Was on a waiting list for a Prius. Salesman and I agreed on an out the door price, etc. He put it in writing. I get a call telling me the car is in. I get there, and the salesman pulls the old bait and switch. Car will cost me $700 more than we agreed upon. I call him a lying #@*%&, and he takes me to the Sales Manager who is about as slimy an individual as I've ever met. He tells me any deal the salesman makes is not binding without his approval, and he's not going to approve the original deal, so take it or leave it. I walk out. I send a letter to the General Manager of the dealership and Toyota's corporate office, detailing salesman's dishonest practice and I include the document promising me the original price. Long story short, corporate gets on the dealership who calls me and tells me they will get me my car and my price. And they did! A miracle! But I'm still so poisoned by the experience I will never buy from that dealership again. By the way, sold my '07 at a thousand more than I paid for it, to buy the '08 for the same price. Neat.
ALL Sales negotiations are approved by the Sales Manager, there would be NO LEAVING the dealership with a sales order if it wasn't, they were just trying to get more money, and thats all.
What dealership was it, and who were the sales person and manager you dealt with? You may save someone from having to go through the same experience...
Why did you replace your 2007 with a 2008? I'm just curious as to why anyone even think about replacing a car with the identical model just one year newer.
>> Why did you replace your 2007 with a 2008? Why not ifs its $0 & the old one wasn't customized (do people form some kind of emotional bond with their motor vehicle) ?
Well, I did the exact same thing - sold my 2007 this March for a new 2008. Except in my case I sold my Prius for way above KBB value (thanks to the CA HOV stickers) so that when I moved to Colorado I was able to get a new one out the door for almost nothing out of pocket. I basically traded a 31K '07 for a zero-time '08...so no complaints
I would love to be able to do that in CA, but the taxes and fees you lose by selling and rebuying mean you'd have to sell for $3K to $3.5K above MSRP just to break even.
Sorry you had to go thru all that, but i'm not surprised...its a hot item and dealers will gouge you to death. Lucky you had all the paperwork and the perseverence to go above to corporate. I probably would have been soooo turned off, and bought a Honda!!
Hello, I'm with Bloomberg TV and was reading your story about you selling your Prius for above MSRP because of your HOV stickers. I'm doing a story on people trying to profit from their used Priuses and wondering if you might be able to connect me with the person you sold to? Also, would you be willing to share more of your story with me? If yes, please give me a call at 212 617 1822 or email me at [email protected] . Since it's the weekend, I'm also available at 310 350 6331. Thanks so much and I hope to hear from you soon. Zahra Burton
I'm much more inclined to deal with a fleet manager in buying a car, the one with their own office away from the showroom. I try to stay away from transient floor salespeople and certainly don't want to get into the back and forth game between them and a floor sales manager.
