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

[Shugardrawers]

My ex DH and I went looking for a car for me. We found one that we liked and took it for a long test drive and to have an independent mechanic check it out. It seemed to be a fair price for a pretty good car but we had a policy of NEVER making snap decisions about a car. We wanted to look around at a couple other cars and then choose the best one. Of course, we were informed that this car would be sold if we didn't take it that day. Yeah, yeah, yeah, we'll take our chances we said. The salesman actually showed up AT MY JOB to try to continue to pressure me into buying it WITHOUT consulting my husband. I told him he'd divorce me if I did that. He offered to pay for my attorney fees!!! I told him no one would be paying his attorney fees when I had him arrested for harassment and trespassing. He left but amazingly kept calling for several days and several times each day. Though he was waaaay over the line we liked the car and had decided to go and purchase it but do so through another salesman at the dealership. While there a sudden rainstorm came up and we learned that the sunroof leaked like a sieve!!! Needless to say that was the last straw and we left.

Another time we drove up in my very old but well maintained car and asked the salesman what kind of trade in value we could expect. He laughed. We left.

 

[Kristi1357]

I can't think of anything specific right now, but I used to shoot and edit those cheesy car infomercials you see on TV on the weekends!

Anyway, from things I overhead and was told by these dealers over the years, I am SO nervous when I even think about looking for a car. I know what they pull and hate going in knowing the ways in which they will try to rip me off. We looked forever last year when we bought our minivan!

 

[DisneyVillain]

So... I cancelled the check paying for the car.

Be careful. Stopping payment on a check that is not lost or stolen is a felony.

 

[DVC-Don]

Back when we were young and poor we looked at a used car when we lived in New Hamster. The salesman said "You've heard of the car a little old lady had who only drove it to church and the grocery store? We'll I'm not kidding, this car was really owned by a little old lady who only drove to church and the grocery store. Really, she lived just down around the corner from here" We looked at the car sitting next to us and it had an out of state inspection sticker on it. Yeah right.

 

[sorcerormickey]

A few years ago when it was time to turn in our 3rd leased Explorer, we decided we might want something a little smaller. It was just after the Escape came out, and we wanted to check that out. The salesguy wouldn't even let us test drive an Escape! He kept going on and on about how we wouldn't like it, blah, blah, blah....and just refused to let us test-drive one. So, we dropped off the Explorer and took our business to GM! To this day, the thought of that man just irritates me to no end!!!

 

[Manda1219]

When I was on my quest for my Mustang, I heard all sorts of lies...

"It's only had one owner!" (already did the Carfax from home...it had 3)

"It has a special exhaust!" ($30 aftermarket crappy exhaust)

"This car will go very quick! You need to buy it today!" (sat on the lot for at LEAST 3 weeks afterwards)

Finally, my boyfriend laid down a $500 deposit on a dark blue coupe that I liked. This was around 5:30 on a Friday. He said he had to talk to me and get someone to look at it. They called him the minute they opened Saturday and basically told him that they needed to put it back on the lot immediatly because they had invested a lot of money in an Auto Shopper ad (...a whopping $30!!!) My boyfriend informed them he'd be there right away...to get the deposit credited back to his card. Apparantly, the $30 ad was worth more than a $13,000 sale. Great mathematicians over there!!! It's ok though, my car is a LOT better than that one anyways

 

[Hillbeans]

This was before Carfax but we have a 1999 Olds and we bought it with 25K miles on it. The dealer said it had one owner.

Yes, it was one owner, but we found out the owner was Alamo Rent-a-car.

 

[Beth76]

This is something that a salesman DIDN'T say to me. When I was ready to buy my first new car, Pontiac was running a special on Grand Ams. I pretty much knew that's what I wanted and the sale ended in 3-4 days. I was married at the time, but went to the dealer to look with my dad. I pretty much knew exactly what I wanted; it would have been an easy sale. We walked in, passed by 4 salesmen who were chatting it up. Looked at the Grand Am that was on the floor for about 5 minutes. Not one person came over to talk to us. This was a weekday and there weren't any other customers there. In addition to the 4 people we walked passed, we saw a few more salespeople walking around. Not one of them, even made an attempt to talk to us. So we left and I bought a Grand Am from a different dealer later that day.

 

[RobinMarie]

"What smell?"

 

[LindaG4458]

I had a 1978 Chrysler LeBaron that I had been driving for 5 years. I decided I wanted a 1983 Toyota Corolla SR5 hatchback. In order to get the best trade-in I went to a dealership that sold both Chryslers and Toyotas. They had a great little Corolla, bright red and with a sunroof. I loved it! The only hangup - my old car had air conditiioning and this car did not. The salesman really wanted this sale since it was the end of July and he wanted it in his numbers for the month. He convinced me that, if I took the car now, I could have the air conditioner installed as soon as they could get one delivered - within two weeks. So I took the car and paid for the air conditioner at that time.

As you would expect, the temperature went up to the 90's right after I picked up the car. I kept calling the dealership and they claimed they hadn't been able to get the air conditioner yet. I kept getting this run around until the middle of October when I told the parts manager I didn't care if he had to take the night flight to Tokyo I wanted the air conditioner. When I finally spoke with the dealership manager and demanded a refund he miraculously found an air conditioner. It seems that every time one had come into the parts department there was a car that was sold and the buyer wouldn't take it without the air conditioning. So the part would go into that car and they would order another, etc.

Moral to the story: Never accept a car with the promise of an option to be installed later. If it has to wait a week it's better than waiting several months.

By the way, I never dealt with that dealership again.

 

[helenabear]

Not really bogus, but a terrible attitude. I went to test drive an Audi TT. I think they are really cute looking cars... the first statement I got from the salesman after I had said that to my DH was "It's a manual, you know" and shot me this look like I had no business driving it. I said "Yes, I know, that's all I drive" He then went on to give me some line about how they don't let people test drive it unless they are really sure about buying that specific car due to lower inventory... low and behold a man about my age came up and asked to take it for a test spin... the salesman said sure even though the guy was looking for a coupe and not a convertable...

that's all right... I like my little Civic Si anyway

 

[LuvTigger]

It's sad how car salesmen tend to think that women are "dumb" car buyers. I recently read that women tend to do a more research when buying cars than men do, and I'm one of them.

A few years ago I went to a Mercury dealership when the new Cougar first came out. I knew almost all there was to know about them in terms of cost, options, etc. I told the sales guy I wanted to test drive a 6-cylinder stick-shift. He claimed it didn't come in stick. I told him I was positive it did, and he still denied it. I also told him I wasn't interested in purchasing one right now, I was just looking. He said, "even if I can get you a great deal?" Ugh.

The manager came up to me later after over-hearing my conversation with the salesman and apologized, the salesman was new and it was only his 3rd day!!!

That's what made me decide to go to Saturn, no haggling and no pressure! (I had to practically beg my sales person to let me buy the car!)

 

[sgtdisney]

I have a number of them but this is one of my favorites. I went into a dealer that I had worked with on my 2 previous new car purchases to look at a Beretta GTZ back in 1990. The car had just come out and was pretty hot at the time with a (mild by today's standards) 180 horse power engine, etc.

Anyway, I worked for a company where I could get 100.00 under invoice on Chevy's and told the salesman I would be willing to pay 100.00 over invoice that day to buy it close to home. He laughed at me and told me to go to my dealer to buy it. I asked him if he would at least present the offer to the manager. He laughed again and said it would be a waste of his time and mine. So I asked again, you don't want to sell me a car and he said not at that price and walked away.

Being a young guy (at the time ) I decided to hang around the car and wait for the next salesman. He asked me if I wanted to buy a car (great opener for me) and I said yes, but the dealership didn't want to sell me one. Surprised, he asked why and I explained what happened with the previous salesman. I then mentioned the General Manager by name as I had worked with him on my last two cars and the salesman told me the car was brand new (it was just released) but it wouldn't hurt to present the offer. We went in and sat down, the salesman presented the offer, and voila, the Manager accepted it. So, in the middle of the paper work the 2nd salesman (the nice one ) walked up to the first salesman (who was at the next desk) shook his hand and thanked him for the sale, as I did buy the car. It was a great moment! The guy who refused to present my offer turned beet red.. I just smirked at the first salesman. The manager told me that the sale put the salesman who sold me the car over his quota for the month.

 

[Aimeedyan]

Gosh, I can think of tons! BUt my most recent:

Went with my sis to buy her a new car after she totaled hers. She wanted a Honda Accord. The dealership in her city had this dumb $900 after factory package added to every single car on their lot. It included a pinstripe, fabric protectant, clear coat sealant, and these plastic anti door thingys.

ANYWAYS.

She didn't want any of it, but when push came to shove over it, the salesman had the audacity to tell us that HONDA was now MAKING them add it, and it wasnt' a choice.

Well, we just happened to leave on a drive to Florida that very night. We stopped at SEVERAL Honda dealerships all the way there, and all of the ones we stopped at laughed when we told them what we had been told.

She ended up with a Honda Element (bought it Saturday, actually) and amazingly enough, the dealership here that she bought it from did doesn't make you buy the "Honda required $900 package"

What a load of poo.

 

[*Flower*]

We were going to buy our 2nd CR-V from a Orlando, FL dealership.
Our 1st CR-V was 3 years old and it was such a great vehicle that we'd put over 99,900 miles on it. The only things we'd ever replaced on it were the tires and a light bulb.

Well, the dealership didn't want to offer us more than $3000 for the trade in, and told us that 'they were doing us a favor' by offering us 'that much'. The new one that we were there to buy was on the lot.

Of course they did all the talking to my DH, and he told them to talk to me because I was the one who handled all the money. As usual, they didn't- and they pulled the GM over to re-iterate that nobody else would give us a deal that good. (DH wanted to get the new Gold one....)

And they couldn't believe it when we walked out the door, either.

We bought our CR-V about a month later. In VA, and it was the color that I wanted (Blue).

 

[christineann]

I bought a lemon station wagon back in 1985. It blew the catalytic converter 2 days after I bought it (new) and then every 4,000 miles after that. The dealership apologized each time and fixed it, but when it blew a month after it went out of warranty, they said it was my fault for poor owner maintenance, even though I had all the tickets for the repairs they did, oil changes, etc. That last time, I had it towed to the dealership, and they told me it would cost me over $200 in tests they had already run. I told them to keep the car (it was paid for). Fortunately I was able to borrow my mother's car at the time. I opened a complaint file with GM who said that they have no choice but to back up their dealership (this was before lemon laws went into effect). Anyway, the owner of the dealership called me after 10 days and said he would wipe off the bill and have it towed anywhere I wanted at their expense, which I accepted. I had it fixed elsewhere and traded it immediately. The owner of the first dealership lost his business the following year for tax evasion, fraudulent business transactions. etc.

Several years later I went to a dealership to buy a new Chevy truck. I was looking at a window sticker, and a salesman asked me if I wanted to look at a nice sedan. No, I told him, I want to look at a truck. Without asking me if I wanted to test drive, he asked me what would keep me from driving that truck off the lot. I replied "your price" and left. Found the perfect truck at a dealership at invoice price. I may be blond, but I have a brain!

 

[katerkat]

I was also treated like crap at a number of dealerships. I had done all the research and have complete control of the family checkbook, but the dealers only wanted to deal with DH.

We went to one dealer, who refused to come near the price I was asking (I think because *I* was asking) and added a bogus $500 fee. We left and called a dealership an hour away. They had the color we wanted and they had no problem meeting my price, even on the phone. No $500 bogus fee, either. I thought about driving the new SUV through the other dealership... The salesman had said he had never seen a blue Pilot.

 

[CindyKansas]

Let me start by saying I absolutely HATE car shopping. But here's how one of our trades went. We originally bought our first Ford F-150 in 1993, only had 20 miles on it when we bought it and it was a great truck. We went to trade it in in 1997, it had 56,000 miles on it and it was in excellent condition. We stopped at a Ford dealership outside of Wichita to have them look at our truck and we test drove a new extended cab 1997 Ford F-150. They told us that they would give us $10,000 for ours against the new one. Excellent deal. We told them we wanted to think about it but we would let them know that day. We decided to go where we bought the 93 and talked to the same salesperson that waited on us the last time. We found a pickup and of course then you have to go talk to someone else about trade in. They only wanted to give us $4000 for our trade in, we sat there and told them "we don't think so". We told him that we had an offer of $10,000 at the other dealership and he told us we were lying. My DH was livid. We got up and walked out, got on the cell phone and called the other dealership and told them to get the pickup ready and we were on our way to pick it up.