Latest dealer scam: Used Car "Reconditioning Fee"

Link, if you care: Linky

If you don't want to click, it's a 2014 Hyundai Accent GS with 20k miles. The listed price in the ad is $11,977. That's a pretty fair price, so I read further...

"All prices are plus ... reconditioning fee of $1995.00."

Now the car is $14k, before taxes, etc. Not such a deal.

I emailed the dealer to ask why a 1-year-old car with 20k miles on it would need $2000 worth of reconditioning.

Here's the response:

"I can tell you that each and every car that we offer for sale has the $1995.00 reconditioning fee. They have found that some cars take more and some take less to make them frontline ready. To be fair to all the owner decided to average it out at $1995.00 per car. Also the fee that Hyundai charges for the Certification (good at all Hyundai dealers in the US) is figured in also. That is the best explanation that I have for that fee."

Um, it's the JOB of a used-car dealer to recondition cars. Averaging your cost of reconditioning over every car makes no dang sense. Saying that the reconditioning (and Hyundai Certification) is MY responsibility to pay for is disingenuous at best, and downright deceitful at worst.

Basically, it's a scummy bait-and-switch tactic. "Hey, you want this $12,000 car? Great! Oh, by the way, it's really $14,000."

Dealers never fail to amaze me with the depths they will go to to scam people.

I can't tell which is worse, this, or de-horsing the customer.

G_Body_Man wrote: I can't tell which is worse, this, or de-horsing the customer.

De-horsing the customer. This, you'll see in full before you sign if you pay attention.

Come on down to FU autos!!!!! Where the reason there is a price difference between wholesale and retail is doubled down on and passed on to you!

This week only no LUBE!!!!

Mike wrote:

G_Body_Man wrote: I can't tell which is worse, this, or de-horsing the customer.

De-horsing the customer. This, you'll see in full before you sign if you pay attention.

My parents parachuted the trade when they bought their Sonata. They got whacked by F&I.

I click the link. I see that it is Vegas, home to some of the shaddiest dealers in the country!

If you don't think that you're paying to recondition a used vehicle somewhere else, you're fooling yourself. At least these folks are telling you up front and not hiding it in the price like everyone else.

Bobzilla wrote: If you don't think that you're paying to recondition a used vehicle somewhere else, you're fooling yourself. At least these folks are telling you up front and not hiding it in the price like everyone else.

Hm. I totally get what you're saying, but to me, "telling me up front" would involve telling me (i.e. advertising the car at) $14,000.

JohnRW1621 wrote: I click the link. I see that it is Vegas, home to some of the shaddiest dealers in the country!

Indeed. I see that you live in Sandusky, OH. Within a couple hours' drive, you can probably visit 15 Hyundai dealers, maybe more. I get 4. The next closest Hyundai dealers are 100 miles away each, small-town dealers in opposite directions. After that, it's Phoenix or L.A.

Dealers here of all makes treat people like poo. Most folks can't be bothered to go out-of-town to buy a car.

EvanR wrote: Link, if you care: Linky If you don't want to click, it's a 2014 Hyundai Accent GS with 20k miles. The listed price in the ad is $11,977. That's a pretty fair price, so I read further... "All prices are plus ... reconditioning fee of $1995.00." Now the car is $14k, before taxes, etc. Not such a deal. I emailed the dealer to ask why a 1-year-old car with 20k miles on it would need $2000 worth of reconditioning. Here's the response: *"I can tell you that each and every car that we offer for sale has the $1995.00 reconditioning fee. They have found that some cars take more and some take less to make them frontline ready. To be fair to all the owner decided to average it out at $1995.00 per car. Also the fee that Hyundai charges for the Certification (good at all Hyundai dealers in the US) is figured in also. That is the best explanation that I have for that fee."* Um, it's the JOB of a used-car dealer to recondition cars. Averaging your cost of reconditioning over every car makes no dang sense. Saying that the reconditioning (and Hyundai Certification) is MY responsibility to pay for is disingenuous at best, and downright deceitful at worst. Basically, it's a scummy bait-and-switch tactic. "Hey, you want this $12,000 car? Great! Oh, by the way, it's really $14,000." Dealers never fail to amaze me with the depths they will go to to scam people.

hopefully your return e-mail had the bolded portion above in it … how else will the dealership ever know why they didn't sell you a car ?

Mike wrote:

G_Body_Man wrote: I can't tell which is worse, this, or de-horsing the customer.

De-horsing the customer. This, you'll see in full before you sign if you pay attention.

ok … guess I'm not up on the latest internet verbiage … what is de-horsing ?

Bobzilla wrote: If you don't think that you're paying to recondition a used vehicle somewhere else, you're fooling yourself. At least these folks are telling you up front and not hiding it in the price like everyone else.

but if he'd seen the higher price (without the "explanation" … odds are he wouldn't even have considered the car

wbjones wrote:

Mike wrote:

G_Body_Man wrote: I can't tell which is worse, this, or de-horsing the customer.

De-horsing the customer. This, you'll see in full before you sign if you pay attention.

ok … guess I'm not up on the latest internet verbiage … what is de-horsing ?

When you trade your car in, then the dealer lets you leave in a car you don't own yet. Then they call you back in a couple days and say the financing fell thru and you have to return the car or pay more for financing, different car, etc.

wbjones wrote:

Mike wrote:

G_Body_Man wrote: I can't tell which is worse, this, or de-horsing the customer.

De-horsing the customer. This, you'll see in full before you sign if you pay attention.

ok … guess I'm not up on the latest internet verbiage … what is de-horsing ?

Show up at dealer where they relieve you of your trade in and put you in a loaner to drive around while you make up your mind. It's like moving in with the girlfriend.

wbjones wrote:

Mike wrote:

G_Body_Man wrote: I can't tell which is worse, this, or de-horsing the customer.

De-horsing the customer. This, you'll see in full before you sign if you pay attention.

ok … guess I'm not up on the latest internet verbiage … what is de-horsing ?

I had to look it up too:

https://saverocity.com/pfdigest/if-you-dont-know-what-dehorsing-is-you-need-to-read-this/

Here’s what happened: a customer went to the Volkswagen dealership in Corona, CA and traded in a 2012 Passat for a 2013 Tiguan. The new lease was $442/month for 42 months. And then, in the words of the customer: 3-4 weeks later. I call the dealership wondering why they have not paid off my trade yet. My sales rep assured me that it has been paid off because they’ve sold it to an older lady right after Christmas. 5 weeks later, My credit monitoring service alerts me of a 30-Day late remark on my report for the Passat. Dropped my FICO to 615. I immediately called VW Credit to appeal but they told me that I am still responsible for the loan regardless of what the dealership does with my deal. So I call my sales rep complaining about it and he said that he will bring it up to his manager. Sales rep at this point is useless. 5-6 weeks later. Manager calls to tell me that we have to restructure the deal and I need to come in to sign a new contract. He said the dealership is losing too much money on it and that VW Credit would not approve the lease under current terms. He also said that I need to buy the extended warranty to make it numbers “line up right” for approval. 6th week. Went in after work and grudgingly signed a new contract. New lease payment $433 for 48 months. Sorta glad that my payment went down even if I extended the lease for 48 months and I got the “consolation” ext. warranty contract. Went home with a dejected feeling. 6-7th week. Registration and plates arrive in the mail and lease with account number appears on my VW Credit On-line account. At this point I thought it was finally over. 7th week. General Manager of the dealership calls me and wants me to come back in to unwind the deal or sign a new contract for $466 a month for 48 months. He said the manager made a mistake and that is the only way he could get it approved

Giant Purple Snorklewacker wrote:

wbjones wrote:

Mike wrote:

G_Body_Man wrote: I can't tell which is worse, this, or de-horsing the customer.

De-horsing the customer. This, you'll see in full before you sign if you pay attention.

ok … guess I'm not up on the latest internet verbiage … what is de-horsing ?

When you trade your car in, then the dealer lets you leave in a car you don't own yet. Then they call you back in a couple days and say the financing fell thru and you have to return the car or pay more for financing, different car, etc.

gotcha … that's why I've NEVER used dealer financing … always arrive with bank money in hand

My local grocery store should advertise milk for $.99*

*plus $2.00 refrigeration fee.

Wally wrote:

wbjones wrote:

Mike wrote:

G_Body_Man wrote: I can't tell which is worse, this, or de-horsing the customer.

De-horsing the customer. This, you'll see in full before you sign if you pay attention.

ok … guess I'm not up on the latest internet verbiage … what is de-horsing ?

I had to look it up too: https://saverocity.com/pfdigest/if-you-dont-know-what-dehorsing-is-you-need-to-read-this/

Here’s what happened: a customer went to the Volkswagen dealership in Corona, CA and traded in a 2012 Passat for a 2013 Tiguan. The new lease was $442/month for 42 months. And then, in the words of the customer: 3-4 weeks later. I call the dealership wondering why they have not paid off my trade yet. My sales rep assured me that it has been paid off because they’ve sold it to an older lady right after Christmas. 5 weeks later, My credit monitoring service alerts me of a 30-Day late remark on my report for the Passat. Dropped my FICO to 615. I immediately called VW Credit to appeal but they told me that I am still responsible for the loan regardless of what the dealership does with my deal. So I call my sales rep complaining about it and he said that he will bring it up to his manager. Sales rep at this point is useless. 5-6 weeks later. Manager calls to tell me that we have to restructure the deal and I need to come in to sign a new contract. He said the dealership is losing too much money on it and that VW Credit would not approve the lease under current terms. He also said that I need to buy the extended warranty to make it numbers “line up right” for approval. 6th week. Went in after work and grudgingly signed a new contract. New lease payment $433 for 48 months. Sorta glad that my payment went down even if I extended the lease for 48 months and I got the “consolation” ext. warranty contract. Went home with a dejected feeling. 6-7th week. Registration and plates arrive in the mail and lease with account number appears on my VW Credit On-line account. At this point I thought it was finally over. 7th week. General Manager of the dealership calls me and wants me to come back in to unwind the deal or sign a new contract for $466 a month for 48 months. He said the manager made a mistake and that is the only way he could get it approved

in a situation like that isn't there some way to force the dealership to stand behind they're original deal … this smacks of bate and switch …which is illegal …. seem like some lawyer would love to get in front of a "civilian" jury to argue this … since "no one" likes dealerships, that should be easy to win ..unless the law is actually on the side of this modern day fleecing

Bobzilla wrote: If you don't think that you're paying to recondition a used vehicle somewhere else, you're fooling yourself. At least these folks are telling you up front and not hiding it in the price like everyone else.

This. It's actually better than dealers that advertise the car at $11,995 and then put "After $2000 down" in tiny print. I don't get all the hatred for dealer tactics. If the market value of a given car is $Z, who cares if they get there by saying $X for the car plus $Y for fees = $Z? The bottom line is the only line that counts. If a customer can't figure that out, then, well, a fool and his money are soon parted.

Duke wrote:

Bobzilla wrote: If you don't think that you're paying to recondition a used vehicle somewhere else, you're fooling yourself. At least these folks are telling you up front and not hiding it in the price like everyone else.

This. It's actually *better* than dealers that advertise the car at $11,995 and then put "After $2000 down" in tiny print. I don't get all the hatred for dealer tactics. If the market value of a given car is $Z, who cares if they get there by saying $X for the car plus $Y for fees = $Z? The bottom line is the *only* line that counts. If a customer can't figure that out, then, well, a fool and his money are soon parted.

I see what you're saying, and I agree that more price transparency in itself is a good thing, but to me it's extremely annoying - at best - to have to get more detailed information on the car and then do math to see the final price.

If they said "buy this car for $14k! ($12k base price + $2k reconditioning fee)" I'd be all for it.

If they said "buy this car for $12k! (plus $2k reconditioning fee)" I'd find that annoying, and it's a slippery slope to requiring people to do advanced calculus to find out how much the berkeleying car actually costs.

If they say "Buy this car for $12k!" and then you find out about the reconditioning fee when you call, or worse yet, actually go to look at the car, that's almost false advertising.

I hate hidden fees in any situation. I hate when you show up to buy anything (a car, a plane ticket, a hotel room, whatever) and then find out that the price is 25% higher. They all explain it away "oh that fee applies to any hotel room in the state". That may be, but when I asked you what I had to pay for the room, you did not disclose any of these fees. Give me the full price you jackass!

I agree completely that it's annoying. I disagree completely that it's a scam.

From KBB FAQ

"What are Trade-In Values? Trade-in Value is what consumers can expect to receive from a dealer for a trade-in vehicle assuming an accurate appraisal of condition. This value will likely be less than the Private Party Value because the reselling dealer incurs the cost of safety inspections, reconditioning and other costs of doing business."

So the Trade in and retail values are rendered useless because the scam is he is "telling you" his costs but he isn't taking it away from the retail price.

It's a scam (double charging for reconditioning and overhead, lying about reconditioning costs, ect.), just not the obvious one. But hey semantics aside it is a E36 M3 dealership and a E36 M3 price on that car.

Run away

Duke wrote: I agree completely that it's annoying. I disagree completely that it's a scam.

Note to self; never buy anything from Duke

HiTempguy wrote:

Duke wrote: I agree completely that it's annoying. I disagree completely that it's a scam.

Note to self; never buy anything from Duke

Some people think otherwise.