Extra charges

[MichaelR]

Overall, I’m happy with my buying experience. Rubicons are in super short demand in my area and the dealer I bought from had four. I narrowed the choice to two. One of those was a soft top which was a hard no for me and he said they’d change it out with a hard top on another if I chose that one. Went with the one they had the top originally. Anyway, my only sticking point is they add about $1800 worth of “upgrades” to every vehicle on lot. A GPS tracker, tinted windows, door sill plates, nitrogen in tires and couple other meaningless things. This was my only point of contention. I explained none of these added any value to my purchase. In the end, they discounted the Jeep around $4800 but that was really $3000 below sticker with the “package”. Anyway, anyone else had this? I know it’s pretty common with dealers now but it seriously almost cost them a sale.

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[agarber5687]

I got over 10 quotes and only one dealer was still adding these dumb packages for price padding. I liked the sales agent I was working with but their package put them far out of competition with the other quotes I received.

I expect and hope it’s a dying practice as consumers are more and more educated on pricing.

 

[Rouge]

And they will continue with these types of shanagins as long as consumers continue to enable them by purchasing. It's much better to exert our energy in negotiating the price from invoice rather than wasting it discussing dealer add ones. It's just another level of added emotional complexity that in some cases wears the consumer down to finally purchase from them. Sometimes it's best to just walk away.

 

[Darter02]

I'm so glad I didn't have to deal with this. I placed a custom order and tracked my build and saw my 2019 on the lot the Sunday it was delivered, before anyone on the lot as they weren't open. I made sure they didn't even put as much as a dealership sticker on it.

I'm surprised no one's put that meme from the movie Fargo on this thread yet!

 

[MichaelR]

And they will continue with these types of shanagins as long as consumers continue to enable them by purchasing. It's much better to exert our energy in negotiating the price from invoice rather than wasting it discussing dealer add ones. It's just another level of added emotional complexity that in some cases wears the consumer down to finally purchase from them. Sometimes it's best to just walk away.

Overall I agree with you. In this case they had the Jeep in the color and literally every option on it. And they had already added the stuff. Again, we negotiated down because of it but like you said, added stress to what should be a great day!

 

[aldo98229]

Overall, I’m happy with my buying experience. Rubicons are in super short demand in my area and the dealer I bought from had four. I narrowed the choice to two. One of those was a soft top which was a hard no for me and he said they’d change it out with a hard top on another if I chose that one. Went with the one they had the top originally. Anyway, my only sticking point is they add about $1800 worth of “upgrades” to every vehicle on lot. A GPS tracker, tinted windows, door sill plates, nitrogen in tires and couple other meaningless things. This was my only point of contention. I explained none of these added any value to my purchase. In the end, they discounted the Jeep around $4800 but that was really $3000 below sticker with the “package”. Anyway, anyone else had this? I know it’s pretty common with dealers now but it seriously almost cost them a sale.

My local Jeep dealers don’t like to openly advertise any discounted prices. They expect me to walk in, make an offer, and spend 5 hours haggling back-and-forth.

However, if I expand my search to a 100-mile radius I can find several discounted Jeeps. By the time I search within 500 miles I can find some sweet deals.

The wider you search the more options you have. It’s that simple. But only you can decide how far is too far.

The way I see it is: Jeep is cranking out JLs at a rate of 200,000 units each year, and it doesn’t plan to stop any time soon. Personally, I don’t let distance be a constraint, and I don’t bother with dealers that add any sort of markup; they are wasting everyone’s time.

I ended getting my Jeep from a dealer 1,000 miles away: it has most of the options I wanted and it was letting it go for 22% off MSRP! I flew out to pick it up: it was a beautiful drive back, the weather was gorgeous, and now I have a memorable story to tell. It was a win-win.

 

[dsgrey]

Walk away from those type of dealerships but let them know why. The method of adding $1500 aftermarket costs for their $200 expense isn't new. I've walked away from GM and Honda dealerships to find others in the same area that don't adhere to this practice. The other biggest change in the past 20 years is the finance person is now an additional salesman who spends time pitching warranties and packages too.

 

[cosine]

there are a bunch of dealership around me that will add on useless $hit to jack up the price and call it custom. i looked at a ford raptor that charged $22,500 over msrp. the dealer added wheels / tires. led lighting. i also looked at a jlu lifted with 35" tires, pre runner front bumper and led lighting. they charged $15k over. those were the worse ones. one dealer i went to tried to sell me side steps at $700. they told me its required on the jlu that i was looking at. i told them take a hike and walked out. car dealers will charge $300 for pin stripping. unless you walk in to the dealership knowing exactly what you want, sale people will treat you like you was born yesterday.

 

[dlzzk]

A local dealer here in Chicago charges $2,500 for nitrogen in tires, wheel locks, door edge guards and blinking brake lights, which is just crazy. The benefit they get is that their Internet price would be very attractive, which makes you more willing to visit the dealer. I did, and it was a real bummer to find out the add-ons afterward.

 

[MichaelR]

A local dealer here in Chicago charges $2,500 for nitrogen in tires, wheel locks, door edge guards and blinking brake lights, which is just crazy. The benefit they get is that their Internet price would be very attractive, which makes you more willing to visit the dealer. I did, and it was a real bummer to find out the add-ons afterward.

I did know in advance. My sales guy was upfront about it. A bummer but I negotiated it out for the most part.

 

[tonester]

I backed out of a purchase because I found out in the last seconds that the dealer I was working with added that kind of crap on the vehicle I wanted. They didn’t disclose them until they were ready to send over the purchase agreement. My entire negotiation was done over the phone.

 

[MichaelR]

I backed out of a purchase because I found out in the last seconds that the dealer I was working with added that kind of crap on the vehicle I wanted. They didn’t disclose them until they were ready to send over the purchase agreement. My entire negotiation was done over the phone.

I get that. All mine was done over the phone also but the salesman was very up front about it and said if I didn't see the value in it, we would work it out, and ultimately did.

 

[yj93]

I got over 10 quotes and only one dealer was still adding these dumb packages for price padding. I liked the sales agent I was working with but their package put them far out of competition with the other quotes I received.

I expect and hope it’s a dying practice as consumers are more and more educated on pricing.

It is not. There is a dealer in GA, that if you do not order it custom, then they add a $1500 crap package to it. I could understand if it added value. My wife even laughed at the side steps they added.

She said, " I could not even use it to put my foot on to get in the vehicle. Who would add those?"

Needless to say, yes. Still very much common practice.

 

[yj93]

And they will continue with these types of shanagins as long as consumers continue to enable them by purchasing. It's much better to exert our energy in negotiating the price from invoice rather than wasting it discussing dealer add ones. It's just another level of added emotional complexity that in some cases wears the consumer down to finally purchase from them. Sometimes it's best to just walk away.

When the majority of Jeeps never see dirt, I think they can use these as selling points to people that are not real enthusiasts yet.

An entire segment of the market just wants a convertible SUV. And that part of the market is often willing to spend more if they think it "adds" the correct look or street cred.

 

[devicemanager]

FWIW $3K off sticker isn't bad, but it's not a great deal. A good deal would have been $4800 off and no add-on BS.

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