anyone else have as easy time at the dealer as I did?
 

seriously. all I ever see are stories about bone head salesmen and general douchyness of dealers.

basically it went down like this. called the dealer looking for a 14' Limited. dude said he only had Series Blue's but he'd call around. called back in a couple of hours said he had exactaly what I wanted and that he'd bring it in with a deposit. I told him what I was going to pay and what I wanted for my trade. he agreed so I brought my car down to make sure they'd give me what I wanted. they did and they also let me take the wheels off(staggered 19's on my 02 GS430) and put some stock ones on that I got at a pawn shop. they agreed to all my terms, got a great interest rate and signed the papers. they went and picked up the car in the am and I came down to pick it up after work. super easy.
they also had a specialist teach me about all the ins and outs of the features and car when I went to pick it up. total cake.

I had a hard time getting their attention at first but once I did my dealer was wonderful!
I had a very specific maximum payment amount I was willing to pay and since I still owed so much on my prior car they had to get very creative to meet that. In the long run I got a pile of extras for either free or greatly reduced prices.
I think a lot of the confusion from the sales people is that they simply don't sell enough of these cars to know much about them. They are a niche car, in a niche market and require a niche salesperson to do them justice.
Hell, for that matter, look at some of the really dumb questions that some people who actually own one ask here which they would have known if they took a few minutes to read the manual.

Mine was easy.
Found on internet sent email with offer.
They countered, then I countered.
We came to an agreement and I scheduled a pickup time.
I arrived at dealer with car prepped and ready to go.
After walk around and my approval go into finance.
I brought my own financing, they see it and decide to beat it.
I sign and drive.
Less than 1 hour at the dealership!


The key to a great dealership experience is to remove their leverage. Their leverage is you not being prepared, not having the facts, not having financing, having a trade and not knowing its value, etc...

I haven't had a single dealer know anything about the cars. One even told me Orange was a '15 only color, haha. But on the plus he said he couldn't fit in the seat (he was half a foot taller than me and I'm 6'4") so he just tossed me the keys and let me go for 30 min. Was pretty cool. The other dealership was very respectful even though I'm 24, and took me seriously and met my payment I was willing to make (funny how pure price disappears when they want a sale bad). The sales experience for me at every toyota dealership I've been to has been the best dealership experiences I've had from any brand.

My experience went pretty much like OP's did AFTER I made it clear I was interested in buying.

When I went in to drive one, they didn't have any out on display at all. They had six on the property, but they were buried back by the fence in the storage lot behind the service area. They had to move several cars to get one out. Then through the whole drive the salesman made little comments about how the car was underpowered and really fell short, and he tried to get me to drive a WRX instead.

But when we got back, he passed me off to his sales manager, and the negotiation from then on was a breeze. I had a number in mind and started lower, and the sales manager actually beat my max number. I didn't have a trade and already had financing in place, so that helped. Overall it was a positive experience, although it was clear they really would rather sell me something other than a BRZ.

Oddly enough, they now have all their BRZs right out front. They must have had enough people asking about them to change their approach.

I was lucky to find mine at a none scion dealer where I have purchased a few cars before. They also happened to have 3 sitting on the lot. I told them what I wanted to pay out the door with my trade. We went back and forth through email, they didnt want to give me shit for my trade which was throwing the numbers off. Finally I took it to carmax and they offered over $1,500 more than the dealer, so I let the dealer know and they finally agreed to match it. This was over the course of maybe 3 weeks over email. I ended up paying $500 over what I initially wanted to spend, but I did end up with the monogram which is the one I wanted and still think I got a decent deal. Overall can't complain, they also threw in some paint correction to try to remove/minimize some of the scratches on it.

I bought a first shipment BRZ in May 2012. The original place I had a deposit were ****ing around.

I called a few and found one 200 miles away that said I just needed to put a deposit and it was mine for MSRP, no gimmicks.

I put the deposit, went and got it. They even let me drive it to fill up the tank. 5 miles on it. I liked them so much I went back and bought the limited spoiler for my premium and had them install it.

I was happy because at the time all the dealers were trying to throw mark ups and shit. The first place even tried to tell me they didn't know the price of the car when MSRP had already been announced.

There are definitely some legit places out there if you look hard.

No offense OP, but my experience has been that if you have as easy time of it as you say you did, you probably left a lot of money on the table. Dealer margins on new cars aren't that good, so they fight for every penny. Maybe you caught them in a weak moment. If so good on you.

none taken.
I got my price on True car and it was very low. I told them another dealer had agreed to give me everything I wanted(sorta true) but I didn't want to buy it there as the sales guy was a douche. I told him I was going to buy a car that day. the question was where. it was the last day of the month. they needed the sale pretty bad.

even if I did leave money on the table I got a steal for my trade. the CEL lights were on, the alternator(brand new) was throwing a voltage code and I had it on 3 stock wheels with tires showing steel and the spare. I had it towed to the mall lot behind the dealer and limped it about a 1/4mi. parked it and left it. :D

Mine was pretty easy since I had already driven the car at Scion's "first drive" autocross.

I walked into the Scion dealership and told them I wanted an FR-S. They told me the price and said no haggling on the Scion "pure price". I signed the deposit form.

Car arrived 2 months later. Did a quick test drive and signed the paperwork.

It's easy when the dealer sets the price and you accept. :bonk:

I had the deal worked out ahead of time, told the salesman exactly what I wanted, and he made it all happen. I think when the car arrived and I went down to the dealer to close the deal, I was there for all of an hour to an hour and a half tops.

Here's how my buying experience went down with @HeubergerMotors:

Sent email.
Emailed back available cars.
Picked one.
Dealer made offer that was $500 less than what I was ready to pay.
I accepted.
Paperwork exchange, then I flew out to pick up the car.

The most difficult part was trying to figure out what airport I wanted to fly out of.

-alex

We also used True car. Had contact with 4 different dealers, but ended up getting the geographically closer one to match price, so it was really about a 3 minute phone conversation - can you match x price and they said yes. I'm sure we could have gotten a slightly better deal at the time, but I wasn't willing to compromise on color or on it being a Limited. Also, we were not trading or financing so that removed a lot of potential complications.

That was pretty much my experience in a nutshell. Easiest car purchase ever.

I was nervous as hell to. I've always heard horror stories of people dealing with traditional dealers. That and the whole commitment thing. It doesn't sit well with me ;). The whole time in thinking that I may have missed something.

I truly believe that a lot of the horror stories that you hear on the net are people that went into dealerships with unreasonable expectations and then got pissy when the dealer could/would not meet them.
As nice as it seems to say "I want that car for $5000 less then the sticker price" the dealers have to make money or they starve.
There are several stories along that line on this forum and the OPs always felt the dealer was "ripping them off' or being "shady" just because they couldn't get the price they wanted.
I bet there are as many "I had the most obnoxious, self entitled dbag of a customer" stories from salespeople as there are "the salesman didn't have a clue" ones from buyers.
My wife sells RVs and some of the stories she tells are hilarious because of just how bad the customers can be.

My salesman had just finished his Scion sales training and was really new, so it took a while but he was just as excited as I was. It was a great experience. I sent him a card with some photos and a gift card as thanks.

Explained all of the features? Lol what features?

Sounds like a rare dealer indeed...they must like their customers, lol

I didn't really have any problems except for getting the interest rate low enough. I knew how much the car was, how much I wanted the minimum monthly payment to be, and what the maximum interest rate I was willing to borrow at. After some research I decided that my terms were reasonable and realistic. I went in and told the salesman what I was interested in, test drove the one I wanted then sat down to figure out the money. I did the standard paperwork to get an offer on financing, they came back with a crazy interest rate and payments I wouldn't afford. It was understandable since I'm so young and have almost no credit history. I pretty much just said I couldn't afford the payments. The salesman talked a bit, I just said basically the same thing. Then they cut the interest rate almost in half but it was still more than I wanted to budget for. At this point the salesman said they couldn't do any better and after 20-30 mins with no change I left. When I got home I noticed I had a couple missed calls(it's hard to hear your phone ring while on a motorcycle). The salesman left a voicemail saying that some corporate financing manager was visiting and wanted to meet me and approve a better deal (sure it was BS but I went with it). At this point I knew they really wanted to sell me the car, so we talked, I added a bit more to the down payment and got the interest rate/payments I wanted. Then I had my awesome new car. I didn't enjoy the haggling over the interest rate but it was worth it and honestly it really wasn't a big deal anyway.

I think most of the bad stories are people going into a dealership with unrealistic expectations about what is reasonable on both the dealers end and in terms of their own budget (I know of way to many people who bought cars that they really couldn't afford, at least not with out going broke every month)

I think a lot of people go in and say, "I want this car for X payment" and don't learn about the details. then when they find out that they paid X and the term of the loan is for 10 years or whatever they get pissed.

essentially everything in this thread:
http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showthread.php?t=63261
thing is they got shit reviews on Yelp and a guy I know who bought his there hated them. sales manager told me that he was only like 2 months on the job and that he changed a lot of the staff and how they did things. that probably had a lot to do with it.

It was pretty easy for me at the dealer, pretty much called said hey this is what I am looking for do you have one in stock?

They responded "yes we do". I said ok "sounds good, I do not have a trade and this is what I want to pay for the car." They responded "let me ask my manager if we can do that can you hold for about 5 minutes?" I responded "sure". They came back at a price I did not like and I responded "Ok, thank you for the offer however I am not willing to pay that price so I will have to pass at this time please do not save my number and call and bug me every other day". The salesman then says "Hold on a minute let me go see what we can do 1 more time" I say "ok". they come back and say they can not go that low but can sell it to me at $100 more than what I was wanting" I said "ok lets do it I am not in front of a computer right now can I give you all the info you need to get finance and everything else rolling and once it is a good to go deal you call let me know and I will head down and sign everything and take delivery?" They then responded "absolutely we need ....". I then gave them what they needed.

Got a call about 2 hours alter stating everything was good to go go ahead and come down, i said "I will be there in about 3 hours go ahead get the car ready for delivery".

When I showed up they had the paper work ready, I signed everything and took delivery of the vehicle 40 minutes after walking into the dealership.

So all in all a 30 minute phone call. 45 minute drive to the dealer, 40 minutes at the dealer, 1 hour drive home (took the long route). So not quite 3 hours on the total project and just a little over an hour not driving.

I would say my experience was pretty good, and was happy with it. I would not say I was lucky though as this is how I purchase all my vehicles regardless of the dealer. Either they want your business and will make your life easy, or they do not want your business which you can tell from the get go. If they do not want your business and are being difficult I stop them in their tracks and call a different dealer.

However regardless of weather or not I am buying subaru or dodge I only work with 2 dealerships I have bought a lot of vehicles from them (same salesman at both) and they do not BS me around. But then they never did from the get go either. From day one of buying my first new vehicle the above process is pretty much how I have done it. I have never spent more than a hour at a dealer buying a vehicle if you take out the time spent on the phone before going to get it and the time driving there and then driving home.

If you mean business and they can tell your life will be easy at the dealer. If they feel they can push you around maybe not so much.

My purchase was fantastic, they gave me an absurdly high amount for my trade in order to sell me their car at the "Pure" price.

:sigh:Same here! Easiest and best car buying experience ever, and I actually feel good about it still. (usually I am filled with buyer's remorse by now)

My experience started out bad, but ended good. First of all, I wasn't even sure on whether I wanted a BRZ Premium, Limited, or the new Series.Blue. I was looking at a lot of options on cars.com and truecar. In the end, I decided to go with the Series.Blue that MSRP's for just over 30k, but I knew MSRP is no real number. Contacted every single dealer who had a Series.blue within 200 miles and shot ridiculously low offers, got a few reasonable e-mails back (and a lot 'you are crazy' ones). Came to the closest dealer, but when I was ready to fill out paperwork, I saw that he put destination on top of the agreed price. Walked out. Called two more dealerships and made the closer one match the price of the one that's a bit farther away. Came in to take a look at it, and sign the paperwork. 27,500 for Series.Blue +TTL+Service Plan+Warranty. Got it at 1k over MSRP with everything included. I'm pretty happy.

I felt I was being generous when I was searching for a car, MSRP, Manual transmission, no options (no audio, no clear bra, no lug nuts, no sticker that says 'scion' on the bumper), you'd think I had called up and said "After I fucked your mom last night she said I could get the car for free". If it wasn't for my father calling every dealership in the area and some out of state I simply would not own this car because nobody was willing to sell me what I wanted.

I didn't mind waiting, putting down a deposit, I was flexible on color, didn't matter. Even then, when I sat down to sign the paperwork it took 4 hours, 3 of which were sales tactics of "oops messed up the form, gotta print again on this machine that was obsolete before you were born, in the meantime howabout this sticker that's going to protect your car from being stolen for $500? It's only $8/month!"

There are some dealerships that would have killed to have me as a customer, MSRP, no options, just pull the car off the truck peel the plastic off do the inspection, test drive, sign the papers and drive away, it would have been 3 hours worth of work for them and fat profit margin.

:bonk:

Oh no doubt that there are real horror stories as well! I was just saying that sometime it is the buyer not the dealer that is the monster.
Of course on any forum you usually only hear the bad stories and then almost always just from the customers perspective. This of course leaves an impression that all the dealers are horrible people that just want to screw everybody over when statistically I bet that is not the case.
There will always still be a certain percentage of shady or just plain incompetent dealerships because...people!

I had a very easy experience, but I work at the dealership I bought it at lol. Got an amazing price on my trade though, turns out it needed alot more work than I thought. Still got ACV for it though.(Needed approx $8500 worth of work)

What kind of work? That is huge $$$$. I don't think you would get that if you didn't work there.

Dealership snagged the car I wanted from port.

Everything was done by email/phone

Told them the price I wanted to pay.

They countered with an offer $300 more than what I asked.

I accepted.

Never stepped foot onto the dealership lot.

Car deliver to my house.

Just for the record, these days Truecar isn't necessarily the best price, or even close to it. When Truecar was first available years ago, their price estimates where far more aggressive and dealers were very unhappy about their transparency.

For me, Truecar was considerably more than what I paid. I went in knowing the invoice price and KBB for my trade-in and I worked from there. I got 100% of KBB on the trade, and paid well below invoice. I also did not accept any "extras".

Buying an FRS in the Winter months can be advantageous. Not sure they move a lot of them. The only "gotcha" was actually my bad - I didn't realize that FRSs come with Summer tires that are reportedly pretty risky here in Maryland Winter weather. Just fixed that today.

My purchase experience was quick and easy. Very little haggling, and absolutely no mention of "Pure Price".

Scion dealers are usually a bit better I find. Scion doesn't sell in huge quantities and usually the way they act reflect that. They're usually curtious. I'm not sure about this either but I think sometimes they're half Toyota and half Scion so they won't be desperate either.
I was cross shopping between a FiST at the time and I got some dude that I overheard was about to go on lunch but the scretary diverted me over to him before he got on lunch. He did not want me there at all. Totally lied, we have none left, they're all sold out around the country, no discount before I even mentioned prices, and just trying to drive me away. It's the inflection and tone that he gave me. To be fair, I was 20 and pretty young looking so I could have looked like a punk that had no money and just wanted to go on a joy ride. I just got a decent paying oil and gas job so I finally saved enough to buy my first car and one that I really wanted. Still to this day, I'm 50/50 split between the FiST and BRZ. I got myself and FR.

My dealer has been nothing but excellent to me, from sales to service. I do not doubt most of the horror experiences, but not all dealers are bad.

Mine was also easy.

I think it's because we go in knowing exactly what we want and don't bs them. I called asking specifically for a stock whiteout monogram in manual. Guy said "You're in luck, we got one coming in one week." and that was it. Not much bargaining room in the price considering I didn't trade in for mine and I was very likely one of the first to get a limited trim in the states. 2-12-14 to be exact. IIRC, people were still on wait list to get theirs from Longo Toyota until mid March, which is one of the biggest Toyota dealerships in the nation (first or second I think) and I got my car in Orange County, so not even that far away.

Was your salesperson young? Mine was fairly young, I'd say not even 30 yet and I think he put it together that I knew what I want and he can't fuck with me. IMO, he probably couldn't BS me because I knew more about the car than he did.

I love knowing more about the cars than the dealers do makes it so much easier to buy them and call them out on their BS if there is any.

As I stated previously I have had the please of never really having to deal with any BS from a dealer but I have many friends that have.

I bet it's a bit disconcerting for car sales people to have a car enthusiast come in wanting to buy a car. The salesman I had was actually somewhat knowledgeable about cars but a lot of the stuff he pointed out or talked about I already knew and/or was obvious. I almost told him to stop talking as he wasn't telling me anything I didn't know or that was useful, but that's not how the game is played *sigh*

But if I ever buy a new sports car again I'm probably going to have some fun with it. Like asking if they can remove the ABS and traction control systems and "does it really need airbags? Can I get one without them?"

Never thought of turning it into a game now that does sound like fun :)

It needed a new rear end assembly(needed new bearings and seals pretty much all the way around, guy who did a rear end gear change for me a few years ago botched that job and it's been whining a little ever since, but it's gotten progressively worse), suspension(still on factory suspension @ 82k miles), exhaust(no cats and straight piped), brakes, wiring under the car was apparently all kinds of messed up(I didn't touch that but when my transmission was replaced after it was blown up from a supercharger the shop that did the work apparently didn't do the best job).

The rear end I knew about, but the rest of the stuff I knew was going to need replacing soon just not as much as the shop came back with. But either way not my problem anymore lol. I would have gotten alot less if I didn't work there.

I was checking out an RS 1.0 yesterday. Salesman kept saying he couldn't understand why they used this engine but liked that they got the all wheel drive system from Subaru. No, I'm not kidding. Mid 40s - mid 50s guy, lifelong car salesman from what he said. They're definitely out there.

I have to say my experience at the dealership was perfect, However I sold myself my car. We have a stand alone Scion Dept and I think that really helps us stand apart from the rest, Plus our whole team is Scion owners and enthusiasts so that always helps for knowledge when it comes to the cars and add ons, (so I do suggest searching for the right store in your area)
But I do love love this thread because reading it will help me make sure were not making the mistakes a lot of others are!