Stealership Stories

I remember a Toyota dealership that really blew it for my Dad.

Dad needed a car in a hurry (my brother was taking his to college, Dad needed a replacement pronto).

Salesman says "come back when you're serious".

Dad said "You imbecile--I need it today and I'm paying cash for it".

We left and he bought a then-new '94 Accord EX at another dealership.

That said, my wife and I had a fantastic buying experience when we bought her new Fit last summer. Metro Honda--very courteous, professional and just about zero BS.

In this economic climate, they're glad to have any customers, I guess.

In reply to Bobzilla:

Bad experiences will reach more ears than good news. That's a proven fact. This is also a particularly tough crowd if you're in your line of work.

Here is a good dealer story:

The Mazda dealership down the road used to let the local rotary car club host meetings there, and would clear up a space IN THE FRONT ROW of the lot for everyone to park their cars. It was great, having 12 or so cars sitting in front of a big dealer on a high traffic road.

Think about what that little bit of goodwill got them, though: Everyone bought their parts there and we were also advertising Mazda loyalty and reliability to everyone that drove by.

I have bought only 1 new car at a dealership and that was because my dad pestered the hell out of me. I bought all I could afford at the time, which was a leftover 1976 Vega 3 speed with no A/C. (The car was a piece of E36 M3, but that's another story.) My dad and I went in, he co signed, I got in and out pretty quick with minimal problems. My dad had bought 3 or 4 cars there already so that probably helped.

I did see a used MGB at a dealership once; I stopped and looked, it was in good shape, had good miles etc. It was a cold rainy day, no one came out of the office. So I walked in and asked for the keys, there were two guys there and one rather grumpily got me the keys. I took it for a drive, it ran good, didn't overheat, drove well and amazingly didn't even leak. So I came back, said yeah I'm pretty interested, what kind of deal can we make and my sales guy said he had to go talk to the manager. I waited for about 30 minutes, no lie. I finally went looking for him, he was in the employee lounge eating soup and watching TV.

Needless to say, no sale for you!

I have very little experience with dealerships, however a few months ago i was with my parents at the mercedes dealershop picking up their turbo b200. I pop into the showroom to look at the new gullwing merc, and a salesman comes over and comments on how fast it is. I commented on how wide of a car it is and then get this, he asks me what im driving now! Apparently at 19 im in the market for a 6 figure car. I felt rather complimented.

My dad owned a chain of speed shops and I worked for him. One night I had the late shift and this guy comes in dressed in overalls, I remember he reeked. Stainless braided hose was very new in the aftermarket at the time and very expensive. He started pricing fittings, hose etc, the tally got up around $1800 (which would be probably $4000 today), he was asking about 50 foot rolls of the stuff! I figured he was wasting my time.

When I had everything toted up (hadn't pulled it from stock yet), he thinks for a minute and says 'I'll take it.' He then pulled a huge roll of Franklins out of his overalls and started peeling them off.

Moral of the story: never EVER pre judge a customer based on their appearance. One of the richest guys I know always has 3 days' worth of beard, drives an F150 but at his house (the driveway doubles as a private airstrip, BTW) inside his shop he has a Shelby. By that I mean one of these.

My dealership experiences:

Bought a Nissan Maxima from the Toyota Dealership. The GM of used sales at the dealership was our next-door neighbor; I'd been babysitting his kids for about 6 years at that point. They treat us right over there, but then again, they treat everyone right.

Got a SAAB 9-5 from a one man used car lot. The guy was a stand up individual; even though the car has caused us a lot of hassle, he did everything he could to help us figure out the warranty. I still look at what cars he has for sale every now and again, and I check every day when we are seriously looking for a car.

Test drove a Miata at an Acura dealer. They all kept trying to get me to test drive a brand new Acura even though I was only 20. The salesman who helped me with the Miata was kind and respectful; the one who was trying to get me to drive the Acura got all pissed when I compared the car to the Honda variant (Crosstour to ZDX?)

Stealership experiences:

Test drove a Miata at a Chevy dealer. I wanted (at the time) a 5 speed. It said 5 speed, I didn't know that LS meant 6 speed at the time. Drove it, found out it was a 6 speed, and took it back saying I wasn't interested. The salesman told me that the 6 speed was better, faster, with better gas mileage, etc. etc. Uh huh. He also told me that it was normal for it to grind while shifting into first.

Test drove a BMW 525i at a Bentley and luxury used car dealership. This one takes the cake. First of all, the car had been in an accident, and we think a flood too. We ask about this and they say "oh, no, that is just left over interior cleaner". Right. Well, we try to leave, but they have valet parked our car (apparently, a Crown Vic next to their precious Bentley's isn't good for business). So we wait for them to go get the car, and this sleaze ball (because really, there is no other word for him) is trying to get us to look at umpteen other number of cars "this is a great car", blah blah blah... No matter how many times we tell him, If it isn't stick and RWD, we aren't interested. Aside from this, it felt like the place was run by a middle eastern mafia.

I got home and looked up reviews of them on the internet. Apparently, the police won't even deal with any of it anymore, they have the lowest rating possible from the BBB, and is generally the reason for the nickname "stealership".

imirk wrote:

Tom Suddard wrote: We had a great dealer experience when we bought our HONDA RIDGELINE, WHICH IS A REAL TRUCK. That should stir the pot.

Yeah a real Bob Costas Truck

if it were a Bob Costas magnet truck I'd get one today...

when I bought my Integra the local Acura dealership had been running a newspaper ad listing the car for so much down and such and such / mo ( lease) ... but at the bottom of the page in tiny print it said "cash price of 16.6k" outright purchase... car was listed for 20.6K... there were several on the lot (all LS models which was what the ad was pushing) ... after a test ride we sat down to discuss the sale... them still thinking lease... when I spring on them it's an outright purchase the price jumps to 20600... I say whoa there buddy and pull out the full page ad from my pocket and point out the tiny print at the bottom of the page...... the salesman turns several different shades of various colors goes and gets the manager.. manager says no can do... I ask if that isn't against the law ? he says huh ?

I point to the ad and say that we've already agreed to the price now all we have to do is decide which car I'm leaving with and how much for my trade ... he got very flustered went to see his boss... came back and said the add was a mistake .. me: I said ... not my problem .. lets go outside and decide on which of the cars I was leaving with... eventually after much running around in circles and refusing me the special interior and paint protection and killing me on my trade (I knew that was coming, since it was a salvage title ) I drove my new LS home ... did not use their finance service... that PO'ed them even more.... kept going back for service 'till I got to the 30k service and the estimate was $600+ ... never been back.. now they don't sell anything I'd buy anyway

Tom Suddard wrote:

keethrax wrote:

Bobzilla wrote:

Brett_Murphy wrote: In reply to Bobzilla: The experience in a dealership can vary wildly depending on the culture there. It's the same with private shops, too. They'll charge what they think they can get away with. I hope you've noticed that most of the stories involve salespeople and not the service department. I think the bad or exasperating experiences are a bit more common on the sales side than on the parts/service side.

As you can see... it doesn't matter. We all get lumped into the same E36 M3. Gets old and tiring after a while. There are bad apples to any business, and we're NOT all the same. To be honest, I'm getting tired of the same offensive lines thrown out there. I don't call every Miata person Gay. Or BMW owner a prick. I'd appreciate the same respect....as would the rest of us "stealership" workers that bust our A$$ to do any and everything to help our customers.

Yeah Bob, There are no stories of good dealer experiences. Especially not in this every thread where you're whining (how many of them involve a bad experience and going to another one where everything went just fine?). It's all bad, and we're all out to get your poor victimized self.

We had a great dealer experience when we bought our HONDA RIDGELINE, WHICH IS A REAL TRUCK. That should stir the pot.

Y'all can be doucebags all you want. Karma is a bitch

I will say, that of the few times I bought a new car, the Honda dealership experience was the best. However, I should add that that was back in '89 and the dealership I bought my 1st Civic (and first Japanese car) from, changed hands about 3 or 4 times in the next 20 years.

The Honda dealership was the only place I bought a car that they took the time to show me EVERY little detail and how every little thing worked. My father gets his 7th or 8th Ford from a family friend and I have to show him how to remotely lock and unlock the doors. Apparently, they STILL just hand keys to folks and say "good luck with your new car" and the UNSPOKEN additional phrase is : any questions, look for/look in? the owner's manual.

integraguy wrote: Apparently, they STILL just hand keys to folks and say "good luck with your new car" and the UNSPOKEN additional phrase is : any questions, look for/look in? the owner's manual.

I couldn't get the saleslady to stop showing me how stuff worked on my mazdaspeed3. It's the sport trim. While not exactly stripped down, but there's still only so many bells and whistles. And my wife and I are exactly the types who read the manuals on stuff.

Since I had found that exact car via the internet (it took some effort to find a grey sport trimmed one), and the price was settled before we drove the couple hundred miles to get it, it wasn't a terribly standard dealership experience. Got there, test drove it to make sure there was nothing noticeably wrong with that specific car, handed over the check form my bank, and left.

curtis73 wrote: The chevy/buick/honda dealer where I used to work put in a new Goodwrench Fast-lube addition. I had a car under warranty (which is the only reason I went there) and I would toss them $25 bucks every 3000 miles just because I was lazy. The service manager's 16-year-old son was the kid that checked the windshield wipers, the air cleaner, and topped off the washer fluid. I watched as he carefully removed my K&N cone air filter and brought it over to me:

Oh, man..stories about techs not realizing what a K&N is could be a whole new thread!! And I even use the decals!

I had completely forgotten this.

We were car shopping for the wife, and found a found a really clean 2 year old Z24 at a small dealership in a converted hamburger joint. We test drove it, talked a lot, then went back to his office to work it out. It was the owner, and his sales guy, in an open concept office (cubicles) just big enough for the 2 of them. We haggled, and it got to the point where I made my serious offer. He said he couldn't do that, and he'd have to speak to his manager.

I leaned back in my chair, put my head back just far enough to see the owner and said, hey Lou, will you hold it, and take $10,900 on Monday? He nodded. I said to the sales guy, did you see how easy that was?

They were good guys, and we all know it was a game. We both got what we wanted. That was 2001, and I sold that car last week.

In reply to BoneYard_Racing:

Strange, most the stories I saw of people getting screwed by dealerships, they brought the documentation with them to prove it.

My favorite story of a saving someone from a screwing was a Kia stealership up the street from the Carmax I worked at.

Woman brought in paperwork for a spectre that after everything was said and done she would have paid $31K for!

I got her what she asked for at $17K AFTER paying all the payments interest included.

But yes, I always found it amusing the kid coming in wanting the Z06 for $200 a month with nothing down on 5 years working part time at McD's.

Most heart wrenching story was a co-worker sold a Terminator to a 17 year old, via his parents. I warned her not to do it for the car was way over the kids head. She didn't inform the parents or the kid of how much power the car had or how twitchy it was in the corners.

15 days later it was in the paper the kid punched the Stang through a tree killing himself and his girlfriend. Sad.

Your right though, most people in the car business are just there trying to make a quick buck. They don't care about cars or have any interest in their product. Just after that mighty dollar. Hell most dealerships don't have anyone in the front that cares anything about the customer or the product. from the GM on down. IME.

last year, the GF was looking at new cars. she wanted a coupe and had narrowed it to a few cars. the sales guy at the hyundai dealer wouldn't stop trying to talk cars with me to try and sell her the car, and she didn't really like it anyways, rode stiff as hell reminded me of the c4 vette my mom test drove back in the day.

the mazda dealer (highly recommend, jeff haas mazda in houston) turned us loose with a hardtop 6 speed GT which she got a little lesson in driving a manual in before we brought it back.

then we went to the nissan dealer to look at z cars. we pull up in my 2010 xterra and start looking at the 7 or 8 used ones they had. they had a good looking 2 year old 350z convertible that she decided she'd like to try out. the skeeze that came out of the used car shack says "uhhhh, well, to drive this car, we're going to need some kind of check from you" "cause that's a $40k car" i ask on what planet and then ask if he means he wants a credit check to test drive a used nissan, he says yes, we say no effing way, so he says ok, well here i guess you can test drive it, she takes it down the highway a bit discussing how much that sales guy didn't want to sell a car. bring it back, she has some choice words for the sales guy, and we bail. she bought a 2009 volvo c30 program car from volvo of dallas with included maintenance for the first 2 years a couple weeks later.

my story was trying to buy a 4runner from landrover houston north. it was a black 03 v8 4wd sport edition with like 45k miles on it, they were asking 17,900. i went up to test drive it, all seemed in order, the interior was clean and in good shape, they look at my MS3 and offer basically what all the other dealers had, i had some more cars to look at so i didn't get too far into it then. a day or two later i call up the sales guy and offer 16,500 with 13,5 for my trade, which they countered with 13 in trade and i say good deal, fax over the sales agreement and i'll bring my car, the title, and a check for the difference plus taxes, no problem. when i get the sales agreement its about 900 bucks more than what it should be given our previous conversation. i look closer and they have added 250 something that turns out to be a fancy name for vin etching and another 500 for another fancy name for "maintenance we're supposed to do after we buy the car and before we put it up for sale". i call the sales guy and tell him that i didn't agree to pay for those things, and if he'd kindly send a corrected sales agreement i'd gladly sign it and fax it back and head up there after work to do the deal. he tells me sorry we explain that to all our customers and sorry if we forgot but those charges aren't coming off. i said well then you can go jump in a lake i'm not paying it. it wasn't until i went to file a complaint with the BBB that i found out that the parent company also owns basically all of the luxury brand dealers in the area, and has an F- grade with over 300 unanswered complaints.

Strizzo wrote: last year, the GF was looking at new cars. she wanted a coupe and had narrowed it to a few cars. the sales guy at the hyundai dealer wouldn't stop trying to talk cars with me to try and sell her the car, and she didn't really like it anyways, rode stiff as hell reminded me of the c4 vette my mom test drove back in the day. the mazda dealer (highly recommend, jeff haas mazda in houston) turned us loose with a hardtop 6 speed GT which she got a little lesson in driving a manual in before we brought it back. then we went to the nissan dealer to look at z cars. we pull up in my 2010 xterra and start looking at the 7 or 8 used ones they had. they had a good looking 2 year old 350z convertible that she decided she'd like to try out. the skeeze that came out of the used car shack says "uhhhh, well, to drive this car, we're going to need some kind of check from you" "cause that's a $40k car" i ask on what planet and then ask if he means he wants a credit check to test drive a used nissan, he says yes, we say no effing way, so he says ok, well here i guess you can test drive it, she takes it down the highway a bit discussing how much that sales guy didn't want to sell a car. bring it back, she has some choice words for the sales guy, and we bail. she bought a 2009 volvo c30 program car from volvo of dallas with included maintenance for the first 2 years a couple weeks later. my story was trying to buy a 4runner from landrover houston north. it was a black 03 v8 4wd sport edition with like 45k miles on it, they were asking 17,900. i went up to test drive it, all seemed in order, the interior was clean and in good shape, they look at my MS3 and offer basically what all the other dealers had, i had some more cars to look at so i didn't get too far into it then. a day or two later i call up the sales guy and offer 16,500 with 13,5 for my trade, which they countered with 13 in trade and i say good deal, fax over the sales agreement and i'll bring my car, the title, and a check for the difference plus taxes, no problem. when i get the sales agreement its about 900 bucks more than what it should be given our previous conversation. i look closer and they have added 250 something that turns out to be a fancy name for vin etching and another 500 for another fancy name for "maintenance we're supposed to do after we buy the car and before we put it up for sale". i call the sales guy and tell him that i didn't agree to pay for those things, and if he'd kindly send a corrected sales agreement i'd gladly sign it and fax it back and head up there after work to do the deal. he tells me sorry we explain that to all our customers and sorry if we forgot but those charges aren't coming off. i said well then you can go jump in a lake i'm not paying it. it wasn't until i went to file a complaint with the BBB that i found out that the parent company also owns basically all of the luxury brand dealers in the area, and has an F- grade with over 300 unanswered complaints.

Was it Luxury Motors, Inc?

Curmudgeon wrote: Moral of the story: never EVER pre judge a customer based on their appearance.

Very true. A few years back my dad drove into a VW lot with his (now my) old, faded, rusty, smoking econoline. He met a very nice salesman named Clyde, and he test drove-and purchased-a new Phaeton. Good sale for that guy.

OTOH, I get top notch service at VW dealers when I drive in with that. My brother once got a test drive in an R32 golf without giving the guy his license, and I was thrown the keys to a GLI for a test drive. When I was 15.

I did notice something odd, though. Nobody in my immediate family has ever had a stealership problem, but my fiance's family can't seem to find anything but. I'm thinking it's because her dad is 5'2". Also, his english was good enough to write a successful dissertation, but he has an accent. He's even had the same problem at electronic stores. At first I just thought it was because of the higher number of jerks in the Boston area, but I haven't had the same problems. I'm even weird lookin!

Oh, Wait! I do have a stealership story, but it's not mine. in 1987 my mom wanted a new car, and she had it narrowed to a Porsche 944 non-turbo (which my parents both hated for some reason, something about not enough power or options for the cost) or a Supra. They went to the dealership and wanted to test drive one, but the salesman wouldn't let them despite their legitimate interest (they did get to test drive the Porsche with no problems). They walked over to a different salesman who did give them the test drive. They ordered what they wanted (fully loaded, pearl, burgundy leather, turbo, 5-speed) and the first salesman, known as Bob Costas, wanted the commission. They said to the owner of the place if that guy gets a dime, he can keep this expensive car that they had just ordered. He didn't get a dime, my mom still has the Supra, and they stayed friends with the test drive-granting salesman until his sad death a few years ago.

sonic automotive - they own jaguar, land rover, BMW, MINI, Audi, Mercedes, Porsche, VW, Volvo, Ford, Chevy and Caddillac dealers in the houston area. several of those, like MINI, they're the only game in town

FlightService wrote: In reply to BoneYard_Racing: Strange, most the stories I saw of people getting screwed by dealerships, they brought the documentation with them to prove it. My favorite story of a saving someone from a screwing was a Kia stealership up the street from the Carmax I worked at. Woman brought in paperwork for a spectre that after everything was said and done she would have paid $31K for! I got her what she asked for at $17K AFTER paying all the payments interest included.

That isnt right but I hope you know that is the exception rather than the rule. From what friends who work at carmax type stores have told me you almost have to screw people to make a comfterable living out of one of them.

Selling a 17yr old one of those things is not a good idea then again as I told the former wife of one of my customers on Saturday its not my job to tell someone not to buy a car, if they walk in with the means and the intent.

Most people in the car business know people, they could care less about the cars and we all like money everybody in the world likes money and we all work hard for it.

My girlfriend was shopping for a used 1 series BMW convertible. The local Ford dealer had a 135i manual for sale. We drove up and asked to test it out. The 20ish salesman tossed me the keys. I asked is there a time or distance limit? "Nope." We ripped that lil 135i around for about 25 minutes with just her and I in the car. Unfortunately they couldn't work with us as much as we wanted.

That had to be my best dealership experience to date.

when gen coupes came out i was seriously considering buying one. went to the nearest hyundai dealer ask for a test drive. we wont let you test drive one without a credit app. me: umm y not ive already said i was gonna purchase it cash well ummm miss no one pays 30k for a car in cash. me: well i do. get your sales manager please. explain the situation to sales manager. sales manager tells douchebag to let me drive one. douche bag then wont let me drive a manual saying we cant test drive the manuals because they dont need people who cant drive a stick well burning out thier clutches. me: ok thats fine ill go to the other dealership. him:they will do the same thing. keeps trying to talk to me all the way to me car. notices my car is a stick all of a sudden wants to let me drive it. hmmmmm.... 2 months after that i decided i wanted to try selling cars. endedup getting a job at that very dealership and realizing said sales person only sold 4 cars a month. which at hyundai is normally about 800 dollars,. he was actually working for minimum wage. to make money selling hyundais you need to sell 17 or 18 a month

In reply to BoneYard_Racing:

I don't know any "Carmax type" stores but if you mean no haggle flat commission then ok. I never screwed or know of anyone who got screwed at our Carmax. Service department is a different story but then again that is the biggest weakness of the Carmax brand, they also were a weak on their purchase offers. Kind of hard to screw someone with a 5 day return policy and a 30 day warranty on every car. Their price isn't the lowest, but they tend to be fair on their prices (90/10 rule on that one.) and they honor their policies.

As far as the exception and not the rule, sure, but the exception IS NOT a single digit percentage, (I would guess a solid 20% get a royal screwing at traditional dealership, especially in the finance office.) The customer just doesn't know they got screwed. The #2 dealership in our town had one of the worst BBB ratings. People just weren't informed, they had a great marketing team, and salesman that could sale a Frigidaire to an Eskimo. Good luck getting the salesman to talk to you, or even still be there after the sale.

I got in the car business to change some things and in my little world I did. 4 years later I still get calls from co-workers that need help with cars. Helping a customer pick one and which features benefits will do what, etc. My friends list is still getting a workout from repeat customers. I am happy knowing that.

I can't in clear conscious, sell a car that I know will cause harm to a customer, without them having the knowledge ahead of time. I have lost a few sales because of it, but you know, I don't have any customers in the obituaries either.

As a consumer I have a problem with the dealership making a killing and the salesperson getting nothing ie Carmax. We dont have the carmax franchise up here but I work on the same street as two no-haggle high volume stores, they still make money on finance and products.

Being screwed is a perception most of the time. If someone pays 30k for a 20k car okay they got screwed very very rarely at least from what Ive seen does anything like that happen.

I sell Buicks and one thing about older people is they dont stop shopping after they buy their car, say we do a deal at invoice with no rate held no products basically a looser all the way around the customer will take the buyers order AFTER taking delivery to the dealer of a different make and ask them to look it over. The other dealer will ofcourse make up a number and put it on some official looking paperwork and of course they come back to us and complain. I agree the industry is broken and its what leads to all this crap on all sides how to fix it is a mystery to me.

Again I sell buicks so I dont really have to worry about the too fast killing people thing. I sold a used G8 GXP and paid for the owner to do an auto-x with our local club he loved it and got to drive the car somewhere safe.

probs with selling hyundais is out commission was always just a 100 dollar mini or 99% of the time. alot of thier cars are only 600 to 1200 over invoice at sticker... then ofcourse 500 to 750 holdback which sales dont get paid on and 300 to 1000 dealer cash. then you have tiered incentive money from hyundai. if you sold 17 cars youd get around 4400 for the month. nothing to really get all that excited about. i preferred to focus on used cars. we avged 3200 gross on used cars and at 25% made it nice to sell them.