Happy wife, happy life, with a side of car dealer skullduggery

"Textured Soy Protein" (texturedsoyprotein) 08/06/2018 at 11:57 • Filed to: None

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Check out my wife’s new Mazda CX-5! It has ugly door edge guards on it that I wanted to remove, but my wife sorta kinda likes. There are no dealer badges or tag frames. That didn’t stop the dealer trying to fuck with us though. I am not someone to fuck with, car dealers!

After !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , my wife decided it was the car for her. We wanted a Touring AWD with the preferred equipment package (sunroof, Bose stereo, nav, power tailgate, auto-dim mirror) in machine grey with the silk beige interior. Our local Mazda dealer didn’t have one in stock, but I found the exact car we wanted at the same dealer group’s other Mazda store, 23 miles from us.

On Tuesday, I talked to our sales guy, and he said he’d make sure they get the car we wanted from the other location. He suggested we put a deposit on the car so nobody else would buy it. Ok fine, whatever. The dealer is attached to the same shopping center as my gym, so on Tuesday night I popped in before my workout to put down this deposit. Our sales guy wasn’t there, but I talked to the sales manager. He couldn’t reach the manager at the other Mazda store, but he said not to worry about the deposit, they’ll get the car.

Our sales guy’s day off was Wednesday, and he called me on Thursday to check in. He said he’d have the manager talk to the other location about getting the car over from the other store, and we could come in Thursday night to do the deal. On my way home from work, I called the dealership to confirm the car had been brought over from the other location. The receptionist said our sales guy had gone home for the day.

I was like, wait, I just talked to the dude earlier in the day and told him I wanted to buy a car from him, and I’d be in sometime 6-7 pm, and he left? I asked to talk to the manager who I had talked to previously, but the receptionist said it was his day off. I asked to talk to someone who could tell me whether or not the car had been brought over. The receptionist put me on hold and then said that the only manager working that day didn’t know anything about bringing the car over from the other location.

This was stupid, so I went home, and told my wife I don’t think the car’s there for us to buy. I called the other location, gave them the stock number of the car that was supposed to have been picked up to be brought back to our location. Of course, it was still there.

Eventually I got a hold of our sales guy on his cell phone. He told me that he finishes his day at 6 pm on Thursdays, but on his way out he had told the manager that we were coming in to get this car and it needed to be brought over from the other location. Seriously dude? Do you want to sell me a fucking car, or what? When I talked to him earlier on Thursday, he didn’t say fuck all about he gets off at 6 and someone else would take care of us. Fucking dumbass.

On Friday, our sales guy called again and said he would make sure the car was brought over from the other location. He acted like he was going to have someone from the other location bring it over, but then later in the day he said he was getting it himself. The other location probably told him, fuck you guy, no we’re not wasting our time to bring you a car to sell, come get it your own goddamn self.

Saturday, we went in to the dealership to do the deal. There was a bunch of haggling over trade values and lease terms and whatnot. The finance guy told us about something where Mazda covers certain wear & tear items on leased cars like wiper blades, brake pads and alignments as part of leases. He said several times that this was something on all Mazda leases. I was like, ok great, we get some free maintenance, and didn’t think much more about it, because I wanted to work out the numbers.

The monthly payments they were offering us were way too high. Basically just as high as the Honda CR-V that had no incentives on it, and the sales manager at the Mazda dealer had already ballparked me numbers the previous weekend that were way lower. I knew Mazda had incentives on it. Why weren’t the payments lower?

Eventually, they came back with a payment number that was $12 more than the most I wanted to pay. I asked the finance guy, who was handling all the numbers, what all the details were that went into this number, like purchase price, cap cost reductions, etc. He said he didn’t know, just that this was the number and the sales manager would get all the details on the lease contract.

My wife and I stepped outside to discuss, and while it was a little higher payment than we really wanted, we decided that this was the best possible car for her, and this supposedly “final” offer was way lower than the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! .

Then when the finance guy showed us the lease contract, there was a separate line item on it for $1420 for this wear & tear coverage. I balked at it being a separate line item. The way the finance guy had described it, he made it sound like these were just perks of leasing a Mazda.

The finance guy claimed that it was part of the Mazda official lease incentives and that the money factor was being lowered by Mazda in order to zero out the cost of the $1420 line item. He even went through a ritual of printing out a separate lease contract with a higher money factor and no $1420 line item to show that the payment would be the same either way.

Now, this felt fishy to me, but the finance guy very clearly stated that Mazda was subsidizing the cost of this additional coverage and not to worry about it. He gave us a brochure from some third party warranty company that talked about the wear & tear coverage, and it looked to me like it was some bullshit add-on that dealerships sell, not an official Mazda program. But the guy swore up and down that Mazda was subsidizing it in the lease, and this third party company works directly with Mazda. I chose to accept this explanation, which was a mistake on my part. We did the deal, and took the CX-5 home.

My wife was tired, and I went to pick up a quick takeout dinner. While we were eating, I got to talking with her about this wear & tear coverage just didn’t feel right to me. I googled the name of this warranty, plus Mazda. I couldn’t find any link between this warranty company and Mazda, except for certain Mazda dealers advertising aftermarket warranties from this company. I also found TONS of negative reviews of this aftermarket warranty company’s warranty coverage.

I told my wife, I think the finance guy fucked with us and lied about the wear & tear coverage and I was going back to the dealer the next day to get this shit taken out of the lease. Because fuck these guys.

On Sunday, I woke up at 5:30 am having to pee, and I couldn’t get back to sleep because the potential argument I was about to have with the dealer kept racing through my mind. Eventually we got up, had breakfast, and did house cleaning stuff until the dealer opened at noon.

I went to the dealer, and asked one of the sales guys to speak to a sales manager, because I didn’t see the sales manager I had talked to previously. He said the manager was at the VW showroom next door, so I walked over there, and the same finance guy saw me right away and asked what’s up.

I was trying to be all cool and just go talk to the sales manager, but this motherfucker was right in front of me and the anger welled up. I said something like,

“You fed me a load of shit yesterday. We have a problem and it needs to be fixed.”

He brought me back into his office, and I told him I had gone home last night and couldn’t find anything online about any kind of relationship between Mazda and the third-party warranty company. He clarified that no, actually, the warranty was in fact a third-party add-on sold by the dealership, not subsidized by Mazda. I told him that’s not what he said yesterday, when he said it was a Mazda incentive.

He instead wanted to argue about the fact that I had agreed to his monthly payment offer, but I said that didn’t matter, because after that, I questioned the line item for the warranty, and his explanation that it was a Mazda incentive was bullshit.

Then he claimed that the dealership, not Mazda, had lowered the money factor to something even lower than the Mazda incentive, and reduced the sale price of the car by $1000, because I had agreed to the third-party wear & tear coverage that he represented as a Mazda incentive.

Oh hell naw.

I told him since what he told me about the warranty was a lie, I was now unable to believe that any of the other numbers on the lease contract were actually the Mazda incentive. I demanded to see the exact terms from Mazda and that they matched the numbers on my lease contract. He said only the sales manager could show those numbers, so I said to go get him.

Oh, and at no point during the conversation did the finance guy admit that he said Mazda provides the third-party wear & tear coverage as an incentive. The closest he came to that was, “I’m sorry if it came off that way.”

Once the sales manager arrived, I explained the situation, and he was trying to make it right, but he still made a small effort to convince me the third party wear & tear thing provided value to customers. Fuck that, I never buy shit like that, and the only reason I agreed was because it was represented as a Mazda incentive, which it obviously was not.

At one point in the conversation with the sales manager, he said something like we want to make it right, because they want to earn repeat business, and I responded somewhere along the lines of, “fuck repeat business, I’m about ready to have my wife drive 9 miles the fuck up the road for oil changes with the bad taste I have in my mouth from you guys right now.”

When I got them to show me all the details of the deal, I learned there had never been some magical lower money factor the dealership was providing in exchange for the warranty, it was the exact same money factor as on the Mazda lease program. Their initial, as-high-as-Honda lease offer? They were holding points on the money factor above the Mazda incentive lease, and then they lowered it to the Mazda incentive when they tacked on the wear & tear bullshit.

Long story long, I got them to redo the deal with the same purchase price that was supposedly tied to the wear & tear bullshit but of course it’s not, the lowest possible money factor specified by Mazda, same down payment, all the same, just no $1420 add-on.

All told, the payment went down by $16/month, which put it $4/month below my maximum target.

We’re not sure if we’re going to go back to this place for service, with all the crap they’ve pulled. It’s only a mile from our house, and the next-closest Mazda dealer, which is part of a different dealer group, is 9 miles. It might be worth the trip.

My wife loves the car though.

We’ll see about the door edge guards.

Party-vi > Textured Soy Protein 08/06/2018 at 12:07

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Damn. My Mazda dealer experience was way better. Also, the CX-5 is the best looking vehicle in its segment FIGHT ME

LOREM IPSUM > Textured Soy Protein 08/06/2018 at 12:08

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Right off the rip, I would have driven the 20 someodd miles and bought from the other dealership, or a competing one even if I could find what I wanted. Giving a potential customer the run around isn’t how my business is earned.

Considering dealerships make the bulk of their money in the service department, I’d probably elect to go to go to their competition just out of spite.

All said though, congrats on the sharp new set of wheels.

Rico > Textured Soy Protein 08/06/2018 at 12:08

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Glad you put them in their place. If they had not redone the deal I would’ve been on the phone with Mazda Corporate right then and there.

Textured Soy Protein > Rico 08/06/2018 at 12:14

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On Saturday night I thought about calling Mazda corporate to ask whether the wear & tear thing had anything to do with them, but their call center isn’t open on Sundays. I decided it was so obviously not a Mazda thing that I’d just head back to the dealer and call BS.

MonkeePuzzle > Textured Soy Protein 08/06/2018 at 12:14

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ugh! buying a car shouldn’t be such hard work. seriously, HOURS of work on a customers behalf over multiple days, is such bullpoop

Just Jeepin' > Party-vi 08/06/2018 at 12:14

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I refuse to care enough about that segment to have an opinion, much less fight you over yours.

Party-vi > Just Jeepin' 08/06/2018 at 12:15

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This means I win the fight

Textured Soy Protein > LOREM IPSUM 08/06/2018 at 12:16

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The other lot part of the same dealer group probably would’ve tried similar crap. There are competing dealers 9 and 12 miles away, I think the 12 mile  one also had the same car. Until the crap with the finance guy, it was only mild/medium incompetence and my wife wanted to try to get the car close to home.

Chuckles > Textured Soy Protein 08/06/2018 at 12:18

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Every single time I read about somebody buying a new car, it just reaffirms that I will never be able to buy a new car. I couldn't handle that situation as well as you. 

Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo > Party-vi 08/06/2018 at 12:23

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ur face

Textured Soy Protein > Chuckles 08/06/2018 at 12:24

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This was by far my worst experience with a dealership, and I’ve bought a decent amount of new and used cars at dealers in my life.

I’m usually an agreeable guy, but if a situation is messed up, I'm stubborn as all hell and I'll MAKE it work.

vicali > Textured Soy Protein 08/06/2018 at 12:24

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Sounds like some stem lube level bs..

W hen we bought the Tacoma I did all the before talking with the sales guy, then sent my wife in for the final negotiating. That’s what she does, all day long, with deals much nastier than car sales..

I’m pretty sure the salesman wanted me to come back..

ItalianJobR53 - now with added 'MERICA and unreliability > Textured Soy Protein 08/06/2018 at 12:24

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Good thing that they decreased your payment but please don’t go back to them for servicing the CX-5. Once a crook always a crook.

Why are dealers such shitbags!? I bought the Mini from the largest Mini dealer in the suburban Detroit area and he failed to mention the car was in an accident. An independent shop looked at the car for 10 minutes after I bought the car and said that the hood is unpainted below the insulation and the bumper mount is misaligned, classic signs of frontal impact.

CarsofFortLangley - Oppo Forever > Textured Soy Protein 08/06/2018 at 12:29

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I hate (most) dealers. I also am super familiar with the inability to sleep with an argument pending.

Glad to see you got white for the interior! I am literally cleaning mine right now. 

Textured Soy Protein > vicali 08/06/2018 at 12:29

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My wife hates spending time in car dealerships and I’m the negotiator in our household. I’ve bought plenty of cars, but this finance guy was on another level with his nonsense. I’m happy with the deal we ended up with but it was way too much BS to arrive at it.

LOREM IPSUM > Textured Soy Protein 08/06/2018 at 12:31

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Can't argue with that. If inclined, refer to thread title.

Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo > Textured Soy Protein 08/06/2018 at 12:32

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Leasing sounds like quite the cumbersome endeavor. Just seems to be more avenues for a lousy dealer to steal an extra 14 dollars.

Textured Soy Protein > ItalianJobR53 - now with added 'MERICA and unreliability 08/06/2018 at 12:34

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Unfortunately the reviews on the next-closest dealer aren’t much better.

When I lived in Madison, the car dealers weren’t too bad to deal with, because often they were either the only dealer in town for that brand, or one of 2-3 total. There’s only so many people so you have to work on your reputation.

Now I’m in DC, and every brand has lots of dealers, all of whom are trying to move as much metal as possible and tack on as much extra bullshit as possible to the deal. Some are certainly better than others, but among non-luxury brands, the old school scumbag business practices are alive and well. In theory the luxury brand  dealers are better because the brands enforce certain policies on how dealers are supposed to treat customers.

Chuckles > Textured Soy Protein 08/06/2018 at 12:35

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You certainly aren’t alone in your experiences. I just have no desire to deal with the games that many dealerships pay.

The other reason that I won’t buy new is that I’m cheap. I love cars, but the most expensive car that I ever purchased was my 5 year old Fiat 500 for $7 ,500. I see more used cars in my future, preferably for less than 10 grand. I don't judge people for buying new, it's just not in my budget.

Textured Soy Protein > CarsofFortLangley - Oppo Forever 08/06/2018 at 12:35

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I have a nice supply of interior cleaning products, since this is not the first light-color-upholstered car in my household.

Textured Soy Protein > Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo 08/06/2018 at 12:38

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This is the 4th time I’ve done a lease either for myself or my wife. This is the first time it’s been this terrible of  an experience. It had more to do with a shady-ass dealer than any problems inherent to leasing.

Party-vi > Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo 08/06/2018 at 12:40

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My face has the worst in-class storage and gas mileage in the class. The CX-5 wins again!

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > Textured Soy Protein 08/06/2018 at 12:41

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Please forgive me for saying TL;DR at this point, but I would have told the Mazda dealership to drive the car up their rectal incision and gone to some other dealer. Hurriedly. Or gone to Dealership No. 2 and bought the car directly from them.

https://www.thisamericanlife.org/513/129-cars

Check out this radio show; it’s excellent.

I’m glad your wife is happy with the car.

ItalianJobR53 - now with added 'MERICA and unreliability > Textured Soy Protein 08/06/2018 at 12:42

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Talk about a rock and a hard place.

I hope that the service department is better than the sales.

Sovande > Textured Soy Protein 08/06/2018 at 12:47

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Typical Maryland. They don’t pull this kind of bullshit in Virginia, I can assure you. :)

I kid. The CX-5 is the only good looking small SUV or crossover or whatever out there. And it is damn good looking. Congrats! 

Textured Soy Protein > ItalianJobR53 - now with added 'MERICA and unreliability 08/06/2018 at 12:53

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About 2/3 of the 1-star reviews are for service, 1/3 for sales. There are many, many 1-star reviews. The place 9 miles away has a better overall score, but still plenty of 1-star reviews. We’ll see, but at least the first oil change is free at the place where we bought it so that's not giving them additional money.

ToyotaFamily > Textured Soy Protein 08/06/2018 at 13:08

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You’re in the DMV area right? What dealer was this? 

CarsofFortLangley - Oppo Forever > Textured Soy Protein 08/06/2018 at 13:08

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It really isn’t that hard to keep clean.  The Recaro’s in the ST are way harder.

Textured Soy Protein > ToyotaFamily 08/06/2018 at 13:17

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Well, without naming names...I live in Rockville. 

ToyotaFamily > Textured Soy Protein 08/06/2018 at 13:19

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That says it all.

My dad tried buying there, it sucked.

Textured Soy Protein > CarsofFortLangley - Oppo Forever 08/06/2018 at 13:19

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The cream colored leather in my 335xi needs periodic wipedowns on the armrests. I don’t think my elbows are that greasy, but who knows? My wife’s Impreza we traded in for the CX-5 would collect blue dye on the driver's seat side bolster, maybe from one of my wife's jackets or something. Nothing a little upholstery cleaner and a brush can't take care of.

Highlander-Datsuns are Forever > Textured Soy Protein 08/06/2018 at 13:19

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Confirmation that 9/10 dealerships are still dumb asses.

Cash Rewards > ToyotaFamily 08/06/2018 at 13:24

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I called priority in tysons with a question for service and was told to f uck off. I called Brown's in faorfax, they put a mechanism the phone and he walked me through a diagnosis and repair.

vicali > Textured Soy Protein 08/06/2018 at 13:25

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We were sitting there with a $5000+ repair on our 2nd Gen Taco- so we were already miserable with the prospect of buying a replacement..

ToyotaFamily > Cash Rewards 08/06/2018 at 13:32

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Most dealers in the Tysons area act like entitled douches. Brown’s is decent from what I’ve heard.

My dad bought from Malloy, but they closed their Mazda dealership.

TheRealBicycleBuck > Textured Soy Protein 08/06/2018 at 13:44

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If you have kids and she parks next to you, keep the door edge guards. I wish I had put them on the rear doors of my wife’s Explorer. My old truck had a series of dings because my kids couldn’t control the door and were constantly hitting my truck.

Textured Soy Protein > TheRealBicycleBuck 08/06/2018 at 13:56

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We have no kids and a 1-car garage.

TheRealBicycleBuck > Textured Soy Protein 08/06/2018 at 14:01

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That makes it easier.

ItalianJobR53 - now with added 'MERICA and unreliability > Textured Soy Protein 08/06/2018 at 14:37

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TBH I’m more worried that they will mess up something or install a bad/used part.

We were changing the oil in a ‘ 16 WRX and the dealer who had done the previous oil change had tightened the oil filter so hard that it took 2 guys 30 minutes to just unscrew it. It’s the little things that annoy me.

His Stigness > Textured Soy Protein 08/06/2018 at 15:12

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Jesus christ that's some shady shit. And it's more surprising that I had a great experience at a VW dealer, even though they're notorious for being shit. 

gogmorgo - rowing gears in a Grand Cherokee > Textured Soy Protein 08/06/2018 at 15:24

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23 miles really isn't that far. 9 miles definitely isn't.

Textured Soy Protein > His Stigness 08/06/2018 at 15:55

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This is like 7/8 of a Mazda dealer, they use the finance guys from the VW side, which means the whole place is mad shady. I think it’s more because of the dealer group than any particular brand. The finance guy and sales manager plainly stated  they have quotas of these third party warranties they have to sell to get monthly incentive payouts from the warranty company. This was after I stomped back in and started swearing up a storm, of course.

Textured Soy Protein > gogmorgo - rowing gears in a Grand Cherokee 08/06/2018 at 15:59

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It wasn't so much that we didn't want to drive the distance. The folks at the place a mile away acted very nonchalant like "oh yeah we'll get the car no problem it's easy," and then failed to follow through on it. Multiple times. And then pulled this third party warranty crap.

His Stigness > Textured Soy Protein 08/06/2018 at 16:03

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I know that groups have a big say over how dealers are run, but the VW dealers I’ve dealt with that were shit weren’t part of groups, but the dealer I bought my e-Golfs were. But based on my experience with dealers, I would say people should always pick an LA Car Guy dealer, but I will go back to the Santa Monica VW when I need  want another car. 

Textured Soy Protein > His Stigness 08/06/2018 at 16:10

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My only experience with a VW dealer, other than this one, was back when I lived in Madison, and for the most part all the new car dealers there are usually pretty decent. I bought a BMW from that group’s BMW location (the only BMW dealer in town) and that was a great experience. B ut I know luxury brands generally encourage their dealers to kiss customers’ asses.

We really liked our sales guy at the Honda dealer here in Maryland, but I got the impression that was just because he happened to be a good dude, rather than anything to do with that particular dealership, whose reviews were not really any better than the bad reviews on this Mazda dealer. 

BEER4Bonneville > Textured Soy Protein 08/06/2018 at 16:30

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Why not drive the 23 miles yourself and make the deal at that dealer?

His Stigness > Textured Soy Protein 08/06/2018 at 16:40

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The guy I bought my TDI from was from the shitty VW dealer, but he was just a cool, good person. He didn’t last there long. Now that dealer is populated by complete imbeciles who don’t know how to read emails, and by managers that don’t know how supply and demand work. When you have FOUR Golf Rs in your dealership , it’s kind of hard to say there’s a limited supply with a straight face. They also have massive balls putting “market adjustments” on beat to shit used TDIs and the brand new Atlas.

Textured Soy Protein > BEER4Bonneville 08/06/2018 at 16:44

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The folks at the one by my house acted like it was no big deal to bring the car over. My evening commute thru DC traffic means I don’t get home til 6:30 on most weeknights, and that other dealer is in a whole different part of town than both my office and house.

Besides, t hey’re the same dealer group and probably just as likely to be shady.

Bubba Gump > Textured Soy Protein 08/07/2018 at 00:24

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First first you never ever ever ever give any kind of a down payment ahead of time then they got you pinned to the wall because it will take a miracle to get it back if you can't get the deal done. Second you negotiate the price of the car and only the price of the car with the stupid ass salesman. The price of the car will make the payments you don't need to make payment discussions you need to make price of the car discussion only. Third you never ever buy anything from the financing person. They don't sell anything that's worth having. When you get done you should have a finance paper with the price that you agreed with the salesman plus tax title and license and nothing else. I repeat and nothing else. they are just add on sheets that are worthless. And I think you said it was a lease job. That in and of itself tells them that you're a complete fool. leasing a car is dumbest thing to do in the world

shop-teacher > Textured Soy Protein 08/07/2018 at 00:31

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I would definitely try the other dealership for service. There’s a Maz da dealer a block away from my work, buy I take my wife’s CX-5 to a dealer that's about 8 or 9 miles away, because that one offers a no BS experience.

Textured Soy Protein > Bubba Gump 08/07/2018 at 07:23

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Leasing isn’t dumb if you use manufacturer incentives to keep the payments low.

I didn’t make a down payment before knowing the price of the car. They told me the little-bit-high payment without the price of the car, I told them I’d need to see the contract before agreeing.

The contract had the sale price of the car $1700 below invoice. This looked ok to me.

What didn’t look ok was the separate line item for the wear & tear coverage. Because exactly, I never buy that kind of crap. I questioned it as soon as I saw it, and again, this was before I made a down payment.

The finance guy claimed Mazda was incentivizing the wear & tear coverage as part of their special lease deal. I only agreed to the wear & tear coverage after he made this claim, and only then did I make the down payment.