Car dealers!!!!!!!!!!ARRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[winchester21]

Present company excluded of course- I hate car dealers. Lease is up on the 05 tahoe- time to go down to the local chevy dealer and swap keys for an 09- Simple enough- Right??? Wrong!!!!!!!!!!!!! GM is not leasing cars anymore. BMW and Porsche are still leasing but their SUVs are not big enough to haul the things that I need-(like speakers). So it's back to the Tahoe/Surburban/Hummer option. Business sucks- I have no trade- so you would think that dealers would be anxious and willing to deal- Not so. It seems that whatever I am looking for is always the only car that they are selling or they can't get and so on. One guy tells me that they delivered 8 Tahoes last week. It's friday evening at prime time and I am the only customer on the lot so I gotta call BS on that one. They will not give me a firm bottom price on a straight buy- no trade- unless I commit to buy ?????? I finally get enough of this joker and leave. I e-mail what I feel is a decent offer on 2 units and get no response.I continue to call around and get the biggest pack of lies- half truths- and BS stories that you can imagine. Everybody has a different version of the lease turn in- incentives -invoice costs- and financing. They are al lying about what is on their lot and waht they can get. Two weeks of this garbage- my last lease payment is due and I am starting to get nervous. So I choose 5 out of state dealers off the internet that "appear to have" what i am looking for and e- mail them outling my conditions for a purchase. Everything negoitated over the phone. I walk in and sign the papers- turn in my lease truck and drive away. I get one positive response from the coast of SC- 200 miles away. Apparently this guy has multiple black units and needs to move one. He beats my local dealer by 4k on a 52k Tahoe after the local dealer swore that his final offer was 50.00 above invoice. All fees are waived. All incentives are included.In and out in less that 2 hours.

It used to be fun to buy a car- something that I looked foward to- not any more- would rather go in for a root canal.

[Guest " "]

you did the right thing by looking on the I-net.

I bought my son a car in cash last year.

I told the dealer if he would match any price within a 200 mile radius....he said yes and dropped the price of the car in question 3K after doing an autotrader search and me negotiating a rock bottom price with a dealer 150 miles away.

[USNRET]

Wondered where you'd been!

[winchester21]

I tried to support the local business and the community. Do the right thing- does not always work. Amazing what you can save with a 4 hour drive- each way- 8 hour ROAD TRIP AND NO AUDIO GOODIES!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Could have been at home listening to tunes.

USNRET- 2 weeks of pure hell buddy- phone calls- e mails- and sitting in front of a computer- very stressful deal. back to the fun stuff.

[toddvj]

Just one thing. Just because GM doesn't do leases doesn't mean that you can't lease, does it? There have to be third-party finance companies that will lease, aren't there?

[J.4knee]

Man that sux, I think I'd be tempted to let my local dealers all know they lost a sale and why, prove it to em by driving your wheels to visit them. Let em know for them the crappy economy continues. I am usually a support your local sheriff kind of guy but when the economy is in the tank and they try stuff like you went through I say to heck with them. At some point they need to learn to help themselves and understand the true meaning of a low sale is better than no sale. Good call using the internet

[michael hurd]

"Dealer may sell for less."

Of course, I would support local first if they offer a half decent price. However when you can drive 8 hours and save $ 4,500 on the same optioned vehicle ( color, trim, engine, wheels etc ) and be put up in a nice hotel overnight for making the trip and buying there it leaves a bad taste in your mouth about the local economy.

A friend of mine drove 8 hours, bought a new Honda van in 2005 and saved $ 4500, plus got put up in a hotel overnight because they were out of province, a meal voucher and a better trade in value on their used Intrepid than they would have locally. It pays to shop around on big ticket items.

[Saturn5]

It seems many GM dealers are trying to grab every buck they can before GM goes belly up. I'm a life long GM owner, but if I were looking for a new car today, especially an SUV, I'd look at Ford.

My grandfather owned a Lincoln Mercury dealership back in the 50's-'60's. Even so, today everytimg I deal with a dealer, either sales or service, I feel sullied and unclean afterwards. They're some of the slimiest, dishonest people I've ever met. I have more faith in politicians.

[wuzzzer]

Last year when we bought my wife's 2008 Dodge Caliber brand new I was able to get a Friends & Family discount code from an online car forum that I belong to. We were able to buy the car at 1% under dealer invoice along with all promos and incentives. The only 'haggling' we needed to do was to have them match the trade-in price that another dealership gave us. Very painless and very easy.

Most auto makers have Friends and Family discount offers. If you poke around on different auto forums online it shouldn't be too hard to find one that has members willing to let you use their discount codes.

[Fizzlemizzle]

Buy a 04-05 subaru wrx sti and put the speakers in the back seats.

[Tom Adams]

Man.....don't EVEN talk about car buying around my wife. OMG!!!!! She is the most even tempered, patient, accepting person I know. But when it comes to car buying she gets totally wrapped around the axle. She hates it - and I mean HATES it.

Me? I learned a long time ago to just do my Edmunds.com homework, and either walk in or email dealerships and tell them this is what I want to buy and this is what I want to pay for it - yes or no.

Some years back I was in the market for an Acura TL-S. The local dealer (I too believe in trying to support the local economy) was a complete jerk. Southern Motors has survived for years on the back of the blue-bloods in Savannah who walk in and pay sticker price regardless of what it is. Their version of a "deal" is knocking $500 off MSRP. Anyhow, I emailed two dealerships in Jacksonville, FL (about 2.5 hours away). One replied that he'd do "my deal". I called him and made it very clear that if I showed up and there was ANY attempt at deviating from what I had specified, I was gonna make a scene and walk. He assured me that if I came down I would be in & out in an hour. He was wrong - I was in & out in 45 minutes. Acura of Orange Park is awesome.

Car dealers in the U.S. seem to be the last businesses who's model is based on haggleing. From my understanding, it is not this way in other countries. My wife's vision would be to purchase cars at Wal-Mart. She says that you should be able to look at scaled-down replica of vehicles, pick the one you want, then view/select the options you want, get a print out and head for the checkout along with your hairspray and Conway Twitty's latest CD.

Tom

[smokarz]

I did exactly what Tom Adams did for years now. My last 6 car purchases had been via the net and homework on edmunds.com and consumerreport.org. I'd sent emails to several local dealers, tell them the model I want and the price I want to pay. Whomever response first, or with a better counter offer gets my cash. No test drive needed (the car is brand new out of the box). The only time I've step foot on the dealer's lot is to sign papers and take the car home.

[BEC]

If you need a new car and can afford it, now is an excellent time to buy. Now is also the time to be really tough in the negotiation. You should be able to buy the car at considerably below invoice price. Invoice price is really a fiction because now lots of car manufacturers are giving incentives directly to the dealers that you never hear about and may result in the dealer paying thousands less than invoice for the car.

Another point to consider is that you should make an offer of a sum of money for the car and make an offer on the interest rate to finance the balance. With excellent credit, you should get a rate of 5 to 6 percent on auto loans now. Your first response from the dealer may be for a finance interest rate of 8 to 10 percent. I think there are likely rebates from the bank or financial institution to the dealer if they can get you to take a higher rate. Anyway, my son has just been through all of this buying a new Mazda 6 Sport Grand Touring.

The Mazda 6 sticker price was $30,690. Invoice was $28,177. Mazda's deal on this is $1000,00 rebate off MSRP and 2.9 percent interest. If you don't take that deal, the dealer gets an undisclosed amount from Mazda for the car when it sells. Asking price then became $26,306 and an interest rate of 5.89 percent for 5 years. That amount then becomes the amount you take to other dealers and ask if they can beat that.

By the way, if the dealer adds an amount for "dealer prep" and "document fee" be sure to negotiate those also. One dealer had the price of that car jacked up by $1600 for those two bogus fees.

Bob Crites

[ace168516]

Having never purchased a new car, I can only vouch for my recent experiences in purchasing used cars through dealers...some of them are realistic these days and some are blind and stuck in the past (kinda like realtors too...I remember trying to write a commission addendum on an offer and had the listing agent scream when I told him I wanted a 3% commission refund when I was going in without a buyers agent...this was on an asking price offer on a foreclosure mind you!) I was shopping around for a Lincoln LS last year, a local dealer had one for $11,962, not a horrible price, but better options were available...when I walked in with auto trader comps in hand he refused saying he would lose money, so I walked. The car is still sitting on the lot at the same price to this day, 10 months later. I do work as a computer tech and one of my clients is a Ford dealership. He just took one in that day and I happend to be doing some network work for him and asked for a price...he gave me 13K with a 3K trade on my Contour SVT...if he was not a client I would have laughed at him. Do NOT try to screw your computer support guy...I "somehow" found out what they had into the car...$8600 and this guy who I thought had a nice professional relationship with was trying to make $1500 profit and basically steal my car and get whatever he could for that...probably an additional $4,000. My quick math skills tell me he was trying to score a 64% profit on a 4 year old used car.

ACE

[Fish]

If you need a car just shoot an email to the White House.

[winchester21]

Here's the real kicker. I thought about a 2008 or 2009 model pre owned unit with low miles. I found 2 or 3 priced W A Y above KBB values which were not negoiable on Tahoes. The only way I would even consider buying a used unit is to have financing arranged in advance because there are 5000 ways to screw you once they get you into the finance managers office. I had a grand total of ONE chevy dealer that would take my credit information over the phone and give me a range within 1.5% on a specified unit that was advertised.When I ran the numbers- you can buy the SAME new unit cheaper than a 2008 after you figure in the 0% and the incentives. So unless you are a rich guy paying cash or cannot add numbers- forget about buying a popular unit pre owned. The finance charges are a killer.

It is obvious from my deal that the invoice pricing still leaves thousands on the table for the dealers. Never under any circumstances pay for admin fees / doc fees or paint sealer- 1800 dollars worth on this unit. Deleted when questioned. License fees should equal the cost of a tag for your state. Ours is 30.00. The local dealer tried to charge me 165.00.!!!! . GMAC is offering a 3k incentive if you are/were a lease customer but you will have to pry it out of the dealer with a crowbar.Most will try to steal it.If you do the pull ahead program where GMAC makes your last lease payment- you lose any any unused miles that you purchased up front.Another little detail that is left out of the conversation. These people are unreal. After this- I can feel good about being a metal salesman. LMAO.

[veloceleste]

.

[Mighty Favog]

By the way, if the dealer adds an amount for "dealer prep" and "document fee" be sure to negotiate those also. One dealer had the price of that car jacked up by $1600 for those two bogus fees.

Bob Crites

I would love to buy a car without any dealer prep at all done to it and just stow it away somwhere. Leave all the plastic on the seats, body panels, etc. That could command some a tidy some in about 15 years.

Having the money to begin with in order to do it is another story, of course.

I did have a friend in high-school (c/o 83') that had a 72' Z/28 with only 24 miles on it.

[kaiser SET say]

2. Made deal and went to sign. I was in a hurry. F&I guy is trying to sell me everything and I just want to get out. I had my 2.5 year old son with me. I put him down and let him "play" in the office. F&I man lasted about two minutes before saying we're through here and delivered car.

Sweet, the loose 2.5 year old does it every time[] Best anti salesman device on the planet[6]

[winchester21]

2.5 yr old loose in the finance office!!!!!!!!!!!!!HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH that is ____ priceless.

I would have paid lots of money to have seen either one of your stories.

One of the guys at my buddies paper business- hardworking poor guy with little education- signed a 3- day trial period on a used car- decided he did not want it after 2 days- the dealer said he was outside of his time period even though the contract clearly stated 72 hours. He had left his car which they said they had already sold. His wife went after the salesman and started throwing things at him. The police were called and they were removed from the showroom. The poor guy didnt have the sense or money to litigate the deal so he ended up making payments on a Chrysler 300 which turned out to be a POS with many issues. This is the worst one that I have ever heard.