Extremely unprofessional; Refused to honor deal; some kind of bait and switch?
My Dad and I came here on the Friday before labor day to see a 2010 Hyundai Sante Fe that was listed in the KSL classifieds for ~$9,775. We found a Santa Fe in the lot and were checking if we had found the right car when we were approached by a man wearing ratty shorts and a threadbare shirt who started asking us questions about the car we were looking at. He was particularly interested in what the listed price was (We said we saw it online at around $9.7k). I thought we were talking to another curious customer. It was only when he got the keys that I realized we were talking to a salesman.
He gave us space, which I appreciated. We were learned the car at been at the lot for 3 weeks, even though the KSL listing was only a few hours old.
We test drove the car and liked it. However we were slightly concerned that the clock in the car was wrong (battery disconnected?) and the car had been equipped to tow loads much larger than it was rated for. We sat down in the cheap folding plastic chairs at the sales desk and discussed price. He gave the out the door price, including taxes and fees, would be just under $11k. I asked if he could get the final price down under $10,000. The salesman called the owner, told him he was at the computer calculating the final price, and explained the situation. I could overhear the owner say something like "can you get them to do $10500 out the door?"
I agreed to the price, and said I need to talk to the bank. We also discussed that I wanted to have an independent mechanic check out the car to verify that no error codes were being hidden by disconnecting the battery - he claimed the the battery had not been disconnected. I learned the salesman was named Kirk when I asked for his number.
We called the Kirk from the bank and he said he could take $9500 cash and put $1000 on a credit card. We told Kirk we would be back for it tomorrow.
Saturday my parents and I returned for the car. My mother and I test drove the car down to the bank to withdraw $9500 while my father stayed behind and try to find a mechanic who could see it that day. Kirk knew we were getting the money. Dad was unable to find a mechanic who could see us that day, so Kirk offered to hold the car for us over the weekend if we put down a cash deposit. My parents continued to chat with Kirk as I went outside to try to call a few other nearby mechanics. I was deadset on buying the car that day but I will not buy a used car until it's been checked out - nor should anybody for that matter. I honestly did not expect anything to be found wrong, I just wanted to be sure.
Even in a low pressure environment, car buying is still an extremely difficult and stressful process for me. I didn't want have it weighing on me over the holiday weekend. An available mechanic could not be found on short notice, so we agreed to put down the deposit.
Kirk wouldn't take the deposit without the owner there. My parents and I left the lot to get lunch while we waited. We were on our way back when we got a call from Kirk claiming that the out-the-door price that we had agreed upon was "a mistake" and that the LIST price for the vehicle was now $10,500 - not the $9.7k that it was actually listed at. This was nonsense since we had already negotiated and watched Kirk calculate taxes/fees and call the owner.
We pulled over and my dad called back to talk to the manic owner. He said the owner claimed that he would "lose $1000" if he sold the car to us at the agreed upon price (which was only a $400 discount under what they had listed it at).
The owner insultingly claimed we weren't serious about buying the car even though we were there CASH IN HAND.
The owner, also insultingly said that, had we been serious, we would have put down the deposit before leaving... which we had tried to do but Kirk said we had to wait.
Mostly though, the owner was VERY concerned about the idea that we were going to have a mechanic inspect the Santa Fe - he kept bringing it up and wouldn't let it go. This is ABSURDLY SUSPICIOUS.
The call made me sincerely believe that, yes, the car had something wrong with it that they were covering up. The bogus price issue came across as a deliberate lie to make the deal fall through and prevent a mechanic from looking at that car. They claimed the car had already passed state inspections, but I am very suspicious that those results were most likely fraudulent - otherwise why were they so concerned?
The car is now listed $10,495. This is apx. $750 higher than the original listing price... which is less than the $1,000 the owner claimed he would lose if he honored our deal. But, I have a feeling that price will go back down soon to bait another less discerning buyer - perhaps after the double-dealing owner reads this and realizes that my literal pile of cash and I will never be returning to his tiny, dirty lot full of untrustworthy vehicles. read more
