Damn Stealerships.......

"BobintheMtns" (bobinthemtns) 03/26/2015 at 14:35 • Filed to: None

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So my Mom got a new car yesterday... she leased it. And I've always told everyone I know, DON'T BUY A CAR FROM A DEALERSHIP WITHOUT TALKING TO ME FIRST!!!!!! (I did a 9 month tour of duty at at couple of dealerships, so I'm a little familiar with the their games....)

But she went alone to check cars out and got pushed into doing a deal then and there.... And among every single bullshit add-on pushed by the finance guy, the cherry on top was the $800 pre-paid maintenance/oil change plan... for a leased vehicle!!!!!

Dad called them all pissed, they told him to essentially pound sand- The deal had been inputted into the magical leasing computers and there was nothing that could be done at that point.... "BS" I told him, "go return the car right now and see if their tune changes." And sure enough, when he went down there to raise hell/return the car, they were *somehow* able to cancel all the extra BS add-ons. But only because, "the owner of the dealership personally intervened with the leasing company on your behalf..." Yeah, right.

It reminds me of when I was trying to buy a certified GTI a few years ago down in Georgia. It was a sweet MkV with only 35k miles on it- perfect carfax, 6-speed manual, sunroof, and it had seats that, according to my 4-yr old nephew, "look like they were made from bagpipes". It was sweet. We agreed on a price, and I told them I'd be back first in the AM with my down-payment check.

Showed up in the AM with a buddy who gave me a ride down there. As we arrived, I wanted to show my buddy the car. As we were walking up to it, I saw a puddle of oil under it..... I looked under and not only was it leaking, IT WAS LEAKING... It wasn't just a puddle, I watched as it dripped.. dripped.. dripped......

Went inside, found my salesman and told him about the leak. His reply was, "No problem, because it's a "certified vehicle" once you sign the papers, no matter what's leaking, we'll fix it and send the bill to Germany! Haha!"

I asked him to put the car on a lift so I could at least see where it was leaking from... They put it on a lift, and as I looked under it I couldn't believe what I saw.. The leak was from the main seal between the engine and transmission. But the seal area was absolutely COVERED in gooped on epoxy/sealant... It was close to two inches thick- you could see hand prints in it from when it was globbed onto the car.... it looked like a pre-schooler had plastered the bottom of the engine with tubs of play-doh.... seriously. And naturally, the gear dope still found a way around it all....

I gasped when I saw it. The mechanic mumbled something about them all coming from Germany this way. I shot him a mean look and made a Jezza-style joke about how a German tech would be placed in front of a firing squad if they tried to pass off this kind of work....

Luckily my buddy used to work in car sales.. He demanded to see the service record. (NOTE: always ask for the service records. Carfax is mostly voluntary info, but a service record is where all the bodies are buried, so to speak).

The service manager printed it out, the salesman started reading it, and then I saw his hands start to tremble.... I grabbed it away from him and according to service record the car had been bought at auction with a blown transmission- and it looked like the dealership screwed up the repair. And rather than redo it right, they figured they'd just "certify it" and then repair it correctly when it was purchased and then send the bill to VW corporate.....

Naturally we told the sales person, sales manager and everyone within hearing range in the showroom what we thought of their business practices......

Ugh... Stealerships.... Paging Elon Musk.

/Rant

But I suppose at some level I should thank them, cuz I ended up finding an even sweeter GTI afterwards!

Denver Is Stuck In The 90s > BobintheMtns 03/26/2015 at 14:43

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What dealer?

BobintheMtns > Denver Is Stuck In The 90s 03/26/2015 at 14:49

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Lucky for us, not here in Colorado*.... But my Mom's episode was at the VW dealership in Wilmington NC, and mine was in Alpharetta, GA.....

*But that's not to say that the dealerships here in the Rockies are any different....

Twinpowermeansoneturbo > BobintheMtns 03/26/2015 at 14:51

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The finance manager was doing his job. You can't blame them for your mom buying product, that's on her. They were lying about not being able to cancel the plans though. All those contracts can be cancelled, the finance manager just lost all of his earnings though. On a lease, there's no profit built in for him without selling product.

m-b-w loves his SUBAROO > BobintheMtns 03/26/2015 at 15:19

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Bob King VW?

jmedarts > Twinpowermeansoneturbo 03/26/2015 at 21:18

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So I've never worked at a dealership, but it seems to me that you wouldn't be the finance manager if you hadn't been there a few years (or at least in the biz for a number of years) and "with the program" that the owner - whom I assume the finance manager reports to - is trying to implement. To my mind that means you are a responsible member of the management team and not just punching a clock - and therefore f**k him he's a thieving prick pushing products like that.

I am a free market guy, and along with that comes taking responsibility for your actions, and being called out on them, in public, so others know to avoid your biz if they aren't happy to get overcharged for useless crap.

Don't mean to sound like I'm attacking you, it sounds like you may know more about this biz than I do. Please educate me if that's the case.

Twinpowermeansoneturbo > jmedarts 03/26/2015 at 23:00

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Every dealership has a finance department and a finance manager. Typically the finance manager would report to a finance director in a large dealership. Finance managers aren't there to be peddling bullshit though. It's their job to process purchase paperwork and act as a liaison to lenders. Now, in the process of doing so, they also will pitch you product. Some of it is more valuable than others, but they do not force you to buy it. They aren't thieves because the customer is informed about the product, and knowingly agrees to purchase it. About 40% of dealership profit is made in the finance office. Clearly there are people who see the value in the contracts and products finance has to offer, even if you don't. It's easy to point fingers and call names to dealerships, but things have never been as transparent as they are now. Theres a vast expanse of information on the Internet that can teach you the ins and outs of buying a car, and even tell you invoice pricing etc. despite all of this, the majority of customers leave the finance office purchasing something. It's not because they have a gun held to their head, it's because they see the value in it.

BobintheMtns > Twinpowermeansoneturbo 03/27/2015 at 11:04

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First off, being a business owner myself, I'd never blame someone for trying to make a profit. That's not my beef here... But if you're making your profit by being less than honest, then fuck you with a cactus.

Twinpower, you agree that they lied about the paperwork... How many lies does it take before you declare that someone's full of shit? Do you think the finance mgr didn't know that oil changes come with all new cars? That he just forgot that maintenance is part of the leasing package?? Or was he trying to pull a fast one on a 65 year old lady by selling her a redundant $800 maintenance package on a leased car??

And to answer your question jmedarts, yes. The finance mgr is 100% part of the program. I have zero doubts that he and the sales manager were high-fiving at the water cooler afterwards, laughing about " ripping that woman's head off, haw haw haw! " " I sold her an over-priced oil change plan on a car that already had oil changes! Haw Haw Haw! I'm the MAN!! Haw Haw Haw!! " And yes, as someone who's been there, I can pretty much guarantee that's EXACTLY how that conversation went......

Anyone want to bet a six-pack of beer that if we were to back out the numbers from the deal we'd find about $500 in 'etch' hidden in it?