I'm militantly against going to the stealership for ANYTHING. I phone absolutely everywhere that I can before I go there for parts. I always buy things private sale and pocket the extra money I would've spent, the $2000 off is better insurance IMO anyway.

When I was first getting into trucks an old guy pointed out a few things on an old Dodge that were wrong with it. He probably saved me $2000 on repairs at that auction and I never would've known.

x2 on talking to the couple on the side, no one should be embarrassed or shy to share knowledge that they have to help others

 

lot of retard salesmen out their.. i was at the dealership last week and test drove a QC srt10 ram.. * i want the extra room from my single cab *... so he goes to start it rolls down the windows looks at me and is like "ahh its a diesel!" i laugh.. and dont say anything.. go for a drive and come down the highway hes like you will great gas mileage with this diesel.. im like um its not a diesel, its a v10 viper motor, GAS same as in the viper cars.. he says nothing lmfao.

 

i think thats why the dealer i worked at went out of business all our salesmen lied and laughed about how much they put over on customers.

 

I made a road trip vehicle shopping years ago after hearing this stealerships commercial on the radio. They advertised "if we cant make a deal we will give you $100 for gas", so I thought hmmm, why not. After an entire afternoon of being insulted, (by what they was giving me on trade), I said no thanks, I guess we cannot make a deal and asked for my gas certificate, The sales manager stated we offered you a deal, you would not make. They was offering me about half what my vehicle was worth.

 

Well I guess I'll be making a post or two in this thread after next weekend. My niece is coming down from Georgia to see me for a couple days of shopping. She's looking for a recent, used SUV, preferably a Grand Cherokee. I plan to take her to a few places. Two they know me real well and they would know better than to try and hose me, but the couple other places I'm gonna act real dumb about vehicles just to see how bad they try to BS us...

 

Up here in Rochester NY we certainly have our share of stealerships. One Dodge group up here is famous for radio ads that state "a low payment of only $199". Of course the ad forgets to mention that the payment is bi-monthly. Also, the funny line "push, pull, or drag in any used car for $2000 down payment". What a bunch of thieves!!!

 

There's just too many games that they can play AND people just don't take the time to actually think through an offer. A good friend of mine traded his mustang in on an F150 (4x2) about two years ago (die hard Furd guy). He went to a dealership here in town and they discounted the truck down from $36k to just under $28k and offered him $14,500 for his mustang. He came home muttering what thieves they were and that he still owed $17k on the mustang and he couldn't afford to go "upside-down" on it.
So he goes to a larger dealer in a major city about an hour and a half away and tells them what he owes on the mustang and how they need to give him pay-out or he wasn't going to deal. So they give him his $17k for the mustang and then charge him full sticker of $36k on the same truck he looked at here locally. He took that deal!

So in looking at the deals the local dealer, the truck would have cost him $13,500 PLUS the $2500 to pay off the mustang or $16,000 total. While at the place he bought, the truck cost him $19,000 AND HE TOOK THAT DEAL!

To this day, the guy argues with me that he got the better of the two deals BECAUSE THE SECOND DEALER PAYED OFF HIS MUSTANG IN FULL AND HOW BAD THE LOCAL PLACE IS BECAUSE THEY WOULDN'T GIVE HIM ENOUGH FOR HIS MUSTANG!!!!!

I've given up trying to convince him he took a $3000 beating from the place he bought...

 

You never tell a dealer how much you want your payment to be or how much you want for your trade-in, they will fix the numbers to make it look like what you asked for but will always end up paying more in the long run!!

 

I have never once met a salesman that knew more about a vehicle than I did, and most of them didn't know jack **** about the vehicles they were selling. The guy talking about the CTD probably actually believed it was an 8cyl. I wouldn't doubt that at all, but unless he's a class-3 tard, he knew better about the MPG. I don't think my '03 3.0L Ranger got 25 MPG. I hate stealerships with a burning passion - Especially nowadays where they act like they're doing you some huge favor in financing because of the economy - but I aways get dragged to them by my friends so they don't get ****ed.

 

That's why I take my wife. She tells them how it is or we walk. When I bought my Ram, they gave me a good price on the truck. About 10K under sticker. They also gave me a few hundred more than trade-in value on my 01 F150 4x4 (sight unseen). After all of the paperwork was signed, while they washed up my New Ram, I went home, cleaned out the F150 and drove it back at night to pick up the Ram. Also, after the prices were agreed on, the wife made them throw in a spray-in liner and the Mopar nerf bars. The bars because she was too short to get in the truck
Moral of the story, if you know what you are doing, you can usually get a good deal if the dealer is reputable and you know how to haggle with them. Since then, I bought my wife a Caliber, My dad got a Grand Caravan and my niece got an Avenger from them. Good dealers are hard to find, I am lucky and have one in my area. 4 vehicles from them and all of my service done there, even though there is another dealer a couple miles from the house.