Cringe experience during car pickup at the dealer

[Westside Guy]

Originally Posted by Crazy1323

THIS!!
On the items like “protection packages” and “theft tracking” have huge markups as well. They dealers also don’t have to share these profits with the manufacturers.

The latest scam is where some dealers are installing a “theft tracking” device with an added cost of $999 in every new and used car and they are refusing to remove it from their vehicles.

[DanoX5]

I've never met a new car salesman that wasn't the spawn of Satan.

[Grease23]

Yeah, the non-optional dealer add-ons are a new trend. We bought an Escape and it has a silly code panel installed for a secret code to start it. They wouldn't take it off or give us credit. It's been on "valet" for 4 years now.

Next purchase it was $250 for some kind of paint protection warranty -- non-negotiable. Nothing done to the paint, just a warranty.

Next purchase after that (328i E93) was some kind of non-negotiable insurance-like product for $300, even though I am already insuring the car. All are just a BS little add-on after you have worked out the price they are going to add it to.

[Westside Guy]

Originally Posted by Grease23

Yeah, the non-optional dealer add-ons are a new trend. We bought an Escape and it has a silly code panel installed for a secret code to start it. They wouldn't take it off or give us credit. It's been on "valet" for 4 years now.

Next purchase it was $250 for some kind of paint protection warranty -- non-negotiable. Nothing done to the paint, just a warranty.

Next purchase after that (328i E93) was some kind of non-negotiable insurance-like product for $300, even though I am already insuring the car. All are just a BS little add-on after you have worked out the price they are going to add it to.

I often wonder if forcing you to pay for these ridiculous add-ons is legal. Have you ever written to your state's attorney general's consumer protection office and made a formal complaint?

https://www.atg.wa.gov/consumer-protection

[Grease23]

I have not written to the ag about this.

I've remembered a 4th example (so that is four in a row) of this kind of thing. I purchased a used SUV from a Westside LA Ford dealer. It was to be a 3 year loan, everything was agreed on, and I ended up at the finance guy. After some fake chumminess, he did his pitch on Lojack. It would be around $700 more. I told him I wasn't interested anyway and besides nobody would want to steal what I was buying.

Then the price came down, and down, and down, as I declined over and over. Finally, he said "I can get you the Lojack for just $2 more a month." "Huh," I thought. "That would be $2 times 36 payments?" I told him OK.

His printer churned out what was at least 4 feet of forms. Unlike most people, I looked them over carefully. He had added back in the $700 to the loan. If there was any grain of truth in his representation, maybe he "meant" that the extra interest I'd pay would be just $2 a month? I didn't care, I told him "No, take it out. I guess I can't trust you, can I?"

And thus began the scene. You'd have thought he had to personally spit out the ink between his teeth to reprint those pages of forms with the honest, agreed numbers on them. He got quite agitated, which I suspect was a well-practiced show to get me to back down.

My relationship with that dealer ended after I spent a lot of money trying to fix an oil leak they were unable to fix. On the next oil change (me doing the work this time) I noticed the gasket from a prior oil filter had stuck to the based plate and they had screwed a new filter on top of the old gasket. Wiping off the base plate and lubricating the new spin-on filter during an oil change is incredibly basic.

[NickyC]

Super nice car man, congrats!