First Trip To Dealer In A Decade.

So we bought a new car; 2023 Santa Fe.

My wife liked the base model best. She prefers the key start rather than the button and she didn't want the fancy Nav/infotainment screen....her words "it's just another expensive thing that could break"

All of the local Hyundai dealers are now owned by Lithia so deals are hard to come by. I do enough deals at work to know when folks aren't budging. I only managed to knock $600 off.

They presented the deal and I immediately zeroed in on the $2600 package. I wanted an itemized list which they mostly did. The package was the usual heavily marked up stuff; window tint, upholstery guard, paint guard blah blah blah.

This is the one part of dealerships I dislike; I don't begrudge them the profit........but rather than some package marked up 50% just tell me it's your margin (The last finance manager I dealt with actually did).....I am totally OK with that.

The finance guy did he usual bit of trying to sell is the extra warranty, to his credit he wasn't super high pressure about it. Given our previous Santa Fe has only needed a starter in 13 years of ownership I passed.

Also note when you are doing 0% financing they are even less anxious to deal.

Overall the dealer was nice enough but why for God's sake does this always take 3hrs (note we'd done the test drive on a previous trip).

On the plus side the salesman followed up today to see if we had any questions on the car, which is a nice touch......especially since I'd just dropped 36K. 

Overall it was a decent experience.

My wife's 2018 Honda Pilot took forever as the experienced sales guy was juggling 2 deals at the same time.  

Think of the Mrs. Doubtfire movie - he leaving to check stuff.  At one point I started walking around and found a bowl of apples for a snack. 

We bought a new 2003 Chevrolet Trailblazer on a Friday night at 7:00pm and I told the guy to get it cleaned up, do the paperwork and we'll come back the next morning.  

Since a close friend was the salesman he said to stay and it'll only take an hour.  At 10:00pm my one year old barfed on the carpet.  We were annoyed. 

In reply to Datsun240ZGuy :

Barfing on the carpet is a suitable response.

I hate dealing with car dealers - they lie to you and think that you won't know the difference.  II rarely buy new but on the rare occasions that I do I try and get the best deal I can.

Bought a new GM minivan once for my wife. The salesmen were the usual bunch of know-little shysters but I got my own back a bit at the close.  They wrote it up and asked ho I wanted to pay for it - I handed them a credit card.  Of course they balked at that so I offered to phone Visa ad tell them that the dealer had their signs posted with no limitation of card use posted and then refused to take a card for payment. Think I ended up giving them $5K by cheque and the balance (around $20K) on my card, which I paid off next month.

The other one was when I bought my wife a new Mazda 3 (replacement for the minivan a few years later) - same sort of BS, threatened to walk down to another nearby dealer a couple of times to see if they would do better etc.  Finally made a deal with them and got them to toss in a lifetime (i.e. as long as you own the car) free oil change for a set fee (IIRC around $600).  They probably figured that we were like many owners and would be trading the car in and they'd make money off that and sell me a new car then.  Still driving the car 10 years later and the cost of each oil change has dropped to about $10 each.....they keep hoping she'll want to buy a new car so they can stop giving her free changes.

IMHO, the moment they make you struggle, walk.  

I've had my issues with the local dealer, but I've also helped people get cars via reasons.  There are some really good dealers out there- one of my friends got a brand new Bronco with no extra money added on- just dealt with the system I got him, and treated it like it is- the easiest way to sell a car for a good profit.  And I know (given the area he bought the car) that experiences on this board tell me there are real sheisters near by- who would balk at the same plan for the same car.  So there may be good ones near you.

Hopefully you have competition.  That's a great way to make sure you don't wait for hours for nothing.  

The shocking ones are the dealers who refuse to take "the plan."  Easy sale with profit, throw that away because of reasons.

In the Chicago area (Crook County) it's well advertised that booze, cigarettes, and gasoline can be cheaper by buying in the surrounding counties.  In the past the car dealers could save you money by buying in these counties but it was fixed due to too much money getting lost. 

So an email like this is idiotic - you pay sales tax on the city/county you live in.  I bought my truck in Indiana and had to pay Illinois/Will County sales taxes on it.  This why dealers rattle your head?

I dealt with two Ford dealers buying two used vehicles in the last month (one for us, one for the father-in-law). Neither was a terrible experience. Saleman brought the car to the house for us to check out since my work schedule sucked. While I didn't get great deals on either one, I didn't pay more than the online sources suggested I should. Both took too long at the dealership but mostly because they were busy selling multiple cars. 

In reply to Datsun240ZGuy :

Such a bonus (!) to only pay the taxes you owe. Good grief. 

I had relatively no problems when I bought my Mustang in tarpon springs, yes quasi tarpon springs!. The sales manager was the slowest mfer on the planet. Mind you I paid a no haggle sticker price plus some add on crap, but at the time you could NOT buy a new vehicle period. Explorer was a no haggle too but without the addons. Largest selling ford dealer about anywhere close. I think the test drive was the most time spent at the dealer. The rest was providing one signature, the rest was all online, and chewing the E36 M3 with the owner who I partially know through racing friends.

if you walk in knowing you're getting screwed or trying to screw the dealer, you're getting screwed. 

In reply to Ranger50 :

My wife wanted the base model and those were thin on the ground. The package thing always sticks in my craw regardless of how good a deal I get.

The dealer was actually fine but fairly typical of dealers these days........not that they did anything shady or remotely unethical.

Ranger50 said:

if you walk in, you're getting screwed. 

 

Fixed for accuracy.

TL:DR  Just purchased from a GM dealer and it was a painless operation. We did our research, knew our number, and got it without any hard sell or BS.

We normally buy used, typically 1-3 years, and this week was my first time in a new car dealership since 2011.  If you're like me, when you drive a car you keep an eye on them on all the for sale sites to see what they're doing, and possibly jump on (a better) one if the price is right. So when I started looking for PW's new ride, I already had the skinny on one of the options.

So after everything else was eliminated I narrowed it down to six cars, the nicest at a GM dealer about 45 minutes away, and that's the first one we drove. We arrived unannounced, I wanted to see the car cold. We drove it and decided that it was probably the one, and I had the number in mind. The salesman and I discussed price roughly, I told him it was too much. He told me they're not making them anymore, that's why. I responded that there are currently 200 for sale within driving distance, and that I knew he'd had it on the lot 110 days, he responded that it had already come down in price.  He made a point, I made a point, but it was very friendly. We told him we were driving two more that day, one at a dealer and one private. Sitting in his office he pulled up the ad for the other dealer car and asked me if that was the one. He knew what he was doing.

He called us back that afternoon. We'd driven the other dealer car and it wasn't good, but I didn't tell him that.  I told him it wasn't as nice as his, but the guy was very aggressive on price, he came down two grand right away, and he knew it was already three grand less. And that's when we started the back and forth again. I stopped him and said,  we both have valid points, this is my number. If you can do it for that, we'll buy it. OK, let me ask my boss. He called back the next morning. So, if I can do it for your number, you'll buy it today? Yes we will. OK, let's do it.

It took a day, very little negotiating, no hard sell, no BS, it was a pretty straightforward purchase.

EDIT: I just remembered, I bought my Forté in the first few months of Covid at a Kia dealership. They were Grade A douchebags.

Our dealer and salesman were so bad I bought two cars from them in 4 months. Oh, wait. No they weren't. 

One more reason I'm happy I no longer live in a huge metro area.  My recent dealership experience was somewhere around 60-90 minutes total I'd imagine.  I got the advertised rate, $1k off sticker, smiles, politeness, no upsales, no upcharges, no dealer add ons, and on my way.  My wife may buy her next car there too.  That same place has a new 2023 BRZ sitting on the lot 6 spd with short shifter in black that I bet they'd let go for sticker or less right now.  I could meet anyone at the local airport and have them there in 20 minutes.  You deal with 2 people, the sales person and sales manager / finance.  The sales manager / finance person is super quick, polite and efficient.  

Easiest deal?  

Found my '16 Silverado at a dealer in Indianapolis (Andy Mohr) in February, 2017.  Awesome price - they saw I was serious.  I texted them my one way plane ticket detail and the next day a FedEx package arrived with all the paperwork and the lending information.  Returned it that day overnight with a $10k deposit.  

Flew out on Saturday and spent 30 minutes at the dealer then I drove it home.  They were motivated to move that truck as it was built 8/2016 and sat maybe 6 months?

I don't understand why so many people on this board seem to have negative experiences at dealerships. 

The only negative one I've had was when we were buying my fiance her Honda Fit years ago, but my name wasn't on the title/loan. The finance guy would not stop relentlessly pushing the extra warranty on the car.......why in the hell would buy the extended warranty on a 1-year old Honda Fit with 15k miles on it? It took me walking out of the room, telling them to get the keys to her car and we were leaving before he finally dropped it. They were just trying to take advantage of her poor credit rating, which is why I went with her.

But when buying cars for myself I've never had the kinds of problems many here seem to have.

The only other thing I can think of is when buying my ex-wife's Mazda 6, she wanted the black GT with all the goodies and the black out package. Dealer said if you'll take this gray one on the lot I'll make you a great deal, so we agreed. Keep in mind it was raining/drizzling at the time. We went and had a late lunch, by the time we were done it had dried up and we saw all the fine scratches in the driver side doors. Drove right back to the dealer and said we didn't want it give us back the 4Runner. So he ordered us the new one and gave us the same price as he had for the slightly used one. 

I didn't get the impression that he was deliberately trying to do that, I'm sure the finance guy had never even seen the car.

In reply to ddavidv :

Same as my last experience. I payed about what car edge said I should and I was out the door same day. 
 

In November my wife and I decided to let go of our ultra reliable Lincoln Navigator.  Long story short, we decided on a used Cadillac CUV.  Went to a Binghamtom NY Cadillac dealer to look at a used XT5.  The wife did not like it, but they also had a 1 owner '16 SRX with low mileage. Mrs Dog liked it, nice vehicle.  Hadn't been to a dealer in 8 years, and even though the transaction took a couple of days, (due to our hemming and hawing, and looking at it on a Saturday), the transaction was easy, and painless.

Post script:  After driving it for a few days, a minor problem arose .  Called the sales person, she made an appointment to take it in two days later.  Drove the 45 minutes to the dealer for them to check it out. My son was hungry, so the service department runner drove us to a local diner, and came and got us when we were done.  Never dealt with a dealership like that.  I'm impressed.  By the way, problem resolved quickly, and we are enjoying our newish ride.

In reply to z31maniac :

Like I said in the original post it was a decent experience.

I just have issue because of what I do for a living.  I want to know where the margin is at. I am OK with dealer mark ups. I am not OK with mark up masquerading as dealer ad ons........it's your mark up....just tell me that.

I've had way more negative experiences with the service departments at dealerships than I ever had the sales department.

camopaint0707 said:

I've had way more negative experiences with the service departments at dealerships than I ever had the sales department.

You don't have those if you never go.

Tom1200 said:

In reply to z31maniac :

Like I said in the original post it was a decent experience.

I just have issue because of what I do for a living.  I want to know where the margin is at. I am OK with dealer mark ups. I am not OK with mark up masquerading as dealer ad ons........it's your mark up....just tell me that.

I know but you see the other responses here and it's been a running theme for years. 

When I ordered my BRZ, they tried to add a $1k markup just because. I stood up and offered to shake the salesmen's hand to leave and said I wouldn't be paying any markup. Within 90 seconds the markup was removed and we finished the placing the order. 

As for the extra package that was already on the car, I would have said "Call me back when you have one that doesn't already have all these add-ons I don't want and I'll pay MSRP." 

$2600 is more than I paid for ceramic window tint, PPF, and having the car ceramic coated. 

The camaro was a dumpster fire. They lied and fought me the whole time, ended up getting the deal I wanted but it was a nightmare. Problem was it was the only one in the spec and mileage I wanted in a few hundred miles. Refinanced it pretty much immediately, wanted to stick it to them just a little.

Wifes daily was super easy. She had preferences but at the end of the day didnt care that much, so I actually had viable alternatives. Walked in told them my expectations, first guy gave me some friction, so I shook his hand and left. Next place I told them the same thing and added "if you are going to make this a pain in my ass, im not going to warn you Im just going to go buy a different car." Deal was done an hour later, actually got a slightly better deal than I had anticipated.

z31maniac said:

$2600 is more than I paid for ceramic window tint, PPF, and having the car ceramic coated. 

This is my point. The car came with that stuff.......rather than mark that crap up $1600 I'd rather just have them list it as the mark up.

A few years ago I discovered brokers.  They tend to focus on leasing but some will do finance deals.  With my last car the dealership gave me everything via email and when the vehicle arrived on the lot they called me we did all the paperwork remotely eSigned everything on my laptop while I was watching Netflix, a few days later I went to the dealership they handed me the keys told me the copy of the paperwork was in the glove box and I was on my way.  If it wasn't for the fact that I asked for a demo of the infotainment I would have been out of the store in less time than it took to brew a coffee in the waiting area.