our lives where it was time for us to get a new car. I won't go into all the why's of that here.

Jan really liked the car she's driven for the last 3 years, so she decided she wanted another one like it, this time in a medium-gray color. I was able to talk her into the technology package with GPS, although the only things she really, really wanted on the car, besides the standard power accoutrements, were the backup camera and the heated seats. She really couldn't care less about GPS.

The dealer we had dealt with before had gone out of business, which was too bad, because we'd heard many testimonials that they were much better than the other dealer in town.

So we went to the other dealer.

We encountered a salesman who turned out to be quite a nice person, and he asked us what we were looking for and eventually found a match at a dealer in Memphis, and arranged to have it shipped (driven?) about 250 miles down here.

Meanwhile, Jan got to drive a smaller car of the same make, and started thinking that since mostly all she did was go back and forth to work, a car costing only about 60% as much as what we were looking at might be just fine. So we went back to the dealer's lot and looked at the less-expensive cars. But she wound up eventually going with her initial decision, the better one.

As we were looking at all the various cars on the dealer's lot, I noticed that the sticker on each and every vehicle on the lot had an added-on item: "Appearance Package" for $695.

Huh?

I asked our salemsan, what's with this appearance package you add to every car? He answered that oh, it was a really good deal, they put nitrogen in the tires, and door edge guards...

Then he ran out of gas. I waited, and he didn't say anything else. I asked what else, and he said he'd have to go ask the sales manager.

I could almost feel the question mark forming in a speech balloon over my head.

I said, well, I can go down to a couple of local tire places, and they'll put nitrogen in my tires for about five bucks a tire. That's twenty bucks. I think I can go down to the local auto parts store and buy door edge guards for about another twenty. Thats forty bucks. What else is there in this package that makes it worth six hundred and ninety five dollars?

He mumbled something about how they could come off a bit on the price.

And I'm thinking: No way! No way am I paying that much money for anything they add.

We let it go for the moment, and about a week later, as the sale was coming to a conclusion, they brought us the paperwork to sign.

Of course, I always read EVERYTHING before I sign it (this drives realtors crazy, because they have REAMS of small print, and they have to sit there and pretend to be patient while I read every word of it. Grin!), and there on the paperwork, was an add-on item: Appearance package - $595.

I asked "What's THIS?!"

The salesman said, hey, it's a good deal, we've come off a hundred dollars on the price!

Well, I'm sure it WAS a good deal - for THEM! I said, there's no way I'm paying five hundred ninety five dollars for forty dollars RETAIL worth of stuff. Forget it. Just take it all off.

He looked very uncomfortable and said he'd have to go get the sales manager.

We had to wait about ten minutes, which of course I recognized as a power ploy. If they can make you wait, then they're in control, right? Ha! I just pulled out my iPhone and started playing a computer game. I was having fun waiting.

Then the salesman came back with the sales manager, who I'll call Mr. X.

Now this Mr. X had a history with me.

He probably didn't remember it, but I had dealt with him before, when he was the sales manager at the other dealership where we'd gone before.

You see, it was through them I purchased the vehicle I'm driving right now.

I won't go into any details here on this, only to say that the convoluted procedure through which I got this car required that we pay them some kind of $234 processing fee. When we turned in our paperwork to start the process, we also gave them a check for $234. Then, a few days later, when we were just about to wind up the paperwork on the deal, and I had been there about four hours and it was well after 6:30 PM and everyone was tired (I think they were counting on that), I was ready to sign. Then I noticed another item on the list: Processing fee - $234. I asked about that and told them we had already paid that, that we'd written them that check when we turned in the first paperwork.

Here's where it gets good (from THEIR standpoint). Many times I've wondered if they planned it this way. They said, oh, sure, they remembered that, and they'd be happy to redo the paperwork. Of course, just marking it out on the paperwork wouldn't do, they HAD to have all original paperwork, and the girl who could do that had already gone home for the day, and they could just keep the car till tomorrow and if I could come back tomorrow (a 35-minute drive) they'd be happy to redo all the paperwork, or else they could just write me a refund check for that amount.

Ha.

Of course, gullible person that I am, I believed them. So I signed the paperwork and took the car home.

Two weeks went by and we never heard from them. (Is that a surprise?) I called Mr. X, and he was all happy and pleased to hear from me and sure, he remembered they were going to write me that check and didn't I get it? Oh, he'd get RIGHT on it and if I didn't have it in a week, please call him back.

He would never accept or return any of my calls after that. But I must admit, I only called maybe eight times, leaving a message each time.

About a year later, the dealership went out of business and I still don't have my refund.

So you see, Mr. X had a history with me. But I doubt he remembered it.

So when he walked into the office where we were waiting to sign the paperwork, and he began by saying, "The dealer we're getting the car from, the dealer in Memphis, they've already put these things on the car, and we're going to have to pay them," when he said that, I had my suspicions that his claims were somewhat shy of total truthfulness.

I just stared at Mr. X for about ten seconds. In case you don't realize this, ten seconds of silence is a really long time.

Then I said, "No."

He looked frustrated, as though this were money coming out of his pocket. Maybe it was. He hemmed and hawed a bit, then said, I could give it to you for $250. I mean, the nitrogen is already in the tires, and it's hard to get out...

I said, "No. Try zero dollars."

He blustered around some more, and finally said, how about this, I can let you have it for a hundred and fifty dollars and I'll throw in two free oil changes.

At this point, Jan, who was with me and absolutely hates confrontations of any kind, put her hand on my arm and said, "I think I could live with that," beseeching me with her eyes to stop arguing.

I looked at her and as gently but firmly as I could, said, "Well, I can't." Then I turned to Mr. X and said, "Even with the oil changes, you're trying to sell me $100 retail worth of stuff for $150. I'm not paying it. You can either take it off the contract or I'm sure I could find a dealer in Meridian, in Vicksburg, or in Hattiesburg who will. Even if I have to go to Gulfport or Memphis, I'm not paying that extra."

And you know what?

He took it off the invoice. We wound up not paying a cent for that "appearance package."

The coda to this story happened the next day, when Jan went to work. She was telling one of her coworkers about how I had stood up to them and had finally gotten that exorbitant charge taken off our bill, when her coworker got this stricken look on her face. The coworker wailed, "I just bought a new car there last month, and I think I PAID that fee!"

So what's the bottom line here?

a. Watch out for car dealers of any kind.

b. Read your invoice before you sign.

c. Do NOT be bullied into paying for something you don't want. If you can stand up to their bullying, you can win.

Oh, when we had finished all the paperwork and were leaving the dealership, Mr. X was all peaches and cream again, saying how glad he was that we came in, and what a pleasure it was to do business with us and how he hoped we would come back and do business with them again.. somehow I believe he was sincere.

Every bit as sincere as he was when he said the Memphis dealer had already put the "appearance package" on the car.