Car Salesmen are fucking scum.

The BBQ Pit
1

Not that this is news to anyone. After all, this has been general knowledge since the invention of the wheel.

I’m thinking of getting a new Welbymobile. I’m not ready to buy yet, I’m just doing research. My big issue is leg room, because I’ve got loooong legs and a short torso. So I decided to check out the leg room in several different models. Didn’t even want to drive them, just see how I fit in them and what they look like up close. I’m not a picky guy when it comes to cars. Cars are, above all, trasportation. I don’t care about any amenity other than enough leg room and a decent maintenance reputation. All other considerations are secondary.

I visited several dealers yesterday after work because I had nothing better to do. I told all of them up front that I was not buying today, just looking at the crs I’m interested in up close, and wanting to take a seat in them to see how I fit.

Toyota Guy: “No problem.” He let me sit in a couple gave me a card, asked me to come back when I wanted to test drive something.

Ditto the Subaru guy, the Chevy Guy, the Chrysler Guy and the Hyundai Guy. All of these places are places I’ll visit when I’m ready to actually buy something (2 months or so).

The Ford guy, on the other hand, can suck my hairy balls while being ass fucked by syphilitic donkey dicked orangutans. Transcript of conversation follows:

Me: I’m just looking, not ready to buy, just want to sit in a Taurus to check the dimensions.

FG: Sigh. [withering look, as if I’m the person who just shit on his chest] Okay. Which one.

Me: Any one. Doesn’t matter, just want to sit in it.

FG: I’ll be right back. [At least 5 minutes pass, and he returns with a key] Here you go.

Me: [open dorr, sit down, adjust seat] Wow. This is really roomy. By far the roomiest I’ve tested.

Immediately the sky darkens, thunder cracks overhead, and Ford Guy converts into Hard Selling Vulture Mode.

FG: Well, let’s take it for a spin.

Me: Well I . . .

FG: Not ready to buy. I know, let’s go for a drive anyway.

Me: I really don’t want to, because I’m not going to buy anything today, and I don’t want to waste your time.

FG: Don’t worry about it, let’s go for a spin.

The drive lasts about 10 minutes, Ford Guy is blathering in my ear the entire time while I’m constantly insisting that there is no way in hell that I’m going to actually purchase a car today.

None.

At.

All.

We return to the dealership, and he’s in hard sell mode, telling me what a phenomenal deal he’s ready to give me on this car. Sticker Price was roughly 23K. He was ready to give me gasp $2,000 off the price! Hell, that’s a deal, Tauri ain’t cheap cars.

Little did genius boy know that I’d been to a website to check what rebates and special were being offered by the factory (carsdirect.com). Right now Ford is offering a $3,000 factory rebate on the Taurus.

At this point I’m so frustrated with the guy, who is following me to my car still talking, that I decide to ‘negotiate’ a price with him.

Me: Wow, so you’d take off $2000, which would make it $21,000. There’s a $3,000 factory rebate right now, so that would make it $18,000. That’s a good deal. Let me go call my wi. . .

FG: Wait. What? $18,000? No, um with the rebate it would be $20,000.

Me: Huh? You said you’d take off $2000. That, plus the rebate, equals $18,000.

FG: No, um. The rebate was what I was taking the $2000 off of.

Me: What do you mean? You mean you were giving me $2000 of my own money?

FG: Well, um, no. I was… see. It’s like this. . .

Me: How can it be like anything? Basically what you’re telling me is that you were giving me $2000 of my own money, and keeping $1000 of it. Right?

FG: No. Of course not!

Me: Right. I’ve got your card, I’ll have you manager explain it to me.

Og on a rubber crutch what a low life. Not only did he try to hard sell me, he tried to cheat me while doing it. Fucking low life.

And it’s really too bad, because the card was just about perfect for me seating-wise. They’ve lost a probable sale, and I’m definitely not buying a Ford in this lifetime unless the manager pulls a rabbit out of his ass when I call to complain today.

I know that the car business is competitive, but damn, that’s no reason to try adn cheat a customer. In fact, I’d say that there’s every reason NOT to cheat one.

2

HAHA, what an idiot (the ford guy). It’s a good thing you did your research and screwed the fool on the spot. “FG: Well, um, no. I was… see. It’s like this. . .” Lol, what an ass.

3

There has to be more than one Ford dealership in Fairfax.

We have at least half a dozen within an easy drive from my house, and they range from obnoxious through average to pretty good.

I went to three different dealers when I bought my truck. Two of them will get a return visit when I’m ready to buy again, one gets the post purchase visit where I wave the keys in their smarmy little faces and laugh.

4

Now this is something you’d want to see in person, no?

5

That’s why I always use Consumer Reports. I figure out which car I want, the buy the Consumer Reports um…report on that car in which they state what they consider a reasonable price.

Then I call around and tell the sales guys what I’ll spend and where I got the price from. Then I tell them first person to beat it by the next day wins the sale.

Turns 'em green.

6

I dunno. I bought a Ford Explorer about 10 months ago. Was ABSOLUTELY the best buying experience I’ve ever had. EVER.

It really just depends on the dealer. In my experience, the Mitsubishi dealers are total tools. I’ve had two horrible experiences at two different dealers (much, much worse than even the OP).

7

Once upon a time, a girlfriend of mine wanted to look at cars, so I tagged along for the day. Most of the time she was treated OK, but at a couple of dealerships, the salesman just couldn’t quite get it through their heads that she was the customer, and kept directing their sales pitch at me.

Needless to say, they didn’t get the sale.

8

Why doesn’t the scum complain? :smiley:

9

Well what ever the hell you do, do not buy anything from Sheehey. My timing belt failed a couple of months ago. At first they told me that it was my fuel pump, then after fixing that, and charging me more then the hour the book said it was supposed to take, he told me that my timing belt was also bad. I asked for all my parts back and magically they were gone. I guess they thought I was stupid, but I just got unlucky because I had to be towed there. Fucking pricks.

10

I got slimed by a Honda and Nissan dealer. I liked Hondas (leased a Civic in my poor law student past), and own a Pathfinder. They tried their sales talk scam on me, and I walked out. Screw you guys.

The VW dealer was really good, priced stuff well and didn’t talk to me out of the sales book. I (after confirming my research on the car they were willing to cut a good deal on) bought a car that day. I love the car. I will go back and buy more from them, and will recommend them to friends.

11

If the Ford’s so perfect, just go to another Ford dealer. Dealers are independents, just because they sell the same nameplates dosen’t mean they act the same.

12

I had that exact experience when I was buying a car in the early '90s. I also had some salesman, after I gave him the “I want a reliable car that I can use for long roadtrips through Minnesota and Wisconsin, nothing sporty” try to sell me a rear-wheel drive Mustang. Oh sure, the exact opposite of what I was looking for, hold me back. When I queried about what good that would do for me in snow, his response was that rear-wheel drive had worked “just fine” all those years before we had front-wheel drive. I remarked that so had 8-tracks, and walked away.

13

My worst experience was with a dealer who sold Honda, Subaru and some other import makes. I was out with my mother looking for my first car since I was planning to move out on my own. My budget was tight then and I set my limit at about $4,000 for a used economical car. Right as we set foot on the lot the salesman was on us like flies on a fresh, steaming, stinking pile of cow shit. He asked me what I was looking for, and I told him what I was after (they had a “budget” lot, but we never got this far). Right away he starts talking about all these cars which were double the amount I could afford. I told him again what my limit was. He kept pointing out several other cars saying “How about this one?” Even if I could have afforded them they were not the styles of vehicles I was interested in. He followed my mom and I all the way back to the car (my mom’s car, of course) trying to get us to stay. He was desperate to make a sale, but he did not get it (and this entire dealership will never see me again, hopefully not anyone I have told to not go there, either.)

Another dealer I encountered on the same car-buying mission that I stated above, had me interested in a Pontiac and we took a test drive. When it got down to discussing payments I told him that I could only afford about $100 a month. “I betcha we can work this out so you’ll only have to pay $99 a month.” This sounded great and I was almost ready to buy. He then said, "let me go talk to my manager (red flag goes up as he disappears into a maze of miniature offices). The manager then comes out and tells me that the payments would run me $268 a month. “Whoa, whoa, wait a minute, how do we go from $99 to $268?” was my question. The manager then asked me where I heard $99. “From him,” I said as I pointed to the salesdrone. The manager then started explaining a bunch of numbers and said, “maybe we can work something else out on this deal.” At this point I completely lost interest in the sale and vowed to never return. I thought I had made it clear I had no intentions to do any business with this place, but the salesdrone kept calling me every day for a week telling me about all these “fantastic deals” he could make me. Even after I told him I had already found a car and had bought it he was trying to make deals! The scumbag!

In my experience shopping for cars and finding a decent salesperson is a crapshoot at best. Sometimes you get a person who earns your respect and your business, but more often than not, you don’t.

14

Amusing car salesman story:
I bought a car a year and a half ago. Turned out the salesman liked me, so he asked me out; we went out twice. One day I stopped by the dealership to get a small part fixed on my car. We took a Hyundai out for a test drive, during which time he asked me if I wanted to get in the back seat, since it would “be more comfortable”. I said no and had him take me back to the dealership.

That was pretty much the end of that.

15

This strikes me as a rather unfortunate simile. But as they say, YMMV. :smiley:

16

Knows Too Much Dept:

Never accept dealer financing. If you do, then they can play with the numbers. For example, if you were promised $99.99 payments, assuming 10% interest and 60 months (they always Jack you for 60 if they can. So What if the cars on blocks by then?) then he really promised to sell it to you for $4,706.07. However, the Manager, (assuming interest rate and terms are constant) by bumping the payment to $268.00, was trying to sell it to you for $12,613.52. Now, would you EVER allow anyone to Triple the price on you knowingly? But if you let Slime Balls play with the payments, they’ll screw you Every Single Time.

Here’s the deal: I don’t care if they offer you Negative Interest. Its Always better to go through a bank or a credit union and pay an honest interest rate than have some ex-con F&I guy promise you Zero Percent, and then Screw you, Blue you, and Tattoo you. Banks do all the numbers Independent of the sale, so there’s never an incentive to play with them. So you can pay all your attention to asking “what is the Cash Selling Price” and never having to answer “what can you afford to pay per month?”.

PS- You already know that accident/health/life insurance, extended warranties, and ‘under coating’ are all B-ll Sh-t charges, right?

17

Genius. Pure, unadulaturated profanity genius.

18

Oh yeah…<singing> Nobody knows the troubles I seen…!
I used to sell Fords. I wound up being Lease manager, but that was just a glorified title. I did it for three years, made some money, and fought the good fight as long as I could. I’ll tell you where the problem starts. It starts with idiots that were promoted to their level of incompetence who will always…ALWAYS spend time crowing at anybody who will listen about the “old days” and what it was like “back then” when we could still give the customers a drink or two…“just to lube the wallet up”…gah They’ll tell you about the bazillions of dollars they made…blah, blah, blah. Ad nauseum.
But I digress.
These same ass scratchers hire outside training companies for a rocking shitload of money. These training companies drill at you about NOT taking NO for an answer…make the sale at all costs. People will buy from you if you just push them into it, because they are sheep and they will do what you tell them if you tell them long enough. They teach you about personality types, and what to say to get them to pay attention. They have role playing excersises…all designed to teach (in the shortest amount of time possible) How to be the uber-dick.
Why do they do this?
The turnover in the car business is ridiculously high. Nobody EVER works for a dealership for more than 6 months to a year, if they stay on the sales line. They are a breed of snot so dysfunctional, that they thrive on convincing themselves that the big one is just around the corner, and the problems they have selling at (whatever latest spot they find themselves) must be due to the fact that somebody doesn’t like them and is trying to keep them down…sabotaging their dreams of being a higher breed of booger than the rest of 'em.
I started and stayed at the same place for three years. On the day I quit, it was because I WAS making sales, and money for the company, but it wasn’t the way they wanted me to. I couldn’t do the hard sell, and if I couldn’t do it their way, I had to hit the highway…so I went out with a bang. I stood in the middle of the sales floor on a busy day and told the booger manager to “get up off his fat fucking ass” and get my license out of the cupboard. It was juvenile, but satisfying.
Oh, how I’m still trying to wash the cooties off me…that was seven or eight years ago. I don’t do that sort of thing anymore. I was young and needed the money! I’m respectable (and not a bit bitter)!

That may have been a hijack, but my point is this. They aren’t all superdicks. Some of 'em are ok…it really is individual dealerships, and if’n you likes a Ford, somebody, somewhere will sell it to you just like you asked, on the day you asked, and nothing more, nothing less. It makes getting fucked by the car companies a little nicer when at least they give you a little kiss first.

19

Yea, I had a Ford guy try and put me in a Lincoln Towncar(!) that was 2 times my absolute maximum price range. And he kept calling me back. Even after I bought the Toyota Echo.

20

I’ve got a friend who may be buying a new car soon. I’m going to suggest this technique to my friend.

I’d like to know if this trick, or something comparable, works for trade-ins.

As a bonus, my friend has a digital camera. I intend to upload pictures of car salesmen and their slimy managers who’ve suddenly turned really interesting colors.