10 things to not say in front of a car dealer

[mikedudley17]

http://editorial.autos.msn.com/listarti ... art=luxury

good read.

[y2dgone]

yeah ive read that, lol. MSN has some good things now and then

[mikedudley17]

indeed it does.

[petrified.rabbit]

in my car buying experience, i have run into all those situations. either by a mistake on my wife or my own part of revealing too much information or by the salesman being an absolute weasel.

we had a hell of a time when we decided to trade our 2003 audi a4 wagon with 39000 miles. it was a $38k car new when we bought it. it was kbb trade in value @ $15k when we wanted to get rid of it, for a van to fit our kids. every dealer tried to swindle us out of it. one said "oh we can straight trade you for one of these four vans on the lot" i looked at them, and found them later online they were asking 5-7k for them. One place (a chevy dealer) told me it was only worth $5000 because a trade can never be worth more than half the sticker price of the car you are looking at (my wife didn't want a minivan so i went to look at cheaper ones) and he then went one to say the while it would pick up 15k at auction when they resale it, its "fluff money" and the only way they would give me 15K for it is if i was buying a new corvette or something. he even refused to give me back the keys because i " wouldn't find a better deal anywhere"


the thing buyers often forget is they always have the power to walk away. i have bought @ 58 cars, probably 18 brand new. i have walked away from deals more times than i can count.

[chevy_driver]

Oh, that must have been a very hard experience. And refusing to give back the keys was too much. Did he finally talk you into that deal?

[petrified.rabbit]

well, my wife was 8 months pregnant, and waiting to leave for 10 minutes, came back to the table, AND with her hormones in full force she said "tell this guy to **** off and lets go!" when i replied i am trying to get my keys back, she turned to him and said " i don't know why anyone would be so hard up to buy a car in this **** hole, they are over priced on the lot and you don't give **** for trade. Now cut the bull****, and let us leave." he started to say something to correct her, when i told him if he has anything nasty to say about my pregnant wife, carrying my 2 y/o son on her hip, he would be mistaken. it took another 5 minutes for them to "find" my car and its keys.. while my wife walked around talking about how bad the dealership was. the best part was my wife was sitting in our car waiting for me, before she came back in. but they still couldn't find the car, the keys were in his pocket.

this was also the sales manager, only because we had rejected their first offer he came out because he though we were playing hard ball.

it was good times, probably the epitome of a bad car buying experience, especially since when we walked in there was a woman there complaining that her car was repo'd two days after she bought it, and it turned out it was because the dealer lost the paper work and reported it stolen. Her husband was still in jail for "theft" of said car.

this was a big local dealer too, with a supposedly good reputation, advertised in all the local papers, on every channel during the news.. probably like 10-15 commercials a day on TV. they have like 20 used car salesmen, and another 20 new car guys. probably 50 customers in there when my wife went off, i am pretty sure not one bought a car that day.


but i have lots of car buying stories.. i could write a book. the best/funny ones are usually when i take my wife.

But i tend to get the best deals when i go by myself.

[chevy_driver]

And what was the ending of that story?

[AveoRob]

i have bought @ 58 cars, probably 18 brand new.

Holy Crap! are you like a rap star or something? or Jay Leno?

[petrified.rabbit]

end of the story? we went across the street and bought a 2008 chrysler town and country with the trade and some cash.

They didn't call the cops or anything, they all hid in there offices until we left, and about 15 minutes later we waved when i turned the van around in their lot during the test drive. the customer parking lot was empty everyone that was there left, and all the salesmen were standing in the entry of the lot looking depressed.

Not a rap star, don't listen to rap music, can't stand the stuff (well most of it).

I just go through a lot of cars, buy cheap, sell high. drive them all a few months and unload them. I dont have a garage full of 58 cars, right now i only have 5.

[chevy_driver]

I never heard of "dealers" like that. Glad you finally escaped from that trap!