What is something bogus a car salesman has said to you?

[outstandinfarmer]

We usually buy our cars from the car auction and get them at wholesale price. I have a Grand Am and want to trade it in for a Mustang so I'm going to dealerships with DH and trying to get a good deal. If we don't get it for the price we want, we are just going to sell the Grand Am privately and buy the Mustang from the auction.

Anyway, a salesman told me today that he was going to have to put $1500 into my Grand Am to make it sellable because we had bird poop stains on the car. I told him that I could take a wet washcloth and WASH the poop off. He told me once you get the poop on the car, it's never the same. GIVE ME A BREAK!!!!

DH and I looked at each other and started laughing. We got up and walked out.

(BTW, on the way out, we saw cars they were selling with poop stains on it. I wonder how they are EVER going to sell them? )

 

[Larry]

My first job was a flooring inspector for BofA.
I could go on for hours on just how the Salesmen and Managers tried to seperate you from all the the money you had and would ever make while making you feel that they were your buddy and were cutting their throat to give you such a wonderful deal that you have to take now because they cant offer it again.

The one I did like the most ( at one of my accounts ) was where they would tell the buyer that all the items listed on the invoice were added at the dealership ( not at the manufacturer ) and needed to be added into the price a SECOND time. P.T. Barnum was right.

But to be fair I had some accounts that did bend over backwards and worked fantastic deals for the clients.

 

[wdw4us]

I don't know about $1,500 but he does have a point on the poop. If it stays on for any length of time on a hot summer day it will bake into the paint and damage the surface. Now you and I would probably not notice it that much. It would look like a small darkness in th at spot. My husband on the other hand is a sign painter and letters vehicles for a living. He has seen it all and agrees that bird poop is probably the worst thing to sit on your car. He has all sorts of compounds and things to remove all sorts of things from the surface but poop is the worst.

Sold my grand am last year in a private sale, I think you'll get a better deal that way.

As far as salesmen. Years ago when I was buying my first car, the dearler we went to thought he should talk to my husband, my hub said you'd better talk to her, she's buying the car. He repeated that statement when the salesman kept ignoring me. I told him that since he couldn't talk to me - we were leaving and we did.

3 years ago my daughter went to the same dealer to purchase a honda S2000. $35,000 car. A big deal for a 23yr old. Again the salesmen spoke to my husband, my daughter was not as gracious as me but did walk out and went to a dealer outside the city. They just won't learn!

denise

 

[edcrbnsoul]

I had a dealer that put a sticker on his car above MSRP that was
$300 A.D.M.U. when I asked what that was for he started giving me some long BS story about prepping the car ect. ect.

I finally dragged it out of him ADMU additonal dealer mark up

I got in my car and went to another dealer.

 

[Pooh_Friend#1]

I am 24 (23 at the time I bought the car) and just bought a 2004 Nissan Pathfinder. I brought my dad along because I didn't have very much credit and needed a cosigner, just like wdw4us, the salesman refused to talk to me as I repeated that I am the one buying the car. I finally walked out and went out of town to buy the car and ended up getting a loaded Pathfinder for the price the other dealership was offering for a standard one and they managed to get around my dad cosigning for me. The first salesman just couldn't believe that I could afford the payments by myself without my mom and dads help, just because I was a recent college grad.

The only thing they did with the trade in was deduct $500 for a crack in the windshield, but I didn't fight because they were offering me such a good price!!!

 

[crz4mm2]

I have also had salesmen ask where my husband was. Those are the dealerships that do not get my business.

I found a gem of a salesman recently. He is great. Bought my Honda Accord and the DD's Grand Am from him. It was a painless experience both times.
Good dealerships and salesmen are worth their weight in gold.

Forgot to add that a local salesman told me he could knock '1400 bucks off the sticker price without talking to anyone else'. Then offered me 4 thousand LESS than the NADA price on my trade in, and then came up 1400 bucks. When I then asked about the 1400 off the sticker he said "we already gave you that amount on your trade".... needless to say, he did not get the business....

 

[2angelsinheaven]

"This is a great little car" ~ As smoke is blowing out from the tail pipe...lol!

 

[southernclass]

"Even if you don't buy a car, can I still take you out to dinner?"

 

[mickeyboat]

We were looking at a little Dodge truck a few years ago. We really liked it and went inside to talk about price, financing, etc. The salesman kept saying there was someone else interested in the truck and that we needed to hurry and lock down the deal.

Amazingly, as we were sitting there, the salesperson took a call from a good friend who was also interested in this truck and was coming in later that afternoon to buy it. The salesperson graciously told his friend that since we were there now, we would have first dibs on the truck.

We told the salesman that we did not appreciate game-playing and while we were walking out, we said he could let his friend have the truck.

Denae

 

[Lanshark]

Years ago DH and I bought a used (2 years old) Toyota Supra. Took it for a test drive and heard a squell when we got to about 75. Salesman said it was normal for a high performance engine. We were young and stupid and took it home. The next day it got louder so we took it to a mechanic to check it out. It was the differential which, at the time (1984) was around a $2000 repair. I called the dealership and they refused to acknowledge the salesman lied when asked directly what the noise was. They said it wasn't covered under warrenty because it only happened when the car was being driven over the speed limit. I believe, at the time, the limit was still 70. Anyway, who buys a Supra to drive under the limit

So... I cancelled the check paying for the car. Took it back to the dealership that night. We went back and forth for several minutes until I told them "I cancelled the check", you can have the car back and we'll find someone to report this to. All of a sudden this could be taken care of under the warrenty and all was well. They fixed it, we left and never went back.

 

[Hillbeans]

Hmm...I often wonder why salespeople do these silly things...because in my opinion, if you really like a Honda and want one, if you find a semi decent salesperson who doesn't BS you, you'd probably buy it because you like the car.

Sometimes less is more.

 

[coliebird]

Well, I bought my car from my brother (he was a salesman for Toyota) so I got it at dealer cost - no complaints from me lol. Of course, he no longer sells cars, but I am hoping that next time I am in the market he will call one of his buddies at Toyota for me.

 

[ladyv]

I was looking at used cars at a (supposedly) reputable dealer in town. I got into a Honda Accord and the front and back inside door panels were beige...but the dashboard area was maroon. Now, I've never seen a two-tone car intereror, so I asked about it. The salesman told me that's the way the car was originally manufactured from the factory.

I ended up walking out, becuase his story sounded fishy....to this day, I think I was right to question the car....but I still have that little doubt that he *could* have been right. Anyone ever hear of a two-tone intererior on Honda cars???

 

[CindysGusGus]

We were sent an advertisement from a dealership from a small town about 15 minutes away. My DH and I were looking into buying a Mini Van because we had basically out grown our other car. He had been in the ER the night before with a kidney stone and up all night till he passed it so a friend and I went to look. I had never driven a mini van and we were not sure if Id like going from my eclipse to something so big. If I didnt like it we were going to go with the Grand Prix. Well my friend and I drove up and got out immediately we were aproached by what looked like a man in his late 20's. He asked me what I was looking for. I told him that I was interested in test driving a mini van. He asked where my husband was. I said thats none of your business, I make enough to buy the van on my own without the help of my DH. He said, thats not it, we dont allow test drives without your husband present (I was 30 at the time). This infuriated me. I turned on one foot and we got back in the car and left. From my cell I called the general manager who apologized profusely and begged me to come back. The last thing I said was, you know Im not sue happy but some other woman might be, esp with your salesmen having such obvious discrimination against women. Within 10 minutes the salesman was calling my house waking up my husband to apologize. My husband was like you are calling the wrong person man, dont you get it??? He was fired shortly thereafter.

 

[Tina]

A couple of years ago, we went along with some friends who were looking for a new minivan. They found one they liked and sat down to go over the numbers. DH and I just sat back and stayed out of the way, but we could hear everything. This slick salesman tried to scam our friends out of their rebate by saying he had to add it in to tax the $$, then back it out. So basically, he was using the rebate to increase the sales price (and taxes!) and never actually giving them the rebate. I pulled my friend's husband aside and explained to him what was happening as he didn't see it. He's not much of a numbers guy (and I'm an accountant) so he didn't really understand what I was saying at first. Finally as they went through the numbers one last time, the light bulb went off over his head. He stood up quickly and shouted "Hey! I didn't get my rebate!!" Things got heated pretty quickly and the "manager" came over and warned us to quiet down or we'd be thrown out. He did not care about what was happening (it was probably the norm in that dealership). We got the heck out of there and found a more honest dealership. In the end, they got the car they wanted for a much more fair price -- and they got their rebate.

Of course now whenever we hear the word "rebate," DH and I always imitate our friend and say "Hey, I didn't get my rebate!! "

 

[cynsaun]

I once had a car salesman tell me that the car I wanted didn't come in white because when the factory tried to apply the white paint it wouldn't stick to the metal!

 

[Misty89]

OI~

when we wbought the car i have now ( 2 years ago) it was from a hyundai dealer- it is ford taurus wagon, anyhow.....the price on the window was$8,000 something, so we went for it. we ended up with a female saleperson.....got to working on the paperwork and the numbers were wrong ( $4,00 more than they should be) when i questioned her ( afterall it was going to be MY car) about the extra $4,000, she replied that was the price....we bickered for a bit and she informed me that THAT was the cash and take
price( $8,000 price) well, i said thats fine.....someone else will buy the car cause i will only buy it at the window price .....( i was going to pay cash but not tell ehr that!)
so after a FEW consultaions with her
manager i got my price. then came the " all the options info" ( when we took the car
home we found out it had all the options including a 6 disc cd changer that she was unaware of )


so..ladies stick to your guns! - i even got crap from a woman saleperson!



ps.i once had a mechanic tell me the odor i smelled from my old car was the power steering fluid leaking onto the motor....on my drive home the rear hose for my antifreeze blew up . - sometimes i would like to tell those automoblile related workers that i work with cars everyday ( i test cars for emissions) and i know the smells of cars! GEEZ!



Tina

 

[billelissa]

Originally posted by southernclass
"Even if you don't buy a car, can I still take you out to dinner?"

ROFL - I don't think he was being bogus though!

 

[Stepharoonie!]

I was dating a guy back in 1999, and he wanted to trade in his (horribly) run down Ford Escot. This old bf of mine didn't have a clue on how to treat cars, as he stuck stickers ALL OVER this thing. It didn't have A/C, a radio, windows had a hard time rolling down (sounds like my car now!!), etc. etc. He had been in two accidents a few months earlier, so the radiator leaked, the car broke down often...you name it. He got a flier in the mail that any car, any trade in would get you $3,000 trade towards a car on their lot.

So, we went to look, and he found this 2 door Geo Metro that he liked. I forget what the price was, but with Andy's credit the monthly payment was something like $450. Of course, he couldn't afford that, but he wanted a new car so badly he didn't care. He waited until the salesman gave him the price before he mentioned he had that $3,000 flier and boy....the salesman was NOT happy about that. Seems Andy's car was only worth $50 Well, the salesman tried to upsell him on cars, telling him that since he had that $3,000 flier he should "use it to his advantage" and get "a much better vehicle". Andy was very firm and said that he found the car that he wanted.

The fun part begins. We actually got there late on a Saturday afternoon, and a bad rainstorm started...so no one could go out and check his car. As we were going through all of the paperwork (actually, I was just sitting there bored), whatever office the salesman had to call for financing was already closed for the weekend. I have no idea why. It finally ended up with all of the paperwork signed and his new keys in hand around 8 p.m.

On Monday afternoon, I received a phone call from the delarship that Andy's financing had been denied, and that he needed to return the Metro. I personally had never heard of this before. Seems Andy's credit was SO BAD, no one wanted to give him the loan for the car, especially considering he didn't put any money down. Andy talked to the salesman for awhile, and the salesman actually sounded really nasty. I guess he was angry that he was going to lose his commission.

Andy finally agreed after two days of arguing that if his car was returned, then he would return the Metro. Well...what do you know. They couldn't find his old Escort. It took them a week to realize that the car had been crushed in a junkyard, because the car was in such bad shape, they could never resell it! Of course, the dealership didn't care and kept demanding their Metro back.

It finally ended up that Andy would his way up through the managers and threatened to go to the BBB, and they "found" someone to finance the car.

Of course, a few months later after I left him, the car was repossessed....dummy bit off more than he could chew!





Now, my first car that I bought was a 96 Ford Explorer, and it was a fluke that I even found it. A woman had literally just traded it in a few hours before my ex and I walked onto the lot. My ex was sort of "smooth" with car dealers, so the dealer we had fawned over him, blah blah blah. He shows us this Explorer that I fell in love with, but felt I could afford. My credit was pretty bad at that time. When we went into the financing office to do the credit check, the salesman after LAUGHED while reading it and told me that I didn't have a chance in the world to get this vehicle on my own. Well, duh. That's why my ex was there. I was really embarrassed that he was making such a loud, big deal about myy credit history. I finally just had my ex finish dealing with him.

 

[jrydberg]

Stepharoonie, I had a similar experience with my ex-wife, except they had already moved my ex's car 3 states away, sold it to a wholesaler who sold it to a dealer who sold it to an individual. A few days later she had to return the new car (long story) and they obviously had trouble returning my ex's car

It took 3 or 4 weeks to get her car back. Funny part is that when they finally got it back, they wanted my ex to sign something saying she wouldn't sue them. Well, at that point she certainly wasn't going to sign anything of the sort. They refused to release the car to her. She asked to inspect the car to make sure it was still in good condition. When they brought it around, she pulled out her spare key, jumped in the car and drove away... The manager threatened to call the police. I said, "And tell them what? That she stole her own car?"