I Hate Auto Dealerships, satan's spawn...All of Them
 

Thought to share my most recent awesome-est automotive used car shopping / buying experiences.

Back story: Our beloved Jeep SRT8 is showing it's age, starting to leak oil from the rear main and a few other issues and mostly that it's fast approaching 200K on the clock. Even with an open checkbook maintenance program since purchasing 10 years ago, I'm done. Also the market timing could not be worse.

This is my wife's DD, she does not like the newer style Jeep GC's so we ultimately decide our next long-term automotive adopted child will be a used Dodge Durango R/T circa 2014-18 in a certain color or two. As y'all may imagine, they are fairly scarce even within 200+ miles of our zip.

The first couple we look and test drive have one thing or more wrong where 1 in particular should not have passed Va safety inspection inspite of having a fresh sticker on the windshield.

The most recent debacle is we look at another, that happens to be at a local dealership, plus I personally know the F&I guy there. It presents well, priced fairly ( well for this market) and has good records and Carfax. But on the test drive something goes waaaay awry with the transfer case at speed hucking and bucking. Just as we both agreed we would buy this one...…..

Back at the dealer they wanted is to commit to buy with their promise they would repair it. We said no way, but if you decide to fix it, let me know. So my buddy there calls me back a few days later, said they planned on fixing it, sent it to a local Dodge dealer who replaced the TCM and programmed it . All this took 3 weeks. In the meantime I kept in contact with the salesman indicating if it was fixed properly ( we would test drive again) we would have a deal. They had already valued our trade and we were very close to a deal on that. We also had pre-approval letter from our credit union which we showed them.

Yesterday afternoon @2pm the sales guy called me, said the vehicle was fixed, they test drove it and is ready for sale. I told him we would meet him there first thing this morning when they opened, finalize the deal. Last night, I checked everything over on our trade, cleaned our personal items out, topped off the fluids and planned on getting up early to have it washed prior to going into the dealership.

At @8pm last night, same sales guy called me only to say that had just sold it:mad:
At which time I said to him that if there were additional customers in line, all he had to do was tell me and we would've put a deposit to hold it until we got there this AM. Then he said -'I already told you that' I said: "No, you told us to buy it first, then you would fix it - you said nothing just a few hours earlier today.

I told him nothing like greed getting in the way of good customer relations, then I hung up.

Meh, sucks, but at the same time, you didn't have any sort of commitment or promise in either direction.

I have no love for car dealerships, and while they are not to be trusted, at the same time, I'm sure they get their fair share of folks that jerk them around and then never purchase or follow through.

I agree, I would not have purchased or promised to purchase until it had been fixed. But once the car was repaired, I'm sure it was on the lot for sale since you hadn't put down a deposit or anything.

No doubt, super frustrating, but I don't think they did anything wrong.

Honestly most of them seem to just be getting worse right now. They know the market is hot and they just don’t give a rats ass about anything but profit.

I went to look at a used Ranger at a local dealer. I could tell on carfax that it’d been on their lot for 6+ months and was pretty over priced. But I went to look anyways because it was specced out pretty much exactly like I wanted.

We drove it and I told the salesman to run some numbers and let’s see what happens. They hit me at 17k less than my trade was worth, and had no interested in negotiating at all on the ranger. Salesman just couldn’t give a ****. I was like you’ve had this 6 months and you aren’t willing to budge at all? He told me that people don’t want that color, to which I replied that it didn’t bother me, so they might ought to take the buyer they have in front of them.

Ended up walking and selling my truck outright for a wad of cash. Still haven’t bought anything and they held onto that truck for a least another month. Wish I still had the vin, I suspect they dumped it at auction.

Carvana and carmax are killing the private party sale market right now too. They are paying big bucks for used stuff, so people that aren’t really tuned into the market get an offer from one of them for what the car would have sold for on the open market last year and take the easy deal, not realizing they’ve left 4-5k on the table in most cases.

It’s just a **** time to be trying to buy a car.

After working at car dealerships all through college (as a detailer), the best advice I can give you is set your expectations of a dealers integrity as low as possible, then get out a shovel and dig a few feet down and once you are there, never expect them to rise to that level.

The sales guy isnt your friend, the F&I guy isnt your friend, the manager isnt your friend...they are all there to sell as many cars as possible for the highest price to anyone with a credit score or cash that can pay.


Once you get all that in your mindset, only then are you ready to deal with the car buying experience at a dealer.

Sad story but what mechanism did you think was in place to keep other sales people from selling that car? If I'm working at a dealer and I have a customer who wants to buy a car we have in stock, I would go to the manager's office and ask whether it's sold already. If he said that another salesperson has a customer who gave a verbal commitment to buy it, "if this/if that," and there is no $$ down on it, guess what? I'm selling it to my guy standing there with $$ in hand. You cannot stop me from selling it...there are very specific rules in place at dealers to make it fair to all commission employees.

When you say that they asked you to commit to buying it when fixed, did they ask for a deposit or that you complete all paperwork and register it in your name?? Because if it was only a deposit, you blew it. Deposits are 100% refundable in this state, they benefit the customer more than the dealer, at least in this state. Dealers only want you to think that you are committed, you really are not.

Sorry to hear about it but next time, lock it down in your favor. Especially in the current market.

I spent the majority of my professional life in / around dealers. So no, I don't trust anyone. My complaint is if I'd had known there were other buyers, I would have asked if I need a deposit to hold, that's all.

Also, no way I was putting a deposit or signing on a broken vehicle, then hope they fix it properly...…….. maybe just as well.

I know the business and am guessing that the people that did purchase it, there was more profit in the deal with them. As in; their trade and likely financing through the dealership.

On the other side of the coin...
I just finished buying a new Honda and the dealership was fantastic. Lot's of attention and help.
Price was what I expected. Showed me paperwork of every car purchase ahead of me.

Cliff Notes version.

When we bought our minivan a couple years ago we had a good experience as far as dealers go. We were a few hours away and let the sales lady know we couldn't make it up until the weekend so she held it for us. Once there they were pretty firm on price but it was 2 years old with 13k miles and already a decent price. When we test drove the stop/start gave an error. Since it was a warranty issue I knew it would be fixed so we made the deal, they fixed the issue and delivered the van to us a few days later.

Sorry, I'm with Speeder here. In hindsight you should have made a conditional deposit on that vehicle.

The market is nuts, salespeople are in 'make money' mode, not 'build relationships' mode.

This is becoming a bad trend of people selling something that someone else is traveling to see...It has happened to me several times where the FB marketplace item was sold by the time I got 1/2 way there, and they knew I was traveling to see it.

Dealerships suck, and I hate dealing with them also...they are trained to screw the small guy.

You have no merit in complaining. You showed little if no commitment. Waffled and you got the short end of it. As a dealer, someone shows up with money, they're selling it to the first cash buyer.

Waaaa

The demand is so much higher than the supply today.
It's the dealers game.

FB marketplace is setting the tone for all sales these days.

I used to work at a place that was across the street from a seedy dealership. The guy that stocked the coke machine and vending machine said he was over there stocking their vending machines. He said they all acted like he was invisible, and the salesmen were having an contest between themselves to see how far upside down on a car they could get a customer, and they wear all laughing about it.

That dealership had one way tire spikes, so if you pulled into their lot, you could not leave until they were ready to let you leave. No matter where you parked your car, they would ask for your keys to move the car. Then the keys would get "lost" and they kept pitching cars at you. One friend that made the mistake of going there pulled out his cell phone, and said in 10 seconds I am calling 911 and reporting that you have stolen my car and you have kidnapped me. They suddenly found his key, and told him to get the hell off their lot.

They finally tried that on a guy that just happened to be the man in charge of issuing dealer licenses. He yanked the license, and they were out of business. It is now a Sam's Wholesale.

^^^ North Korea??

Entirely possible that there wasn't any interest, but that someone came in after you were called and bought it like you almost did the first time you drove it.

Jul of 2014, we looked an at apt, and wanted it. We had looked at it once, and then went back to the complex and looked at it again. I was going to fill out the app then and there. It was in the evening. The missus said "do you want to think about it? We can fill out the app from home."

I didn't, but it seems she did, so we didn't fill out the app. First thing the next morning we got a call from the leasing girl that we'd worked with. The room had been leased.

It actually worked out perfectly for us, but that was hard to imagine when we got that call.

I am done negotiating with stealerships. I have been for a long time. When we were looking for an i3 a few years ago, no one wanted them. LOL!! I made them an out the door price offer (by text message to the salesman who made the mistake of harassing me on my phone) with a yes or no being the answer.

They came back with a counter offer, I said, OK that is a no, have a nice day.

24 hours later, it was a yes.


I just made a Yes or No out the door offer on a AMG G-Wagon via email since the Stealership was harassing me. The sales manager took it as an insult. The offer was low but not insulting. He was so mad he went on a rant in the email back with a loud No to my offer.

Then another employee must have grabbed my email address and pinged me again. I made the same offer reminding them that their manager Bobby, said no already.

Bobby jumped in again and threw another temper tantrum, then they removed the car from their website. LMAO!

I really didn't want it nor need it, but if they accepted my offer I would have bought it. Who wants a car that get 12MPG today? I regretted the offer after I sent it. I blame Whiskey. I was glad it was rejected.

I gotta go with speeder on this as well.

Why? Because dealers live and die on inventory turns. Margin on a given sale is important, too, of course, and chances are the deal they made that night made more sense to them than the one you thought you had with them.

Oh, and if dealers know one thing its this: Buyers are liars. They've been down the road so many times they knew it made more sense to take the deal that was standing there that night than to wait for the "be back bus" that rarely seems to return.

_

In this market you should have assumed that there were other interested parties. You already said how hard these vehicles are to find.

It's not the salesman's job to protect you from other buyers.

He did you a favor. I sincerely doubt a pcm change fixed a transfer case issue.

And.......FCA product!

The actual buyer got there before you. You were a verbal commitment, (worthless), to maybe buy it if this/if that. Dealers do a lot of horrible schit but this was regular old business.

It's like when you see a beautiful woman pregnant. Someone got there first. :cool:

In CA, deposits are refundable. It seems like in other states it depends, so the language of a deposit receipt would provide the answer.

You were really expecting the dealer to hold the car pending your next test drive before deciding ahead of customers ready to purchase it right away. How is that fair to other customers or salespeople?

Anyway, as berettafan said, I wouldn't expect the transfer case to really be fixed. They probably did you a favor.

I can't imagine a schittier vehicle to actually own. Rent for the weekend maybe but that's about it. :confused:

It would be one thing if this were a private sale where a handshake is all I require to seal the deal but it's a commercial transaction.

As scummy as I agree dealers can be there should be no expectation or obligation for them to take a sale out of play without some earnest money.

I understand OPs reluctance in this particular situation and can't say I'd do it differently but I'd also accept the risk that it may not go my way.

I'd probably be of the mindset that the universe meant for me to not have that vehicle and assume it was for the better.

No kidding. I put about 20k miles on one when they were new. No way I’d want to own one this many years later.

I avoided mentioning that, as to each his own. That said, I'll take my rock solid, bulletproof and very comfortable 220K mile GX470 over the much newer PoS (IMHO, of course) the OP's looking at.

I view the Durango as a vehicle that was pretty crappy when new, and that, strangely enough, hasn't gotten better with age.

_

Also have to consider the competition between salesdudes.

Your guy may have been anxious to sell you the car in the morning when another salesman scooped up the deal.

I have to question how knowledgeable you are about dealerships. Unless you were in the wash bay or the parts department, you would KNOW that money talks and all else walks. Every salesman is competing with the rest of the sales department to sell that unit before one of the others does. There is no "holding' a car for sale without money and a signed agreement. Some of the shady sales folks will try to hide the keys for a few hours but once they are found out, they have to let go and are now dirtbags in the eyes of the rest of the department.

As far as sold for more money... they have taken less but we used to have an expression: the "be-back bus" crashed and burned, no survivors. 75% (maybe more) of be-backs never show up again.

As far as "other buyers", there may have been but they owe you nothing or, there may just have been a walk in who bought it on the spot.

If you wanted the vehicle that bad, you should have dropped everything and gone down there immediately.

Speeder's comments below are 100% correct.

The salesman called you to tell you it was available. He did everything he could and probably lost out on a sale at the end of the month. I feel bad for him.

It stinks that you gambled and lost but they owe you nothing. Accept that you made a mistake. Own it.

This.

There is no car shortage.

No nirvana then ?

^^^ Yeah..right.
I get calls every week from my Honda Dealer updating me on my purchase.
Three months now and making no progress in line.

The time you spent waiting will be forgotten once you get the car. Getting the car you wanted will feel good for years to come. Just be patient!

^^^ Thanks for that.
I am patient and that's prob why they call me often. My Honda Dealer is awesome.

I'm curious to see what the Type R will be like. Might end up switching the deposit to that.

What is it they say? Marry in haste, repent at leisure.

3 month wait for a Honda, why bother ?

I can buy one today, right now in fact, plenty to choose from.

$300 for the Fit.

Maybe...if you want a base model civic or hr-v
Anything else is 'get in line'
The lots around here might have a few cars..but they're already sold.

The Fit is going up in value...soon it will be worth more than I paid for it....$4500 :)

I love me some Jambalaya...