Check Yourself… Before You Wreck Yourself!

*Longer post than intended. Sorry guys. I’d still recommend anyone looking to buy a vehicle read it*

It’s no real secret on here that I’m somewhat *cough* unhappy with my car. It’s also no real secret that I’m looking to get rid of it before it costs me a whack load of money after the warranty runs out. Add in that I no longer work downtown, am working on renovations, and am dating someone on the opposite side of town… this means I’ll be getting a different vehicle. Add the length of 2x4s and the weight of tile, and you have me looking at pickups. A truck, for those of you who aren’t familiar with the term pickup.

My dad has been hunting around for me over the last little while, and he has a quote on one at a dealership in the town they live in. It’s a good price, but it seemed to me that they could do better, so I went looking after work today. The first dealership I went to was good; we spoke on equal terms, he showed me examples of what I was looking for, looked up some from other dealerships, had my car appraised, and gave me a detailed print out of one I was interested in. He even scanned it and e-mailed it to me so I could send it to my dad. Good stuff.

It was still reasonably early when I left that dealership, so I decided to pop across the street to one on the other side of the road. Talk about a different experience! They almost had me signing on the dotted line for a vehicle that was WAY out of my budget range. They almost had me!

I realized while I was in there that there were several sales tactics at play, but I liked the vehicle, so I waited to see what they came back with. Sliiiiiiiiiiimy! Ugh *shudder*.

I need to take a shower just to get rid of the gross sneaky sales person feeling. With a salt scrub. And possibly some sand paper… or bleach…

Anyway, to prevent yourself from getting suckered into a deal you don’t actually want, here’s a bunch of stuff that happened tonight that you should watch out for when you go to buy your next vehicle:

The Bait and Switch

I walked into the dealership and over to the truck. When the sales person came over I told him what I was looking for: 2 rows of seats, standard length box, 4×4, a work truck, etc… and I couldn’t care less about the colour. We head outside, and he points out the two different grill options (huh?), and says the one option is more expensive, so he’ll show me the sport package truck. That should have set off bells. He brings it around, and gets me going with the bells and whistles. In dash fuel economy display, built in bluetooth set up (non-bluetooth talking is banned come September!), easy lift tailgate, you name it. We take it out for a spin. It’s awesome, I love it. We go inside to discuss numbers.

Now I’ve driven these vehicles before, and I KNOW that what I was driving wasn’t a base model. Not even close. It has a _____ package? That’s not base model. Make sure what you’re getting into is what you’re asking for BEFORE you even get into it. It’s like asking for a plain hamburger and having them parade a steak with all the fixings around in front of you while you’re hungry. Do you want it? Of course you do! Is it what you asked for? No… but it sure looks good, doesn’t it? If you want a hamburger, make sure they bring you a freaking hamburger.

Don’t Drink The Water

This is going to sound strange, but trust me, it’s true. I walked into the dealership to discuss figures, and the sales man asks me if I want a water or coffee. It’s past dinner, I haven’t eaten, and I’m getting thirsty. I accept the water.

Bad move.

I learned this from a former manager who knew his stuff. When entering into negotiations, don’t accept offers of anything. No water, coffee, chocolate, mints, nada. When accepting an offering from someone, most people feel obliged to reciprocate. It’s like a gift between friends. This is not a position you want to be in when you’re negotiating for your hard earned money. Try it the next time you’re in a similar position. If someone is trying to close a deal, and you don’t take their offerings, it can be quite uncomfortable for them. Depending on the person, they’ll usually continue trying to “give” you something in order to seal the deal. This is a little extra leverage to make sure that something is a chunk off your bottom line. You didn’t go there to buy water, keep an eye on your hamburger.

Tag Team

Imagine my displeasure when my jovial sales guy passes me off to his slicked up partner in crime to talk dollars. Ugh. I’ve just finished building a rapport with the other guy, now someone I’ve never met before is handling the bottom line.

Don’t let them do this.

Tell them you want to deal with one person through the whole sales process. If they won’t let you do that, move on to another dealership who will. It makes it very hard to pin down what is being promised to you when the sales people are swapping back and forth every 5 minutes.

Watch The Barometer

I knew I was in trouble when the second guy sat down and said “What’s it going to take for you to walk out of here today with that truck”. Argh. While the one guy was easy to talk to, this guy what all about high pressure sales. It’s easy to see why they were working together: one gets you to fall in love with a vehicle, the other one is the closer.

If you need time to think, and I know I do, then speak up! They may say it’s the last vehicle of it’s kind, but trust me, it’s not. There are dozens of dealerships that inventory can be pulled from. They can ship vehicles from store to store FREE OF CHARGE. They want your business, and they will have a vehicle brought in to make sure they get it. It is very easy to create an artificial feeling of scarcity or panic… don’t fall for it. If the heat is on, take the pan off the stove. Don’t burn your burger!

If you went shopping by yourself *raises hand*, and you don’t have someone to back you up, create one. One of the times I was between sales people, I called my dad. It forced the guy to give me a few minutes while I talked/thought things over. Diversions are your friend. Use them.

Spell It Out

The new guy came out with a price for the vehicle… written on a sheet of paper.

Seriously.

At the top of the page was the sticker price, in the middle of the page was their “price”, followed by monthly payment option costs for 48, 60 and 72 month payment plans. At the bottom of the page it said “Taxes and Fees Included In Payment”.

Before you mention anything about the length of the payment options… I know. I’ll just leave it at that.

The fact that it came out written on the back of a sheet of paper gave me all sorts of heebie jeebies, but I was so gobsmacked by the price that I didn’t really care. Sticker price for the truck was over $47,000, and they were waving around a number pretty close to $30,000. That’s a LOT of money off a truck. Then the guy looked at it and said he had to check something because the payments didn’t look right. Away he went again, and came back with the payments marked up because “they hadn’t put in the lien against my vehicle”.

Okay, fine, but how did the payment price go up without the truck price moving?

Hmmm…

He saw I was hesitant so he went back to see how much lower he could get “management” to go on the price of the truck. He came back $2000 lower. Despite my reservations, I was sold on that vehicle. They’d take my car off my hands, pay off the loan, and I’d be in a brand new gorgeous vehicle for less than the deal my dad had found at his dealership. Done deal.

Where’s The Money?

There were multiple of the same vehicle on the lot while I was there, so I went back outside with the first sales guy to pick which colour I wanted. We didn’t even get to the side of the truck, and I stopped. Something wasn’t adding up. Why did the lien on my car change the payment price? I’m trading my car in, that should cover that. Right?

I said I wanted to see a detailed breakdown of the price, because something wasn’t computing.

We walked back in, and they brought over the same hand written sheet again, only this time there was some figures tallied on the side totalling $38,000.

Back the truck up! How the hell did the price just jump $10,000?

I’ve been punching numbers into calculators for weeks now, I knew something didn’t look right when they first brought it out.

The “price” they were waving around on the sheet earlier wasn’t actually a price, it was a “difference”. They had taken their markdowns off the truck, took off the trade in value of my car, and wrote it down in such a fashion that it looked like a sale price. It did not include the loan remaining on my car, or the taxes, or the fees. That bit they had written at the bottom about all taxes and fees included? That just applied to the monthly payments they calculated, not to the cost of the truck itself.

“But you said you were alright with the monthly payments, so the price for the truck doesn’t matter that much, does it?”

WRONG!

Needless to say, I didn’t buy the vehicle. I never did see a proper print out for the price of the truck either.

It’s not the most expensive thing I’ve every walked away from because of BS (That honour would go to a brand new $300,000 home), but it certainly is the the second most expensive thing on the list. I don’t feel bad about that at all either.

I think I might almost be settled down now. I still need a shower to get rid of the new car smell though.

One last thing to note: Ask yourself why they need your drivers license to fill out paperwork if they don’t even bother to ask to see it before letting you take a vehicle out for a test drive. True story. They asked several times for my license in the building, but I never gave it to them. Why?

Unauthorized credit checks.

Don’t let them do it until you’ve settled on a price and you’re ready to sign on the dotted line. If they insist on taking a copy of your license before you can test out a vehicle, make sure you get ahold of that photocopy and write “Credit Check Not Authorized” across the front of it. Until you’re ready to make a deal, it’s none of their damn business.

Oh yeah, one other thing. Don’t let them twist your arm about how they can’t go any lower on their price. The sticker price doesn’t mean much at all. If they make their sales quotas by the end of the year the manufacturer gives them a percentage of their money back. More importantly, dealerships don’t make their money on sales… the real money is made in the parts and service department. So do yourself a favour and learn how to change your own oil. You’ll thank me later.

Recommended Reading: Ethics and Investing