So I went with my older son yesterday to look at some new cars he’s thinking about.
One of the cars was featured in THIS ad (the Chrysler Sebring Touring sedan, priced at $16,995. It’s on the far right half way down the page).
But when we got there the exact car advertised (stock #41675) did not have a V6 engine, it does not have a Sirus Satelite radio, and it does not have a Rear Seat Video Entertainment Center.
The sales people tell us that those are options and with them the car would run closer to 20k, not 17. We walked out.
I see nothing in that ad that says those things are options. So are we nuts or is that ad deceptive?
I agree that it’s deceptive, but I’m also wondering if it is indeed “false.” To me, false in this situation would be advertising that the car is available with, say, a DVD player when such a piece of equipment is definitely not available for this car, and the dealer knows it. What is in the fine print that the asterisk next to the price leads to? (The fine print at the bottom of the page is too fine for me to read on this monitor.) Does it, for example, say something like, “Some features shown are options at extra cost”? That would make the ad deceptive, but not necessarily false.
I don’t believe that the fine print should be an excuse however. The labels and arrows with a big “$16,995” does lead one to believe that the car you see with those features pointed out is indeed $16,995, regardless of the asterisk and the fine print. Deceptive, certainly.
The fine print is completely illegible to me. I haven’t seen an auto dealer advertisement that wasn’t a bald-faced lie. If you get there and ask about the one in the ad, they’ll tell you they just sold it.
I was warned about this particular sales tactic when I was buying my vehicle. So when I talked to a salesman and he proceeded to tell me that they were sold out of that model with those options and didn’t expect any new ones any time soon, I sort of called his bluff by immediately producing four weeks’ worth of Sunday newspaper ads that all advertised the same deal I was asking for. I told him that I was pretty sure the ad would be in next Sunday’s paper, too. I asked why they were continuing to advertise this if they didn’t have any to sell. He went quiet for a minute (!), then backpedaled quickly and told me he would have to check it out with his boss, then came back five minutes later and said they could indeed sell me a vehicle like the one in the ad. I didn’t buy from them.
Should be worth taking a few minutes to file a complaint w/ your Atty. Gen.'s Office. Apathy allows these things to go unchecked. I’ll bet that every state has some kind of laws about false and/or deceptive advertising, but w/o public involvment the laws go uninforced.
We have the actual newspaper, and the fine print is legible. Nowhere does it say those things are options. It only says prices are net after rebates and YMMV.
That’s happened to me, but not this time. They actually had the vehicle stock # advertised. The car had a 4cyl. not a V-6, and did not have the other features I mentioned.
The dealer just claims that the ad is pointing out options and makes no claims that particular advertised model has them. It sure seems to me that the ad infers that this model has them.
I already printed the form off and it’s being mailed in the morning.
The ad says that particular stock number has an automatic transmission, A/C, power locks and windows and a CD player. While I don’t agree with this type of advertising, it is a common practice. The price in the ad is before taxes, tags, and doc fees, and after any dealer rebates that could be applied. There wasn’t anything false in the ad.
I disagree. The ad has a picture of the vehicle with arrows pointing to it indicating features such as a V6 engine, a Sirus radio, and a video entertainment center. It has none of those and says nowhere that those are options. If small print said “optional equipment” I wouldn’t find this ad misleading, but it doesn’t say that so it is.
Where did you see the stock number, was it in the ad?
If it was then it’s a lie, but I didn’t see it.
Something I learned once…We saw a great deal in an ad and went to check out the car. The salesperson took us to the car, it was…stick, no AC, no power locks, no power windows, NO RADIO, no tape player, no cd player… it was about as stripped down as it could get without removing the body panels. We passed on it, but the sales person told us something. Any time you see an ad that has a stock number listed on it, that means that that as is in refernce to one specific vehicle. So if it’s a great deal, it’s either a crappy car or the car is already gone. It’s a legal bait and switch.
So if that ad had a stock number, I’d demand a car with those features at that price. Of course it’s also pretty easy for them to claim it was a mistake.
(BTW we have a car from Schlossmans and they treated us well)
Joey, I admit the cite I provided is a bit harder to read than the actual newspaper ad (which is identical to the cite) but it’s there: #41675.
I’m pushing 50 here, folks. I’ve probably been driving/buying cars before some of you were an itch in your daddy’s pants. I know all the tricks car dealers use (and a few they use to use that some of them paid a handsome fine for using). I need no educating on this issue.
“They’re ivory. Only a pimp from a cheap New Orleans whorehouse would carry a pearl-handled pistol”, George C. Scott as “Patton”, from the film.
On the other hand you did say it was a used car dealer.
You see an ad that has a picture of a hamburger, half-wrapped with paper, and the words “$1.99 NOW at McBurgers!” So you go to McBurgers and they tell you that the paper wrapping is 1.99, but the hamburger can be had as an option for an extra $3.
Ludicrous of course. But technically, what is the difference? There’s a picture, a price, and a location. There is no reason to assume that you can’t get what is in the picture if you go to the location listed. The only difference is that people are used to car dealers lying, and so give it a pass, lowering the bar with each new iteration.
:eek: