I've purchased over 20 cars over the last 25 years and I can say that most of the experiences have been ridiculous. We bought a GTI a couple weeks ago and you just have to police these F&I guy or he'll take total advantage of you and rip you off. These guys try to sell you warranty, gap insurance, death insurance, paint protection and everything that you don't want or need. The F&I guy does it because he wants the buyer to feel like he has the keys to the kingdom and if you don't buy the extra stuff then you won't qualify for financing. Then if you're financing the car they try to bump you rate a 1/4 to 1/2%. You basically need to be a jerk and threaten to walk out before they make the deal fair. I just want to have an enjoyable experience without the freak'n hard sell.

Plus, why do I need all the other warranty BS and extra protection???? If you're sh*t doesn't work then I'll never buy it again. I play the game and I play well and Mr. Car Salesman and Mr. F&I guy....I will your life a living hell!

 

I bought a CPO Audi S4 once and it wasn't as clean as I would have liked so when got it home I started washing and vacuuming the car. I started cleaning the trunk out and I found that the spare tire was bald and there were 3-holes drilled in the in the bottom of the trunk. I was like "WTF" is this. So I went back the next day and ask how I'd get a CPO car with holes and a bald tire?? Long story short...the car was raced by some jack-off mechanic that worked at the dealership and he had a nitrous bottle bolted down in the trunk. The dealership tried to lie and say it was for a bike rack. I ask "Why TF" the tire was bald??? Then I asked for my money back. The Sales Manager asked me, "Don't you look at these cars before you buy them?" I asked my wife to take the kids to the car and in front of 20 people I got so loud on this manager and called him and his employee's every four letter word I could think of. They took the car back and sold me a new car.

Later one of the service writers told me that the mechanic who owned that CPO Car was fired and he said the motor was blown. They seriously tried to scam me.

Believe it or not this all happened the same week I returned a BMW to another dealer and got 100% of my money back. I purchased a 1-year old 540i BMW with less than 10k miles which had no air bags. OMG I found out after I drove the car for 3-months and when I hit the horn one day after some joker pulled out in front of me and my hand sunk into the steering wheel. AGAIN WTF I should have sued them.

I hate car dealerships and they are all evil bastards and scam artists. But after these experience I'm now a little paranoid schizophrenic so don't listen to me I'm damaged goods.

 

That is a valid bargaining method. Why is walking away from an unfair deal being a jerk?

 

Wow, you should have bought a lotto ticket that week.

Btw, did one of those four letter words rhyme with "punt?" That's my personal favorite because people wince.

Experiences like yours is why I just end up buying new cars with cash.

Also, I seriously doubt that they fired the mechanic. Dealers like this are especially dishonest and I would not have bought a new Audi from them. I would have ran.

 

My buddy used to be a tech for Orange County Lambo. Whenever I walked into the showroom i was treated with the upmost respect by all the salesmen. None of them knew me, I was a young kid in my 20's. Lambo buyers are a different breed, they look like regular guys but are rich as hell. All the salesmen didnt know if I was a dot com millionaire or just a tire kicker. But they werent going to make a mistake and loose a sale.

BMW, MB, Porsche dealers have to contend with a differnt client. I'm not condoning their actions in any way. But the german big 3 get a lot of the "I want to look rich" personality.

 

I guess I'm not a jerk then.

 

Agreed. Cut yourself some slack. You have done nothing wrong, but the same cannot be said for dealerships in your case.

 

My sales guy told me about a raggedy guy who walked into his (former) dealership and was ignored. My guy (being a good salesman) went up to the guy and talked with him about all manner of things for about 30 minutes before the customer told him he had just come in to a boat load of cash. 45 minutes later the raggedy looking guy wrote a check for a GT3. Seems like whoever still judges a buyer on looks can't be long for the sales world.

 

It's discrimination, and it DOES have its place in the industry.

Stereotypes exist for a reason. Sometimes you cannot judge a book by its cover. But if a salesman determines that there is enough volume, that every customer does NOT matter - and meets his internal quota, then his discrimination pays off. Will it offend that 1/10 potential buyer? Perhaps. But if the other 9/10 drop buy in appropriate attire, the salesman's invaluable time is not wasted. Does everybody who walks in to a Porsche dealer have the funds to drive off in a GT3? Perhaps not. Is it worth it in the end, for the salesman to ignore these people? In his dealership, based on his experiences, perhaps.

Who are we to judge car salesmen? I believe they exist on a plane one step above dirt (some may argue that I'm discrediting dirt). But if we do not work there, perhaps we should not make assumptions about them, especially if we do not want them to make assumptions about us.

 

This is essentially what I've been trying to say. Some salespeople may do a bad job of profiling potential customers, and thereby cost themselves sales, but it's to hard to imagine profiling has no value at all.

Clearly, this kind of stereotyping is a real problem when, for example, it unfairly prevents minorities and women from getting jobs. But salespeople sizing up customers seems different, since it's mainly the salesperson who suffers if he gets it wrong (the customer can always go to another salesperson or dealer).

 

I work at pretty high end dealership and can tell you none of us ever pre-judge a client. I've sold $100k cars to guys that pull up in a 1999 Silverado's that looks like its been to hell and back, you just never know. One thing thats BIBLE around here is treat every client on the property with the upmost respect and it will come back to you.

When I read these stories of the sales people that have their noses up in the air it makes me happy. Lost opportunities for them means better opportunties for people like us here at Lund Cadillac and other dealers that treat clients the way they would expect to be treated.

We sold a ZR1 this weekend for $104K to a guy that you would never imagine buying that car. He wrote a check!!!!

 

I would have sued the crap out of them !!

Especially for the airbag thing... A) thats illegal b) its dangerous and C) you would definitely win that case... obviously someone knew there were no airbags because they had program the computer around them otherwise it would have thrown codes