Why I DETEST Buying A Car.
[This is a long one. And it's a rant. You have been warned.]
It’s fair to say that negotiating is a regular part of life. Some people do it for a living and some people avoid it at all costs. I’m probably somewhere close to doing it for a living based on different roles that I have had over my career, not to mention when I was negotiating for a later curfew in high school and in college.
Background
My Dad negotiated my first car purchase when I was 19. Before that, I drove a hand-me-down that varied between whatever car my brother trashed along the way. Then I moved into Manhattan and the need for a car ceased until I had a temporary stint in the Bay Area in 2000. I got creamed when I leased my BMW in Palo Alto. No doubt about it. Spanked. Hosed. Bamboozled. You name it. I didn’t know enough about the mechanics about how car sales worked. Fortunately, when my stint in NorCal ended prematurely, BMW wanted my car so bad that they essentially paid me to get the car back so they could resell it for an exorbitant price. Whatever.
Fast forward to 2003 when I moved out to Seattle and needed to acquire a car. I didn’t want a BMW because even though I loved it, I felt they nickeled and dimed on so many of the packages. I mean this is a luxury car brand and power seats weren’t included in the base?! So I went to Volkswagen. They assigned me a female salesperson and truthfully she was as much of a shark as anyone else, even with me reading “Car Buying For Dummies”.
I wanted to lease (mistake) and committed pretty much every other dumb error you could do (i.e., this is what I want to spend per month). The worst part was the signing process where they said it would take an hour and it took three. I had already returned my rental car and Marc had dropped me off at the dealer so I was on an island, or so I thought back then.
The Finance team at Carter VW in Seattle jerked me around with delay tactics and other BS. I would complain to Sales while I was waiting and I didn’t exist anymore. I was passed over the wall. I could tell you that I had my Jetta for almost 10 years. I LOVED that car and yet I still tell people that Carter VW sucks and doesn’t respect your time.
They would call, email, etc. I’d tell them why I’m not interested each time and they would say that things are different. Yeah, right. Car dealers are nothing if not predictable. They still use the same crappy tactics. And they are in denial that the model is changing…. Maybe they should talk to yellow cab drivers who thought their model was unassailable.
Trade-In Current Car
Fast forward to the past couple of weeks. We decided to trade-in our Ford, which had incredibly low mileage and was in top condition for a 2012 car. We sold the VW to a friend a few years ago who was in a bind. We received a letter from Ford, which I also verified with our dealer, that they were willing to pay up to 110% of Kelley Blue Book (KBB) for our vehicle.
I make an appointment and show up with the car. I did my research on KBB and NADA with conservative estimates for what Ford could offer me. I also had a trade-in value estimate from where we were buying our new car. I figured out the tax implications, etc. Bottom-line, I knew the number Ford had to give me to make the deal happen.
Of course, they lowball me. I expected that. What I didn’t expect and what caused me to just walk out with saying “thanks for your time” was that when Bill Pierre Ford gave me the number they wanted to pay, I grabbed my phone because I had NADA and KBB pulled up. The salesperson says:
"Don't bother getting the information from your phone. The info there is always wrong. What I have from Kelley from my machine is correct."
Oh really? I get that you weren’t going to go with the number that KBB said on the higher end but to call KBB’s website into question with the hopes I wouldn’t check it and just accept your number? Wow. I guess this intimidation tactic must have worked before? I tweeted at KBB and of course they politely said that the salesperson was full of crap.
The end result of that was that we didn’t dislike our Ford. We just wanted something different and until that salesperson, we had nothing but positive things to say about Ford. Yeah, not anymore. The trade-in happened at an attractive price where we bought the car, so all’s well that ends well - more on that in a bit. But Ford is dead to us.
Buying The New Car
I was pretty confident about what I wanted to buy – make, model and most of the options – but I wanted to test drive it obviously. One of our close friends recommended test driving a competitor so I did that first.
I went to BMW after making an appointment. The salesperson kept trying to tell me on the test drive that the options that I was interested in were not that important. Oh ok. Thanks. I guess I don’t know what I want at all because “you know what I want”. Maybe it’s because you have the perfect vehicle in the showroom for me to buy with the options already in place. Gosh, I'm so smart (not really).
I told the salesperson I would follow-up as I was checking out the nearest competitor. He responds by saying that the car I “want” is priced at XXXXX MSRP. Hmmm. I ask is that what he is offering the car at because his email is vague except for the dollar amount and MSRP. The response is “Oh, of course I wish I could sell cars at MSRP but that isn’t realistic so we sell the car at MSRP with X% discount.” Ah right. Make me pull stuff like this out of you. Don’t just give me a number to negotiate with. Now we’re done because you actually attempted to sell me a car at MSRP and you want to sell me a car with features that I could care less about. THIS IS WHY PEOPLE HATE BUYING CARS. NO RESPECT FROM DEALERS SO IT’S CONTENTIOUS, DEFENSIVE, OFFENSIVE SIMULTANEOUSLY!!!
Now off to test drive the car I want. I had put in some data and was already quoted an “internet discount price”. It’s getting close to the “end of the year” where new models are coming in for 2016 plus we’re close to the end of the month. We get a price on the trade-in, which was probably helped by Ford’s “strong interest” in my car. Get some things negotiated and within 24 hours, we have a deal.
But it’s not smooth sailing because our salesperson tells me that even though we (THE CUSTOMER) have a time crunch that he may not be able to get us through Finance as quick as we would like because they can’t predict “end of the month” traffic. More BS. So then I go on Twitter to warn our new dealer what happened to VW when they screwed me on my signing time frame.
Magically, everything gets sorted but our dealer wants feedback and to make the survey say “10, 10, 10”. I say that when someone has an appointment and you don’t honor it that it is unacceptable. He gave me a bunch of excuses why that happens but ultimately it is the typical “You’re making your internal logistics problem MY problem. I don’t care. Fix it.” Stop worrying about your survey scores. It was almost as nauseating as a former manager at Microsoft telling the team how to fill out the annual MS Poll. Yes, this happened.
I still have a couple of things to sort out but ultimately this ended up pretty well for us. That said, I feel like buying a car is like signing yourself up to fight with someone because ultimately car salespeople aren’t interested in a win-win. They are interested in doing whatever they can to rip you off. That is what I learned.
I'm not saying that I am an expert in buying/selling cars but I can tell you that the whole process was exhausting/frustrating and that's what these dealers count on. This time, I was more prepared, secured a better deal, etc., but these people just want to extort what they can from you. We encountered a bait and switch situation with Lexus in Bellevue, so we will never buy a Lexus from anyone again.
When Tesla and other companies like Beepi start gaining more momentum, I can’t wait for this business model to go down. Kind of like yellow cab drivers extorting passengers and having horrible customer service. J