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  #1  
Old 05-21-2003, 07:10 PM
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Tim Tim is offline
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Unhappy First dealership experience

My first real ranting since this one kept me from sleeping all night. Basically my brother and I tried to lease a 2004 WRX. We'd be trading in the Focus as the down payment. It all went well at the dealership and then we realized we didn't get an insurance quote, and the guy was so pushy and kept on assuring us it would be only a little higher than the focus. So I said what if we sign this and the insurance is way too high?

The manager was like I'll sign paperwork saying you can return the car no questions asked and pick up your focus.

Later on I realized it wasnt really a good deal and we called the insurance company and the wrx was 3 times as much as the focus to cover for insurance ($3000). Then we took the car back to the dealer to bring it back and they gave us a hard time. They didn't want to take back the car cuz we drove it and it "depreciated". It only had 22 miles on the Odometer and they "couldn't sell it as new".

Meanwhile the manager came out and I was haggling with them and they wouldnt take it back, but I discretely held out the written agreement saying we could return the car if the insurance was too high for the buyer. It was signed by the manager. THey didnt want to lose the sale so they offfered to pay half the insurance for the year and knock off 30 dollars off the monthly payment to $369 a month. We wanted the focus back and to cancel the lease (even though we signed the agreement). THey still would not.

I was like ok and calmly walked out and then we called the police and then an officer came in to investigate with the sirens blaring and all. I thoroughly explained how they pressured us into taking the car the same day and waiting for the insurance quote the next day, and if it were too high we could return it. The cop looked very pissed off and seemed very passionate about it all and then had a discussion with the manager privately. The cop told us to wait in the waiting room and the manager called us into the office, where we signed papers cancelling the lease and owing nothing and the trade in was cancelled. Credit was reinstated and then they gave us one of hte Focus' keys and they pulled the focus up to the front door all detailed and said sorry.

All that because we liked the car so much we werent thinking. But all in all the car was amazing. THe 2004 WRX had nice seats and it was fully loaded. As much as I loved the car (that was the car i wanted before the SVX) I hated seeing it because it was symbolic that we got ripped off. After hours of lectures from my dad on why we shouldnt get a car without the help of someone experienced, I'm finally glad this ordeal is over. But we did have the WRX for a day and I must say, it was fun to drive the car without babying it.
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  #2  
Old 05-21-2003, 07:42 PM
lee lee is offline
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Well, aside from the substantial hassle, at least you got a free ride in a new WRX.

If I could be so bold as to offer a suggestion on price...I'd never buy another new car without using the Internet. Located my wife's new (in 2002) 4Runner that way. I sent out e-mail to all dealers within a 3-hr drive of my home. Sent every one of them the exact same message. Told them I was contacting multiple dealers and wanted their best "out the door" price, with title/tax/tags included. Also said I'd walk out on the deal if they told me a different price when I showed in person.

Surprisingly (to me), the prices varied by about $2,500 for the exact same vehicle (BTW, Toyota's web site shows vehicles not yet delivered to dealers - we reserved ours while it was still on the boat).
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Old 05-21-2003, 08:27 PM
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Landshark Landshark is offline
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there are good dealers and bad dealers. we had a very pleasant experience, and i almost feel bad with the deal we got. we got a fully loaded WRX (boost gauge, carbon fiber, sub, alarm, "upgraded speakers" , etc.) and auto tranny (add $1000) for $23,000. i traded in my '87 Lesabre T-type (i was thinking i could get maybe $2500 if i sold it myself) and my wife's '92 BASE Cavalier (power NOTHING, FM radio - thought maybe i could get $1500 if i sold it myself). the dealer gave us $4500 for both of those cars!!!!! they saved me the trouble of placing ads, dealing with tire-kickers, phone calls, etc.

i like my dealer
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Old 05-21-2003, 08:38 PM
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I have to say I feel for you. I can totally understand what you mean when you say seeing the WRX would remind you of how you got played. Good work kicking ass. I'll bet that Cop really tore him a new ahole. There's something very intimidating about having a Cop tell you how easily the the DA could get involved in matters involving fraud, which I assume is what happened. Glad it all worked out for you.

Just to make you feel better and to potentially help others who may have or will have had problems with that dealer, you may want to report what occured to the Better Business Bureau. They have a website, so it's real easy to file a report. If a handful of reports pile up, an investigation occurs. It's not much...but it's better than nothing. Also, even a letter to the car manufactorer (in this case I assume Subaru) detailing the less-than honest selling methods and everything it took for the dealer to actually honor the agreement (police involvement) would be in order. I would think manufactorers would be interested in that kind of customer feedback. If anything, they do not want the BBB looking over their shoulder, even if most dealerships are privately operated and owned. They are still selling Subary products.

Perhaps you should let everyone on the site know what Dealer it was so we know to avoid these shady characters at all costs.
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Old 05-21-2003, 09:16 PM
Ron Mummert Ron Mummert is offline
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Cool

Not to take the side of a sleazebag dealer, but why didn't you check out the insurance issue BEFORE any ink was put on paper? New car dealers rely on one thing, especially when a younger buyer is showing drool. Once he/she drives it, the deal's 90% done, no matter what happens next. And the younger buyer JUST CAN'T WAIT to show off the new wheels around the 'hood.
Gotta slow down when you're making a 20K decision.
Uncle Ron.
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Old 05-21-2003, 09:37 PM
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Noir Noir is offline
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re: uncle ron

uncle ron is 100% right. but to prevent the sleezebag from doing that to some other inexperienced new buyer, report it to subaru of america or whatever subaru governing body. i've also read that these sleezebags like to do this to pregnant women and hold them there all day until they finally give in and say i'll take it to get out of the dealership.

if you report the sales manager and salesman with all the details (hopefully you got the cop's name and maybe a report) they should get a little slap on the hand for what they did. if that happened to me, i'd first contact the owner of the dealership and then contact subaru or america or whoever's up top.

good thing you got that in writing and the police got involved.

Last edited by Noir; 05-21-2003 at 09:39 PM.
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Old 05-21-2003, 10:25 PM
Kurt_W Kurt_W is offline
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I must admit that I'm surprised you didn't check on the insurance cost prior to walking into the dealership. Insurance was the first thing I checked prior to purchasing my 04 WRX a couple weeks ago. I however don't know how convenient it is for you to contact your provider…mine is local so all I had to do was walk into the office and make an inquiry. I am also surprised that your dealer would even let you take the car off the lot without proof of insurance on the car. My dealer wanted to see that I had a policy set up and prepared for the car when I showed up to get it. (I will note however that my dad thought that the dealer wanting the policy set up already was kind of odd.) The difference in terms of insurance policy might have been due to your leasing the car versus my purchasing the car…

As for the dealer, it all depends. I walked into my dealer (Louis Thomas Subaru in Parkersburg, WV) knowing what I wanted and I knew that Thomas didn’t have it. I told him that I knew where I could get what I wanted and he could either get it for me or I would purchase it at the dealer (John Howard Subaru in Morgantown, WV) that had the car. Thomas Subaru was willing to get the car for me and the next day I drove one of Thomas Subaru’s 03 Foresters (which made for a nice 120 mile test drive of the Forester, which is a nice car btw) to the Howard Subaru to pick up my car and return it to Thomas Subaru. I did this so that I would know who had driven all the miles since it came off the truck (it had 6 on it when I picked it up at John Howard Subaru.) I delivered the car to Thomas Subaru where they when over it and cleaned it up so I could pick it up the next day. My 04 was the first 04 that Thomas Subaru had sold, and probably one of the easiest sales he had had in a long time. I knew which car I wanted, where to find it, about how much to pay for it (which I was happily surprised to find out that he charged me about $2000 less then I had prepared to spend), and I even saved him the trouble of retrieving it by doing it myself.

It should be noted that I had heard many tales of the troubles people had when dealing with Thomas Subaru and I was very happy when I had absolutely none at all. If I’m ever in the market for another Subaru and I’m in this area, I’m sure I will talk to them first. It should also be noted that their used cars salesman and service manager are pretty amusing to talk to most of the time too. I don’t think that them knowing I had a SVX as well hurt either, in fact most of the employees I talked to there thought it was pretty cool to have one of each. Also, the salesman I talked to at John Howard Subaru in Morgantown was cool too, wanted to know if I did any autocrossing and that kind of stuff.
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Old 05-22-2003, 04:27 AM
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The cop really scared them. I was speaking very loudly to the cop on how they "played us and treated us like just a dollar sign". A lot of the customers that were talking to the other salesmen were listening and eventually became disgusted and walked out. The manager was getting really upset that the cop had his siren on attracting attention and he couldnt take it anymore so he finally just gave it and gave us the keys back to the focus and cancelled the lease.

I think it was because I originally wanted the wrx as my first car so seeing my brother have it would relive my dream sorta. And plus my brother hasa learning disability so hes a little on the slow side, so thats how we easily got swindled. But I'm glad I made them sign the paper saying we could return it if the insurance went up too high. Its funny how theyre your best friends up till you sign the lease.
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