The damn car bidness...

[letusbuyyourcar]

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.

 

[eightnsand]

Whew!! I hope you feel better. I buy from carvanna in my underwear. They drop em off.
You ort to try it. GLWSalespeople.

 

[letusbuyyourcar]

When I started in the bidness back in 94 I can't say it was that much different but back then it was kinda fun. Not to mention all the customers weren't internet experts and Consumer Reports nerds. I think a lot of it is ME. I simply do NOT have the patience and certainly no tolerance for the stupid **** anymore.
I ain't the kinda guy that's smiling and talking all the time. And I don't trust the type of guys that are. On top of that I refuse to run out on the lot and chase down "Ups" that ain't even parked and gotten out of the car yet. It didn't have to be the way it is now but it's been that way SO long nobody can see it any other way.

 

[Rolling_trip]

Good call on staying away from the Sportage, my wife’s died at 70k and it was a nightmare working with local Kia dealership. Luckily they gave her a decent trade in value on it for a 14 Camry with 80k they had on their lot. Bastards kept her car for a month, stuck her with a rent a car bill, and only called her 3 times during the time they had it. Their service department is trash, wouldn’t trust them with a bicycle.

%Jim Ellis Kia

 

[letusbuyyourcar]

Whew!! I hope you feel better. I buy from carvanna in my underwear. They drop em off.
You ort to try it. GLWSalespeople.

I'm glad you had a good Carvana experience. Lots of people didn't. Lots of people couldn't get their titles from Carvana. It was so bad Texas and a couple of other states shut them down. Maybe they're profitable now but until Covid hit and folks wanted touch free delivery Carvana never had a profitable quarter. I really expected them to be gone by now.

 

[wolfmanrogers]

The whole business is a lying, thieving, government supported franchised theft ring.

 

[letusbuyyourcar]

Good call on staying away from the Sportage, my wife’s died at 70k and it was a nightmare working with local Kia dealership. Luckily they gave her a decent trade in value on it for a 14 Camry with 80k they had on their lot. Bastards kept her car for a month, stuck her with a rent a car bill, and only called her 3 times during the time they had it. Their service department is trash, wouldn’t trust them with a bicycle.

%Jim Ellis Kia

Our Soul hasn't had a catastrophic failure. I will say that for it. And I was relieved years ago to find out it has a timing chain instead of a belt.
BUT... It's been through a dozen or so coil packs. For a while it ate headlight bulbs for some reason. Then the crank sensor went out. Now there's some valve by the filler neck that's bad. Cheap part but lots of labor. So if you put gas in it and don't leave it running it will choke down several times after that.
But the ****in pressed in front wheel bearings are the worst problem. They started roaring in 19 and I had them replaced. Maybe six months later same ****. So that time I took it to a legit mechanic and had new hub assemblies installed to the tune of $670.00. Didn't make it a year and they were roaring like a jacked up four wheel drive again. I'm sick of throwing money at it. But I'll keep on doing it before I get buried in some bull**** Nissan Dodge, Mitsubishi etc.

 

[letusbuyyourcar]

The whole business is a lying, thieving, government supported franchised theft ring.

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.

 

[GFB]

At no point will I discuss monthly payments with a salesman. If you need financing, maybe you can get pre-approved from your bank/credit union. This could open the door to buying from a private seller as well.

 

[rockyfatcat]

At no point will I discuss monthly payments with a salesman. If you need financing, maybe you can get pre-approved from your bank/credit union. This could open the door to buying from a private seller as well.

Excellent advice. They love to throw all the add-ons into the garbage heap of the monthly payment. Force them to give you an OUT THE DOOR PRICE. If they won't do that. It is time to talk to a manager or walk.

Oh and never give them your drivers license or anything you must get back in order to leave. Just in case, bring a photocopy. If you are going to walk out the door, you don't want to have to go back and get your drivers license. They'll use any tactic to keep you on the lot.

There is an excellent set of videos from a father son sales team https://www.youtube.com/@CarEdge/videos