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Dealership BS...who's gotten some?

2K views 23 replies 19 participants last post by  MichaelXi 
#1 ·
Dealership BS...who\'s gotten some?

Ok, I know probably everyone has their own dealership BS story. Dealerships are famous for this. What lines have the salesmen fed you? The service dept?

I tend to update my service department on all the new recalls and whatnot. LOL. They're really nice people though, just not well-informed, though the work they do know about, they do well.

OK, so this isn't about a Ford Dealership, but, when my buddy was lookin' for a car, and he had a $1300 budget, we were out budget car huntin'. Now if you've ever been in this position, you can have a lot of fun with it.
I apologize ahead of time to any people here who may be used car salesmen, but, they drive me nuts. We went to look at this lot. Mostly cars in the $300 & Runs to $2000 and looks decent were here. We looked around, spotted a nice 1984 Honda Prelude outside. Was marked $1949. We didn't think anything of it, just cause it was so "expensive". Well, we went in to go ask about another car we saw (don't remember what) and he said "Well, what exactly are you looking for? Do you have a budget?" We explained. He said...oh, well I have a little blue Civic outside that I'll sell to ya for $1250! We said "Uhh, sorry to burst your bubble, but either you sold that, or someone just sold it, cause there are no Civic's on this lot." He replied with a "Oh, yes there are, let me show you!". So he took us outside....to the Prelude. "Yap! Here she is!" My friend and I just looked at each other. "Uhh, yeah, ok, but this is a P-R-E-L-U-D-E." *points to back of car* "Oh, I would've sworn it was a Civic...looks just like one!"....riight. Anyway, we test drove it. He liked it a lot...in good shape. We decided to get it. We talked him down to $1100. He claimed he bought it for $1000, and couldn't go less than $1100 as "he had to make his money too". Acceptable statement. Complete BS. Now before you go accusing me of not knowing anything about this, let me explain the situation. The title on this car had been lost. With the help of this dealership, he applied for a new title. For some DMV garbage reason, they wanted to know the two previous owners, and to see copies of the Bills of sale. Well, this guy had bought this car from a Mazda dealer in town, who'd bought it off some younger girl. We got all of the information, including the bill of sale from the Mazda place to this used car dealer. What did he pay? $400. We just laughed.

Ah, and has anyone else ever known more about the car you're looking at than the salemen? That happened to us when we were looking at Mazda MPV vans for my parents. Haha, I'd done my research, and the guy was looking pretty bad when I was contradicting the information he was giving us...and I'm 17.


So what are your BS stories?!

~Tim
 
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#2 ·
Re: Dealership BS...who\'s gotten some?

When I traded in the Contour for the Focus, I was ticking off what options I wanted off the top of my head. He was scrambling through the papers to see if I could even do that. In the end I got exactly what I wanted.

After buying cars from the dealer I do business with, he likes to show me the ins and outs of the car, and where everything is. He was showing me stuff like the hatch switch and where the oil dipstick is, but I was busy popping the HU out of the dash to see what I had ahead of me for my stereo install. After about 5 minutes I had the front door panels off and the dash partially dis-assembled. All he could do was say "Jesus man" and laugh alot.
 
#3 ·
Re: Dealership BS...who\'s gotten some?

Couple of small instances I can think of:

The first one was a saleman at the Honda dealer. I knew him from my previous Civic lease, plus the fact that he sold my parent's their Accord. I pulled up in the Focus ZX3 one day and ended up talking to him. First off, he thought that the Focus was a Honda Insight from the first glance at it
The second part was when I was telling him about the car and mentioned the Zetec engine. Of course the whole part about "ripping off Honda" was mentioned, although the history of the name proves otherwise. OK, I'll give him the part about the history of the Zetec name, but a Honda Insight??

Test drove a Neon a few years back (hey, they had a great deal on them and I needed wheels since my Civic hatch was due for return) and while the car handled nice, it sure didn't have much power. Anyway, during the drive, the guy was telling me that he personally never would own a Civic since the Neon has a "race car frame" and is "much safer" than the Civic and how he would never let his daughter own a Civic due to this. Well, I do know about the ACR Neons and such being good race cars, but this statement just about had me laughing in the face of the dude. Needless to say, I didn't buy the Neon.
 
#4 ·
Re: Dealership BS...who\'s gotten some?

While I was shopping around for my SVT Contour, Ford changed the pricing structure of the car so that the only two factory options (moonroof and CD player) became no-cost options. Basically, they began including these items in the original base sticker price. This amounted to an $800 or so savings!

Well, my local Ford dealer had exactly the car I was looking for, but the sticker on the car didn't reflect the new pricing. I pointed this out to the salesman, who told me he knew nothing of it, so I must be mistaken. I explained I verified my information from multiple sources online, but the salesman just shrugged. So I walked.

Later that week, I get a call back from the dealership, and, lo and behold, they had discovered a "new" sticker for the car, and the bottom line was, to the penny, the amount I had told the salesman it should've been.

I don't doubt the salesman had no knowledge of what I was talking about, but he wasn't about to look into it. The moral of the story here is, it appears some dealerships just don't understand the wealth of information many of their prospective buyers, especially younger ones, can get online. Having the sales staff "play dumb" and/or BS the customer just doesn't work these days (at least, not when the customer is part of a community like FJ or contour.org, plug plug
).
 
#5 ·
Re: Dealership BS...who\'s gotten some?

Garrick,

To his defense, and being a prior Ford Salesperson, they still could not have done anything on that car until the get an "adjusted invoice" from Ford.

The internet is much faster to post information before Ford actually lets dealers know what is going on.
 
#6 ·
Re: Dealership BS...who\'s gotten some?

biggest dealership BS that i was fed, that if i didnt get ESP GAP Theft protection maintence plan , that i might not get financed. im gonna end up paying 18,866 for my car , a base zx3
, i got shafted , but i like the car
 
#7 ·
Re: Dealership BS...who\'s gotten some?

My brakes were very noisy (e.g. when you pressed down on the brake pedal when not moving, you'd hear this loud creeking from the drums). I brought it in and the service lady told me, "That's just the sound of drum brakes." I said that I'd owned plenty of cars with drums and none of them made thats sound. She said it was normal. I said, "So we can get in any of the cars on this lot and they'll do the same noise?" She said yes and that they won't cover the cleaning of the drums under warranty.

Also, there was the noisy tranny issue (they couldn't/wouldn't resolve) and the stumbling problem they wouldn't fix.
 
#8 ·
Re: Dealership BS...who\'s gotten some?

I had been going to this particular dealer for about 2 weeks eyeing this Focus in the show room. I had spoken to the dealer on several occations regarding this car and he had agreed to pull some numbers together for me.

When I had finally decided to buy the Focus, I had spoken with the chosen dealer on the phone regarding the numbers he had pulled together. And after some haggling, I said to put a sold sign in the window cuz I wanted it. I gave him my credit card number for the deposit and hung up the phone.

I spent the rest of the day at work doing cartwheels because I had just bought my first new car.

When I got to the dealership to sign the final papers and so on, the guy walked me over to my new car..... "WAIT A MINITUE" I said to the guy...

He said is their a problem?

I said yeah, this is a 2001 focus. I wanted a 2002. He said no you didin't, we agreed on a 2001.... I laughed in his face, I said specifically I wanted the one in the show room (pointing back at the dealership)

He said I couldn't have that one for the money we had agreed on.

All I said was sorry, and walked away...

The dealer followed me right up to my car and called me a snake for trying to deal him out of a "brand new" car.

The next week, I showed up in my "NEW" Focus and informed him that I in fact did get this car at the price I wanted to pay.
 
#9 ·
Re: Dealership BS...who\'s gotten some?

When my sunroof crapped out and i went to get it fixed. They looked at it and just pushed the buttons. The buttons still worked the sunroof but the automatic part of the button didnt work. I had to point it out to the service manager and argue that it did do the automatic thing. They finally fixed it. And inbetween there ive had to have FIVE freakin cd players put in my car and they accused me of not knowing how to put cds in....stupid *******
 
#10 ·
Re: Dealership BS...who\'s gotten some?

I don't have any BS dealership stories but I guarantee I have more BS customer stories than this whole board can put together against dealerships. If you have a dealer giving you BS, get a new dealer. We are not ALL out to get you. We are not ALL bad. And there are just as many or more "bad" customers as dealers.
 
#11 ·
Re: Dealership BS...who\'s gotten some?

this past weekend I went to a ford dealer to buy a part. in the driveway a salesman talked to me about trading in my focus. I told him no way untill the SVT goes turbo. he told me that it was.
I told him it wasnt, just a tuned zetec. then he said "well, its a focus, what do you expect?" so then I told him about the RS and how I would wait untill it was brought to the US. he didnt believe me about the RS and said they didnt sell any different Focus models in the US. I told him to go back in and learn his job.
 
#12 ·
Re: Dealership BS...who\'s gotten some?

went to a chevy dealership last april / may looking at the 2002 cavalier LS (it was either that, the alero, or the focus)

guy was telling me all these great things about the car. get in... he goes to start it... it wont start. now mind you i'm already dumbed by being this close to this particular salesman, real stupid guy.

so the car wont start. he gets out and walks away. i look to my gf and just smile. eventually he comes back and tries again. still doesn't start.

"oh!" he says as he depresses the clutch pedal when turning the key

*car starts right up*

"i forgot, that's a new safety feature on the 2002 cavaliers"

i give him the most blank stare i've ever given anyone.

he goes to turn on the AC (which he does) then goes to roll down the windows until the AC kicks in.

he locks the doors.

i push the buttons (in the center console) for the windows.

he puts it in 1st then goes to move. i release the ebrake for him.

we drive. i take it around, and put it thru it's paces, but mention i wanna keep it under 5k if i wanna buy the car.

"5 grand? that's really fast mpg! i mean mph!"

"rpm" i say.

"oh."

bring the car back to the dealership, walk away and never look back.
 
#13 ·
Re: Dealership BS...who\'s gotten some?

another one:

rear bearing on my car went, causing the tires to wear prematurely.

dealership told me it was from 'peeling out.' i said 'the rear tires are worn, and it's a front wheel drive car.'

their retort : "it's an all wheel drive car."

i almost laughed, then asked to speak with the service manager. who helped me out and chastised the rep.
 
#14 ·
Re: Dealership BS...who\'s gotten some?

Originally posted by SCARECROW:
We are not ALL out to get you. We are not ALL bad.
<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">ill agree with this one, SCARECROW is quite the host
 
#15 ·
Re: Dealership BS...who\'s gotten some?

yeah some sales people will say anything to get you to look at a car. I asked a guy at my dealership if they had any SVTF's on the lot (well before release) just to see what he'd say. He said "oh yeah we do, infact i just sold one today". I was like uh yeah ok
 
#17 ·
Re: Dealership BS...who\'s gotten some?

this is my best dealer BS story. My dad and i were out looking for this focus(the one i have) and i saw a blue 5 speed aklittle above our price range so we go and drive it and check it out and were on the table with the guy ready to buy but it doesnt have antilock, so we go off and look for others. This car was nice butnot great, messed up grille, dark mark on the front of the hood, and odd placed dents. We go back to the same guy 2 months later and i see the same car but they fixed the grill and puts on new tire(so were more interested and dispite no antilock breaks we get it) He tells me that its a different "unit" and everytime he walks away i tell my dad its the same car, and we chuckle. He makes up some bs when he got it(even though i knew they had the car for like 7 months and the sister dealer for another 6) and we get the car at out price rage and from that day, i realized, people are idiots, only the intelligent slip through the cracks. I even tried to call him on his bS but he shrugged it off, hahaha
 
#18 ·
Re: Dealership BS...who\'s gotten some?

Originally posted by EludeR:
biggest dealership BS that i was fed, that if i didnt get ESP GAP Theft protection maintence plan , that i might not get financed. im gonna end up paying 18,866 for my car , a base zx3
, i got shafted , but i like the car
<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">You do know ALL OF THAT IS CANCELLABLE RIGHT?

I would definately keep that gap though
 
#19 ·
Re: Dealership BS...who\'s gotten some?

Originally posted by SCARECROW:
I don't have any BS dealership stories but I guarantee I have more BS customer stories than this whole board can put together against dealerships. If you have a dealer giving you BS, get a new dealer. We are not ALL out to get you. We are not ALL bad. And there are just as many or more "bad" customers as dealers.
<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">Scarecrow...I totally agree being Ford "certified" for over five years, what I have came to learn is the old addage..."Buyers are Liars"
 
#20 ·
Re: Dealership BS...who\'s gotten some?

Originally posted by SCARECROW:
I don't have any BS dealership stories but I guarantee I have more BS customer stories than this whole board can put together against dealerships. If you have a dealer giving you BS, get a new dealer. We are not ALL out to get you. We are not ALL bad. And there are just as many or more "bad" customers as dealers.
<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">I agree here. I have seen my fair share of BS from both sides, but the dealer I got my Focus at (Kendall Ford in Eugene) actually gave me a great deal and the salesguy was a great help. It was a 3 hour drive from home, but it was well worth it
 
#21 ·
Re: Dealership BS...who\'s gotten some?

Some of these stories are pretty funny though, and I agree, it's not always the dealership out to get the customer (it wasn't that way where I bought my car, that's for sure). The guy I dealt with was the nicest guy ever, 77 years old, I think...been selling cars for 48 years. He didn't know much about the Focus, and admitted that up front, and took my word for everything I said I wanted on it. He eventually found it, gave me a good price, and I drove down to sign the papers. Some salesmen are great!


One instance that was kinda funny tho, was that I was experiencing the general hesitation problems that are notably the same as the DPFE senor failure symptoms, but I never threw a CEL. (Still haven't.) But I took it in anyway for a whole bunch of stuff to be checked before Warranty was up (literally got the car in at 35959, lol), and this was one of them. Well the excuse they gave me was that "it's fairly normal for the car to do this, especially with the A/C on (it was the middle of winter at the time)" so of course I said I didn't use A/C in the winter, and that I used heat as a defroster, not the A/C, and he said that the car being on the floor/defrost turned the A/C on, as well as just the defrost position. I beg to differ, since you can hear and feel (in a power reduction) when the A/C comes on, plus the light doesn't come on like it does for the defrost mode. He also added that "someone removed the airbox resonator" and that "it could cause pressure problems causing the car to exhibit the same symptoms". Hmm...
 
#22 ·
Re: Dealership BS...who\'s gotten some?

i tihnk my favorite story was when i went into FORD to get my seats replaced on my zx2, cause they were teraing at the seams.

so i drop the car off, and come back in 3 days, plenty of time for them to fix them, and i am told it will be ready in an hr. so i wait in the lobby and read the magazines, and drool over the stage 3 rouch before my eyes there.

and i see this guy in the chair next to my complaining about $$ issues to someone on his cell phone, and how his car was gonna cost 2k to fix.

so i start talking to this guy and ask him whats he for, and he said his focus *zx3s* transmition broke. so i ask how. and he said hes not sure, so i told him to go and ask the service guy how, and explained they had to tell him how it broke, etc.

he went and asked the service guy how or what caused ti to break. and this was the reply. "during our extensive diagnostic test on your car we couldnt find anything wrong with it. then we tested some more, and came up with that your front tires are under inflated, and caused extra stress on teh axles in the transmition and that caused it to break." i asked him how much 'under inflated they were' and he sadi 5psi

5PSI uunder the suggested rate, cause his tranny to break. ya right


so i argued and won the guy a free tranny under warentty
 
#23 ·
Re: Dealership BS...who\'s gotten some?

I've gotten some dealership BS mainly from the "Service Advisors". I've been lucky in that 99% of the time, I can get the right answer from them.

In any case, it pays to get to know the dealership staff. If you're into cars and they know (it's what they do...it's what they love), chances are they will give you the real story.
 
#24 ·
Re: Dealership BS...who\'s gotten some?

When my wife and I went shopping for a Manual ZX-5 for her, we went through ALOT of crap dealers.
The funniest one though, was a Dealer who said, "We don't have any manual ZX-5's on the lot....How about a Focus Instead???"

He was pointing at a Sedan, and couldn't understand why I was Laughing so Hard!!!!
(He didn't realize that the ZX-5 IS a Focus!!!)



[ 04-20-2003, 02:18 AM: Message edited by: MichaelXi ]
 
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