Actually this happens quite a bit now. I’ve had a friend who had his honda civic taken back after a few days. I guess they figure they can wriggle some more cash from you, cause at least in your case they don’t have to pay the fee to the card company if you write a check and since you already have the car they think you prolly won’t mind. They prolly sold your credit info. anyway.

That’s why I say secure your financing before you buy.

When we refinanced our house a few years ago, the woman coming over said it would only take a few minutes. To her horror I sat down in front of her for about three hours and read the few hundred pages of documents I was being asked to sign.

One of the great realizations I had on contracts presented to me, that I KNOW you are aware of, is no matter how official they look, there is nothing to stop you from crossing out lines, initialing them, and making that part of the deal.

My Toyota by the way, my 91 Land Cruiser which I use as my surfing car, just hit 305,000 miles on it. I can’t be happier with the car, and with a very minor amount of maintenance just keeps rolling.

But before I landed there, I called six different Toyota dealers — including Toyota of Kirkland — and told them what I wanted and resisted the pitch that my request was impossible. (Great advice, Andy, on surfing these sleazebags!) Dale @ Bob Bridge was the only guy who followed-up even once and he told me that Toyota had forbidden “Market Adjustment” pricing above sticker.

So I guess my experience with Toyota waa a lot of laziness but a stand-up guy at the end. Ford of Kirkland, on the other hand, threw up all kinds of warning flags with a $10k (!) markup on o a fugly green 2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid which, when challenged, they said they were doing “because they could on a hot car” and because their sales “had sucked for 6 months” and they had to pay the bills. Nice!

As an ex-Detroit native, the attitude I saw @ the Ford dealer is exactly what killed Motor City. Detroit can invest a billion dollars in a new technology and model, only to have the dealer network deliver a big FAIL.

Also just an FYI but a dealership in Northern Colorado here called “Iron Mountain” closed down just recently. Well the state shut them down for not paying off liens on autos they where taking in on trade…beware!

Funny thing is that you would hear their commercials on the radio all the time. About how they were a reputable dealer and how they wanted to make and honest deal and never treat the customer bad…blah…blah…blah.

I think dealerships are getting what they deserve right now.

Buying a car in Japan is an amazing experience. My salesman brought the car to test drive to my house, I didn’t need to go to the dealer.

Prices are very transparent in Japan. I learned that the maximum any dealership discounts was 70,000 yen (roughly $700) so with some extras I wanted, I told him to give me $1000 off and I would buy it now.

The salesman went outside and called his manager and they said they would give the $1000 discount.

Every time, the car needs maintenance or a check up the dealer comes and picks up the car and drops off a loaner for the day. Our salesman has come by a couple of times with newer model vehicles to test drive, but we don’t really need a new car.

However, I guarantee that if I ever buy another car in Japan it will be from the same dealership and the same salesman. This is one of many reasons Japanese car companies are so successful. It is too bad the American dealers don’t understand this level of service.

http://buyersvote.com/categories/car-dealerships-in-seattle-wa-reviews

The internet has made it easier than ever to call these people out. Hopefully we’ll see bad companies like this disappear as word spreads!

My friend and I went to a dealership. We test drove. We did the price negotiation thing. We spent a few hours there. They even brought the car out front and said if we agreed to the deal, we would just finish the paperwork and take it home right then. But we walked. This was pretty early in the process. I’ve contacted dealerships but not all replies are in yet. Their price was not the highest, but since I am still waiting for other replies, I walked. I just wasn’t comfortable buying a car on pretty much the first price offered.

Afterwards, my friend and I called and emailed around. There are a few that gives replies like “come in and take a look and we’ll talk”. We basically just ignored those. Most of the offers we did get, though, are on par or lower than what the dealership we visited offered. I think when you are doing the communications online, it’s obvious that you are shopping around and they are more likely to give you a more competitive price. We also looked up the prices on CarsDirect.com, which was lower. We started using that as a bargaining chip to ask if dealerships were willing to match the price. Two did.

I ended up getting the car $200 below invoice. They said they are selling it at a loss for sales numbers, but I don’t really believe them (I am sure there are other incentives, so as a whole, they are probably not selling at a loss although the paper says so). Still, I could’ve something like two or three more grands if I didn’t shop around.