Nope, I’ve heard it before too. Mind, when it was directed at me, I was tempted to reply, “Well, to get me even considering it, you’d have to stand on your head and spit quarters.”
I didn’t though. And he made no sale to me that day.
My wife and I ALWAYS go in with an absolute maximum as far as price/payment - as in, we will go no higher. The answer always is “I think we can work with that.” Then we’re shown something for an exta $20-$30 a month more. No way, Chester. Last time the sales guy tried to shame me in front of my wife (You can’t AFFORD that? Just another $20 A MONTH?)
Funny thing is, we live in the south,and my wife HATES these guys. Often she ask them a question, and they turn to me to answer it. She HATES them.
The one I’ve heard quite a bit is:
What if I were able to get your payments down to $xxx per month?
I warned a friend of mine that this would happen when she went shopping for a car a while ago. I warned her to talk price, not payments. She listened, fortunately.
Not a used car salesmen, but I once overheard this conversation in a furniture store:
Salesguy: How do you plan to pay for this?
Customer: With my credit card.
Salesguy: If you don’t mind me asking, what is the APR on your card?
Customer: I think it is around 14%.
Salesguy: Well, we offer a rate of just 1.5% a month. You might want to consider financing through us.
When we were looking to buy a Toyota Tercel, we went to one dealer on Saturday, who told us that he didn’t have any on the lot, and all the Tercels in Northern California had been sold already. If we wanted to buy one, we could order one, and we’d be able to pick it up in about a month.
The next day we went to another dealer and bought one of their many Tercels.
We went to buy a minivan last year. The only optoin we really cared about was rear A/C - gets pretty hot around here, and my son uses the rear seat. OK, bought one, emptied out and turned in the old clunker and drove off.
No rear A/C - turned out what the sales guy said were vents were actually speakers. We drove it right back, were offered an upscale model (with rear A/C) for “just a few thousand more.” HAH! We reloaded all our crap in the old clunker and drove off while the sales staff stood there with their jaws dropping.
The phone call beat us home, got the better one for the lower price, also a bonus - no commission for the sales guy who had fucked up.
That wouldn’t have been John Voight’s LeBaron, would it? 
seal_clubber, I hear you,well, your wife.
I experienced that many many times, no only for cars, but other bigger expenses… I ask a question, they answer my husband… or they just talk to him while I am standing there and try to make eye contact… Geez… It drives me nuts.
When I was a sales person, they actually trained us to talk to the female (as well) if a couple was making a purchase, as the female is usually the one saying the final “OK”! 
My wife’s much better at the haggling. I leave most of it to her, which is why it’s so funny they try to talk to me.
I bought a previously leased car that is (and was) in excellent shape. The deal was done directly with the owner of the dealership, which is an actual GM garage and not something such as ‘Joe Bob’s Used Car Lot and Wrecking Service’.
He asked me if I had a job and if I missed a lot of work. Then he asked what I wanted to spend on that car, and I told him that no matter what I would not go higher than $X, and I wanted my mechanic to look at the car before I signed anything.
Mechanic gave the car an A-OK, dealership owner lowered the price to $X-500 (I have no idea why) and the car has been running beautifullly since. It only gets normal maintenance (oil, belt and filter changes, etc) and has had 1 part replaced because a drunk friend caught her foot on a seat bottom cover and snapped it in half. Best part of that repair? I took it to a GM garage and it was covered under warranty!
My problem with used car buying in general is the insanely high prices asked. Used car dealers are actually better to deal with because they have many cars on the lot and do not take your negotiation as a personal insult.
I had to give up on private party used cars. Insanely overpriced. Seems like everyone looks up the dealer selling price on ‘dealer friendly’ (already high prices) Kelly Blue Book and then adds a few hundred. Cars that seem reasonably priced are found to have major damage. Why not buy a new car when the used one 3 years old with 40,000 miles is only $3000 less than new? It takes too long to deal with the 90%+ crap private party…finding the house, driving there and so on.
When you do try to negotiate, most act like you are a huge a-hole or something and take it personally. The universal strategy seems to be that the car is worth $7000, ask for $12,000 and so you have ‘negotiating room’.
Now, used car salesman are better with which to work. 
They understand negotiation. You can’t trust them but that is why you need a trusty mechanic. Negotiate your deal, then take the car to your mechanic and have him bless the deal. If the mechanic says fine, buy it.
However, the tactic of setting a grossly high initial price still holds. You get frustrated.
Real life example…I was looking for a car for my step son. I saw an older Monte Carlo with 90,000 miles. Looked up prices on the Internet and said a fair dealer price was $2400. Price on car…$5900. Just to see, I tried to negotiate with him. It took 10 days to get him/2 other sales people down to $2900, which I still wouldn’t take. (Step son already bought a car but negotiated out of curiousity). I grew tired of the game and stopped. I wish I hadn’t to see if I could get him down to a ‘fair price’.
How do you confront a salesman over a grossly overpriced car? Appeals to common sense do no good as your ‘information is flawed’. Holding firm on your offer doesn’t work because, unlike conventional wisdom, they do let you walk out the door. They’ll wait a day or two and call you back when you don’t come in and lower the price but not to your offer and the process begins again. Keep at it and the price does approach your offer but it takes FOREVER.
Maybe I just suck at negotiation…not taken seriously or something.
I’ve been told I’m intimidating, and the last few times we’ve gone car shopping, I haven’t been ignored - maybe it’s my awe-inspiring presence?? One thing that did hack me off one time when we were car shopping - I was trying to find out the particulars about some of the car’s features, and the salesman was talking colors to me. As I recall, we didn’t buy from him.
And there was the time someone tried the “Can’t you swing $20 more?” routine. I said “No” and started leaving. Interestingly, the price came down.
Jesus! Did she sue? Did the dealership replace the entire foot?
Oh, the fun I had when I bought my first car several years ago. I worked out how much I could afford to spend, and went off to the used car lots with my parents. At the very first place, I had a classical used car salesman experience. I told the salesman what I was prepared to spend. He immediately started to talk me up in price, trying to persuade me I could get more car for the same amount of money. No deal. I stayed firm on my figure, despite his attempts to talk me into a more expensive car, while he kept asking “Is that a firm number?” Finally, he shot himself in the foot. He said to me, “Is that a firm figure or did you just pull it out of thin air?” I looked him straight in the eye and said, “Sir that is a firm figure based on my current and projected future financial expectations. Good night.” I caught my parents eyes, shook my head, and walked off the lot while he trotted after me asking, “Is there a problem here? I sense there’s something wrong here.” Yes, sir, there is a problem here. You just insulted my intelligence and you still expect me to give you money.
At the second lot, things went much better. I named my figure again, was shown a couple of prospects, and then the salesman said there was one car he might consider letting me have for my top price exactly. He then led me to the yellow Geo Metro convertible I’d been drooling over earlier in the lot. Two days later, on Halloween night, I drove her home. Even so, the dealership nearly lost the sale when they tried to tack on a $20 administrative fee while I was signing the paperwork. I reminded them that the agreed price included all fees, etc. and if they really wanted to lose the sale for the sake of a $20 fee, that was their business. That yellow Geo did well for me for about six years, and she taught me that yes, the American dream is driving down the highway with the top down, a good friend in the passenger seat, and rock & roll on the stereo!
CJ
I posted this in another thread more than a year ago, but I think it bears repeating here:
My supervisor at work came into some money and decided to treat herself to a brand new, top of the line, fully option-loaded Acura CL. She did all of her research, knew exactly what she wanted, exactly what she was willing to pay, had called several dealerships in and around the area to see what sort of deal she could make, etc. All she wanted to do was hit the local dealer for a test drive, and see if they could match the best deal she’d been able to get at another dealer about 50 miles away that she’d discussed over the phone.
She walked into the Acura dealership, and told the salesperson that she wanted to test drive the Acura CL. He looked her up and down (Nicole is 25 and fairly attractive) and said “Oh…you don’t really want to buy an Acura, do you?” and proceeded to walk her over to the other side of the building. Where the Hyundai dealership was. And points to a lime green, base model Hyundai sedan. Nicole says “Ummmm…I really don’t want a Hyundai.” The salesperson, in all of his brilliance, replies “Oh, don’t worry…it comes in other colors.”
Nicole turned around and walked out. She came back a different day, got a different salesperson, test drove the car and paid cash that day for exactly the car she’d asked for. Why the original salesperson saw fit to flush the commission on a $30k car down the toilet, I’ll never know.
It was sort of a fiasco at first, because the repair was covered under the warranty (she hasn’t reached 36,000 miles yet) they ordered the driver’s side foot instead of the passnger’s side foot by accident, and had to return the first foot they got and get the right foot.
In the end it all worked out and the gray plastic foot was put back on, with much flirtation and apology from the really hot guy who is in charge of the GM dealership’s service department.
I had somewhat of a reverse esperience. I had my heart set on a particular make, model, and configuration of a new car ('75 Mustang 6-cyl stick) and called all the dealerships within driving distance in So California, asking if they had any in stock near the end of the model year.
They all said they had. "We’ll hold one for you! Come on down! Any color you want!
But when I got there, (and within minutes sometimes), not a single car could be found. Some salesmen pretended to look in the lots for the “missing” car, some said it had just sold, and all would be glad to find another just like it if I would only sign right here.
Then I found the only truly honest car salesman in the world. He said that particular model could not be legally be imported to the state due to smog regulations, and nowhere in California did it exist at present. Then he explained how the statewide dealer exchange worked. The minute a customer signed a purchase order, the dealer went on the network and found the desired model and arranged to ship it (or swap it) to his location. That’s why they all claimed to have one; if they stalled me long enough, they would locate it, or so they thought.
Of course, this could not be done with my desired model, and most salesmen did not know this was an exception. But this one told me that the smog regulations were expected to ease in the next few months, and he offered to let me see his dealer’s scheduled shipments and invoices in advance. If I saw what I wanted, he would save it for me, and no, he didn’t require a signed purchse order.
I bought it from him shortly thereafter. He delivered as promised.
The Pit? Er, okay. Looks tame so far, so that’s good.
We actually had fun car shopping because we were having a little contest to see who could catch more little car-salesman tricks. Overall it was not too bad, except for a dicey moment with the rustproofing. I was getting tired, and when I’m tired and get irritated, I have this weird tendency to just look more tired rather than pissed off until I suddenly hit this threshhold where I can’t take it any more, so I can go from seeming just kind of bored and quiet and dopey to ripping somebody’s head off in about 3 milliseconds. The hubby knows the warning signs. The car salesman did not.
Good one, cmosdes! They did indeed keep doing that to us, with warrantees and stuff. It is useful to estimate how much we’d be paying per month, especially since the warrantee period was as long as the loan period, but the hubby noticed right off the bat that the salesman was trying to avoid telling us the full price and demanded it upfront.
And a new trick from the bag: Instant Follow-up Call
I took possession of the car yesterday, and when I came home tonight there was a message on the answering machine asking if I was satisfied with my purchase, and urging me to call back. Sooo, you call the customer during the honeymoon period when they’re still all jazzed about having their new car, and get them to say that they’re happy about it, to cement a positive impression in their heads.
I’m on to you, car-sales man!
This was actually the case with my Saturn, at least according to all the previous owner’s phone bills and letters to her bank that were left in the glove box.
As the technological age evolves, used car sales people will go the path of telemarketers and spammers. “New” car salesmen right behind. I just hope it happens before N. Korea turns us into a sea of fire.
…so many used car salesman, so many suckers fooled into thinking they were getting a good deal. Every once in a great while though, the shoe ends up on the other foot…
…like the time that I took a used pickup for a test drive and the clutch went out several miles away (just as we were pulling onto the expressway). Wasn’t really a problem for me since my preferred method for driving manual transmission vehicles is clutchless shifting anyways but I still put on a good act and the salesman was suitably traumatized by the resulting sound effect so, by the time we got back to the dealership the asking price had already been cut in half. After my mechanic gave me HIS repair estimate (about 1/3 of what the dealership said they would do the work for if I bought the truck) it was a decent enough deal but I haggled the price down another thousand just for the heck of it and then we closed the deal (and I got to annoy the sales manager a bit more by refusing to use their in-house financing options and wrote a check for the total amount on the spot). After the clutch repairs were done I found myself with a decent condition late model 4x4 pickup for significantly less than Kelly Blue Book’s dealer price.
(round 1 score: dealership: 0 consumer: 1)
Fast forward to almost one year later…
…a surprise ice storm results in some damage to the truck (two thousand dollars worth of bodywork needed to my truck but the S10 that i rammed into ended up getting hauled straight to the scrap yard and the other driver’s insurance wound up paying the whole bill since he was the one who slid thru the stop sign). The truck was still perfectly driveable so I opted to take the check (minus deductible) and leave the rumpled sheetmetal as is. However, this damage, when combined with a few other items that I knew were due for repair/replacement meant that the truck was no longer in quite as good of shape as it was when purchased so I figured it was time to start looking for a replacement vehicle.
Wandered into another local dealership and saw a decent looking late model sedan sitting in the corner of the lot, asked about it and was given the usual lines, “seldom driven”, “grandmother’s car”, “well cared for”, etc… Sinec the asking price was a bit more than i was willing to pay, but not ridiculously so, I asked (and was finally grudgingly allowed after much delay and deliberation) for permission to bring it over to have my mechanic check the car out. Got a clean bill of health from him so the haggling began. After we had haggled down a few thousand dollars and I felt we were getting into a decent price range (note, this haggling took place over the course of almost two weeks of occasional visits while out on my lunch break… they would make me an offer, I would simply walk out the door and not return for a day or two, upon returning they would make me a new, better offer and the cycle would repeat…). Finally I judged the time was right so, while waiting for the sales manager to come up with that day’s new lowest possible price I casually mentioned that I had a truck which I was considering getting rid of but was undecided as to whether or not I wanted to sell it considering that winter was coming on and the 4x4 might be handy for getting around once the snow started piling up… I could see the gears turning behind the salesman’s eyes at this point so, as he began to make a few comments about how if I brought it in for them to look at he might be able to give me a nice price for it I commented on how it had been slightly damaged in a recent accident (was suitably vague about the degree of damage, allowing him to jump to his own conclusions when informed that it was a case of large full sized pickup versus cute little compact pickup at fairly low speeds). Eventually allowed myself to be reluctantly talked into bringing the truck in just so they could “take a look at it”. The viewing/appraisal was to be the next day so, instead of my usual lunchtime visit, I waited till later in the day and rolled in just before sunset. There was just enough light in the sky to make one think that one could see fine so they didn’t bother to have me bring it into the service area where they could take a look under the lights, instead they walked around, started it up, decided it was an easy repair and never bothered to look more closely. Their initial offer was over 500 dollars MORE than I had paid for the truck a year (and 14,000 miles) before. Didn’t want them to have too much time to realize just what the truck was really like so I only haggled for a little while (pulled their trade-in offer up another 500 bucks) then closed the deal quickly and rolled out of there in the new(er) car leaving behind a truck which had at least the following issues (all easily enough detected had they bothered to do a more thorough inspection):
[ul]
[li]heater core - shot (no heat in cab of truck… NONE…)[/li][li]right front fender, front bumper, hood, and right side door - all badly damaged and in need of replacement[/li][li]rear wheel wells - rusted through and patched (by me) with lotsa bondo and spray paint (only obvious in direct sunlight)[/li][li]drivetrain - 4wd system took some undetermined damage in the accident, only noticeable in 4wd mode[/li][li]leaking head gasket - oil getting into cooling system (okay, this one might have taken a bit more work to find…)[/li][/ul]
all of these problems were eventually noted by the dealer’s service staff when they got the truck the next morning. A friend happened to be pulling in for service on his own car at the key moment when the service manager went ballistic on the sales manager asking WHO approved buying that wreck and WHY on earth did they pay so much for it? Somehow I suspect that I should probably go somewhere else the next time I’m looking to buy a vehicle, I have this strange feeling they won’t be quite so agreeable next time around.
(round 2 score: dealership: 0 consumer: 2)
Sorry about being quite so long-winded but all of these tales of what salespeople have tried to pull on dopers(and others) made me want to share this little tale of a pair of dealerships getting treated much the way that they usually treat their customers.
wolf189