So, I felt a little taken advantage of, here. "A used car dealership? You're kidding!" but it just feels that way.
Just to be clear, we had cash. We thought that would increase our buying power. It didn't.
There were a couple red flags with the dealership that we were going to ignore. Never in initial dealings did they mention that the car in question had had an accident. Poor form. You have Carfax's. Use them. Now it was minor, sure, but the scratches made more sense. The new bumper made more sense.
"Did you know that this car was in an accident?"
He dodged the question. He didn't know.
So one of two things happened:
1) He lied.
2) He legitimately didn't know.
But either way, we had lost some trust in our seller.
So even though we're assured that the car was heavily inspected ("All our cars go through the [certain number]-point inspection.") we had it checked out by a local and unbiased car mechanic.
Sure enough: a sway bar link gone bad. Expensive? No. Dangerous? At high speeds with quick maneuvers, absolutely. Easily detectable? Yes.
He did apologize: "I talked to our mechanic, here. He can't believe he didn't catch that. We're going to fix that for you." Aw, thanks.
Car was filthy in certain areas. Lots of stains. And so our list and cash thought we could talk them lower.
Not a dime.
Apparently agreed prices "never" include fees and taxes. As first time buyers, we didn't know that. So maybe if you don't know that, this peace of advice will help: ask. Your agreed upon price needs to be "out the door."
So when they didn't come down, we came UP to their asking price, they threw another $1000+ on us for these taxes and fees. We don't have that to give.
"Well surely you don't expect us to eat that $1,000 for the tax, do you?"
"Actually, yes. Yes, I do. With the time and expenses you no longer have to pay for (leasing, financing, credit) with a cash transaction, you can take a hit. But you won't take a loss."
"Sorry."
"Well, we'll have to look elsewhere." So we are. It just stinks, because it was a lot of time and effort that lead us back to square one.
I hope buying a car in the future doesn't end this way.
Update: The manager contacted us and apologized. I have to use the term loosely, because he defended everything that happened.
The one condescending argument I remember the most: "If Burger King advertises 6 nuggets for $1.50, you have to know after tax it's going to be $1.59."
My reply, "The problem with that parallel is that if I go to Burger King and say I have a $1.50, I don't think they'll still ring me up. I sat across from your salesman and told him my budget and he led me to believe that was what it would cost, out the door."
So it was an impasse, and I bought from a different dealership with better miles, better warranty, and a lot more upfront with markup, all for cheaper. read more