1w ago

Car dealers are such slimy con artists it's actually ridiculous

So I'm looking for a new (used) car since mine is really old and starting to literally fall apart. I found a nice newer well-priced car on the website of a nearby dealership. I go in and take it for a test drive, I really like it and was strongly considering pulling the trigger because it was priced so well.

Salesman confers with his boss, comes back and says hey, I just found out I actually wasn't supposed to test drive that car with you because it needs a new transmission, and it'll take 2 weeks or so for that new transmission to come in. I say okay no problem, I can wait a couple weeks, I still have my old car in the meantime.

When he comes back again with the official quote, the price is TWO GRAND HIGHER than the online price, because "well I didn't know it needed a new transmission and I just can't possibly eat the full cost of that, so this is the new price now, I'm oh so sorry but I just can't it'd be too hard for me and my manager said so :(((("

So I flat out told him the online price is what brought me in, and if that's not honored (which would be fucking illegal to do but they don't care) then I'm walking. Guy comes back with his manager who then begrudgingly agrees to honor the online price and we were able to do the business we were both there to do like mature adults.

Oh the funniest part is this dealership is very outwardly "Christian" (there was Christian music playing over the speakers the entire time and a little daily devotional book on the salesman's desk) and the manager told me "you know we're very Christian based so we would NEVER try to scam people" immediately after he tried to squeeze an extra two THOUSAND fucking dollars out of me for HIS fuckup.

This is my one isolated experience with a REPUTABLE dealer in my area, I have to imagine this shit happens all the time to people just trying to secure reliable transportation in Carbrain Hell

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Oh the funniest part is this dealership is very outwardly "Christian" (there was Christian music playing over the speakers the entire time and a little daily devotional book on the salesman's desk)
This is somehow the least surprising part of the entire story

Oh yeah Christian businesses are always scumbags. Watch out for the fish, they use it to sucker people
- I had no clue they were "Christian" until well after I walked in the door and actually listened the shitty overhead music saying "Jesus is glorious". On the outside it looks like every other petit boug franchise car dealership lol

I buy from people, cause fuck the dealers. They're one of the worst kinds of rent seeking parasites in the US. (Seriously, their whole business model only exists because they prevent direct sales from the manufacturer.)
I also only buy cars I can work on, a lot of these newer cars (2014ish+) are designed to make it more difficult to work on as the end user. The computerization has been weaponized in such a way as to require their special snowflake software to interact which cannot be purchased, only licensed, for exorbitant fees.
This system is collapsing in on itself constantly.

good job on getting it for the proper price

There is no way the transmission was bad, thing would barely drive if it was out.
- Exactly this. They weren't going to charge op for "their fuck-up" as OP puts it, but even worse, they were going to charge for a made-up problem that didn't even exist.
  And if OP agreed they wouldn't put a new transmission in at all, they'd just get an extra $2k for nothing.
  Scumbags for sure.

I don’t go to dealers for this exact reason. They’re scam artists and scum almost exclusively.

IMO reputable just means least amount of complaints. The outwardly christian bullshit is to set the rubes at ease. Its all smoke being blown directly up your ass. Depending on vehicle, 2k might get you a used rebuild. Very rarely is 2k going to get you a new transmission except for the most basic of automobiles, or something which has sold bazillions of units.
I sold a 2014 Durango recently. Before i sold it, i put a second transmission in it. Rebuilt used. I know the man who rebuilt it, and i got a great deal. My great deal still set me back 4.4k USD. For a USED transmission. New was between 6-9k, depending on where it was sourced from (OEM vs 3rd party).
I understand, if you need it you need it. But, unless forced to for some unknown reason, id buy a car private sale only.
- If you take a car anywhere on a test drive, take it to a mechanic that isnt affiliated w the sales place. Pay them their diagnostic fee and let them look it over. Third party inspections are worth the cost. It costs, but have them drop the transmission pan. Drain some engine oil. Check the rear end for glitter. They will either reinforce the idea that the car is worth the cost, or wave you off from something stupid. I work on my own cars; i recently rebuilt a 47re for a dodge pick em up, but for something like a car purchase i am absolutely taking it to someone else to look over. It keeps me objective - for some reason i can overlook something wrong if im the one inspecting it (ah i can fix it if something happens etc) but having another person tell me 'xyz is wrong here, abc is wrong there, this is about to need serviced, etc' will pull me right out of that.
  
  how do you pull this off, I guess you have to schedule the appts for the mechanic visit and test drive simultaneously?

When he comes back again with the official quote, the price is TWO GRAND HIGHER than the online price
I am 100% convinced that somewhere there is some kind of data that says that this is the optimal number you can tack onto a car's price that most people will agree to pay unexpectedly. I believe this because this exact same thing has happened to me three times, each time with a different given excuse, and each time for the exact same $2k price bump.
Anyway sucks to suck the only thing a person can do is walk away from a bad deal, glad they backed down for you all three times this has happened to me I had to go home after spending multiple hours at the dealership.

Oh the funniest part is this dealership is very outwardly “Christian”
Brings a tear to the eye of supply side Jesus.

OH I ALMOST FORGOT there was a 2nd car I wanted to test drive but couldn't, because on its last test drive black smoke started billowing out of the engine mid-drive
They claimed it was because of a "coolant leak dripping onto the engine", which is probably true but still plummeted my faith in their QC
- Coolant leaks that smokes is usually white/grey and sweet smelling, not black. Black is unburned fuel, typically. Oil burns grey/white. exhaust is a blue-ish color.
  Dont forget, their goal is to get it out the fucking door with your name and Hancock on a legally binding agreement. They dgaf after that. They will lie, cheat, steal and more to do so.

Surprised more car companies don't just do direct sales. Fuck stealerships.
- I believe thats illegal in the States iirc. Gotta buy from a middle man cus reasons
  
  It's illegal in only some of the US states. this is actually something that Tesla is good about. no dealerships. but it makes buying their cars a little different in those jurisdictions.
- stealerships
  My friend constantly refers to them this way and I should've taken her more seriously

Worst of the worst. Petty tyrant slime.

This is why you buy off grandmas on marketplace/your local used car website
- Except sometimes the grandma starts crying because she loves her car so much and you feel bad so you end up not buying the car.

Neighbor was looking for a car for her daughter and wanted me to look at a used CX-5 once. It was an AWD with like 70k miles that they wanted 19.5K for. It was in decent shape, no leaks, no dry rotted ball joint boots, minor cosmetic scratches in the paint, but it had 3 different brands of tire on it and one of them was bald with literal chunks taken out of it. This is bad on any car, let alone an awd where different TREAD patterns on each tire can wear out the AWD faster. Also really needed an alignment.
I also pulled the back seat up (highly recommend doing this on any used car, it reveals the secrets you can't vacuum out of the carpet) and found cheerios, fries, and a bullet.
Told the sales guy we'd pay 18 if they put a set of four good, matching tires on it and aligned it and he was like "well, we're a volume dealer so we only make a few hundred dollars on each car". BS.
On a separate experience, i went with a friend who very much could have been my partner and paying for this car and he literally didnt acknowledge her the whole tome. Then I had the sales manager yell at me across the shop floor as I was leaving to take thousands off the price since he "had to move cars this month".

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