Originally Posted by patteeu

Like what?

Originally Posted by StcChief

Customers for the most part have always assumed they are being screwed, some how.

Past history of car business, past experiences.
Bad cars, lemons problems, you name it.

Now with Internet capabilities to 'do your homework' before appearing at the dealer. This could/should help with this problem.

Originally Posted by PastorMikH

We got up and asked for our keys. They stalled, left the room, came back, tried another pitch and I had to speak in a loud, forceful tone "I WANT MY KEYS NOW!".

Originally Posted by PastorMikH

When shopping for a replacement van for our '98 Safari, we had some interesting experiences.

We started off heading out for OK City. We stopped off at a dealership in Yukon at a GM dealer that had 2 Astros sitting on their lot. I was kinda surprised that a salesman didn't chase my van across the lot as I drove over to the vans. I looked the 2 vans over for quite a while before anyone ventured out. Finally, about the time I'm thinking they must not want to talk to us, out comes a salesman. I asked him about the Red van with Gold trim (:thumb:) and he tells me they want $12.9 for it and it's a '01 has 34K miles on it. I talked to him for a bit to see what his best price was (I wasn't getting carried away Foxman;), after having a cousin that manages a dealership, I know there is usually a lower price than the first one stated). He said that was the best they could do and after visiting a bit more told us if there was anything else he could do for us to let him know. He handed me his card as I climbed into our van and waved as we drove off.

We headed on into the city. And made quick circles of lots, managing to escape the dealership property before the salesmen running after us could catch up. One lot though we were driving through, the car in front of us stopped. THEY STOPPED!!!! There wasn't room to get around them. Not only did they get hammered by salesmen, we had one on each side of the van, one trying to talk to the wife through her window and one trying to talk to me through mine. Luckily they didn't have what we wanted and when they heard what I thought about Chrysler products they surrendered and walked off.

One dealership actually had an Astro. As we pulled up to it, here comes the guy. He's really helpful. We go for a test drive. Then he wants me to take a spin with him in mine. He notices all kinds of things wrong with it - it's odd that the only problem it had other than high mileage he didn't catch. He takes us inside, keeping my keys of course, and starts talking to us about the deal he could offer us. The van was a 2004 Astro 4wd loaded with about 8k miles on it. They want 18k for it. I tell them that's more than we can afford - we were looking for something between 10k and 13k. He crunches numbers, gets us down to taking our van in trade and 17K. When I told him thanks for his time, he told us to hold on, and slips back out. He brings his sales manager in. That guy starts talking. They talk, show me a "deal" to which I say no to, head back out, talk and come back in with another "deal". After a while, I divulge to them that I had found another van, told them the deal but not where, and the salesman flat out called me a liar and that if such a van really existed he'd buy it so he can make 4-5k on it. That's when I had it. We'd been there for 2+ hours at this point. The manager realized the salesman crossed the line with me and the price dropped considerable. He offered us the van at 15K and would give me an aditional 2k for my van. By this point though, I had made up my mind that if they gave me their van for free I wouldn't take it. We got up and asked for our keys. They stalled, left the room, came back, tried another pitch and I had to speak in a loud, forceful tone "I WANT MY KEYS NOW!". They were really, really mad at me for not taking their deal. The first salesman was glaring angrily at me and his tone had changed completely from when we first met - he told me we had wasted his afternoon and he could have been selling cars to people that wanted them. I told him we tried to leave an hour sooner and he wouldn't let us. We were both glad when we got back into our van and pulled out.

We ended up going back to the first dealership. I went inside, found the salesman I talked to, and told him we were interested in his van. We test-drove it and bought it at $12.9.

When I get ready to buy again, if he's still selling at that dealership I will go back and talk to him again.

Originally Posted by Skip Towne

What do you consider high mileage for an Astro Van?

Originally Posted by foxman

I have literally had a customer pee in a vehicle before....

Originally Posted by patteeu

:eek: Wow. On purpose? What was their angle?

Originally Posted by scott free

I'm with whoever said that most (certainly NOT all) salesmen are basically honest, its when they walk into the finance office that they get shoved over a desk & made to squeal.

Originally Posted by Bwana

Truer words have never graced Chiefs Planet scott.

OK, it’s time for me to chime in on this thing for real. "Most" F&I guys would whore their own mother out on the street. Before you go into that office, do the math on the extended warranty stuff and the "croke and choke" insurance as a lot of the F&I guys call it on the inside. Most of the time that stuff is a complete rip off. NEVER EVER EVER get caught up in the payment per month scam.

Example:
Dealer: How much were you thinking per month on your payment?

Customer: Oh, around $300-400 per month.

Dealer: well Mr. customer, If I can get you payment within that range, you will take the car TODAY wont you?

Customer: Um, I guess so.

At this point, in most cases, your payment will come back (almost like magic) at around $398 a month.

Dealer: Extending hand "CONGRATULATIONS Mr. customer, you just bought yourself a car!!!”

Guess what, you just likely over paid by $75 dollars a month for five or six years BEFORE interest is tacked on! DO THE MATH IN ADVANCE and don’t' get caught up in the payment per month SACM.

Now keep in mind, this is even before you go into see the finance and insurance (F&I) guys. As stated above, that is where you are really going to get hosed if you don't know what you’re doing, or don’t do your homework. In a lot of cases, in order for the warranty to payoff, you would have to smoke the engine, the transmission and the rear in order to break even once you do the math after paying interest on the extended warranty for five of six years. The odds are higher for you to hit the Powerball. If you are that worried about the thing breaking down and losing all those parts, perhaps you shouldn’t be buying that brand or check in for some psychological assistance? The way cars are built these days, 99.9% of the time the extended warranty is a total sham. If you want to be safe, take that same money and stick it into your savings account every month and if something does happen, not only is it there, but you were making the juice on YOUR money and not getting charged interest on something that you will likely never use. Not only will you get to keep your money, but if in the off chance something does go wrong, it won't cost you nearly as much when you work the figures on doing it both ways. The "Life insurance" they sell is also a rip off if you have any other kind of life insurance, or even if you don't, go get some for a lot less than the "croke and choke" insurance that (once again) you're paying interest on for 5 or 6 years. A little bit of homework can say you $100 or more a month in most cases.

The only other advise I would have is find a good sales person like Foxman and stick with him. There are a lot of good people in the business, but there are also a lot of dirt bags. As several others mentioned, the same goes for customers. Buying a car seems to turn the nicest people into Devil span in a lot of cases.

Originally Posted by trndobrd

That would explain why the last salesman I dealt with looked physically ill when I announced, after 3 hours of haggling over the price, that "these finance charges look too high, I think I'll just write you a check instead of financing."

Unfortunately, that deal never happened because they tacked on a $150 "title acquisition fee". In KS the state charges $10 for a 30 day tag and nothing for title transfer. The best excuse they could come up with was "well, that's just a fee we charge all our customers. $150 seems like a pretty small amount to break a $9000 deal."

"Yep." I said as I walked out.

Originally Posted by Bwana

In a lot of cases, in order for the warranty to payoff, you would have to smoke the engine, the transmission and the rear in order to break even once you do the math after paying interest on the extended warranty for five of six years. The odds are higher for you to hit the Powerball. If you are that worried about the thing breaking down and losing all those parts, perhaps you shouldn’t be buying that brand or check in for some psychological assistance? The way cars are built these days, 99.9% of the time the extended warranty is a total sham. If you want to be safe, take that same money and stick it into your savings account every month and if something does happen, not only is it there, but you were making the juice on YOUR money and not getting charged interest on something that you will likely never use. Not only will you get to keep your money, but if in the off chance something does go wrong, it won't cost you nearly as much when you work the figures on doing it both ways.

A little bit of homework can say you $100 or more a month in most cases.