What is the worst dealer behavior that you've observed?

[nostatic]

Seeing a lot of complaints about Los Angeles area dealerships, and I thought I'd pile on. This one just happened moments ago at Russel Westbrook Jeep in Van Nuys. They have a 2020 Rubicon listed for $55k. I had inquired about it a few weeks ago and was told over the phone it had been sold. A few weeks later and I'm still seeing it on their site, so I wrote in again. This time they said it's still on the lot.

We started texting back and forth and out of nowhere I get:

"1228 a month for 72 months. Can you take delivery today?"

Quick math, that's over $88k. I respond that I was hoping to get in around $50k, and they shoot back, "you're just throwing out random numbers."

I'M JUST THROWING OUT RANDOM NUMBERS?! You just asked me to pay nearly $90k for a Wrangler!

Who falls for this crap?

evidently they also won’t dealer trade with anyone. They had one I was interested in, I contacted them and they really didn’t seem to want to sell a Wrangler. I ended up buying in Ventura for well below msrp. Easy peasy, all via text.

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[Kyanche]

Ahh okay thanks for the reply. This makes me feel less crazy looking for a good deal. I'll give this advice a shot.

Other things you can try are looking at costco's program and truecar. Maybe not to buy a car through them, but to get an idea which dealers are more flexible with their pricing.

 

[aldo98229]

So that’s why my dealer lists only full MSRP.

A few months ago, it had the only Dodge Demon it received in the showroom with a $30,000 markup: $90,000 MSRP + $30,000 markup = $120,000 tag. It sold within a week.

My Jeep dealer is such a whore, it will probably buy one of the first Ford Broncos, and park it in the showroom as a used vehicle with a $20,000 markup!

 

[Modeldude]

370Z lifted on a "cradle" style lift... The lift compressed the plastic rocker panels on both sides. The dealer paid to have them replaced and painted did a fantastic job. Next oil change I reminded them to place it on a tray style lift. Went back to the waiting area and watched them place it on the same cradle lift as before. Traded it soon after.

 

[aldo98229]

Thinking is an “option” at a car dealership.

 

[steelponycowboy]

Seeing a lot of complaints about Los Angeles area dealerships, and I thought I'd pile on. This one just happened moments ago at Russel Westbrook Jeep in Van Nuys. They have a 2020 Rubicon listed for $55k. I had inquired about it a few weeks ago and was told over the phone it had been sold. A few weeks later and I'm still seeing it on their site, so I wrote in again. This time they said it's still on the lot.

We started texting back and forth and out of nowhere I get:

"1228 a month for 72 months. Can you take delivery today?"

Quick math, that's over $88k. I respond that I was hoping to get in around $50k, and they shoot back, "you're just throwing out random numbers."

I'M JUST THROWING OUT RANDOM NUMBERS?! You just asked me to pay nearly $90k for a Wrangler!

Who falls for this crap?

to be fair here, there are no 0% interest deals on Rubicons, the 72 month payment includes interest at the going rate so you are paying $33,000 in interest to finance that $55,000 Jeep for 72 months. Who the hell pays $1228 a month for a car payment anyway ?

 

[mrbsharkey]

to be fair here, there are no 0% interest deals on Rubicons, the 72 month payment includes interest at the going rate so you are paying $33,000 in interest to finance that $55,000 Jeep for 72 months. Who the hell pays $1228 a month for a car payment anyway ?

Jeep has a 0% APR for 36 Months at the moment (well qualified, blah blah).

$33,000 finance charge on a $55,000 72 month loan is a crazy high APR. What is that 16%?

 

[steelponycowboy]

Jeep has a 0% APR for 36 Months at the moment (well qualified, blah blah).

$33,000 finance charge on a $55,000 72 month loan is a crazy high APR. What is that 16%?

I didn't see the 0% for Rubicons but that could be, in that case the payment would be over $1500 per month. The unknowns here is the APR of the loan in question and was there more charges than $55K such as taxes, tags, doc fees etc. In any case the price of the Jeep didn't jump $33,000 was the point I was trying to make.

 

[Nology]

I've got a laundry list of things to bring up from my local dealer but by far the most embarrassing was when the service guy had to go looking for someone who knew how to drive standard to get my Jeep inside

 

[jakebrake]

My worst experience with a dealership was not buying a Jeep, however, they do have a Jeep dealership attached to them. I was buying my new Ford truck. It was in King George's Virginia. I drove down there, to find this rock that I was coming to purchase that everyone knew about, sitting filthy on the front row still for sale. Understand, this vehicle actually had a deposit on it. After driving through three States during covid-19 binding the truck still for sale, I was not pleased. From there, they proceeded to prep it for sale. That amounted to driving it through a car wash. The detail tech left his filthy skull wrap sitting on my center console, and half of the plastic protective film still on the vehicle. From there, despite the fact that everyone involved up to and including the janitor at the dealership, knew I was from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, they charged me Virginia tax on the vehicle. They also proceeded to give me the wrong plates for the vehicle. The police were somewhat understanding when they looked at my F250 with plates registered to an F-150 out of King George's Virginia on it. They then proceeded to tell me that since they gave me the wrong sales tax, I owed them $1,200, and I could either pay it, not have my plates processed, or bring the vehicle back to them for a full refund. I would not let them put air in my tires at this point.


Understand, I am giving you the cliff notes version. There was a whole lot more involved.

 

[Jebiruph]

I've got a laundry list of things to bring up from my local dealer but by far the most embarrassing was when the service guy had to go looking for someone who knew how to drive standard to get my Jeep inside

What's worse is watching some one that doesn't know how to drive a manual (at least not very well) do it anyway.

 

[Yogi]

to be fair here, there are no 0% interest deals on Rubicons, the 72 month payment includes interest at the going rate so you are paying $33,000 in interest to finance that $55,000 Jeep for 72 months. Who the hell pays $1228 a month for a car payment anyway ?

I actually have a copy of TValue which is the software that bankers use to calculate interest rates, payments, terms, etc.
A $55,000.00 loan over 72 months at $1,228.00 per month works out to 17.145% interest, or more colloquially known as credit card interest ... LOL
The total interest paid would be $33,416.00. On the upside, your last payment would only be $1,210.71

 

[bullfrog3459]

Allen Samuels CDJR in Hutchinson, KS was absolutely a nightmare. I had purchased a used car from Laird Noller CDJR (previous owners) and it was alright ...

So back to Allen Samuels CDJR. I was working with the Internet sales manager while pricing out my new 2021 JL we were looking to purchase. Emails were sporadic, but I wasn't in a dire hurry. We worked out the final pricing, and a day to come in to make a $1500 down payment. We get there, and the internet sales manager is out, but the sales manager is eager to help. All good, except, no paperwork. He kept saying the internet sales manager has the paperwork and will be in later in the afternoon and get everything settled, order entered, and get you the remaining paperwork.

Being the small-ish town, we agree and go our ways. 3 days later and countless emails and texts and still nothing. We drive back down and talk with the sales manager again and more excuses. He finally says that because it was the end of the prior month, beginning of the new month, they were just too busy to put in the order and that it would be put in within the next week. We have our words and agree to talk to the GM. At this point, I just ask for our deposit back.

Of course, when the GM hands me the check back, he starts wanting to talk business and only cared about where I worked at and how it would affect their business after I walked out the door. I kept walking out the door with them chasing me down trying to deal and it just wasn't happening.

It just pissed my wife off because we missed the 2020 order deadline (i'm grateful we did) and they didn't disclose that to us, they seemed all anxious for a sell, but when it came time to executing it they were all questionable and shady. I would have hate to see when getting to F&I if everything would have went even shadier.

 

[steelponycowboy]

I actually have a copy of TValue which is the software that bankers use to calculate interest rates, payments, terms, etc.
A $55,000.00 loan over 72 months at $1,228.00 per month works out to 17.145% interest, or more colloquially known as credit card interest ... LOL
The total interest paid would be $33,416.00. On the upside, your last payment would only be $1,210.71

The unknown here is the credit rating of the borrower, how far upside down they were on a trade (doesn't appear to be the case here), how much down money, LTV etc. I could see someone with marginal credit financing 100% paying high rates. I know someone who has great credit but over financed their new $40 VW way over LTV due to being $20K upside down on the trade, they are paying 9.9% on their new loan for 72 months. I would think that someone with marginal credit could pay 17% from some of the predatory lenders who make those loans that banks won't.

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