Car probably arrived sometime on Friday. Car is hot. Probably sold and delivered. I don’t think it’s fair to slam the dealer for doing his job. All before you could waste their time by writing a review for TTAC.

We went to the dealership after hours. No salespeople. My ‘out’ at a dealership is that I work for a leasing company (which I do) and we only buy fleet. The sales people will then leave you alone.

Or even an I4 Camry/Accord/Altima, another “mission accomplished” by GM.

$27,945 on the sticker of most of them. I didn’t drive them (because I was in a hurry), but they looked to be a huge improvement over the old FWD offerings in styling, fit, and finish.

That might be damning it with faint praise, though.

Auto makers have been hoping that if they stick it out long enough the U.S. dollar will bounce back. But at some point prices will have to adjust, and then there’s going to be a world of pain.

This is probably true.

I know, having been to several Albuquerque, New Mexico dealerships, that a lot of dealerships are really bad, even Toyota and Nissan ones.

I’ve been to a Toyota dealer where I asked to see a base 4 x 4 Tacoma 4-cyl. The dealer comes back with keys to a fully-loaded V-6 extended cab with automatic. My mom said it was one of the cheapest looking cars she’d ever seen on the inside (hahahaha) but wanted to come back because the dealership was so big it was almost awe-inspiring to all of us. I’ll never want to go back after having the bait and switch put on me.

Our local Nissan dealerships were mixed. One was great, and the salesman was good and showed us the cars (Nissan Frontier XE) we wanted to see. The other (on the west side) was crap (we were looking for same car). Salesman calls me thirty minutes after we left. Not going back.

On the other hand, I’ve been to a Jeep dealer where a salesman literally stepped behind our car as we entered their parking lot and wouldn’t step back so we could leave (we didn’t even exit the car, he scared us so bad). I will never set foot into that dealership again.

Our Ford dealers are generally OK, but they did talk my mom into buying a 2007 Escape at full price. On the other hand, when the battery went out within a week of purchase they towed it for free, so I guess you get what you pay for.

Our Isuzu and GM dealers were pretty good, the Isuzu dealer made me want to buy a car from him (couldn’t afford it) and the GM ones were nothing special.

It’s interesting that I haven’t really had a “bait-and-switch” pulled on any of my family members. A dealer once talked my mom into buying an F-150 over an Explorer, but the F-150 turned out to be the better buy, and my mom grew to like it. I don’t know if that counts or not.

These are some interesting stories on this topic here.

I’m starting to wonder if this car really exists.

The V6 starts at about 35k here while pontiac sells the v8 for under 30k?

I believe it may have a lot to do with tax credits…

The Aussie Car Manufacturers are very heavily protected via import tarrifs…

I believe (I have been told) Holden will get a credit for each export dollar they earn…thus allowing Holden to pay far less import tax on those cars they import (which is everything that isnt a Commodore)…

So basically the inspection was looking for obvious flaws, making sure power accessories worked, and flooring it to 95mph and seating the brakes and such…. repeatedly. I guess he got into trouble for flatspotting Sentra tires on a regular basis.

Had I actually been able to find a Maxima 6MT on a dealer lot in my area, I would probably be driving one now.

Steven Lang: “The sleaze factor is definitely not a domestic/import issue at all. In the late 1990’s, it was widely believed that Toyota dealers were the sleaziest ones in the Southeast region.”

Toyota’s actually gotten pretty damn slick about it. I’m talking about the ‘carpeted floor mats’ that are on every last Toyota Monroney sticker. Although it might look like something that has to be included, it’s not a factory option. It’s a ‘dealer added accessory’ that’s really just a little added bonus Toyota (or someone) puts on the sticker so every dealership can pad the total with some half-ass floor mats that the dealership got for a fraction of what’s on the sticker.

On my next Toyota purchase, I’m going to tell them to stuff those floor mats – I’ll buy my own for a whole lot less.

The dealer I dealt with was very agreeable. I called beforehand to ask if they had any G8’s (yes) and if they were available for test drive (yes). I got there and the salesman i talked on the phone met me. One of the black V6’s was in the showroom, then the other black V6 outside along with the red V8 GT. After the test drive, the salesman admitted he didn’t know much about the car, so he got another person who had went through a GM training on the car. He was very knowledgeable and we talked cars for a while, very little pressure. With the G8 being so new, they’re not budging from MSRP, but no markup either. He also said the manual should be in around Christmas.

Edit: this was a BPG in Everett, WA

Franchised new car dealerships are paid by their manufacturer a set fee to perform “dealer prep” on new vehicles before delivery. (Some call it Pre-Delivery or PDI (pre-delivery inspection)).

So, whether they take 5 minutes or an hour, if a dealer charges the customer anything it’s a ripoff inasmuch as they’ve already been paid by their OEM for the same work.

Add on dealer prep fees are a thing of the past, at least in our area. The factory pays it to the dealer.

For 2009 Holden is going to ship over a majority of V8s this time around to feed the need. Like any muscle car, the V8 model is the draw and the one people want.

I did a quick check at the local BPG + Caddy and Chevy dealer in Concord NH (the same group also has a Saab franchise down the street – how lucky!) The locater says they have 2 V8s, but I only found one on the lot – a “1 of 888″ model that stickered for 32K IIRC.

The car was sitting a bit forlorn over on the far side of the building, 180 degrees away from the sales entrance, right next to a new 2007 Silverado with a “Special Deal – Buy Now!” sign on it. Ah to be a GM dealer…

A lot of it had to do with the pseudo-Toyoguard package that bumped up the price of nearly every decent selling Toyota in the Southeast by about $600. Other than a cheap stainguard spray and some VIN#’s on windows, it was worthless. But if you wanted to buy a Camry in the Southeast, it was part of the price. May of them also would put in faux wood treatments that worth, maybe $100, and bump up the price another $1000.

Another far nastier issue over the years has been the documentation fees and the other related bogus fees. I know a fellow who charges $799 on top of what he will finance (usually a $2500 to $3500 car that he bought for $700 to $1200). When you throw in 28% interest on the deal and 90+% cash payments, you end up with one amazing profit margin.

The sleaze begins and ends with the dealer. The brand does not matter a lick.

That being said, I’ve found GM dealers to be as notoriously skanky as their cars.

A little OT also:

I took a day off work (Monday, March 24th); I saw a manual tranny Elantra SE on their website ($2K Rebate); went to the dealer, hooked up with a newbie salesman, telling him I needed to buy the car “today”. They found the car at the back of the lot, I test drove it with all of the interior and exterior plastic in place.
When they told me that they would give me more money for my trade than I had already decided as the “minimum”; I told them to prep that car, and I’d be back in the afternoon with a check from my credit union.
I was in the dealer @ 11:00 AM, and drove out with a freshly washed and waxed Elantra by 2:30PM. (And a full tank of gas!)

So, I was happy that I could tell all of my co-workers that I “bought my Hyundai on a Monday”.

George Labrador: “Dealer preparation is just a scam, they hardly do anything except wash the Vehicle, put a few gallons in the Tank and “Bob’s your Uncle” they charge the customer a lot for nothing imho!”

It’s a scam if they charge for it, but as another poster pointed out, to entirely take all the protective material off does take a little time. I think in most cases there’s actually two dealer preps performed, a ‘lot prep’ then the ‘customer prep’. If the vehicle in question is currently in high enough demand (the 2008 Challenger SRT-8 probably fits) where people are waiting at the dealership when the transporter arrives, they’ll probably be waiting longer for their car to be completely prepped, too.

The initial prep is done right after the vehicle comes off the carrier which removes the majority of the coverings (hell, there are even covers on the wheels) and preps the car for the lot. Then the car gets another prep immediately before customer delivery.

Regardless, there’s no excuse for using ‘bait and switch’ to get someone in the showroom. Apparently, some auto salesmen (mainly domestic vehicles) have been at it long enough to feel that the old practice of pissing off nineteen customers by lying to them to get them in the showroom is worth it in order to get the twentieth one to buy something they hadn’t intended in the first place.

Please contact me for the writers’ guidelines: robert.farago@thetruthaboutcars.com