Buying a Prius

[73ss454]

M. Paquette, Yup car sales people don't like when people say they'll be back. We had a standing joke about the beback line. No one was ever on it. (heh)

[tmm99]

I went with a friend of mine to a used car dealership. My friend wanted a Toyota truck he saw. He was going to pay the down payment with his credit card, and the salesman said they didn't accept credit card payment as a down payment and that it had to be a personal check. My friend said he didn't have his checkbook with him and that he was going home so he could bring the checkbook. I dont' remember exactly how it happend, but we didn't have to leave. The salesman accepted the credit card payment as a down payment after all.

tmm

[Zathras]

72ss454, I apologize if I gave you that impression. It doesn't need to be the fastest. But it does need to be timely. If one dealer processed my order in 35 minutes, and one in 45, I wouldn't quibble.
And yes, price has something to do with it, but often I find little differences in the final price.
If I as a customer feel I am not being respected by the salesperson, or business, that plays a large role in my future purchase decisions.

[Nords]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Andy R I sat there for nearly 1 hour before I got frustrated and got up to find out what was going on. One of the guys said "you are Andy? I have your stuff on my desk". I asked him why he did not get me earlier and he said "I did not know you were out there". Bad customer service so I was frustrated.

Quote:

Originally Posted by 73ss454 Nords, what makes you say it's bad treatment that people have to wait their turn if someone is ahead of them in the process.

I'm just going with Andy's version of events.

[Moemg]

The last car I bought the purchase took under an hour . It was in a Toyota dealership . They also had soda & hot dogs while I waited and once a month they had a free cocktail party for the recent buyers now that's a dealership .

[73ss454]

Yeah, those foreign car stores can be tough, I wouldn't want to spend a whole hour buying a car either.

[Notmuchlonger]

I got popcorn and coke! Sweet deal.

[BUM]

Last (hopefully) new car I bought was a 2002 GMC Envoy. We went to several dealers in a 60 mile radius and said we want a "white one with cloth seats".

Nobody wanted to help, they all wanted to sell us what was on the lot. Then we went to the last guy on our list and he found the SUV on line in the Boston area (300 miles away) and had it on his lot 3 days later. We negotiated the price past my expectation --- SOLD!

Go figure. We still like it 50K miles later.

OBTW, I pass Priusses everyday huffing up the hills.

[samclem]

Quote:

Originally Posted by M Paquette To reassure him we left our old car and keys there, sort of an informal deposit.

I'm glad it worked out in your case, but this can be a risky move, too. Once when my dad was shopping for a car, he gave his current keys to the dealership so they could inspect the car and give him a price for the trade in. Never do that. He was ready to leave, but they gave every salesman a shot at him since he couldn't physically leave without his car. It only ended when he asked to borrow the phone to call the police about his stolen vehicle.

[travelover]

Quote:

Originally Posted by BUM ........... OBTW, I pass Priusses everyday huffing up the hills.

Actually, I doubt the Prius has any trouble with hills.....the drivers are squeezing the last few feet out of a gallon of gas. It is a common misconception that hybrids / electric cars are slow. In fact the opposite is true.

YouTube - Dodge Viper 500 hp Vs Tzero Electric Car

[Bestwifeever]

Quote:

Originally Posted by BUM OBTW, I pass Priusses everyday huffing up the hills.

On the other hand, remember this story from July 2007?

Quote:

Al Gore III, 24, was driving a blue Toyota Prius on the San Diego Freeway at about 100 mph at 2:15 a.m. Wednesday morning when a sheriff's deputy stopped him at the Crown Valley Parkway exit, said Jim Amormino, spokesman for the Orange County Sheriff's Department.

ABC News: Al Gore's Son Arrested Again on Drug Charges

[ziggy29]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bestwifeever On the other hand, remember this story from July 2007? ABC News: Al Gore's Son Arrested Again on Drug Charges

"Son, I'm proud of you for getting busted in a Prius and not a Hummer..."

[Nords]

Quote:

Originally Posted by samclem ... he gave his current keys to the dealership so they could inspect the car and give him a price for the trade in. Never do that. He was ready to leave, but they gave every salesman a shot at him since he couldn't physically leave without his car. It only ended when he asked to borrow the phone to call the police about his stolen vehicle.

I carry a spare key in my wallet, but I haven't figured out how to do that with a spare fob. Lots of discussion on PriusChat about where to hide a spare fob, and no doubt the best ideas are faithfully noted by the professionals.

[kyounge1956]

Quote:

Originally Posted by travelover Actually, I doubt the Prius has any trouble with hills (snip)

Mine sure doesn't, and there are enough hills around here that I'd know by now if it did. Now my old car, a 1980 Toyota Tercel with 1.4 liters of four-cylinder excitement....that car had a problem with hills.

[Frugality_of_Apathy]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nords I carry a spare key in my wallet, but I haven't figured out how to do that with a spare fob. Lots of discussion on PriusChat about where to hide a spare fob, and no doubt the best ideas are faithfully noted by the professionals.

necklace?

swallow it?

[Rustic23]

Andy,
In Texas the Vehicle Inventory Tax is not calculated on the year end inventory. It is calculated on the previous year sales figure and then most dealers apply it to sales next year. As they have collected the tax from every sale during the year, and paid it to the tax man, there would be little incentive to deal based on this tax. However, they may use it as an excuse to advertise and get you into the dealer.

[Jeb-NY]

I actually like the negotiation part of buying a car, but do hate the repeated long trips for approval from above, which I understand are long on purpose.

One such negotiation after the 3rd or 4th long delay while a current offer was being discussed with "The Manager" I had the wife call the next closest dealer to inquire about what they had on the lot. They had 3 cars that met our requirements. The salesman came back and asked what was going on since we were both standing by the door at that point waiting for him. I told him we were buying a car today and were running out of time, that my wife was talking to XXXX and they had what we wanted also. He had our final offer did he want to sell us a car. My wife was actually pushing on the door. My final offer was magically accepted.

By the way it was a fair offer we were not trying to ring the last dollar out of the dealer. It was a left over that was going to be soon 2 model years old, that they had been using as a loaner and it had 7000 miles on it, we could have bought the same car from the other dealer with 15000 miles as a turned in lease car for a little less that we were offering.

Jeb

[ziggy29]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jeb-NY I actually like the negotiation part of buying a car, but do hate the repeated long trips for approval from above, which I understand are long on purpose.

It's the "on purpose" part that bugs the bejeezers out of me. If it takes a while it takes a while -- it's a huge purchase; you might as well take the extra time to get it right -- but the addition of unnecessary wait times is irritating.

[73ss454]

On Purpose, no such thing. After 35 years I've never heard of trying to delay a sale. Do you think that a salesperson making about $50 to $75 to sell you a car want's to spend the whole day with you. The salesperson has no say on what the car will sell for. In most cases they don't even know the actual dealer cost after rebates and programs with money back to the dealer from the manufacturer.

[ERD50]

Quote:

Originally Posted by 73ss454 The salesperson has no say on what the car will sell for. In most cases they don't even know the actual dealer cost after rebates and programs with money back to the dealer from the manufacturer.

So, what *do* they know? They must have some guideline other than "get the most you can from the customer", and then check with me to see if I'll OK it ( the infamous - 'let me run this by my manager')? Seems to me if they don't have a a target, they would have no idea where/when to stop the haggling and would be wasting their own time. For example, if the last hour of haggling was spent debating a price that was $500 below what the manager would authorize, that was all wasted time on both side.

Not adding up for me, maybe I'm missing something? Or maybe I'm better understanding why this industry is in trouble?

Was Saturn's no-haggle policy a success in any measurable way?

-ERD50