Quote:
Originally Posted by grizy
This. I tried the alternative just recently and the selling tactics are super aggressive. One of the dealers straight up lied and told me the quoted price is the amount to be financed with all taxes already included. That amount incidentally was roughly the same as comparables on cars.com. Then I saw the financing document and sales tax was definitely not included. They even tacked on another 2k or so of a bunch of bullshit service charges. They tried to hide all that by saying "but we got monthly payment down to xxx."
It was just absolutely infuriating. What some dealerships do should be illegal. In fact, I suspect some of it is illegal and why they refused to put stuff down on paper.
Come to think of it, they still haven't refunded me the $500 "refundable deposit." I should have never agreed to that bullshit.
Online shopping through cars.com is just so much easier. Because everything is in writing (email), there is wiggle room on what the terms are. I just go in, drive around the block, sign, and leave with the car. The experience is just way easier for someone who doesn't want to deal with bullshit or risk getting scammed.
They know what they are doing and have different tactics they will use on different people depending how savvy they think you are. When I bought my last truck sight unseen (I saw it on my way to pick it up before signing papers) I was in a rush and they already try to rush you through the paper work. Anyway the quoted sale price is legally supposed to include all fees but before taxes where I live.
They threw in the usual BS fees but there was a $1000 brokerage fee I noticed later, I searched for it on google and it seemed like it was almost never used, definitely not a real item any dealership usually charges in their "add on" fees.
I had to hound them for a few days and got back half of it. I even had the salesman send me his papers from the vehicle he bought and it must have been fabricated but he sent them showing the same BS charge.
The last truck I bought from the same dealership had a special insurance agent they send out to sign you up, in my province its all through one government company so you expect to not get ripped off. The agent convinced me that the bank who financed me requires gap insurance which was $2500. I looked into it later and cancelled it, then sent a text to the agent telling her what she does for a living is pretty effed up.
I really shouldn't have even gone back for the second truck but I need another one next year and if they want to sell anymore trucks in the future I'm going to need a pretty damn good price.