The damn car bidness...

[basstracker89]

I ain't worked on a car lot since 2012ish. When we bought our new old Kia Soul I had the entire deal prearranged with CarMax in Lithia Springs. In and out in under two hours.
Well...last week I saw a 14 Hyundai Elantra at Butler Nissan in Macon for about $9600.00. It has 107K miles showing. Then I had to do the proof of income thing since I'm a 1099 employee. Meanwhile I told my sales girl I would buy the Hyundai or a Rav 4 they had at another Butler lot. BUT...those were the ONLY cars I would consider. And I damn sure would NOT buy any Nissan.
A few hours ago the phone started ringing. Yet another manager called to tell me he got me an approval. Like they're doing me a favor. But NOT on the Elantra or Rav 4. Then of course they want me to hurry on over there (about 35 miles north of here) . So I made it like my wife was the bad cop and said if SHE didn't like it then it wouldn't work. So I asked them to send me a short list of vehicles that would work. First thing they sent was a damn 21 Sportage. I already told them I've been burned by Kia once and that's it for me. It's like none of them.took a single note or remembered a damn thing .
So about an hour ago ANOTHER manager calls and said he heard I had worked for Butler before. Then he starts trying to guilt me about the approval and telling me how I can trade out.of anything in twelve months blah blah blah.
Then he ask how much I can pay monthly. I said " About $400.00." and it was like a reflex with this ****in guy because soon as I said that he said "Up to..?" And I said " Oh here we go with the Up To ****. It's up to $400.00 Like I just ****in told you."
Anyway the market is SO ****ed up that they can't sell me a $9600.00 Elantra but they CAN sell me a damn $18,500 "Certified Altima". That's when I told him I would keep driving my raggedy ass Kia before I sit my ass in a ghetto ass Nissan Altima. Then I told him to loose my contact info and not bother me anymore.
So I guess the morale of this story is that we will be going back to CarMax in the not to distant future. I don't wanna pay $2500.00 more than the car is worth but it's worth it to completely avoid all that bull**** brain damage.

Very sad. And you're a car guy.....WOW

 

[GFB]

Still relevant 5 years later

 

[hozjo]

We can get that payment down to 400/mo on a 6 year loan, then in 12 months you can trade in the car you are underwater in for another car you'll be even more ****ed by the financing on.

 

[fattboyzz]

Ive been told to get off the property a few times.

They get all upset when you call them liars to their face.

 

[GFB]

I can understand the value in setting up the purchase online. Even if it doesn’t get you the absolute best possible deal, it can be close enough that the small difference is worth conceding to avoid hours of dealing with unscrupulous sales tactics. That said, even going through online services the dealerships can still try to screw you.

ETA - I went through TruCar for my truck. A dealer called me up and said he didn’t have the exact truck I wanted. He offered me a lower trim lever but explained me it was a more expensive truck so the price would have to go up. I don’t recall ever in my life losing my **** with someone on the phone like at that moment.

 

[CAMSDADDY]

I can understand the value in setting up the purchase online. Even if it doesn’t get you the absolute best possible deal, it can be close enough that the small difference is worth conceding to avoid hours of dealing with unscrupulous sales tactics. That said, even going through online services the dealerships can still try to screw you.

ETA - I went through TruCar for my truck. A dealer called me up and said he didn’t have the exact truck I wanted. He offered me a lower trim lever but explained me it was a more expensive truck so the price would have to go up. I don’t recall ever in my life losing my **** with someone on the phone like at that moment.

Turcar did me a favor last week and offered me >$5000 less than trade in on my wifes car. I knew then I didnt want to buy from them when the time came.

 

[GFB]

Turcar did me a favor last week and offered me >$5000 less than trade in on my wifes car. I knew then I didnt want to buy from them when the time came.

I have no experience selling through them but it’s never a good idea to take for granted it’s a good offer. Glad you already had a ballpark idea.

ETA - I haven’t bought a new car in 10 years so I am sure a lot might have changed.

 

[greg vess]

I ain't worked on a car lot since 2012ish. When we bought our new old Kia Soul I had the entire deal prearranged with CarMax in Lithia Springs. In and out in under two hours.
Well...last week I saw a 14 Hyundai Elantra at Butler Nissan in Macon for about $9600.00. It has 107K miles showing. Then I had to do the proof of income thing since I'm a 1099 employee. Meanwhile I told my sales girl I would buy the Hyundai or a Rav 4 they had at another Butler lot. BUT...those were the ONLY cars I would consider. And I damn sure would NOT buy any Nissan.
A few hours ago the phone started ringing. Yet another manager called to tell me he got me an approval. Like they're doing me a favor. But NOT on the Elantra or Rav 4. Then of course they want me to hurry on over there (about 35 miles north of here) . So I made it like my wife was the bad cop and said if SHE didn't like it then it wouldn't work. So I asked them to send me a short list of vehicles that would work. First thing they sent was a damn 21 Sportage. I already told them I've been burned by Kia once and that's it for me. It's like none of them.took a single note or remembered a damn thing .
So about an hour ago ANOTHER manager calls and said he heard I had worked for Butler before. Then he starts trying to guilt me about the approval and telling me how I can trade out.of anything in twelve months blah blah blah.
Then he ask how much I can pay monthly. I said " About $400.00." and it was like a reflex with this ****in guy because soon as I said that he said "Up to..?" And I said " Oh here we go with the Up To ****. It's up to $400.00 Like I just ****in told you."
Anyway the market is SO ****ed up that they can't sell me a $9600.00 Elantra but they CAN sell me a damn $18,500 "Certified Altima". That's when I told him I would keep driving my raggedy ass Kia before I sit my ass in a ghetto ass Nissan Altima. Then I told him to loose my contact info and not bother me anymore.
So I guess the morale of this story is that we will be going back to CarMax in the not to distant future. I don't wanna pay $2500.00 more than the car is worth but it's worth it to completely avoid all that bull**** brain damage.

If you owe in your trade they can work the negative equity into a new car much easier. On a high mileage used car it's harder to get financed because of milage and not much room to hide negative equity. Even a strait buy on a used car like that is much harder to finance. Their thinking is the car will break down and leave you with a huge expense possibly causing you to default on the loan. That happens a lot and they are just covering their rear. It's called risk assessment.

 

[Trailrider]

So I hate dealers with a passion, but playing devil's advocate here, were you trying to fully finance the 2014? Reason I ask is you mentioned approval. There are honestly not many banks out there right now, with the interest rates being what they are, that are willing to risk financing a 10 year old vehicle regardless of price or mileage. That's not really a dealer thing, that's a bank thing. And if you found a bank willing to finance one that old the interest would probably be over 10-12%APR which is insane for a car. And you should have known better than to succumb to the old what can you afford monthly payment question, oldest trick in the book, they know they can get you on the hook for a more expensive car then. Why? Because banks will finance a newer car longer and with lower APR%. So you can get a 21 for $400 a month, and they'd rather not finance a 2014. It's priced that low because they're hoping for a quick cash sale on that one before it goes to the auction.

 

[Dice]

Yeah I know. But the part that pisses me off so bad is that they use the same old script/tactics that they did in the 80s and 90s. I've had that job more times than I wanted to and I know how ****ty it can be. Worse than that is that even if I did wanna do a deal with this lot and my sales girl was off that day she would have to split the deal with the lot or whoever did the paperwork.
I ain't mad at my original sales girl. She was doing her job as best she could. But ALL of her managers dropped the ball or worse never paid any attention to what I said.
This is why CarMax is still in business. Not that I like them all that much. But they make it very simple. The car costs this much. If you want it come on in and we can arrange a loan for you.

car max wanted to give me 1800 dollars for my 07 Buick Lacross with 35000 miles on it. I hate dealing with car thugs. I did fing my truck on car max and bought it at a decent price.....about 12000 dollars cheaper than my daughters "good Friend" that was a car salesman/scam artist.