Whats your best "used car salesman" or dealer story?

In reply to P3PPY :

I did something similar for my MIL. 

I knew she was looking so I offered to help. She thought I might be able to get a better deal but didn't want to bother me. Local small town dealer would not budge off MSRP. She even said, I'll pay full price if you throw in rustproofing. He wouldn't budge. I went with her to the next town who I knew had an abundance of last model year cars and we went at it. She paid just under MSRP, but I got her $6500 trade in for an 11 year old Cavalier that was worth maybe $800, and saved a pile of tax in the process.

Back in 2013 I was looking for something to replace my 01 XJ Cherokee and after a fair amount of research I decided I needed an SUV with a diesel.  I spent a month or two looking into a few options and settled on trying to find a 07-09 Grand Cherokee 4x4 with the Mercedes diesel V6.  Even around Dallas they were hard to come by and most were 2wd and the 4x4s were gone pretty quickly. 

After a few failed attempts, one of which the salesman tried to convince me that a Mercedes R 320 sitting on the lot was what I really wanted, I found one North of Oklahoma City.  I went back and forth with the salesman and arranged a time to come up and look at it over the coming weekend.  A four hour drive wasn't too bad to get what I wanted.  Hoped in the wife's Sequoia Saturday morning and hit the road.  We ended up passing through Moore Ok where an EF5 Tornado had hit about a week before.  The tornado had crossed the highway we were taking, and it was an eye opening moment to see the devastation, from untouched houses to scoured foundations in a few hundred feet. Terrifying.  

Anyways, we get to the dealer, and no Jeep in sight.  I went and found the salesguy and he disappeared for a bit then came back and said it was at the service department getting something done to it.  I voiced my displeasure and told him I just drove 4 hours to look at it and had an appointment, why would they start working on it.  I was ready to walk, but they said they could get it ready if I would wait a bit.  After about an hour they ended up slapping it together enough for me to look at it.  

Turns out it had been used as a RV dingy for most of its life.  Tow bar hacked into the front bumper, peppered with rock chips and flat towed for god know how many miles.  I figured I had nothing to lose by test driving it so off to the street we went.  It drove fine on flat roads but as soon as there was any grade it started surging unless you gave it a good bit of throttle.  Ended up turning around after about 5 minutes, and told the salesguy that this thing is a mess and not what was represented.  I offered them way under what they were asking since I'd be taking a major risk buying a poor running car with a obviously rough life.  They considered it for a bit but ended up declining.  Loaded up with the wife and headed back home. 

A week later I did the smart thing and picked up a mint 2005 V8 4Runner Limited with 60K miles for less.  Still loving it 70K miles and 6 years later.  

In reply to fidelity101 :

Well alleged drunk driving side I hope the kid got a good fun car. 

A few years back I got it into my head that I wanted to buy a manual Buick Regal GS. This was around 2011 when they first started importing the Opel as a Regal. It's a E36 M3ty car, never get one, but anyway, I am comparison shopping seeing who will give me the lowest price on this thing since the manual is basically an albatross to most dealers.

I go to the GM dealer in town and I'm waiting around and a sales guy catches me checking out the used Cadillac CTS-V they have on the lot. This is the second generation with the 556hp supercharged v8.

He says to me, "You want to test drive it?"

"Ah, I am not really planning to buy it, it's a little out of my price range."

"Let's go have you drive it anyway, maybe you will change your mind!"

"I'm not gonna change my mind, but if you want to go get the keys, sure."

He goes and gets the keys and we go out to the car. It's a black sedan and it has those umpteen way adjustable Recaros in it. Then I see it is an auto.

"Ah, it's an auto? I would have wanted the manual, but let's see how it goes," I say with some sarcasm given I have already said I'm not buying. The sales guy chuckles.

We get in and I start it up and do my seat adjustments. I change nothing about the traction control or anything like that as I don't want to be responsible for breaking this thing. The dealer is right off of Route 8 here in CT, which is a big open two lane highway that doesn't get much traffic except during rush hour and this was a weekend so there was nothing on there and the on-ramp to the highway we are using is this big long straightaway. It's a nice summer day out, sunny and warm.

We pull out of the dealer and approach the on-ramp and I tell the sales guy, "I just want to let you know that when we get to the on-ramp, I'm going to give it the gas."

He looks at me and goes, "Yeah! Of course!" I'm thinking 'okaaaayyy.'

The light changes and when I'm lined up I roll on the throttle. I get about 75% of the way down on the pedal, it makes an awesome noise, I see the sales guy's head fly backwards in my peripheral vision and we are going 100mph by the time the on-ramp ends. The acceleration is tremendous and the transmission is banging off shifts quickly.

"Holy E36 M3!!!!" I exclaim as I let off the gas and slow down to a more reasonable 70mph or so. "This car is absurd! I didn't even get it all the way to the floor!"

"YEAH! It's great right?!" the sales guy exclaims.

"Great, yes! Ludicruous, yes! Totally unnecessary, yes!" I'm laughing at this point.

We drove back to the dealer and put the car back and I definitely thought about whether I could pony up the extra $20k or so it would cost me to buy the Cadillac, but it was only fleeting as I didn't have it. The sales guy didn't even really pressure me at all to buy it. I think he just wanted to take a ride in it.

I've told this here a couple times, Buick dealer tried a bait-and-switch on a new '02 Century my grandma bought.

Their sales flyer had a great deal on a new Century, in their Sunday paper ad, way cheaper than anything else we'd seen. The car was pictured in the ad, and you could actually read the grease pen writing on the windshield. We went to the dealer and did a scavenger hunt for the car, found it tucked away back in the corner, same make, model, color, and grease pen numbers on window.

Then we found a salesman, showed them their ad in the paper, said, "we want this car." You can guess what they said, "oh I think we just sold that one," or "you just missed it," etc. When I told them they still had it, and told them right where it was on their lot, they weren't too happy. It was an ALL DAY ordeal, and the sales staff made everything take way longer, and way more difficult than it should have been, hoping we'd leave, but in the end we left with grandma's new Century at the crazy "bait-and-switch" low price they advertised.

They even worked grandma's Dodge Dynasty in as a $500 trade-in, and we had never once even mentioned having a trade-in.  They tried to brush by that in the paperwork, hoping we wouldn't notice before signing.  Seriously?

Grandma was so disgusted, she made me go with the car when it went to detail to be prepped for delivery, just to make sure they didn't swap cars on us while we weren't watching.

When we bought the Sportwagen, we financed through VW, 1.9% and an extra $1k off, vs. the 4% our Credit Union offered.  I probably should have gone with the Credit Union. 

The jack wagon finance manager put the wrong name on every document, close to my name, but not my name.  I caught it, the sales lady caught it, and I was assured it would be fixed.  It wasn't. Took almost 2 months to get the name right with VW Credit, but the title was already printed and sent off to wherever VW Credit keeps them, with the wrong name on it.  When I registered it, I had to have an affidavit from the dealer affirming that I bought the car, and they screwed up the name.  They drug their feet on attempting to fix their screw up, I had 3, yes three, 30 day temporary tags on my car before I was able to go to the Revenue Office with said affidavit and paper work to register the car.

Fresh out of Boot Camp, and stationed in Pensacola, Florida just (and I mean JUST) after 9/11.

We were out in town doing something and we ended up driving passed a used car lot named "Christian's".  They had a 1992 FD RX7 in that absolutely BEAUTIFUL "Montego Blue" color I just cant get enough of.  The price is $14,400 and E1 me is thinking that somehow I can swing the payments, insurance, and gas on the $700 I make every month.

The sales man sees us looking and comes out with the keys.  We make small talk while looking it over and I mention my rank, to which he replies "E1?  Oh man, you're going to LOVE this leather interior then!"

Me:  "Why would my rank change my preference in upholstery?"

Him: "Because, when you finance this and cant afford food anymore you can boil the seats and eat 'em!"

He suggested at looking at some other cars, but I wasn't interested.  I had an FB back home, and it was going to be an FD or nothing.  Thinking back, I'm glad I didn't.  I was way too young, reckless, drunk, and stupid to own something like that.  I would have wrecked it, broke it, defaulted on the loan, or all three...

 

Hungary Bill said:

Him: "Because, when you finance this and cant afford food anymore you can boil the seats and eat 'em!"


 

That is HILARIOUS and helpful. A lot of used car lots would've sold you the car expecting they could repo it down the road and sell it again.

I haven't really had any bad dealerships, for the most part.

The moment the salesman starts talking out his ass, I laugh and walk. No cars these days at big dealerships are unicorns; I can just wait.

I, too, have an FD story. Was stationed in Okinawa w/ a buddy who had two FD's and I absolutely loved them. Went to Iraq, made some money, and came back to the States on leave, wanting an FD. There ended up being one with a stick at a local dealer for something like $13k, but I didn't know how to drive a stick at the time. Had my dad come along, he test drove it while I rode in the passenger. Holy E36 M3 I loved it. Then came the price negotiation bit...

See, I've never owned a car prior to this. Never bought a car, either. I was 19, had $7k in cash, and I wanted a fast car with no payments as my first car. Didn't know anything about the lovely rotary reliability; I just saw a beautiful car that made sweet noises.

I offered the $7k in cash, dude laughs and says no. He suggests taking a small loan to cover the rest, but I was adamant on paying for the car in full. Needless to say, I didn't end up with an FD.

My leave was finishing up and I really wanted a car waiting for me back home after my time in Okinawa was up, so I started scrambling.

Started looking at cars with a manual that was under $7k. A whole bunch of junk, but then I saw a '00 Trans Am. Knew absolutely nothing about it. Was massive compared to the FD but it had some sort of a V8 and was a stick. Dealer was only asking $6k for it out the door, so I figured whatever, why not.

11 years later and I still love the LS engine and the late F-Body.

I still wonder what would've happened if I had that damn FD, though...

A couple come to mind.

Back in '89, I decided I wanted a new truck. I happened to be on a stay at home vacation, dressed for garage work but driving by the dealership, decided to take a look.

Looked around the lot, no salesmen came out to bug me. Found a truck I was interested in, went inside and no one would even look at me.

I said, rather loudly, that I intended to buy a new truck if anyone wanted to sell me one. The frat boy salesmen looked at me from their coffee pow wow and went back to talking among themselves.  

Finally an older gentleman came out from his cubicle, asked what I was looking for, handed me the keys and told me to take it for a drive.

I came back, we made a deal and I wrote him a check for a brand new truck.

I made sure to tell the frat boys what they missed out on.

Second one involved the service manager where I bought my current truck, a 2wd Ram 1500.

I had the truck in for service and he came into the waiting room explaining how my transfer case and front differential needed service. I let him explain everything and then asked him if it was necessary on a 2wd truck. He said of course not. I told him he should probably take a better look at my truck then before trying to sell me ~$500 worth of service I didn't need.  

He turned a very interesting shade of red. He's not there anymore, either.

"Ugly Yellow Corvette"  Definitely a bot, no human could fail to realize that yellow car faster thing.

First car purchase I actually had money

The Mighty Ford Tempo finally expired from total electrical system failure.  Started out with the tail lights not coming on when you turned on the headlights, no it was not equipped with daylight running lights.  Started to need the key jiggled on starting, not a good prognostic sign, autotragic transmission, so bump start is not an option.  Drove the bug for a long time with a dead starter, just parked on a hill, dad did that with his XKE for a while, where I got the idea.  Situation is I need a car now to navigate the high speed highways and byways of deep East Texas now, getting a check in two weeks that would cover 2-3 of said vehicles.  Never had purchased a new vehicle before, hankering to do so.  Want small, sporty and economical vehicle, as there is the 50 mile drive to work a few times a week.  This sounds like a burden, but there are some surprisingly decent 2 lane black tops, for example, if you are going from Montgomery to Austin, go via Cat Springs.  You add a mile or two, but if you have good tires you will not add any time

I want to buy American, so I go look at the Ford Escort GT, specifically turned out to be teal color one.  I liked it, three pedals, good brakes, composed handling.  Scared the sales guy a little testing out the capabilities of the car, but he did not have a coronary along the way.  We arrive at his desk, come to an understanding on trade in sight unseen, Tempo was dead.  We land on a price, and an interest rate on the note.  I am to come back the next morning, so they can get all the paperwork together and detail the car.  Come back the next morning, car is right up front, sparkling in the morning sun.  Step inside, guy is at his desk. Where did I put that paperwork, oh here it is in the top drawer.  Slides the paper work and keys across to me, sign right here and you are set with your new car.  I happen to look at the contract prior to signing it.  $2000 higher on the price, and 4 points higher on the interest.  He gives me some song and dance about not having any room on the price of these cars, he had tried to give me the student deal, and I am not a student.  I get up and leave.  Go down the street and and start test driving used cars.  Drove an Eclipse, not the turbo AWD beast, base car was not bad.  Drove the 240SX and was sold, was like a low slung 510 that was pretty to look and had a hatch to toss the bicycle into, kept that car for 100,000 miles.  Sales guy knows I like it, and thinks I am a complete idiot.  I failed to disabuse him of this notion.  He is focused on amount of payments, I am talking about price of the car.  He lets me have it for $12,000, which was not a bad price for a creampuff, two year old car.   Interest rate he thought I was going to pay.  15.9 % interest though, ouch.  There was a 30 day grace period with no interest, no penalty for paying it off early.  Do the deal and I am out of there.

Get  call from the Ford sales manager on Monday morning, sorry about the misunderstanding about your car, have it all worked out at the price and interest rate you had agreed to, you can come pick it up.  I have a car.  Apparently your guy misunderstood when I told him Saturday that I was buying a car today.  Glad I did not buy it too, I asked around about you and your business has a horrible reputation.  Too bad, I was planning to buy a Lincoln in a few years.

Had to go back a week after picking up the 240 to get the tool kit and jack, which was missing.  I get my fat check a week and a hlaf after that, pay the Nissan off.  Get a call from the guy who sold it to me, asking if the car was okay.  Sure, yeah, love it.  Well, the note was paid off, and that usually means the car got wrecked and paid off by insurance.   Nope, running like a champ, I just could not pay 15.9% on it.  Well, you don't want to tie up all your cash in car, let me check and see if we can do better with the interest rate.  Puts me on hold for less than 5 seconds, comes back and tells me they can do 7.9%  You can cut it in half, just like that, really?  Clearly you were trying to screw me, and no, that is not all my cash.  

I quit trying to buy cars in that town after that

My parents wanted to get out of their Kia Forte and get into a new RAV4 so someone from the Toyota dealer called a local Kia store and the person who they spoke to flat out gave them a hard time about getting the 800 number for Kia Finance to get the payoff numbers..

Back in spring 2013, we ended up buying a used C6 'Vette for my wife's DD.  At the time, her previous DD was our only snow capable vehicle, so we needed to do something before winter arrived.  I was a couple years into owning our NA Miata at the time, and after a couple of months, I figured the 'Vette was going to replace it as the fun/track car.  We ended up trading the NA for a same year ('92) Ford Bronco at a local used car lot that summer.

For 7 months I watched my poor NA languish on their lot until I couldn't stand it any more.  I had saved up some cash, so I decided to buy it back.

The salesman who had done our previous deal was no longer there, so they had no idea I was the previous owner... until it got to paperwork time.  They had never transferred title out of my name, so they wrote me a receipt, I called my agent and re-instated the insurance and off I went.  The tags were even still good for another 3 months!  

Good thing I bought it back, too... the 'Vette turned out to be a total POS and was gone a few months later.

Anyone ever have an experience at a dealership where a salesman wouldn't speak to your wife when she is buying a car? This happened to us twice. Once about 7 years ago at an Infiniti dealership where she was looking at a new G37XS and the salesman kept talking to me about the car and all its features. I tried to explain to him that it's her car, she is going to be the one driving it and more importantly, she is paying for it, so you should talk to her. He did for about 2 minutes then came back and began talk into me and ignoring her. She got upset when he asked me if I'd like to drive the car and showed me the keys. At that point I looked at her and told him that he lost a sale due to his own ignorance. He turned to her as she told me "let's go". We left, drove to the local Mercedes dealership and bought her a new C300 Sport. Turned out to be a great car that she loved driving.

Fast forward 3 years and it's time to begin looking for a new car. We did a bunch of online comparisons and she really wanted to look at another MB product. We go back to the same dealership to look at either an ML or new body style C300. The salesman pulled the same crap the Infiniti guy did. He would not talk to her and walked right next to me telling me all about the car. I stopped him and ex-pained that SHE bought the last car and SHE is buying this one. I only get to drive it on weekends if we go somewhere, so go SELL HER the car. Worked for about a minute and he began talking to me again even though I walked across the showroom to look at something that cost more than our first house, some gulling AMG thing. She became upset again and I walked her out the door, back near our car and tried to calm her down. It didn't work and she said she would rather buy anything anywhere else than deal with these a-holes again. We ended up at the local Audi dealer and she sat in a 2015 A3 which was about the size of her old 1998 A4. We went for a quick ride and she wasn't crazy about the 2.0T motor, it was a bit "buzzy". They had a red S3 sitting in the showroom and since it was the same car with a MUCH better EVERYTHING, the salesman rolled it outside and gave her the keys. We went for an extended test ride and after some convincing about the extra $$$ this one cost, she agreed that an S3 was the right choice. The salesman sat with us, talked to HER about options and colors and began checking other dealers inventory for a car with the specs she wanted. Turns out that Audi made 500 examples of the "Launch Edition" with some special features and a dealership about 2 hours away had one that they were willing to trade.
 

Very nice car, great salesman and one happy lady. Isn't they the way it's supposed to go when you are spending your hard earned money on a product? Don't salespeople make a commission on what they sell? If so, speak to the person writing the check for the product. It's the total opposite when we go out to a restaurant or bar. I can send at the bar with my head on fire and the bar tender won't even look at me, but when she steps up and asks for a drink, they immediately go over to help her. I guess it pays to be cute at a bar but not the local car dealership. 
 

^I have no idea what that guy was doing; sales training tells people to focus on the female(s) if they want to make the sale.

Oh, I remember one. I was between 18 and 21, and went with my dad and maybe mom to look at a 1-series. This would have been dad’s car, not mine. I can’t remember the price or even if it was new or used, but it was enough that it was WAY too much for parents to be purchasing for their kid. We’re talking to the salesman, and obviously did not think to tell him this would have been for dad. 

We get out to the car and he was surprised when I was getting in the back seat. Said he thought the car was for me. No big deal, but every time I think about it I lose some hope for humanity - because in the showroom before seeing the car, while I wasn’t rude or anything, if he thought they were buying me a car that expensive, under that assumption the air I was giving off could only have been one of EXTREME entitlement with no gratuitous implications to my parents... and it didn’t phase him at all. 

GCrites80s said:

^I have no idea what that goy was doing; sales training tells people to focus on the female(s) if they want to make the sale.

is there any "online sales training"  , I would be interested in what "mind games"  they are taught to play on their customers , 

There was an old 80s movie where the guy is a salesman  and selling stereo equipment , and the customer is a Metalhead  with a pregnant girlfriend  ,  He sees the pregnant GF and backs off on his hard sell ......

So...we bought this Juke, a 2012, with a 6 manual and turbo. Salesman said he couldn't drive non-automatic [Nissan dealer] so my wife took the fob and got in the drivers chair - salesman gets in front and I in the backseat. I put on my seatbelt because I knew what was coming. Out of the lot turned left while shifting from 1st to 2nd and finished the pattern on the curved on-ramp onto I-74. Salesman holding on to the assist bar over his head. Some braking, downshifting, upshifting and a quick exit ramp, clover-leaf and away we go the opposite direction back to the dealer. Paid cash for it.

Now 2019...keep getting letters from the dealer that the Juke is in high demand and they want to buy it back; I mean every 3 or 4 weeks. They want somebody other than us to own it??

In reply to JAGwinn :

I wear my seat belt because I never know what's coming.

californiamilleghia said

There was an old 80s movie where the guy is a salesman  and selling stereo equipment , and the customer is a Metalhead  with a pregnant girlfriend  ,  He sees the pregnant GF and backs off on his hard sell ......

Ruthless People is that movie.  Yea, I’m old enough to remember seeing that in the theater when it was released, yet struggle to recall what I did yesterday.

lotusseven7 said:

Anyone ever have an experience at a dealership where a salesman wouldn't speak to your wife when she is buying a car?

OMG Yes. My wife (girlfriend at the time) and I went to a small car lot to look at a car for her. We pull up in my mint Range Rover (I was young and even dumber, it was bleeding me dry but it was cool) and step out of the car. The salesman is on me like glue. I tell him we're looking for a car for her and point to my wife. He keeps talking to me about it. I do the not so subtle body language things like turning to face her, talking to her about it, etc. He kept on me like glue and wouldn't even look at her. It was frankly astonishing. This went on for a while, and he never took his eyes or attention off me. We finally left, and even now ~23 years later (!) she still remembers it clearly and gets steamed up about it.

I bought my Manual X5 on Van Nuys blvd. in way over my head as far as experienced used car sales men. I had brought $10,000 cash (advertised at 13k) and I just kept telling the guy that no one in LA traffic was ever going to buy a manual. I did the walk-away thing as well. He finally caved in and as we were closing the deal a guys walks in all excited and said he was there to buy the BMW.  I guess I wasn't the only weirdo who wanted to be tortured with 3 pedals in traffic. 

A used car salesman from West Virginia banged my Mom. Sadly, he never really taught me anything about selling cars, so I just keep them all.

#truestory

In reply to OjaiM5 :

I was looking at a new 2011 Accord 5-speed manual tranny LX base model and on a Saturday morning they pull up the car.  Keep in mind they had 75 automatic Accords and 2 manual Accords.  I declined a test drive as I already drove one the week prior.  

Another sales dude walks up and asks for the keys as "another customer" is interested in the car.  I sense a pressure tactic and tell the guy they can have the car.  Who else wants a base model 5-speed Accord this Saturday morning?

Four days later the price was right and I bought it. 

I worked at a very large new car dealership with many sales people. At the end of each month, the 2 sales persons with the least sales were no longer employed.

lotusseven7 said:

Anyone ever have an experience at a dealership where a salesman wouldn't speak to your wife when she is buying a car?

My parents. It was time for Mom to get a new car after enduring a 1988 Sentra E 4-speed for 12 years. She picked a Ford Escape and they went to the dealership where they'd bought Dad's 1994 Taurus and she got completely ignored. His rockstar salesman from years prior had left. They walked out and bought one same-day from another dealership 20 minutes up the road.