I thought it would be fun to post stories about experience in the sales department...close calls, "working" the sales guy etc.

Here's mine.

My wife was in Atlanta seeing her family last year and I was home alone left up to my own devices. I had some time to kill and a 2003 Honda van that needed trading so I went to the friendly neighborhood mazda shop and looked at what they had. It was the 2005 model year and they had quite a few 2004's left on the lot. I asked what they would give me for trade on the Honda van. They had a blue rx-8 mt that they were deeply discounting including a local leather seat shop to do custom leather on the car.
I think the discount was like 5-6 k on the car. Going through MAC was gonna save me an additional thousand as well. Seemed like a good deal except for one thing, they were really lowballing my trade in van. I made it all the way to the finance managers desk where they print out the contracts for you to sign. I was sitting there signing away when I got a gut feeling that "something wasn't quite right" so in the middle of signing the paperwork I just got up and left the dealership. I never heard from them after that and I guess they were pretty pissed that I bolted and ran at the 11th hour.
I had wasted several hours of their time but I thought later that if they had offered me one thousand dollars more, I would have finished the paperwork and would have that car right now.

 

Winning blue with custom blue/black leather interiors?
Did it have a sunroof??
About a year ago someone posted about their dealership adding an aftermarket sunroof to their MT Sport (the dealer had to buy back the car and give her a brand new one because they compromised the structural integrity of the chassis by adding the wrong type of sunroof)
You might have found what happened to that car...

 

Someone posted awhile back a picture blue one with blue/black leather that was at a dealership in the San Francisco area. I don't remember any buy back/compromised integrity story though. May have been before I joined.

 

Man, thats really uncool. As much as we pick on them, car dealers have a job to do as well. You burned up their time then walked out without so much as a "See ya".

Why didn't you negotiate the trade-in value BEFORE the eleventh hour? To me, thats kinda like walking out of a restaruant during desert and not tipping the waitress................

 

That one is at Menlo Mazda

 

dealerships are out of their minds....... always trying to trick you

 

Dealer offered me 12500 on my trade-in but to make the paperwork look good wrote it up as 15495 which is close to kbb dealer resale for the car. Depending on how you look at it, I got about $4855 off of MSRP but with a trade-in it is hard to tell the real value. That was a 5 hour negotiation.

 

About 20 years ago my wife was shopping for a Honda Accord. We live in the DC Burbs. While chatting numbers with a dealer in Manassas, my wife threw out an advertised price she'd seen in an ad from a Baltimore dealer. Salesman nodded, and said he knew that place - Baltimore, right? We said yes. He then went on to explain that the Baltimore dealer had low prices because they were selling grey market cars that did not meet US emissions and safety standards. They were smuggled in through Peurto Rico.

Let's see...car built in Ohio (part of the US), passed through Peurto Rico (US territory), put on the market in Baltimore without meeting US standards (even Bill Gates and Paul Allen couldn't beat the regs).

My wife and I glanced at each other, then looked back at him and said "Wow!" We took a test drive in one of his cars, took brochures, then found another dealer to buy from.

No, I don't feel guilty about taking his time and resources. I only wish I had a tape recorder going when he fed us that line.

The place where where we bought did the usual "What can I do to put you in this car today," "That's awfully low, but the boss seems to be in a good mood today," etc. mantras, along with dragging out the time. Amazing how Mr. Grey Market made that seem enjoyable. :-)

Ken

 

Yep, winning blue with blue/black leather.

 

You're right...I felt bad about it. I liked everyone at the dealership and I will buy from them again. For my next "adventure" I read on Edmunds the "confessions of a car salesman" I'll be ready so when I walk into the finance manager's office my pen will be ready.

 

And the pictures I saw looked sweet too (can't find the thread now for some reason) but it looked like the red/black OEM with the red being blue swade instead.

The problem was, the sunroof they put in was the type that tucks into the roof instead of going up and over like the OEM, so they had to cut all the supports for the door anchors inside the roof to make room for the retracted sunroof.

 

Amazing, especially since PR cannot import anything directly. It all has to come from CONUS first.

 

I ordered in March 2002 - and put a thousand dollars down, ASSURED by the sales manager himself that it would be whatever price Mazda specified, plus PDI.

Then after over a YEAR waiting, I get the call - "We are selling them for $43,000something......" ( worked out to $2450 over list )

I protested that this was not the agreement, and what would I be getting for the extra? added options? rustproofing? "No, nothing, that is our 'no-haggle' price, take it or leave it!"

Well I left it, had to drive another 50 miles to a dealer who would give me a fair break... I wasn't looking for a 'deal', ONLY full list!

Of course, ordering in April this year put me at the back of the queue.....but my new dealer had done Mazda a favor and was getting two '8's that had no buyers, so I put a large deposit on a red one and it came in first of all the red ones!

I did tell Jarman that I was only there because of the way they had treated me when I had my '72 RX-3, and also that if they treated my well this time I would tell everyone I could, but also if they didn't.......they obviously didn't give a rats *** who I told - so I spread the word as wide as I could!

Pass it on to any friends in the Edmonton area!
.
.
.
doc

Did I mention DON'T buy from Jarman?

 

when I bought my o4 rx8 I went to a couple of mazda dealers. One dealer wanted $40,000 after interest and financing.. I bought mine for $30,000 after interest and financing from another! $10,000 difference!!!! make sure you read the fine print before signing!