I believe over the course of a few days Priority worked hard to gain my trust in order to take advantage of that trust in the end. Doubly bad on my part because there was a signal of dishonesty right in the beginning. The first negotiations involved vehicles on their lot that were demonstration vehicles. The deal the business office offered showed a sizable discounts from the MSRP, but then proceeded to add a bunch of stuff on that price. This included adding back in the "Delivery, Processing, and Handling Fee" of $1,495 that's in the MSRP. That's basically dishonest. If they're going to put it back in, why not just reduce the discount by that amount?
I had been warned about Priority by a neighbor. He used the USAA buying service to establish a price on a new Toyota while overseas. On return to Virginia with a family of 4 and no car, he got squeezed by Priority for more money, and was very unhappy about how they took advantage of him. I would have bypassed them, but I'm hooked on Toyota vehicles, mainly because of their reliability. No other dealer in the area had what I was looking for.
Thankfully, I had visited a different dealer previously. They didn't have what we were looking for, but gave us a very good offer on a new vehicle on their lot. It was close, but not what we wanted. In comparison, Priority's offer on the demos wasn't even in the ball park. I gave them offers which they rejected.
I almost walked out when they were deceptive about the discount. I should have, but when it was apparent that we were not going to buy a demo, the salesman shifted immediately to trying to find a new vehicle at other dealerships.
Later the same day they called saying that they had found a vehicle in Maryland. We negotiated a price that was acceptable. To keep it simple, I insisted that the number I would use included everything going to the dealer. The only add on would be for taxes and tags which the dealer would be transferring to the state. The next day, we returned for pick up. When presented with the sales agreement, it was confusing. Not one number on that agreement had any relationship to the MSRP or numbers used in the negotiations. But the bottom number appeared close to the expected price with taxes and tags. On their printed form, there were 3 different dealer fees mixed in with taxes and tags. Priority has a $899 processing fee, and on our form, a $82.79 Dealer's business license fee and $17 Purchaser's On Line Filing Fee. Total fees going to Priority $999.58! There are signs around about the $899 fee, but nothing about the others. I believe the sales agreement is designed to be confusing.
I was STUPID to sign the sales document without running the numbers to see that it was exactly what was negotiated. It looked about right. When registering the vehicle with Fairfax County, they request what I paid. So I did the numbers and found out I paid more than the negotiated price. Not the almost thousand dollars of the three different fees on the sales document, but another, smaller number that could not be explained by any combination of their fees. I figured that they'd make it right once it was pointed out. WRONG! After a back and forth with the salesman, he admitted that the additional money was fees to Priority. He then hit me with a GOTCHA "you signed the sales document".
I'm supposed to get free oil changes and State safety inspections for life, but I have no intention of ever going back to Priority again for any reason. Recommend others look at all the reviews of Priority by customers on Yelp, and elsewhere. Not good. Had I done so prior showing up at Priority, I would have been better conditioned to check everything.
It is probably going to be getting worse for the customers at dealerships. With Tesla selling cars without dealers, and growing extremely fast, it would appear dealerships, as we know them, are going away. Good thing as they don't add value, or earn their cut. IMHO read more