Car dealerships need to pull their heads out of the 80's

[robertc1024]

I learned to drive with a manual. Always preferred to to autos.

First time I drove an automatic and needed to slow down I went for the clutch out of habit and caught the edge of the extra wide brake pedal autos have. We stopped fast, lol.

Sent from my HAL 9000

Same here.

 

[cbigclarke]

I knew it! Clarke is Dominic Toretto in disguise.

Now my secret is out

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[grasshopperglock]

I'm not buying it. It wasn't the deal. It was the price. $45k. $5k of which disappears as soon as it's titled.

There's just no way. I can buy an earlier SRT Challenger for a lot less money. With no more then 2000 miles on it. $10-15k difference in price.

 

[Brains]

I'm not buying it. It wasn't the deal. It was the price. $45k. $5k of which disappears as soon as it's titled.

There's just no way. I can buy an earlier SRT Challenger for a lot less money. With no more then 2000 miles on it. $10-15k difference in price.

I don't get it - the price is the one thing you knew going into this deal, and now you're walking away from it?

 

[grasshopperglock]

The thing is. Is that Dodge won't build the car in the color I want. Plum Crazy purple. It's a limited color. They won't do it in Go Mango either. They'll build it in A5 blue (baby blue metallic). No reason to order white. Too many abound in plain white. They're everywhere. Red too. Black, oh yeah. A5, yep.

Change of heart.....on new. I'm still getting one. For some reason there's a bunch with less then 10k miles. Years from 09 to 14.

 

[grasshopperglock]

My sweet spot was color. Can't get it. Don't want it.

 

[TheDan]

The website let you order purple, but they wont actually paint it that color?

 

[grasshopperglock]

The sales manager has an order work sheet through Dodges specific website. It's a restricted dealer thing. Plugging in my requirements.

2016 Challenger Scat Pack. Manual. Only option is the Alpine 9 speaker radio. Plum crazy purple......they won't build it. I can get it in a bunch of other colors. Grey, silver, black, etc.

No Plum Crazy purple. Remember the mystic paint on mustang? Production run and it's over. This is late year for 2016 cars. 2017 will be showing up in a shortly.


The purple was also available as pre-order. I'm just late to the game.

 

[grasshopperglock]

The site doesn't show Go Mango but the sales brochure does.

http://www.dodge.com/hostc/bmo/CUD201603LADX22A/2DG/configurator.do#/summary


The scat packs on the lot had an average $4000 in options. All I want is a $750 radio.

 

[TheDan]

The plum crazy is a color you can choose on the website for the r/t scat pack. The fact that it's an option on the website, but they won't sell it to you is a good example of this thread topic...

At a car show I was at a couple months ago there was a guy that wanted a black trans am, but the year he was buying it they didn't offer it in black. He actually ordered it from the factory with just primer and had it painted himself. He had pictures and there was even a magazine write up of the trans am being delivered in primer and it's unpainted red plastic bits.

 

[TheDan]

Ha! Found an article about it. The second owner, Ron, is the guy I talked to...
http://www.hotrod.com/cars/featured/hppp-1005-1973-pontiac-trans-am-455/

 

[benenglish]

Best car purchase story from my life was done by my dad when I was a kid. The local small-town dealer was a snake in all the usual ways. However, he'd had a used '66 Lincoln Continental on the lot for ages. We'd seen the price go down but the dealer couldn't move the car. Dad loved Lincolns and he had fallen in love with this one from afar. Only when the sticker price across the windshield got too low to ignore, however, did he take any action.

Dad (an electronics engineer, btw) went in to have a look. The dealership manager took him to look at the car and (honestly, I believe) explained that they couldn't sell it because the engine wasn't right. They couldn't diagnose it. They'd tried everything but it just missed and ran rough and, frankly, he figured it would never sell through normal channels. My dad said something about liking to work on cars and asked to have a look. The manager was "Sure. Hell, if you'll take it off my hands for cash, I'll let you have it for $XX", where $XX was some ridiculously low number.

They opened the hood, fired it up, and it ran like shit. My dad said he'd take it at the quoted price and shook the hand of the manager. That was all that was required. If the manager had reneged because nothing had been signed yet, the dealership would have suffered; things were different back then.

Then my dad said "Please go get a set of new spark plug wires for this car. I'll need those, too." The manager looked at him funny. Dad reached into the engine compartment and spread his fingers wide, lifting all the spark plug wires into the air, no longer touching the block or valve covers. He had me do the same on the other side of the car. The engine instantly smoothed out and purred like a kitten.

The manager stormed off and was heard yelling at someone in the service department. Then he returned with severely overpriced plug wires and paperwork. My dad wrote a check and we drove off. 10 minutes of unplugging old wires, throwing them away, and plugging in new ones ensued. That 428 gulped gas but ran smooth as silk until the early '80s when mom finally sold it.

Postscript: After the deal was done, the owner of the dealership came out and explicitly told my dad that he was not welcome in that dealership ever again.

 

[stdreb27]

Why not just go on and offer a cash price, if they accept go to the bank and get a low interest loan for this awesome cash price deal you just got, take the 21k to the dealer and leave with 30k truck, pay bank on low interest loan saving 2k due to inflation, benefit from both sides.


Sent from my HAL 9000

Because the dealer is making a half a point or so finders fee from the bank.


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[outdare]

Best car purchase story from my life was done by my dad when I was a kid. The local small-town dealer was a snake in all the usual ways. However, he'd had a used '66 Lincoln Continental on the lot for ages. We'd seen the price go down but the dealer couldn't move the car. Dad loved Lincolns and he had fallen in love with this one from afar. Only when the sticker price across the windshield got too low to ignore, however, did he take any action.

Dad (an electronics engineer, btw) went in to have a look. The dealership manager took him to look at the car and (honestly, I believe) explained that they couldn't sell it because the engine wasn't right. They couldn't diagnose it. They'd tried everything but it just missed and ran rough and, frankly, he figured it would never sell through normal channels. My dad said something about liking to work on cars and asked to have a look. The manager was "Sure. Hell, if you'll take it off my hands for cash, I'll let you have it for $XX", where $XX was some ridiculously low number.

They opened the hood, fired it up, and it ran like shit. My dad said he'd take it at the quoted price and shook the hand of the manager. That was all that was required. If the manager had reneged because nothing had been signed yet, the dealership would have suffered; things were different back then.

Then my dad said "Please go get a set of new spark plug wires for this car. I'll need those, too." The manager looked at him funny. Dad reached into the engine compartment and spread his fingers wide, lifting all the spark plug wires into the air, no longer touching the block or valve covers. He had me do the same on the other side of the car. The engine instantly smoothed out and purred like a kitten.

The manager stormed off and was heard yelling at someone in the service department. Then he returned with severely overpriced plug wires and paperwork. My dad wrote a check and we drove off. 10 minutes of unplugging old wires, throwing them away, and plugging in new ones ensued. That 428 gulped gas but ran smooth as silk until the early '80s when mom finally sold it.

Postscript: After the deal was done, the owner of the dealership came out and explicitly told my dad that he was not welcome in that dealership ever again.

I don't get the dealers attitude. They were too stupid to fix it. He offered a deal and your Dad fixed it. They still sold a car. That is crappy and the dealer just had bad karma coming back to get him. Good for your dad.

 

[benenglish]

I don't get the dealers attitude. They were too stupid to fix it. He offered a deal and your Dad fixed it. They still sold a car. That is crappy and the dealer just had bad karma coming back to get him. Good for your dad.

I think the dealer attitude came from the manager carelessly tossing out a price that resulted in a loss. The manager had authority to set the price and the dealership had to honor it. The owner, however, didn't like that he was forced to take a loss.

Those are just guesses, of course. I was just a kid so I know nothing for sure, obviously.

 

[peeps]

I think the dealer attitude came from the manager carelessly tossing out a price that resulted in a loss. The manager had authority to set the price and the dealership had to honor it. The owner, however, didn't like that he was forced to take a loss.

Those are just guesses, of course. I was just a kid so I know nothing for sure, obviously.

They should have nixxed the attitude and offered him a job as service consultant or something...dumb dealer!

 

[benenglish]

They should have nixxed the attitude and offered him a job as service consultant or something...dumb dealer!

Well, if it was electronics, my dad knew about it. He was the type of guy who equally enjoyed wiring the neighbor's new garage or doodling missile guidance schematics, all just for fun. Come to think of it, though, when he set out to teach me how to overhaul electric motors, my mom stepped in and did most of the teaching. She had the patience to trim mica and skills with a soldering iron that would put a modern production-line robot to shame.

Wow, that's some old tech and some even older nostalgia. I think my evening medications have kicked in and I should retire.

 

[Mreed911]

...and skills with a soldering iron that would put a modern production-line robot to shame.

 

[Dawico]

Best car purchase story from my life was done by my dad when I was a kid. The local small-town dealer was a snake in all the usual ways. However, he'd had a used '66 Lincoln Continental on the lot for ages. We'd seen the price go down but the dealer couldn't move the car. Dad loved Lincolns and he had fallen in love with this one from afar. Only when the sticker price across the windshield got too low to ignore, however, did he take any action.

Dad (an electronics engineer, btw) went in to have a look. The dealership manager took him to look at the car and (honestly, I believe) explained that they couldn't sell it because the engine wasn't right. They couldn't diagnose it. They'd tried everything but it just missed and ran rough and, frankly, he figured it would never sell through normal channels. My dad said something about liking to work on cars and asked to have a look. The manager was "Sure. Hell, if you'll take it off my hands for cash, I'll let you have it for $XX", where $XX was some ridiculously low number.

They opened the hood, fired it up, and it ran like shit. My dad said he'd take it at the quoted price and shook the hand of the manager. That was all that was required. If the manager had reneged because nothing had been signed yet, the dealership would have suffered; things were different back then.

Then my dad said "Please go get a set of new spark plug wires for this car. I'll need those, too." The manager looked at him funny. Dad reached into the engine compartment and spread his fingers wide, lifting all the spark plug wires into the air, no longer touching the block or valve covers. He had me do the same on the other side of the car. The engine instantly smoothed out and purred like a kitten.

The manager stormed off and was heard yelling at someone in the service department. Then he returned with severely overpriced plug wires and paperwork. My dad wrote a check and we drove off. 10 minutes of unplugging old wires, throwing them away, and plugging in new ones ensued. That 428 gulped gas but ran smooth as silk until the early '80s when mom finally sold it.

Postscript: After the deal was done, the owner of the dealership came out and explicitly told my dad that he was not welcome in that dealership ever again.

My dad had a van that wouldn't run when it rained. You could see the wires arcing to the engine when there was enough moisture in the air.

He isn't the best about maintenance believe it or not.

 

[cbigclarke]

Say it ain't so!

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