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!

[P1]

My favorite trick: when you go into the finance manager's office, tell them you are only keeping the car for a few months. At that point, it'll be pointless for them to sell you on all the useless warranties, protection plans, etc.

[mjr24]

Maybe some of you need new dealers. We just bought 2 new cars and had zero second thought from either finance person when I declined all products.

I also have a really cool ass salesman, too…..then again he is a member on here and a BMW enthusiast….most aren’t like that.

I will say I’ve gotten the full court press on some of these products in the past. It’s not fun. I do think they were able to add a lot of this shit on as a requirement during COVID (basically a nice way of putting an ADM). However, I don’t think most dealers are able to do that anymore so they might be putting the press back on the warranties, paint protection, etc.

I will say I have an almost automatic negative tone with most sales people who don’t realize what I’m asking for. I don’t have time for all the negotiation crap. I already know the residuals, incentives, money factors, etc. going in…..I simply want to know how much off MSRP you are willing to give me before incentives. That’s literally all I need from you. Yet, I get salespeople trying to ask if I’m leasing, etc. It doesn’t matter. The price of the car is still going to be the price of the car.

[Grease23]

Unless you are paying cash, there is always the relentless push to get you to stop thinking about how much you are paying and focus on the amount you are paying per month.

[P1]

Originally Posted by mjr24

Maybe some of you need new dealers. We just bought 2 new cars and had zero second thought from either finance person when I declined all products.

I also have a really cool ass salesman, too…..then again he is a member on here and a BMW enthusiast….most aren’t like that.

I will say I’ve gotten the full court press on some of these products in the past. It’s not fun. I do think they were able to add a lot of this shit on as a requirement during COVID (basically a nice way of putting an ADM). However, I don’t think most dealers are able to do that anymore so they might be putting the press back on the warranties, paint protection, etc.

I will say I have an almost automatic negative tone with most sales people who don’t realize what I’m asking for. I don’t have time for all the negotiation crap. I already know the residuals, incentives, money factors, etc. going in…..I simply want to know how much off MSRP you are willing to give me before incentives. That’s literally all I need from you. Yet, I get salespeople trying to ask if I’m leasing, etc. It doesn’t matter. The price of the car is still going to be the price of the car.

When I was shopping for our Jeep, one local dealer had all the nonsense "mandatory" extras on the window sticker. The out of town dealership didn't. Obviously I bought out of town. When the local salesguy called me back and asked me when I was ready to buy, I shoved his face into the fact he lost the deal due to the nonsense add-ons. He told me he would have gladly taken them off. When I asked him why he didn't mention that right away, he had no answer. Hopefully a lesson learned, but likely not.

[GolfCoyote]

Finance managers can be the worst. No issues when I bought my M3 but man when we got my wife's CX-90 I about walked out.

Right from the get go I told both my SA and the finance manager I was not interested in ANY additional add-ons. They tried to get us to by this $1,000 anti-theft GPS monitoring, told them I wasn't paying for it so my SA removed it. We finally get to the finance managers office, he tries to butter me up prior to getting to all the additional warranties and protections do basically trying to make the manufacturers warranty sound like its worthless, I politely decline and say I am not interested in any additional protections as previously discussed.

We basically get to the last page to sign off on the agreed price/item order and he quickly glosses over the breakdown of everything. I look at the breakdown and notice a $499 "stolen vehicle recovery reimbursement" option included in the price. I point it out and he says "oh ya, don't worry about that it's already included in the price." I again ask what it is and am fed the same line "It's already included in the price so it won't effect anything." I'm starting to get irritated at this point so I say "I get it's "included in the price" but I want to know why its there, because I did not agree to that and am not paying for that."

Really pissed me off that they tried to sneak that in there, I told the finance manager if I found anything else like that I was going to get up and walk. We basically finished the rest of the paperwork in silence.

A day later I wondered if they truly removed the $1,000 GPS tracker from the car that I declined early on, got under the dash and low and behold I find the activated tracking device. Promptly removed that and threw it away.

[IanH]

They left the GPS tracker in? Wtf criminal. Woulda reported that to the AG office.

Only possible reasons are incompetence or wanting to extort you for the service later if you reported the car stolen.

[GolfCoyote]

Originally Posted by IanH

They left the GPS tracker in? Wtf criminal. Woulda reported that to the AG office.

Only possible reasons are incompetence or wanting to extort you for the service later if you reported the car stolen.

Personally I think the trackers aren’t worth much, so little in fact that it would cost more to pay the tech to remove it. Plus leaving it in is a benefit to them in the event you don’t pay your loan.

I did leave a very detailed review about the experience on their Google reviews page.

[spielnicht]

Congrats on your X3MC - looks beautiful and wish you many miles with a huge smile on your face.

Experience with the finance manager is always a hit or miss from my experience. I partly blame the dealership itself because they use them to upsell BS services and products at insanely exaggerated prices, knowing that MANY people know crap about cars and fall for the "it's only the price of a daily cup of coffee, what's an extra $100 on your monthly payment?"

Honestly, your SA wasn't trying and wasn't really caring about cross-selling you anything because he knew/knows the finance manager is gonna be doing that.

When my wife bought her X3 last November, the finance manager was trying to sell her on the dealership's own oil change package. He went bananas when I sarcastically said that I do all my own oil changes because I don't trust anyone else to do it, not to mention it's 100% free for first 3 years anyway. He wouldn't let up - just going on and on about me voiding the factory warranty and that Liqui Moly wasn't an approved oil (blah blah blah). I just said enough, I'm not having this discussion and we're not paying a dime for any package. Needless to say, never going back to that dealership.

[Hydrostream]

I bought my car from BMW Seattle and there was no pressure at all from the Finance lady. I already had my own financing through another bank so maybe that helped?

[tturedraider]

I wish folks would identify the dealerships when this stuff happens.

[NervoS]

Originally Posted by Hydrostream

I bought my car from BMW Seattle and there was no pressure at all from the Finance lady. I already had my own financing through another bank so maybe that helped?

Dunno. This is my second bmw from them in 2 years and I didn't have any issues when I was buying X5 2 years ago.....

[Windshieldfarmer]

My best buying experiences have always occurred when negotiating by email. While a visit with the finance manager still occurs, I’ve never found it difficult to say no…and I can be pretty unfiltered when hardball sales techniques are used. The negotiation of my BMW lease last fall was accomplished via email and was a very positive experience.

That said, I recently helped negotiate the purchase of a new Nissan Pathfinder for my daughter and made the mistake of working in person with the dealership “team” since a trade was involved. I won’t bore with details but I would liken the experience to an attempted financial gang rape. What a bunch of snakes.

[NervoS]

Well, in my mind all negotiation should be completed when you get to a financial person. And it was.

[Daveschally]

Originally Posted by NervoS

Honestly... The next day has come, and I don't think I will. As was said here, maybe she has something going on in her life, and while, yes, it was completely unprofessional, she has been in the business for many years (if we trust her words, and I don't see why we shouldn't). Worst case scenario, she'll get reviews from other customers, and that'll be it for her, but I hope it was just a momentary lapse.

I agree with others, as a fellow consumer you almost owe the public a review. You were strong where many others, like the 60 year old widow will be taken in by her performance. It’s actually not honest in a way to avoid a candid review as I know BMW asked for your feedback post purchase.

[FCX5]

Originally Posted by NervoS

Well, first of all, I’m accepting congratulations: today I became the owner of a brand-new 2024 X3MC! Yay! That thing is a beast!

But the day was ruined by the finance manager at the dealership. In another topic on this board, I asked about 'all surface protection' and 'PPF paint protection' that my dealer offered for an additional several thousand dollars. I talked to my SA, who was cool—no pushing or anything. I told him I was going to investigate, ask around, and decide whether I wanted it or not. This forum is a great source of information, and I’m super grateful to everyone here who shares their knowledge. You’re awesome, guys and gals!

Anyway, after doing my homework and calling some local shops, I decided not to buy those packages from the dealer. Again, my SA was super cool with that; he just said, "OK, no problem!" I thought we were finished with it, but little did I know. Once I got into the hands of the finance manager, I got a lot of pressure to reconsider my decision. To save time, I immediately said I wasn’t interested, but that didn’t stop the manager. She started talking about the warranty and asked if I had read the reviews on their website. And this is where I made a "mistake": I expressed my doubts about those reviews and mentioned that I usually don’t fully trust reviews published on a vendor’s site. That triggered her—she said she was personally offended by my accusations (whaaat?), that she has been 17 years in this business, bla-bla-bla.... that she wanted to leave, and that I’d have to talk to someone else from then on. I honestly wasn’t prepared for that.

Yeah, I’m a very straightforward person and usually say what I’m thinking (and I’ve been hit by this multiple times in my life! And at almost 50 years old, I still haven’t learned much, it seems like!). I apologized, said it wasn’t personal, it’s just based on my past experiences, but yeah, my mistake for extrapolating... bla-bla-bla. She stayed, but her face was... uhmm... I can’t describe it—very sour. We finished the transaction in complete silence, broken only by "sign here" and "initial there," and that was it. After we were done—no goodbye, no thanks, no handshake—nothing. My SA was befuddled by the incident and tried to smooth things over with jokes, and I’m grateful to him. But like I said, the experience was ruined for no reason.

Either way, whatever! The car is great, I love it (and scare of it a bit!).
Here are some images. As a pleasant surprise - I found rubber mats in the trunk! Thanks, SA, we didn't even talk about it!

These are commodity SUVs (even M). I would have walked and gone to another dealer. She did not deserve your business...I would have told the manager, she was rude. It is fine to say I don't trust reviews. There are a lot of fake reviews for sure. I am glad you are happy though...that is all that matters.

[nyalpine90]

the only item i consider getting is the wheel & tire protection and usually you can negotiate it.
but i havent recently due to working from home