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I assume I have the same negative impression that most people have of car salesmen, but this is actually a good one, although it's kind of a long story.
I've been a Legal Aid lawyer for forty years. Some years ago I was handling a collection case in which my client was being sued for some furniture she had financed. We had an unfair debt collection counterclaim for abusive collection tactics the company had used, like calling her place of employment and calling her a "sleazy ****", stuff like that.
On the day of the trial the finance company puts on its first witness and he testifies about the existence of the contract, the payment ledger, just basic stuff. Then we took a break and this guy approaches me in the bathroom. "Are you doing this case because of abusive collection techniques? They made us do that stuff all the time; they called it `getting strong' with the customer. I couldn't stand doing it. That's why I quit." I asked him to stick around and then I called him as my first witness, and he confirmed that it was the policy and practice of the company to be abusive when they were trying to collect from people. We were able to settle the case with an agreement that we would drop our claim for damages and the company would drop its claim for the balance of the furniture loan.
My client, who was also my secretary, got to be friendly with this witness, and we would jokingly call him Herb Tarlek because of how he dressed. (He was in on the joke and thought it was funny.)
Fast forward a few years and Herb (not his real name) is now a car salesman for a Toyota dealer. He shows up at our office with an old guy who looked in pretty rough shape. He had run into the guy maybe twenty or thirty miles away from our office, and way out of his way, and the guy was trying to walk the whole distance to our office through the snow. Our man Herb put him in his car and drove him all the way to my office so he could get some legal help. He really put himself out to help this old guy out.
5 years ago, I test drove a 2013 sedan model and decided to buy it. My money was budgeted and there is only so much i can shell out for monthly payment so I put a large sum of money as a down-payment.
Upon signing.
Salesman: ok, based on your down payment and interest, your monthly payment will be $2XX.XX
Me: Sounds good, that's the same figure I got from my own calculation
Salesman: good. then we also offer an insurance for your hybrid battery for $100 per month. And another insurance to protect your car paint for $120 per month and an extended warranty for another $150 per month. But I can give you a discount, $300 per month for all the warranty I mentioned.
Me: Sorry, I am not getting any of those. Let me sign the papers for that $2XX.XX monthly payment
Salesman: Hang on sir, we can further negotiate. How much you can afford for these warranties?
Me: I afford nothing, let me sign the papers
Salesman: Ok, I'll give it for $250 plus $2XX.XX monthly mortgage
Me: I probably should leave, I don't have much time for all these negotiations
Salesman: Wait, you can't leave the car without these insurance and warrantys
Me: For your information, I pay Progressive good amount of money for my insurance
Salesman: Yeah, but what if the car stall due to transmission or hybrid battery problem?
Me: Then I will throw the car in the junk and buy a new car
Salesman: All my clients bought this insurance and warranty, they are lawyers, doctors, architects, engineers
Me: Then they are stupid, I'm not. Now if you don't want me to sign the papers, don't waste my time, I have to go and find another dealership.
Salesman: (he was very frustrated but still sign the papers).This is the worst contract I've ever signed.
Me: Say something like that again and I'm gonna walk out that door!
Salesman: OK ok, just sign the papers
Me: Ok here you go.
I got the car key and left the dealership.
Fast forward today, my car is fully paid, still running good, no issues whatsoever. I feel really bad for those people who fall for these types of salesmen. They are con!
Back in 1984, I was looking at a used Datsun B210 at a Nissan dealership. The salesman wanted me to give him a deposit before he would present my offer to the sales manager. The salesman said this was to show I was serious about buying. I walked out.
When we bought our 2017 Subaru Outback, everything was fine and almost laid back until we got taken to a room with the extended warranty lady. She pushed hard for us to get the warranty and I argued back that Subaru's were as good as they claim, what's the need to extend the warranty? We argued with her for almost an hour. I don't know we took so long with her. Being polite I guess. Finally we told her, we didn't want the car and stamped out.
Of course we didn't mean that, but I had a sincere talk with the dealer about his staff.
You aren't supposed to run a new car hard for at least the first 500 miles let alone beat them for an hour. I would argue that decent people don't beat any car that isn't theirs. So you potentially damaged a brand new car that some other person will buy having no idea...wow, you guys are so great!!! Awesome story!!! Tell me about the wedding again!!
My sales guy would be pissed when I returned and asked if I burned the tires off it and I didn't. It's not my car, I'm not driving it to it's 100%. But using launch control on any PDK Porsche is just awesome!
Probably about 1989, my fiancee and I were really broke. She had bought a used car which did not work out (I will discuss that below). Hyundai issued ads for their new Excel with a base price of $3800. We could afford that if we financed it.
Car dealerships were super aggressive at that time. We escaped form one where my fiancee made the mistake of dubbing one of their cars as "cute" and the best one she had seen That was a mistake but we managed to get away to go look at other dealerships. That car was not $3800 it had lots of upgrades and was over $7K even though it has no AC, no electric locks or windows (it has a sunroof and an automatic transmission, plus gold Enkii wheels and matching tape pin-striping on the body of the car).
By the time we managed to escape it was getting late. We decided to poke our heads into another Hyundai dealership to see if they had an Excel for $3800, then go to dinner and pick up our search the next day. At the next dealership, they had one that was $4300. It was grey instead of red, and did not have "cute" Enkii gold wheels and matching gold pin-striping, but it did have air-conditioning and electric locks and windows. it was also more than $3K cheaper. The salesman was literally drooling watching me argue with her about the two.
We told him we were hungry so we were going to dinner and would make a decision over dinner. He did not want us to leave. He lowered the price, and offered ever better financing. He played the "go talk to the manager' game over and over and eventually got the manager to come talk to us - a true honor. Finally we said we needed to discuss it over dinner, we were too tired and too hungry to make any decisions right then. He offered to have food delivered. We thanked him but refused. Finally we got a bit annoyed and I told him we were leaving, that was it for now. He had two guys go stand in front of the door blocking our exit. I asked them to move and they refused. i told my wife to call 911 tell them we were being held against our will and ask them to please send two ambulances. The salesman ran and got the manager who tried all sort of arguments. I turned and snarled "move" at the guys blocking the door and charged at them. They bolted. (I was pretty big/muscular at the time).
Later we read that dealership got sued for false imprisonment when they threw someone's keys up on the roof and told them they had just traded in their vehicle. Oh and we bought the "cute" Hyundai for about $5800 or so and it turned out to be a complete POS after two years (it was brand new). (And really uncomfortable on hot days).
Her prior car was a Ford Thunderbird turbo coupe that we bought used from a Chevy dealership. I told the salesman I had heard the car had an anemic four cylinder engine even with the turbo. He said no this one had a six cylinder engine and was very powerful. I opened the hood and pointed to the four spark plugs and wires and he claimed there were two more, but this was a special configuration where the spark plugs were mounted inside the block so you could not see them or the wires running to them. He had no explanation for why there were only four wires at the distributor. Maybe is has a separate distributor for the other two, but I know for certain this is a six."
Yup we bought that T-bird. It was "cute" Also neither of us had even been to a car dealership before so we were prime targets. they even talked us into buying a bumper to bumper extended warranty that cost half as much as the car did.
The car was a mess and had a propensity to break down on the ferry we had to use to get to our homes. On the plus side, we found a collection of old coins in the trunk and the dealer told us it was impossible to find the prior owners. the bought the car form a wholesale auction. We sold the coins for over $300.
I repaired all kinds of things on that Thunderbird in the one month we had it, it but it started shuddering and shifting hard so we took in for warranty service. they told us the transmission needed to be rebuilt and offered to pay for half the retail price for the rebuild. I pulled out the warranty they had sold us and showed them it was 100% bumper to bumper. they said that was the old warranty. they no longer sell that one. the new warranty is 50/50. they pulled out a copy and showed it to me. I explained that i had a contract for 100% bumper to bumper and that is what we were entitled to. "Oh and by the way I just started me new job as an attorney. "So sue us" they laughed at me.
I had a better idea. we made picket signs, got some friends, got a permit and began picketing their dealership. They came out and asked then demanded we leave. They called the police and the police just stood there watching us. there was nothing they could do. Then the manager came out and told me they did not make enough on the car to cover the cost of repairing the transmission. He again said they would split it with us. I just picked p my sign and made another circuit. then he asked if we would agree to allow them to buy back the car because it was not worth it to them to fix it. I agreed, but they tried to keep the down payment plus the payment we had made. I picked up my sign again. The gave us all of our money back.
So we did get paid $300 to drive the POS for a month (and do a lot of work on it).
Our next visit to the dealership I was a bit curt with them. I do not think they liked me very much. I kind of went in with a bad attitude.
2005, and I was maybe 24 year old. Infiniti had redesigned their G35 coupe 6-spd and it was a hot little car. Me and a buddy went to a dealership to take a look at one. I had no intention of buying it, even though I could. Salesman came out and immediately started talking up about the Athens Blue 6-spd coupe sitting out front. I straight up told him I wasn't going to buy it and just wanted to take a look at it. He said "no problem...do you want to take it for a ride?" Well, I couldn't turn that down. Best part was he didn't come. My buddy and I took the car alone for about 45 mins. We brought it back, threw him the keys and said thanks. A year later I went back to the dealership, found that guy and bought a 2006 off him.
Meanwhile Ford had just redesigned their new 2005 Mustang GT. I went to the dealer to actually drive and buy one but they wouldn't let me touch it unless I signed papers and put a deposit down. Totally different experience from the Infinti dealer
Worst salesman ever.
I don't recall all the details, but I had two instances where I was pretty angry with a car dealer. #1 was in 2006. Different dealer from above trying to buy a 2006 G35 coupe. Actually, I was trying to lease one. Big mistake. After sitting down and plugging all the numbers in seeing what my payment would be, I thought it was ridiculous. SO I wanted to go home and think about it. Except I had a trade and the dealer had my keys. He wouldn't give them back. I kept asking, he kept deflecting. Even a manager came over to try and deflect and talk me into leasing with them. 5 mins later...no keys. SO, I stood up and yelled "PLEASE GIVE ME MY KEYS BACK NOW SIR!" as loudly as I could making a scene. They tried to calm me down. So I did it again. FInally another manager comes over and I get my keys back. I walk out and they actually called me the next day to see if I still wanted to do the deal.
2013. I leased a Benz. Got an OK deal, but then they started with the add-ons. I forget the details but there was some sort of service package they offered to cover the Service-A and service-B maintenance on a Benz. During my lease it would need both at about $1500 or so for the two services. I refused and he started on with the "precision machine" and "need expert care" and all that jazz. I took a peek at the details of the two service packages and noticed it was all visual inspections (inspect tires, inspect coolant levels, inspect brake fluid, inspect inspect inspect) with a standard 9qt syn oil change. (forgot to mention..im an advanced DIYer when it comes to working on cars) . I replied "Holy ****. $1500 for a glorified oil change?" Do the techs actually do anything or do they just stare at the engine bay for 3 hours. I can go look at my own coolant level too and save $1500". I think he got the point and stopped trying to sell me the service add-ons.
She now switched to a Ford Fusion and likes it, and I at 79 drive the AMG and love it.
I see what you did, bought it for yourself, well played!
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