Margate330

Hi Club Lexus Friends!

Yeah, it's a "dog eat dog" world out there.
We all know that car dealers have some of the worst reputations of anyone selling goods for their Sleezy and Shady sales tactics.

I recently got an envelope from a local new car dealer.
Inside was a plastic key that supposedly went to a new car and a card that had scratch off spots on it, like a lottery ticket, Hilarious!

Wife was scratching off the gold boxes and thought we won something but I showed her on the back where it says, "everyone's a winner", whatever that means. lol
Really wish I kept what they sent me so I can post a pic, next time I will, just for fun.

Been exposed to dealer sleeeeeze lately? lol
Seen some shady tactics?
Fell for some sneaky tricks?

Dealers and the Games They Play! lol

bitkahuna

iTrader: (20)

yeah everyone's a winner just to get people to go into the dealer to collect whatever fluff they're giving out.
🎣

Toys4RJill

Doesn’t really bug me

mmarshall

In most cases, and in my experience, the public perception of dealerships is worse than they actually are. Having said that, though, the credibility of dealerships can, and do, vary enormously from one to another, and, in many cases, even between one sales-rep and another.

I won't even waste my time with that kind of nonsense..........Life's too short.

lexusnyca

I am hoping for a huge recessionary wave to hit auto sales and wipe out many of the dealers. Perhaps that will hasten the transition to more direct sales, like Tesla.

natman

I've only came close to buying a new car once. It was in the mid 80's and I saw a Dodge (Mitsubishi) Colt Turbo and took it for a test drive. I liked it so much I decided to buy it. (for the princely sum of $8,600 MSRP!)

The salesman insisted on trying the "low monthly payments" scam. I knew better and kept trying to get him to quote a price. He refused and kept trying "would you buy it for $350 a month? $300? $250?". I finally got fed up and told him flat out that I insisted on a price first and would only talk about financing after I got one. I also told him that if I didn't get a price quote right now I was going to walk out the door.

He wouldn't give me one, so I walked out the door.

That dealership went out of business and is now a vacant lot. Good riddance.

geko29

When my wife was a teenager, she won a car in a radio contest. When she went to go pick it up, it was some $250 POS. She told them where they could stick it and walked out.

mmarshall

And, to add insult to injury, she would probably have had to pay tax on that $250 value....as is usually the case with contest-wins.

Margate330

I don't have a problem with dealers in general and I've had good experiences.

Just people earning a living and delivering a product, I can respect that.

However there are others that never got my business because of the Sleeeeeze. Haha

The "car payment" angle, one of my favorites. Lol

They usually pitch that one on me early as I'm looking at the car and don't know if I even like it yet.

Oh man, I bet she was heart broke.

Thinking it will be something nice and then get there and it's a reject they would never sell on the lot.

Sounds like a good PR campaign to "give a car away".

You can count on it. Lol

Toys4RJill

People buying cars are equally sleezy too

SW17LS

I'm done with dealers lol. Bring on direct sales. Just so painful today with no inventory, markups, required BS worthless packages on the stickers...

Toys4RJill

It will eventually get better. Discounts will return in time

SW17LS

I'm not so optimistic. Dealers have learned that inventory kills profit per unit, and the only way to get discounts is to have inventory that sits on their lots. They have consumers trained that paying MSRP is a great deal, dealers aren't going to go back to having 300 cars on the lot again.

I don't so much care about paying MSRP, if a car is in demand, then its in demand and I don't expect a discount on it, its the price gouging or ADMs and them not even having cars for people to see and drive or letting people see and drive them. For instance, I would like to drive a new Range Rover. Its impossible, people just order them and buy them without ever driving them...they have no demos...the local dealer here won't even let you open the doors and look at one inside because they are all sold. They force customers to let their ordered cars sit on the showroom floor for a week before they will allow them to take delivery. Its just ridiculous.

I'd much rather have a dealer with demos I can see and drive, and then order a car I want and wait for it and pay MSRP...like at Tesla.

Even mainstream cars, you can't even test drive a Sequoia. Toyota dealers act like they sell Ferraris. We all like the new GX, we won't be able to drive one let alone buy one even if we wanted to. Absurd.

SW17LS

As for bad dealer stories, one of my favorites was at Euro Motorcars in Bethesda in 2001. My Dad and I were looking for a replacement for the 98 LS400 which was coming off lease, we went to look at an S Class. Walking up to the doors a salesman stepped in front of my dad, walked into the dealer and let the door slam straight in his face lol. Mercedes dealers have improved but that dealer is still real snooty.

We literally turned around and left, didn't even go inside.

Toys4RJill

This will change. When there is finally a downturn in the economy…people will stop buying cars, and the demand will come more in line with production. Paying the inflated prices can’t go on forever for the vast majority of consumers. And the manufacturers that find a way to offer cheaper cars, that are in stock will be the winners.