Car Shopping
 

What a pain in the ass when you have a million things to do and you start to shop for a new car. Went to a dealer and thought we had a pretty decent deal working. It came down to them asking 2K higher than what I was willing to pay. So I ask for my keys and I'm ready to leave. The sales hole goes to the manager and about 5 minutes later they both come back. This is after me asking for my keys three times. When they round the corner I ask for the keys again and the sales hole says we have a deal, I again say give me my keys I'm leaving, the manager then spouts out, you know you are negotiating for a high end vehicle and there is always back and forth with it. He spoke like he was speaking to a 10 year old. The sales hole said some crap, I grabbed my keys and out the door I headed. They said the car is over this way as I walked out the front door. They also said they'd follow up and see if we have a deal. I got in the car and left. This was at an Audi Dealership, they also sell BMW, Mercedes and VW. Needless to say all those brands are off the list of potential cars now.
There were quite a few other things the dealership did which made me leave. I was sitting at a desk and the sales person had left and was going to be back in 10 minutes from talking with the manager, 40 minutes wait. Another sales jerk comes up and asks what I'm doing sitting at his desk. I explained and he rudely said he had work to do and needed his desk. When I started to get up he said you can stay as he started working on his computer and talking loudly with a client. I stood and walked to the front windows looking at people driving thru the lot. At the required 40 minutes my sales hole comes back and starts the whole drawing on paper trying to sell me the car line.
Now compare this to the Dodge dealer, polite, courteous, did a follow up call and the dealership sent a follow up thank you letter for stopping in and inquiring. All I got from the Audi dealership was follow up emails telling me how much time the salesperson had invested with me and it is a great deal and they didn't mean to offend me etc...
If the numbers come back good with Dodge I might be making a move and dumping the lemon Cadillac for something else.

just my uneducated based opinion but a dodge dealer could not possibly be so nice to cause me to by a dodge. Obviously, you don't like your CTS but I think you would really not like a dodge. The CTS did not get a great review from Consumer Report.

Go with the Dodge. They are giving away free dogs with every vehicle purchase so you never have to walk alone after it breaks down.:D:leaving:

Good deals on C7's now......

I had a dealership kidnap my keys once. I was looking at a new truck and after they looked over my trade...the keys disappeared. After several excuses, the sales guy says the manager has them in his desk....he should be available soon....

Yeah, bullshit. Long story short, I blasted into his office and the guy has the balls to raise his index finger and tell he'll be with me in second, please wait outside.

Wrong answer, give me my ****ing keys...now. About five seconds later I'm walking out with the keys. The customer he was working with was grinning ear to ear, clearly entertained by the whole thing.

A couple months later there was an article in the local paper about the state clamping down on these guys. Apparently they had a habit of questionable sales tactics, and received some big fines for their business practices, including the "lost keys" ploy.

Just my opinion but buying a car you don't want as much based on salesmen seems silly. I could see possibly going to a different dealer, but... 🤷

We have a dealer in Jacksonville, Florida where the salesmen would throw the keys onto the roof of the dealership.

It would not end well for somebody who did that to me.

John Wayne would have tossed him up to retrieve them! :D

To the Op. Glad you got out of there, never to return! :yesnod:

I could swear I read a similar story on another forum a while back. Is it customary in the US for dealers to hold customers hostage by confiscating their car keys so they can't leave?

WTF?

Why did they have your keys??????

lesson learned: don't give them your keys until you've made a deal.

"how much for that one there?"

"eleventy billion"

"that's fair, how much more for old rusty out front"

"buck fiddy"

"done, write it up, i have places to go, start counting the Benjamin's"

This is why I work everything out through email or text before I even go into the dealer.

This. :yesnod: I've purchased every one of my BMWs this way since 2000. In and out of the dealership in 1 hour dropping off old and picking up new. :seasix:

I've had maybe one good car buying experience in my years. It was at a fixed-price dealer, & there was no BS involved. Prices were competitive, & we left & went back a few times before buying, with no pressure, no phonecalls at home, etc.

One of the worst was when I experienced the key hostage deal. The sales manager checked out my trade while the sales guy yakked about whatever. When the manager came back with his trade offer, I asked for my keys, which he didn't want to give up. "They're back in my office; we can talk a little about the tradein if you're not happy with the number". Just getting a little loud in the showroom got me my keys back. :Jeff '79:

I despise the whole car buying process in general.

Last October we looked at a mustang, put a deposit to hold it, dealer said if we change our mind no problem just call and they will cancel it. The next day, “ you have to come in for the refund”, BS I said the credit card company can reverse it. I’ll never shop there again.

Contrast that to the dealer in St. Louis where we just came back with a car. Emailed a few questions, good answers, called and made an offer that was accepted. Flew in Friday night, Saturday morning less than an hour later car was paid for and we were on our way home

Seems to me like in the US it's more of a dog and pony show than up here and dealers are a lot more shady.

Had one bad experience when I was young I wanted to buy a Jeep and the salesperson kept trying to convince me to lease it and would only tell me the monthly lease payment. I kept telling him I wasn't interested in leasing I wanted to buy it and I wanted to know the purchase price and he wouldn't tell me so I walked out.

Otherwise I've had good luck with professional dealers and have been happy with all my car purchases. Just bought my C7 Z06 back in November and it was an awesome experience with no bullshit.

Last new car I bought was in 87 ok deal, last car I bought from a dealer was in '92


I have no problems buy and sell cars.....

:seasix:

There was a Dodge dealer here in town years ago that did the same thing. They closed the doors of that place.

Audi really would not like their dealer representing them that way. May I suggest an email to one of their executives at USA headquarters?

Chances are that whole shitty group will be gone from that Audi dealership within a couple of months anyways, however one more letter to headquarters might move it along. What happens is the dealership hires a manager who doesn't fit, they bring their asshole buddies along to sell and the whole thing goes to shit. The high-line import customer will NOT put up with it and will drive to the next town who sells the line and buy from them. Even domestics are clamping down on these types of tactics.

They have your keys so they can appraise your trade. It's an old trick and not even a good one. In my years in the business I only had one sales manager who did it. I flat out refused to do it, said fire me if it's a problem, he promptly backed down. Potential customers notice it right away and it puts them on edge. It just shows how weak a salesman is if he has to resort to tactics like this.

The problem with the one price model is everyone leaves without buying and maybe 5-10% come back and buy. Dealerships don't survive on numbers like that. You have to sell them a car before they leave or they are gone forever.

Two things I normally do when purchasing a car, do the negotiating over the web via email and then when I do arrive I bring both sets of keys. One for them to try and play the game and the other to leave with. I forgot to get the second FOB when I left for work in the morning.
This is the same dealer trying to shove a used 2018 M5 down my throat, rattle in the rear, tint on windows, deep scratches on the paint and a funny noise from the turbo's when it is started. Not impressed at all with how the car looked for 10 months old and 20K on the clock. Told them as much and the became defensive when pushed to have it Certified Pre Owned, the exhaust had been changed out, rims changed to the black vs polished, grills changed out, debadged car.
The next hit was taking an Audi RS5 for a test drive, rode like shit. You could tell the penny in the road was heads, the date and mint location of it. I noticed an error when we were leaving the parking lot, of course the sales person has to drive it off the lot according to them for their insurance. BS Flag on that on. Well when it was my turn to drive I notice the warning and scrolled thru to see a problem with the suspension. I suspect they did not take the spaces from shipping out and it was causing an alarm. When asked about it again, they said it was in the shop.
As far as being put off by one dealer, I tried a second one which had the Q8 optioned the way I liked it. When I called on it, I was told that it was the sales manager's Demo and they could locate one for me. Three tries to locate and all were optioned wrong. When asked about the one they have I was told it was in the shop, never got the photo's I asked for of the interior. So two strikes and I would try something else.
Regardless if I bought the car elsewhere, I'd still need service at this location. I wouldn't trust them to change the blinker fluid.
The absolute best experience I've ever had was the purchase of both the M3 and X5M. The X5 was done via email, never stepped foot in the dealership until I signed the paperwork about a week before going to SC to pick it up from the performance center. The M3 was relatively the same way, took a week to ship it from another dealer but a very smooth transaction.

My father and brother both switched from GM products to Chrysler. My father can't be happier about the Pacifica they bought. My brother has put over 90K on his truck in about three years and has one issue which was resolved quickly. Others I know with Dodges/Jeep/Ram's have had similar experiences with them. Others with GM products have experiences like mine.
Everyone gets a bad product from time to time, it is how the dealership reacts to the problem which sets the stage. I went a month with no radio in the V. I figured out the secret getting it work only to have it crap out again yesterday.

Pretty piss poor Cadillac's halo car and the dealer manages to screw it up. The same dealer who left the oil fill cap off after an oil change only to discover it 6 weeks later when it was back in for service.

I might want to kick myself in the rear for getting a Jeep if the deal goes thru but I'll take my chances for the first time in my life with a Dodge product.