I went to get a new car a few years ago and we negotiated a price. I brought in my car for them to see how much they would offer for it and they did a check on the car, ran it around and gave it a once-over. Said that they would give me $5,500 for it as a trade-in.

Come time to finalize the deal when the car I ordered comes in and they said they made a mistake. The car didn't have power steering, so the price they quoted originally for the trade-in was now only $5,000.

I ended up going to Carmax and tried to sell it there, but the check from CarMax wouldn't come to me for a week and I had to pay for the new car within a few days or lose my deposit. I ended up just selling it to the dealer for $5K.

Looking back, was I scammed or does this just happen when negotiating a trade-in?

JayBee Wrote:
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> I ended up going to Carmax and tried to sell it
> there, but the check from CarMax wouldn't come to
> me for a week


They cut me a check on the spot....??

You were scammed. Check out this interesting article to read more about common tricks the dealerships play:

http://www.edmunds.com/advice/buying/articles/42962/article.html

Dealerships dicker on the trade price all the time. Once they put down double the trade-in price they were originally going to give me just as a way to give me the price I wanted.

My answer to the dealership would have been "That's funny, I made a mistake and we talked about a price on the new vehicle about five hundred dollars more than I wanted to pay. We can call it even and close this with the overall drive-out price we already discussed or I can go home." I don't take well to shenanigans and have walked out on that kind of thing before, but that's just me.

I have found that the best time to buy a car is when you really don't need to buy one. In other words, if you have a car that's getting old but doesn't have a huge impending repair bill you're worried about, then that is a good time to do it.

Bring a book or something so you have something to do while they pull the game where they make you sit and wait. Go in there with an attitude that transmits you have all day to dicker around with this if you want.

I always negotiate on the drive-out price I'm willing to pay (i.e. give me the figure with destination, tax, and whatever processing fees they are going to throw on). The article was right about avoiding negotiation on a monthly-bill basis, always work from the drive-out price.

Buy a consumer reports car price report (something like $15) so you aren't clueless on how much you should be paying, what incentives and rebates are active, etc. Don't stick the report in their face, just have it visible amongst your papers and such, use it to jot down notes on, etc. and they'll see you aren't going to get suckered as easily as others.

Last but not least, don't be afraid or ashamed to leave if you are uneasy about the deal. You don't owe them anything, and you can always go back and they'll be thrilled to see you. If you're worried about it, tell a friend to call you two hours into your arrival time to give an opportunity for an "oh I got an emergency" excuse and you'll "be back tomorrow."

Years ago...we went to a dealership to purchase a "brand new truck"...We test drove it and pulled it up to the front door to buy it... While we were doing the paperwork, the salesman had one of the guys take it to "wash and put the floormats in it"....About 20 minutes later, the same guy pulled up in a DIFFERENT truck up (Basic model with no upgrades)....They must have figured we would not notice.....After a heated discussion...My husband ended up grabbing the salesman by the throat.... It don't think I have ever laughed so hard in my life.

You are lucky your husband did not go to jail for assault. Now THAT would have been lollercoaster eh B*tch?

I've bought two cars at Carmax. One of them I sold back to Carmax 3 years later with over 100,000 miles on it. They cut me a check within an hour. That's how they operate. No muss, no fuss. I'd recommend Carmax to anyone who wants to buy or sell a used car.

dono Wrote:
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> You are lucky your husband did not go to jail for
> assault. Now THAT would have been lollercoaster
> eh B*tch?
WE called the police...The dealership wanted to "Forget" the "Misunderstanding" before the police even got there..... Come to find out, the police had already been there a few times when they tried the same thing on other people. The dealership closed a few wekks after that.

dono Wrote:
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> You are lucky your husband did not go to jail for
> assault. Now THAT would have been lollercoaster
> eh B*tch?

LMAO!!!!

I got screwed by Jerry's Ford recently on a brand new car. I was a first time buyer and was offered a 6.9% APR at first but when I went to close the deal it changed to 10.9% due to "economy". When I went back 2 weeks later to pick up hard tags, the finance manager walked up to me asking me about how I liked the car and then he said "Can't beat 6.9% APR as the first time buyer, can you?" Then he quickly realized that that wasnt the deal I got so then he quickly added "or whatever the deal you got" What a joke, I will be refinancing w/ Navy Federal.

The first new car I leased. The leasing broker drove me to the stealership and the loaded Jetta I wanted suddenly transformed into a base model no power anything. Bait and switch. I just asked to be driven back to my office. Not a word spoken on the way back.

JayBee Wrote:
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> I went to get a new car a few years ago and we
> negotiated a price. I brought in my car for them
> to see how much they would offer for it and they
> did a check on the car, ran it around and gave it
> a once-over. Said that they would give me $5,500
> for it as a trade-in.
>
> Come time to finalize the deal when the car I
> ordered comes in and they said they made a
> mistake. The car didn't have power steering, so
> the price they quoted originally for the trade-in
> was now only $5,000.
>
> I ended up going to Carmax and tried to sell it
> there, but the check from CarMax wouldn't come to
> me for a week and I had to pay for the new car
> within a few days or lose my deposit. I ended up
> just selling it to the dealer for $5K.
>
> Looking back, was I scammed or does this just
> happen when negotiating a trade-in?


How the hell did your car not have power steering? Was it a Model T?

It was a Honda Civic hatchback. My first new car.

JayBee Wrote:
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> It was a Honda Civic hatchback. My first new car.
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