[OT] I hate car dealerships...

[Silver Moon]

My 2 cents worth

Tell them "I want this car for $18,500", and then they tell you they can't do that, then say "Well, Fred down the street was going to sell me this very car for $18,500

I did that one twice, for the new F-150 we bought my wife last year and the new Accord we got for me this year. In both case "Fred down the street" was going to sell it to me at the lowest price, because I had used the Internet to get quotes from every dealership within 100 miles, followed by a second round of e-mails to see who would match the best quote. I then went to the local dealership, did the test drive, negotiated price, named my price, was told "No" and started to walk away. Both times the dealer wouldn't let me leave, telling me I couldn't find it for my quoted price anywhere. That's when I then produced the printout with my best price- which they then matched!

Two tips if you try this (1) Don't use your regular e-mail account for the inquiries - you get tons of junk after that, mostly from places trying to give you loans (2) Call and make sure that the place with the best price still has the car immediately before going to the local dealership (better yet, even make an appointment for later that day to see it). Both times the dealership checked to confirm the other one still had the same vehicle.

 

[Mistwell]

I feel your pain!

My last car negotiation ended with the salesman being demoted from certified used car sales to noncertified used car sales (which he said was about the same as being fired). It was ugly. They lied about the car being a former rental right up until I read it in the fine print of the deal I was about to sign. I got upset, they knocked a $1000 off the price and demoted the guy right in front of me. What a day...

Yeah, car dealers suck. Though I hear Saturn does not behave that way...I also hear carsdirect.com is pretty good, though I have no personal experience with them.

 

[Wolf72]

Saturn is pretty good.

when I was car shopping everyone looked at me like some sort of meat product ... and they were ready to grill.

Saturn was friendly, helpful ... and didn't try to push me around. The said "here is our price, these are our terms ... we don't negotiate very much". Their price was more than fair and the service was great ... other than that they were kinda creepy, as in way to nice sometimes.

 

[KnowTheToe]

Saturn is pretty good. I remember my experience with my wifes car. It was under warranty and burning over a quart of oil in between oil changes, so we brought it in. They took a measuremnet and asked us to come back after a certain numbers of miles so they could tell how much oil was burning up.

They confirmed it was burning just under a quart every 3000 miles. They then told us that was within their standards and sent us on our way. I told them my Honda Accord with 170,000 miles was not buring any oil and they told me "This ain't no Honda".

Then one time the heating vents were not working correctly and they said they looked it up and down and they discovered she had her defrost controls set incorrectly and found a hose clamp that needed tightening. They charged us $75 for looking at the heating and $20 to tighten the hose clamp. On the way home the vents still did not work, so I took the car apart myself and found some hosing was blocked with leaves. Two different dealerships, same great service. I love Saturn. *sarcasm*

 

[Paradoxish]

Saturn is pretty good.

I keep hearing this, and as much as I would love to have a good purchasing experience I need to keep in mind the fact that I don't want to take a step down from my current vehicle. I've had friends with Saturns who love them, so I'm not putting down the company or their cars (which I know are generally reliable and good value), but as far as I know Saturn doesn't currently offer anything with nearly as much space or performance as what I'm used to. It's hard to come down from 255hp, a great 6-spd tranny, and a massive interior.

I plan on checking out the G35 at an Infiniti dealership tommorow. I'm hoping that the kind of treatment I got at the Nissan dealership (not great, but not as horrible as what I received at the Audi and BMW dealerships) will reflect on what the Infiniti dealership is like. And then I just have to keep reminding myself that the BMW 330ci that I test drove isn't worth the $14k loan I'd need.

 

[Umbran]

...but as far as I know Saturn doesn't currently offer anything with nearly as much space or performance as what I'm used to. It's hard to come down from 255hp, a great 6-spd tranny, and a massive interior.

And let's see how important those things are to you when gas prices go over $2 a gallon.

I'm a big guy, and the Saturn is comfortable to drive. It cruises along at 75 mph without breaking a sweat, and it does so at over 35 mpg (actually, it generally approaches 40mpg on long highway trips), and burns regular gasoline, rather than high-octane. The long-term cost one pays in fuel is often ignored, but it shouldn't be.

And you don't want me to go all "limited petroleum resources" on you. I'll leave it with mentioning that choosing a vehicle for performance before economy is terribly selfish and short-sighted.

 

[Paradoxish]

And let's see how important those things are to you when gas prices go over $2 a gallon.

Prices are almost $2 gallon already for me. My car runs horribly and the knock sensor kicks in with anything less than 93 octane, so I'm paying about $1.70/gallon as it is. The Maxima's VQ engine sips gas, though, and I get around 28mpg on the highway.. almost comparable to a lot of small 4 cylinders. Driving standard helps with fuel economy a bit too.

I'm a big guy, and the Saturn is comfortable to drive.

I didn't mean to put Saturns down... honestly. I tend to regularly drive cross state with 4-5 people, however, and the Maxima is big enough that everyone is perfectly comfortable despite the fact that I'm 6' 2" and so are many of the people I drive with.

I'll leave it with mentioning that choosing a vehicle for performance before economy is terribly selfish and short-sighted.

I agree, but I can't help it. I do too much driving and a lot of my driving is for other people - if I'm not going to have a car with performance that allows me to enjoy it I might as well start taking public transportation. Besides, thanks to the fact that I drive so many people around my gas is almost 100% paid for by people other than myself.

Anyway, the best I'm able to do is find a compromise between a gas guzzling V8 SUV and a weak little 4-cylinder. I need to accelerate fast and pass effortlessly. As soon as driving becomes work, I quit.

 

[Wolf72]

well if you've got that kind of money you should be fine wherever you go!

 

[Gizzard]

It's hard to come down from 255hp, a great 6-spd tranny, and a massive interior.

So why are you trading in the 02 Maxima? Just curious, I've heard nothing but good things about it. And its seems new enough that you'll take a huge loss on the trade-in.

I was lucky enough to live in LA when I bought my last car. If Dealer A cant give you a good deal today, then walk down the street to Dealer B. And from Dealer B its a short hop to Dealer C.

Doing this made me realize that there are lots of terrible salesmen and very few good ones. There seems to be no rhyme or reason to which dealers had good or bad salesmen. And no dealer seemed to have all good salesmen (though some seemed to have all bad salesmen!) Chat with the guy for a second before you get down to business, if he's lining you up for undercoating and extended waranties then take a spin around the lot and try someone else.

 

[Paradoxish]

So why are you trading in the 02 Maxima? Just curious, I've heard nothing but good things about it. And its seems new enough that you'll take a huge loss on the trade-in.

It's an awesome car. More than likely, all of the good things that you've heard about it are true. I had a '96 Maxima before this, which I pumped loads of cash into (including around $3000 for a supercharger). I loved my old Maxima - really nice interior materials, fast, felt very rich. I traded it in because I was tired of driving automatic. Now, the '02 Maxima is very impressive from a performance point of view, but the interior quality is nowhere near as good as my '96 was. The leather feels cheap and stiff, everything is very plastic-looking inside, and I dislike the exterior.

Ultimately, I'm not taking too big of a financial hit. I got my Maxima "used". I bought it off of a guy who was selling it because his wife couldn't drive a stick, and after about three months of owning it she made him get rid of it. I'll be losing around $4000 total.