Dealer gave me the car, but purchase not finished yet?

[adrew]

All done! What a morning! As expected, they turned to be a party of crooks and liars, but I fought with feet and teeth for every penny. Will explain soon!

Same with me. I had to triple-check everything at every step. We agreed on a fair price only to find out that the actual price was $400 higher due to VIN window etching. I declined it with lots of hemming and hawing but eventually got it removed.

Once I got back to finance, the price was mysteriously $1000 higher than agreed upon. I called the salesman in, and he was sure that he'd mentioned that the price we'd worked out (about $75 under invoice) had included the $1000 rebate (which would've had me paying about $500 over MSRP — right). I pulled up Edmunds on my phone, told them I'd pay invoice minus the rebate and they could take it or leave it. Eventually they gave in but they lost their happy jokey attitude real quick.

They reprinted all the paperwork with the "new" price but the VIN etching had mysteriously reappeared. After shredding that and reprinting everything once more we were good to go.

Mitsubishi definitely needs to work on the dealer experience. It was almost as bad as Hyundai. Ford, Toyota and Honda have been great in my experience, and we love the car so far, but if servicing the car turns out to be annoying I will not be buying another Mitsubishi.

[aydu]

Dealers aim to get you into a car as soon as they can.

Part of this strategy is to keep you from buying elsewhere, or, having time to rethink what you are doing.

Part of it is to get the customer fatigued, so that by the time the finance guy gets hold of them they are tired and miss things in the paperwork.

Many times, they slip things in, change things, etc. and people miss it because they have burned up their energy selecting the car and negotiating what they thought was the price and any trade-in value.

We use the following guidelines for buying a car:
1. Never select a vehicle and make a purchase the same day. Give it 24 hours during which time you may think of additional things you want included; check out available financing; find out about insurance rates; etc.

2. Never take the vehicle for other than a test drive. No matter how much the dealer wants you to start "enjoying your new vehicle", wait until all the paperwork is done and finalized before taking possession of the car. This includes any dealer financing.

Dealers are prone to promising you one interest rate and then calling a day or two later advising you that you didn't qualify for the promised rate, and have to pay more. Loan approval takes a few minutes these days, so wait until it is a signed, done deal.

3. Look at buying a car as a two step process. Negotiating the price of the selected vehicle and the finance office. Do both parts in separate days, when you are fresh and alert. Dealers make more on a car sale in the finance office than from the sale price of the car, so be wary whenever you are with the finance guy,

4. If anybody lies to you during the process, find another dealer. We tell people up front that we won't do business with people that seem dishonest to us. If they say they have the car on the lot, it needs to be there. If they commit to a price for the car or the trade in, and later try to slide on either, we do business elsewhere.

[adrew]

I've found that the waiting game/checking with the manager is much less effective after the advent of smartphones.

Just fire up Angry Birds with the volume up and act totally disinterested about the whole process (without looking frustrated or tired) and the salesman will suddenly materialize.

[grsupercity]

Lol, some of you have had some very bad experiences with car dealers.
I didnt take any of it to heart (as i shed a tear) haha. Ill admit I have worked with some sketchy ones, but there really are some good honest salesman out there still

[R01k]

Here's the story.

After all the usual rejection of ridiculous offers, digging out of unrequested features and comings and goings to the finance office we reached a verbal deal on Saturday.

Basically, the salesman assured me several times on my first visit that we had a deal and that the numbers were solid because he had checked with the finance guy already. At the beginning he assured me that I could take my car home that day and I did so under the circumstances explained in the opening post of this thread.

On Monday, he assured me again that the Saturday's deal was in effect. While he was getting the Mirage ready, I went to the finance guy's office. He presented me a financing contract with a different bank and at a 4.64% interest, instead of the 2.19% previously agreed. He said that he had no idea of any earlier deal. I called the salesman to the office and he told me that my bank had turned me down. Then I asked to see a printed proof of that, to what they hesitated. Anyways, the salesman brought to me what appeared to be the rejection from my bank, but the finance guy didn't want to let me take it with me by any means. Such financing rejection didn't make any sense because my credit score is excellent.

I went ready for a tense fight and we had it. I decided to exasperate them by parsimoniously runing the contract through my scientific calculator, plotting equations and making him explain every single fee, hidden or not. (At this point I was alone was the finance guy again). He was visible disgruntled but I advised him to relax because I wasn't good with numbers and his hurry was making me have to start all the calculations again. Although after some contentious negotiaton I had him down to 3.64 I indicated that I was leaving to look for financing by myself. Then he went to 2.99, to what I reacted visible unimpressed. After I recited a few more variables at last he ask me what did I want to sign the papers.

I don't want to extend this post much longer. So, I'll summarize. We signed everything after 2.99% interest and 400 bucks more for my trade in. That means that actually they got away with a total of $59 more that we originally agreed on.

The salesman had the courage to ask me later if I would give him a ten on the feedback, to what I just smiled maliciously.

It is obvious that I made a mistake by taking the car during the weekend and that the salesman lied to me blatantly by assuring that we had solid numbers, specially on the finance interest. I think that in reality it was them who rejected the financing through my bank and that's why the guy didn't let me take the rejection notice. I did go to ask my bank, but was told that if the request for financing was made though a third party, like a dealer, they had no way of telling me anything about it.

Anyways, I still traded my car in even higher that the KBB fair price and got I good interest. As aydu said in post #8, "the easy trick to tell if a sales person is lying to you - their lips are moving." Lesson reconfirmed: Have EVERYTHING on paper first!!!

[aydu]

Good life lesson learned that will stick with you for life.

Glad you stuck by your guns and ended up getting the deal you wanted.

[M-88]

Here's the story.

After all the usual rejection of ridiculous offers, digging out of unrequested features and comings and goings to the finance office we reached a verbal deal on Saturday.

Basically, the salesman assured me several times on my first visit that we had a deal and that the numbers were solid because he had checked with the finance guy already. At the beginning he assured me that I could take my car home that day and I did so under the circumstances explained in the opening post of this thread.

On Monday, he assured me again that the Saturday's deal was in effect. While he was getting the Mirage ready, I went to the finance guy's office. He presented me a financing contract with a different bank and at a 4.64% interest, instead of the 2.19% previously agreed. He said that he had no idea of any earlier deal. I called the salesman to the office and he told me that my bank had turned me down. Then I asked to see a printed proof of that, to what they hesitated. Anyways, the salesman brought to me what appeared to be the rejection from my bank, but the finance guy didn't want to let me take it with me by any means. Such financing rejection didn't make any sense because my credit score is excellent.

I went ready for a tense fight and we had it. I decided to exasperate them by parsimoniously runing the contract through my scientific calculator, plotting equations and making him explain every single fee, hidden or not. (At this point I was alone was the finance guy again). He was visible disgruntled but I advised him to relax because I wasn't good with numbers and his hurry was making me have to start all the calculations again. Although after some contentious negotiaton I had him down to 3.64 I indicated that I was leaving to look for financing by myself. Then he went to 2.99, to what I reacted visible unimpressed. After I recited a few more variables at last he ask me what did I want to sign the papers.

I don't want to extend this post much longer. So, I'll summarize. We signed everything after 2.99% interest and 400 bucks more for my trade in. That means that actually they got away with a total of $59 more that we originally agreed on.

The salesman had the courage to ask me later if I would give him a ten on the feedback, to what I just smiled maliciously.

It is obvious that I made a mistake by taking the car during the weekend and that the salesman lied to me blatantly by assuring that we had solid numbers, specially on the finance interest. I think that in reality it was them who rejected the financing through my bank and that's why the guy didn't let me take the rejection notice. I did go to ask my bank, but was told that if the request for financing was made though a third party, like a dealer, they had no way of telling me anything about it.

Anyways, I still traded my car in even higher that the KBB fair price and got I good interest. As aydu said in post #8, "the easy trick to tell if a sales person is lying to you - their lips are moving." Lesson reconfirmed: Have EVERYTHING on paper first!!!

Which dealer?

[R01k]

Which dealer?

I could tell you in a private message.

[Canoehead]

I just don't understand all these shenanigans. The claim that "every dealer does this" isn't true. It seems to me that Mitsubishi made a great little car, for a great price, and it should be a popular model. The 10 year warranty is an excellent selling point. In my experience with the dealer, the 10 year warranty was a negative because I don't like dealing with dishonest business practices. Of course they will say it isn't dishonest because it is all there in the fine print, but that doesn't cut it for me.

The whole added features and dealer fees are something that seem exclusive to auto sales. I've never had a grocery store try to tack on fees for taking the bananas out of the shipping boxes and putting them on the shelf, or for transportation of the bananas from Costa Rica, or for putting stickers on the bananas, or a documentation fee to give me a receipt. I appreciate the light in the produce aisle, but don't expect an extra charge for that. When they say bananas are 99 cents/pound I expect to pay that, and can make an informed decision as to whether I want them, and how many. That seems like basic economics, and good business.

To me, a car should be the price + tax + accessories price (requested accessories) + shop time to install accessories. I was so disgusted by the added fees on the sales floor I never made it to the finance office, and likely won't be back. My plan b is a Honda that is much more expensive and gets worse fuel economy, or, hoping, a used Mirage some day.

[aydu]

Dealers in my area started adding their own accessory packs years ago. Usually amounted to about an extra $500 mark-up over the car's sticker. It amounted to invisible paint sealant, pinstripes, and plastic door guards.

Of course, most people negotiated this out of the selling price. but it gave the dealers a psychological advantage in starting at a higher asking price.

This practice has disappeared in my market. Either people moved on from a dealer that tried to pull this trick, or, some of the items - like pinstripes - went out of style. Internet pricing may have helped, as people had access to price information they never had before.

Dealerships are there to make the most money possible out of every sale. If they can make a few bucks on the new car price; a bit on the trade-in value; some on the financing; and some more on the warranties they sell, by the time you take the keys in hand, they have made a pretty profit.

The trick in all sales it to make money but also make the other party feel like they got a good deal. The negotiating process - which applies to every aspect of the deal - makes the customer feel that they got something from the dealer that the next customer didn't.

There are also those customers that are adverse to negotiating and pay full fare for everything. Good for the dealership for sure.