January 30, 2010

• Car dealers are slimebags. Except maybe for the brother-in-law of the consultant that works for me. Unless he's just being nice to me so that I won't fire the consultant. Haahaa. [brotherinlaw was just a phone advisor in all of this]

  Here's the situation:
  Being a first time car buyer, I had no idea of these tricks and traps they employ to get to to buy a car. Perhaps someone can learn from the mistakes or laugh and say that's common sense.

  I went to Hillside Honda in Queens. Right off the bat they lied about having the model of the car because I checked online first and left a message, someone called me back to schedule an appointment saying they have the car and come in to talk about it. Somehow I knew it was suspicious because I couldn't find this particular model in all of NJ and Penn. I called them back again the next day and got someone else they also said the model was in stock, I asked twice specifically for it.
  Guess what? They didn't have it when I got there. Ok fine, we talk about it they give me a price for the car saying they can get it.  They are asking for about 5k extra. Their invoice price is 20k and change (thanks to brotherinlaw for the heads up). Sticker price is 22k+ and their first offer was 25k. They played the can't give you the sticker price because it-is-hard-to-find supply and demand thing. Since I'm not one to bargain I said fine, 23k is the offer, they came back right away and agreed to it knowing full well they are making at least 3.1k profit with the holdback.

  That was my mistake, never give the dealers a deal. I should have noticed they had the "Destination" charge at the bottom with the other non negotiable items such as sales tax, dmv fee, inspection charges etc. She even mentioned that all those numbers "below this line" were out of their hands and they weren't the ones charging me for it. (good cop routine)
  Another words I paid an extra $710 Destination fee on top of the base price that was supposed to have included this amount. Ok fine, no problem. Then the sales lady says it comes with XM radio which goes for about $300 bucks. I didn't think it did, but said ok, and didn't pursue it further after I had asked her twice about it. I figured she would know best but that's the other mistake. Never assume the salesperson knows anything about your car because they are there first and foremost to close the deal.
  To top it off, I have another suspicion they didn't tell me about the rebate even though I asked they denied having one is so that they can somehow redeem it on my behalf and get the money for it.

  Tips:

  • Never take the first offer, or probably the second or third
  • Make sure the "Destination Charge" is included as your base vehicle price.
  • Negotiate off the dealer's cost or if you're super generous MSRP but not above.
  • Never put a deposit down unless you are ready to buy the car. You do not ever need to leave one before even agreeing to buy the car as it is non refundable. Exception is when they don't have the car in stock like in my case.
  • Don't agree to any rustproofing or waterproof paint sealant etc. Scams!

  psychological tricks? come on give me a break

  • offering drinks, being hospitable to make you more comfortable
  • small talk, weather, talking about anything but the car, saying "I have that feature on my car too. I love it."
  • changed the written price on paper to a "lower" one so that it is like 97cents instead of $1.00 and saying her boss doesn't like to see round numbers.
  • good cop bad cop routine. her 'manager' is actually her partner in all of this. She plays the good cop and keeps running back and forth out of sight to talk to her manager and coming back with 'good news'
  • playing happy buy-me music in the background really loud. it's a party!

  • 8:02 pm
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