I earned a few extra beers tonight, so here's the recap:
The Walkout: Round 1
So I did some diligence, got internet quotes from 6 different dealers. Secured financing. Got insurance quote. I head to Nielsen Dodge. They didn’t give me the lowest quote, but their internet guy (IG) was pretty straight forward and gave me some real numbers. I figure I go there and I’ll start a few hundred below the best quote I got, with my agreeable price being a couple hundred above that quote. IG tells me to ask for sales manager (SM).
- Park car
- Text wife, check through my folder of paperwork again, burn a few minutes in the parking lot
- As I walk through the door, start stopwatch on cell phone for proper record keeping
- No one greets me
- I’m in the Jeep section
- Find Dodge section
- Stand in the middle, more than 5 minutes have elapsed since I walked through the front door. Not a good sign. Red flag #1
- Me: [out loud] Who wants to sell me a car?
- Get the attention of a 20ish year old sales guy at his desk. We’ll call him Greeny.
- Me: I was told to talk to SM
- Greeny: Let me find him.
- Greeny: [runs around, comes back, points] He’s over there [with a customer]
- Me: [thinks to myself, this will work, I don’t care who I’m dealing with] I’m here to buy a car, do you want to sell me a car?
- Greeny: Yeah, I'm your guy.
- [time passes where he gets my license, asks me whats I want, etc.]
- Me: Here’s the VIN. I already talked to IG and this is the car I’m looking at
- Greeny: [Can’t find car. Finds Car. Test drive follows]
- Me: I want to take this car for a real drive. Don’t just take me around the block.
- Greeny: [gives directions. small talk. He’s been at this for a month, tries really hard to sell me on features that I don’t care about]
It is a long trip around the block, but still only a couple mile drive. We’re back at the dealer. I give the car a really good look over.
@Carson would not approve, but it’s good enough for Detroit and me. Given the attention to detail I guess it’s a good thing the engine is from Mexico. I see how everything works, seats fold, how people get in and out, etc. You know, stuff you need to think about with two car seats in the car.
- Greeny: So did you want to take it for a longer test drive?
- Me: Yeah sure, why not. [I did say that to begin with..] Get me on a highway so I can open her up.
- [on highway]
- Me: Does this thing have that auto breaking? [slams on gas] Will it stop or am I going ram right in to this guy?
- Greeny: Ugh Ugh Ugh, I’m not sure you should probably brake
- Me: Yeah, I guess I’ll figure that out on my own
Back at dealer ~1:15 hour in, which I’m ok with since it was my first time checking out the car in depth and testing driving.
- Me: Ok, let’s talk business. Here’s my number.
- Greeny: I have to run it by my SM. [exits stage left]
- Greeny: [presents wrong number]
- Me: [presents same number]
- Greeny: I have to run it by my SM. [exits stage left]
- Me: Come back with good news, if you have to leave again this seat will be empty.
- Greeny: Comes back with SM.
- SM: This is the best we can do, and we can only do this if you use our financing. And guess what? Our best financing is 1% more than what you already have.
- Me: These numbers don’t work.
- SM: [extends hand] I guess we can’t make a deal, too bad, thanks for coming in
- Me: [this catches me a bit off guard, I haven’t been hit with the sales guy walking away before] Hmm ok. I explain that they have quoted me a few hundred less than their IG, but with more expensive financing, so we are basically exactly where I started when I walked in
Back and forth ensues. We land on the price SM gave me, but with my own financing. We write the number down. I clarify this includes all fees, no BS, just this + the 7% sales tax and I’m out the door. I calculate the price and the price + tax and write it down. They also toss in the all weather mats I request, a minor win for me. Me/SM/Greeny shake hands and have a deal.
Time passes and things move along, slowly. Greeny adds the car to my insurance. I insist they move the thing into prep and fill up the tank so I can leave as soon as possible. A couple highlights:
- Greeny: I need the credit card your using for the down payment [aside: I have a cash down payment, going for free points on CC]
- Me: No.
- Greeny: Its standard procedure. Red flag #2
- Me: No, you’re not getting anything from me until I have everything in writing in front of me.
- [time passes]
- Greeny: The finance guy (FG) want you to fill out our loan app, we just want to get your info. Red flag #3
- Me: No, I’m not financing through you. You’re getting a check that’s as good as cash.
- [time passes]
- FG: Hey, can I get you to fill out this loan app, we might be able to match your rate.
- Me: Match? No thanks. If you can do significantly better we can talk, but at a few hundredths I’m not interested. [FG walks away]
[time passes, ~3 hours in]
- Greeny: Ok, we’re all set. Come back to FG’s office.
- Me: [to Greeny, as we are walking to office] “Watch, this is where I get fucked” [foreshadowing]
- FG: Here’s your numbers! +~$2000!
- Me: That wasn’t the deal.
- FG: Oh but this and that, blah blah blah.
- Me: Nope, that’s not what I agreed to.
- FG: Let me check on that. [leaves to talk to sales crew, comes back with Greeny]
- FG: Oh well its all a bit confusing, let me put in an actual bill of sale for you to lay it all out. There was some miscommunication.
- Me: No there wasn’t. [I show him the worksheet I had going with Greeny/SM during our back and forth]
- FG: This is just a number, it doesn’t say what’s included, I don’t see any signatures anywhere
- Me: You’re kidding me right?
- FG: Well then I guess we don’t have a deal [puts his hand out, sales guy walk away round #2]
- Me: [looking at Greeny] WTF man, you were there, we wrote the number down and agreed on terms. [SM had left for the day, which surely didn’t work in my favor at this point]
- Greeny: [Looks at me, body language says he was there and knew what was agreed on, facial expression say IDK what the F is happening]
- Me. Ok, well I guess we all just wasted our time.
I probably would have met them in the middle at that point given the time spent. Fine, talk me into MVC fees since someone has to pay them, but the dealer paperwork fees and all that is just nonsense. I also get that I'm taxed on pre-incentive price so my/SM's numbers probably weren't perfect, but they weren't that off. I was around 8k under sticker, and we got there on price before discussing finalizing other terms. Is it possible they just didn’t want the deal given the price and not getting me into a financing agreement?
Oh well, I don’t need a car so there is no rush. Parts of it were fun. I enjoyed the test drive. I got a little more experience under my belt. Though I don’t get the feeling it would have made a difference in this case, the lesson learned was: write out all terms with the sales guy. My mistake, but I didn’t think a deal would fall apart like that.
Feedback is welcome. I may try for a full via email negotiation for round 2. I'm busy for the rest of the weekend so the buy is on hold for now. I have an alternative thought to walk into a dealer, ask for the most senior guy willing to work with me, set a count down at 1 hour, and say go.
