tl;dr
YOU EXPRESSWAY TOYOTA!!!
So I accompanied my BIL to get a car on Friday to make sure that he doesn't get ripped off. We had already been given a quote for $21900 OTD on a 2015 Camry. All we needed to do was do a test drive, sign, and come back another day to pay the balance to pick up the car. He's 27-28, but he looks like he's 18 and some salesmen have been trying to pull some fast ones.
I took a look at the car and noticed some light scratches on the clearcoat that would need to be buffed out and immediately, I knew that I can't let any of the techs wash the car. I told the sales guy about me not wanting the car washed and he scoffed at the idea of letting the car drive out of lot without a wash. Dude said that he has them wash his car all the time and that it's always nice and shiny.
I bet his car is so
ing scratched up that he's seeing holograms. I tried to explain that this is one of my requests and that I'm VERY particular about my cars. He then says that any scratches would be covered by the warranty. At this point, my bullshit meter was pinging like crazy. Next thing I know, he's rubbing the scratch aka rubbing more dirt into the clearcoat and says, "Look! It's gone! It was just tape residue." I'm standing there still looking at the scratch with his finger trails that left more scratches. Mother
. I explain that wax will only cover it up temporarily and after a couple weeks, it'll reappear. Asshole snarkily tells me that if I know so much, how come they haven't hired me to detail all their cars and that no one has ever said anything like this to him in his 10+ years of selling cars. I tell him I'm happy to be the first.
We go inside to finalize the deal, which should've only taken 10 minutes since we already have a quote. Dude comes back after talking to the sales manager and says that it'll be another $225 for carpets. I'm like WTF? Guy says that it'll protect against mold and shit like that; this asshole is laying it down thick.
BIL is freezing and doesn't know what to do, so I step in and say that we came down because of the $21900 OTD quote. Blah blah blah and the sales manager comes over and says that he'll "split" the cost of the carpets. BIL still doesn't know what to do, but I'm thinking that he needs to make the decision because it's his $22k. I tell him this, look up the price of the mats, and then he decides to put down a non-refundable deposit.
The whole fam goes in yesterday morning to sign the rest of the paperwork and I tell the F&I guy that we don't want any dealer advertising on the car and that the car must be scratch and swirl-free. Dude says that it's not his department and we need to talk to the salesman. I run out and start arguing with the sales guy because he's giving me shit about it. Again, he says that he's been selling cars for x years and that no one has ever been so disrespectful to him. I told him that's because I know better than to blindly accept the bullshit coming out of his mouth. He grabs the sales manager and we get it in writing that the car won't be
ed.
Me and The Boss are sick of all the bullshit and the finance guy says that if we don't trust them to do this right, we can undo the deal and get the deposit back. We say fine and then he says that he can't do it today because the bean counters won't be in until Monday. He goes to grab the GM and he tells me to show him the issues with the car. He comes back at me with the same bullshit about tape residue and that it's either the car or the deposit. He even said that maybe he'll just keep the deposit and not sell us the car as it's within his rights because they've "worked too hard for this deal." I was hoping he'd go through with the threat because no court would let him keep $500 for stealing that money from us. Hell, even if we did decide to undo the deal, no court would give him the whole $500 and it'd cost him more to have a lawyer take care of this stuff.
Just went to do some spot checking on the car and the condition is no worse than when I first saw it, so I'm glad they didn't completely swirl up the paint or try to buff the scratches out. I can't wait to
them in the survey and call up Toyota to tell them what a shitty experience it was.
I've shopped around a lot and I've only been insulted once: when I made my first offer ever. Other than that one time, it's been nothing but respect and it takes about 15 minutes to come to a deal. No stereotypical salesman bullshit.
