Sales Person Integrity Poll. Do you Trust your Toyota Salesperson? Why?

When I spoke with my salesman I mentioned that there was 0% loans available for the Prius but not for the Prius v.
He said he understood it that way, but he would ask. The back room guy said no, we had the credit rating to get 0%.

When we got to that part of the process, suddenly 3.99% pops out. Everyone consults with everyone else, and they lower it to 2.99% I paid off the loan in 6 months*, not 5 years, so it was not that large a deal for me, but I never had a good feel about who was on first. What is the point to all those layers of back room if they are all in error? In my case the sales man was the most honest, he said he didn't know.

*Took a while for insurance, then tax returns. To be honest, I should have kept the car debt and applied the cash to the mortgage at 3.5% but the wife wanted something paid off, and I can't quite pay the entire mortgage this year.

 

I talked to some stereotypical dirtbags before I bought my car but I didn't buy from them.

In retrospect was the Sales Person honest? Yes

Did they have integrity? Yes

Do you feel you got a good deal? Yes, within a couple of hundred dollars of the best available price in my area at the time. The best price in my area was from a dealer with a reputation as a douchebag.

In general do you trust Salespeople? Hell No!

Comments invited.

The are some honest, competent sales people out there but you usually have to look for them, they are a small minority.

 

I've heard that described as psychic interest. Sometimes it feels so good to pay something off that it's worth paying off even if it does cost a bit more in the long run.

 

My salesman was awesome for my Tundra, both Prii, and the Ram 1500. The Nissan dealer with the Infiniti was shady and the Mitsubishi dealer was a dirtbag. When I bought my 2011 Prius the salesman was nice and honest although not very knowledgable about his product which is pretty typical even for some of the "specialists"

 

Keeping her happy is more important than mere money.

 

Salespeople are usually OK, but watch out for the finance guy.

 

My first dealings with my local Toyota salespeople in 2007 was a disaster. I paid a $500 non-refundable downpayment on a car within the SET pipeline. The car they brought in did not even fit the description on the downpayment form and the sales got so convoluted that I finally had the sales manager admit their mistakes and refund my "non-refundable" downpayment. I walked away and bought my wife a Honda Accord.

I found the 2010 model that I wanted in the pipeline to a dealership in Fayetteville, NC about 100 miles away. I found the sales staff there very professional and honest. Everything that I was told when I made the downpayment was exactly what was on the final papers that I signed when the car arrived. They even had an Electronics Specialist that spent over an hour with my wife and I pairing phones and reveiwing every feature on the car.

So, as others have said, there are some honest sales people with integrity but you really have to search them out. I have found that there are more that are not honest than those that are. Very unfortunate.

 

There is a an article (now pretty old) about a journalist that went deep undercover for a long time as a car salesman. Learned the ins and out and what it takes to sell to different people. Read those lengthy but detailed articles and use it as bias based on other experiences and you will the majority are sleeze. Even the ones who pretend to be nice but it is the finance manager who is mean are generally lying. Reminds me of the Cheers episodes where Norm invents Mr. Kritzer who is mean and even labels an alleyway exit as his office. Norm is the nice guy but takes "orders" from this fictitious guy he creates who gets all the blame and makes you sympathize with the nice guy.

Having said that, there were 2 very nice sales people at the Lexus dealership we always buy from. They are genuinely nice because they make a crap-ton of commission so they don't need to make quotas every week and push things. You can't push a $80K car. In the lower end range I have heard a lot of bull. I just take it with a smile knowing they're either honest and idiots, or shady and trying to rip me off and tell them I will do it later.

 

Yes, am on first name terms with tham and we bought another new Toyota off them.

 

Hence why I always use my Credit Union for my Auto Loans. I get great rates (never 0%) but they are awesome to deal with.

 

One dealer tried to sell me a service package; saying it costs less if you add this amount to your monthly payment for all the maintenance services of the next 3 years.
Yeah? "sure it costs less, not only I am paying in advance for things that I may never use + financing", NO!

 

I find that being an informed consumer tends to repel the stereotypical car dealer. Greedy can be good though; or as I like to think of them -- "motivated."

 

I don't remember, the last new car I bought was in 1988. Lol

 

I trusted my rep with the financials- when I picked up the car the bottom line was within $10 of his quote.
As far as knowledge about the PIP is concerned- he was pretty much clueless.

 

I've reached the age where I can careless about the salesman or the dealer. At the end of the process, it is what is written on paper that matters, not what comes out of the mouth. Knowing that, I use EVERY competitive advantage of internet, e-mail, dealer visits, etc. I have found that a few car buying services can be fantastic at finding the best deal and bypassing 90% of the useless jabber.

Car dealerships have developed every technique available to squeeze money out of consumers. Smart consumers now have tools available to them to prevent being squeezed. If you learn how to buy a car correctly, then the salesman is pretty much bypassed.

 

No. He did have some key points of the Prius down. But I still got some sales bullshit when it came to choosing between two local dealerships (I didn't really have time to shop around).

Also, I paid cash for both of our cars and made it clear I didn't want extended warranties so fortunately I didn't have to deal with any of the financial tricks.

I don't like car dealerships. I don't like car salesmen. It's a horrible business with a horrible business model that would already be changing if horrible laws weren't getting in the way.

 

+2 on the credit union. 1.99% on new and used cars.

In general, I always know more about the car I'm looking/buying than the salespeople.

Further, I usually end up frustrating the finance dept. because they can't find a way to turn the screws on me.

I recognize that sales people need to eat too, but as mentioned above, finding an honest one with integrity is an anomaly, not the norm.