Buying Without Getting Reamed

[HLS30]

Yup. I love the power of the car, but I'm tired of not getting on the road because of warm up times, no power anything, no AC/heating, etc. Time for a fun car that I *know* is going to work every time.


Also, maybe it's time we stopped talking about boost and start talking about wild N/A builds

[Silver Ignition]

Jeeze. Glad I bought my car where I work.

[FlamingRectumSyndrome]

Update: Wednesday, April 30th, 12 days since I bought the car with the promise that "it'll take two days to get here", and the third "it'll definitely be here" day. I call the dealership, no car. I tell the sales guy I want to know where the car is, and I want an answer today, or the deal is off.

I call another Toyota dealership maybe 15 miles from home. I tell the salesman the short version of what I've been going through, and promise him I will buy a Hot Lava FR-S if he can get it for me without ****ing me around with maintenance contracts and accessories and extended warranties that I don't want. He tells me he's got one on a lot in a city an hour away, and he can have it for me in about 4 hours. This is interesting, considering the original sales guy had sworn there was only one left in the entire state, that it was 350 miles away, and I'd have to have it shipped to the tune of $600.

The original sales guy calls me back an hour later, explaining that the dealership in Oxnard (who was supposed to ship the car to my local dealership) had instead sold the car. I'm holding a sales contract with the VIN number of the car I've supposedly bought, and ask him what he's going to do about it. He says he can offer me $1200 off of any FR-S they've got in stock, or I can come by and pick up the check I'd written for the down payment. I tel him I'll take option #2.

I head to the second dealership. Sales Guy #2 makes a couple of attempts to sell me crap I don't want. The car had Lo-Jack "pre-installed" for $700, I tell him I don't want it, he says it will be a huge headache to remove and offers to sell it to me at his cost ($180). I tell him that it's his problem, I didn't ask for it, and he crosses it off the list of accessories. When I talk with the finance guy, he says he's required by his boss to offer me a whole list of extended warranty options, paint protection plans, etc. He claims he's not commissioned and doesn't care whether or not I buy any of the stuff, but they have him on a timer and if he gets through things too quickly they figure he's not trying hard enough. So we go through the motions of him showing me stuff and me turning him down, but there's never any real pressure for me to buy any of it. A far more pleasant experience than the first dealership.

In the course of all this, I tell salesman #2 about the first car being sold out from under me. He shakes his head and says "that's probably not what really happened." He explains that each dealership is allotted so many cars, but they don't keep much inventory on hand. If someone sees there are only two or three examples of the car they want, they're more likely to buy because of the perception of scarcity. So a dealership might have 40 FR-Ss, but only two or three on the lot. The rest are kept at the port of entry, and are shipped to the dealership as needed. Dealerships can sell or trade their inventory to other dealerships at their discretion.

So the Hot Lava FR-S I originally bought was not at a dealership in Oxnard, it was part of the Oxnard dealership's inventory but located in San Francisco, about 50 miles away. What apparently happened was the first dealership made a deal with the Oxnard dealership to transfer the Hot Lava FR-S to them, but the Oxnard dealership backed out figuring the could make more money selling it themselves. Hence the repeated delays and broken promises as the first dealership bargained with an unwilling partner. And they were trying to make me pay $600 (originally $1000) to ship a car 50 miles.

We close the deal in less than an hour. And I end up paying $2000 LESS for the exact same car. They don't screw me with bogus shipping fees, they don't stick me for $200 to install the "dealer installed" fog lights, and they get me a 2.59% finance rate. I got a text message last night with a photo of the car. I pick it up this afternoon, 24 hours after signing for it.

Summary: If you haven't taken delivery, there is no contract. Up to that point, you can walk out at any time. Don't be afraid to go elsewhere, or even to play one dealership against another. Some are more honest than others, but they'll ALL try to upsell you on stuff you may or may not want, as that's where they really make their profit. Stick to your guns; they need you more than you need them.

[wbradley]

You people should look for the trailer to the movie Suckers on YouTube . Very apropos.