Consumerist reader Chris decided to take advantage of GM’s please-buy-a-car Employee Discount sale that we wrote about yesterday, so he headed off to two different dealerships in the NY/NJ area. What he found were deserted showrooms with salesmen who ignored him or argued with him over the existence of specific models he’d looked at online. He adds, “tonight I’m off to Toyota for some hard numbers on a Corolla and Camry.”
“Why GM cant sell cars: What employee pricing cant fix” [www.schiffner.com]
(Photo: spcummings)
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I ‘loved’ the Priority Toyota experience I had when we bought a Corolla for my mother. I had a friend working there and some salesgirl injected herself into the sale. I enjoyed her calling me a liar when I told her my friend had just purchased a loaded model for under 17k. She demanded the dealerships name and then his name.
I was irritated but we had found a car and were looking at it. After telling her we would be dealing with my friend she decided not to stop selling. We got up and left.
The dealer 30 minutes away had the car for the price we wanted and was ready to sell with no games or strings (Mechanicsville Toyota)… The owner of Priority got a reaming by my mother as our family friend was losing a sale due to the way we were being dealt with. Comedy gold was her referring to the dealership as the “toyota museum” where people could look at cars but not buy them!
Priority matched the price of the other dealer and sold us the car. They tried to play with the numbers but we were able to hold them to what we wanted.
A major word of warning: Beware the options meeting and the fake financing meeting where they upsell you on options its worse than an Amway convention back there.
Who the hell buys a rim/tire warranty for 1200$?? Or a car wash subscription for 900?? I loved the “towing insurance” and Gap that we already have through USAA.
Keep your guard up and research your only weapon is to leave.
@GreatWhiteNorth: Did you get the Lennon or the Harrison?
Exactly what service or value do dealerships provide? It seems that most only provide a car + misery pain and suffering. Seeing that the manufacturer gets paid roughly the same regardless of how much the end user gets screwed I would think that the manufacturers would want to remove the dealers from the equation. If I were the car companies I would sell cars to anyone who wants to resell them. I would sell cars to grocery chains, big box stores, private individuals, or multi line car stores. But I would cut off anyone who screwed my customers. As for repairs I would do the same. Anyone who was capable of repairing my cars would be authorized to do warranty work. If anything I would insist on separating the two.
This is a really old thread but I wanted to comment on it.
I recently had a VERY different experience buying a used car from a “liquidation” dealership. I saw the car advertised online and their disclaimer of “bring cash and be ready to deal” and was a little apprehensive that it would be a high pressure type lot. Within about 2 minutes of stepping foot on their lot I was in the drivers seat of the Vintage Porsche that I saw online. About 10 minutes into the test drive I realized I wanted the car. We got back to the dealership and I asked if my friend could test drive the car. The sales guy whisked my friend away and he arrived back in agreement that I should buy this car. The salesman was just there to answer questions and to facilitate the viewing of the car and gave us no pressure and did no sizing up at all.
5 minutes later we were filling out paperwork and I wrote a check for the car. The car was washed and cleaned while we did the paperwork and was waiting for me outside. Start to finish I was driving away in my gorgeous Vintage Porsche in less than an hour. No hassle no negotiation and no crappy fees. When I need another car I will be going back to this lot again cash in hand ready to have another painless transaction.