Beware when trading in at Fitzmall

Brakes, Ah so, that is different!

 

To the OP?

Sorry, but welcome to the real world. That's what most dealerships do...

They know you want a new vehicle, they know you'd rather not bother with selling it yourself. So they can attach any story as to why your trade in isn't worth anything. And on older vehicles...the "wholesale" only- story is a common one.

If you really want value, you are best served selling it yourself private party which can be a pain.
Or you can try acting totally indignant and turning down the deal and threatening and/or going home...sometimes that will cause the dealer to up the ante.
But The Check Engine light gave the dealer good leverage to lowball you. And infact being an older vehicle as a whole gave them good leverage to lowball you.
They aren't going to thoroughly check the vehicle out to discover they should give you more money for it....that's not in their best interest.

I relatively recently traded my 15+ year old vehicle in on a new vehicle. I got the same...it's worthless to us, we'll take it off your hands for basically nothing, trade in value. Could I of sold it myself for more? Certainly. But I wanted/needed a new vehicle and expected that part of the cost/convienence deal, would be not getting full possible value. Especially when a vehicle is a decade or more older.

 

Dealers also have significant costs prepping and liability in selling any high mile used car. A new car dealer will repair or replace any safety related items (brakes, tires etc.) before selling with no guarantee that they will sell the car at retail. A dealer this big probably has a fixed operation expense of several hundred dollars per car before any profit goes in the owners pocket.

Funny how we will buy furniture, jewelry or even bottled water with a 100% or more mark up then complain when a dealer makes a couple of grand on the second biggest purchase in most peoples lives outside of a home purchase.

 

Did they sell your car for $4,000 ? Just because that was the asking price means nothing it depends what they had into the car. Many old used vehicles can be purchased for a couple thousand under the asking price if you wait it out for a couple months, let them recontact you several times the price will drop. Espicially old high milage cars that do not go to the auction and sit on their lot . You must be vigilant and see what has been sitting but that does not help you on a trade in my rule old high milsge i sell newer i trade but know i will take a bath.

 

I'd be surprised if they sell it for more than 2-2,500. But if they do? Good for them. They're not the bad guys, it's just business. If the tranny falls out on the test drive they have nothing. Enjoy your new car and feel good about helping this crappy economy that our childish politicians (red and blue) can't let their egos deal with.

 

So all this because you "suspect" they did not do much work to the car. Your only evidence is the fact that they were able to turn it around quickly - isnt servicing cars quickly part of what they do? If they needed to they could drop a new engine or transmission in the car in a day.

As for your comments - you go beyond reporting the facts and giving your oppinion. Heck - in the title of your post you warn others to beware of Fitzmall.

 

Yes, the OP should have just said screw it to the dealers and sold the car himself. And yes, we all know car dealers are very often dishonest (but not all) and bend the truth to the point where most people would just consider them lies. While they have the right to do so to get the best profit on the sales, I could never condone their tactics. And if someone like the OP falls prey to their shenanigans, s/he has every right to bitch about them, and hopefully, even expose who it is so future customers can proceed with caution or just flat out avoid them.

In this case, assuming the OPs recount of the story is accurate, I'd say the dealer was especially fraudulent when he told the OP they will most likely have to wholesale it, I'm sure they had no intentions of wholesaling it. And to say that 90% of the time the engine light is due to a faulty catalytic converter is baloney, on my old civic, my check engine light would even come on if I drove off forgetting to recap my gas tank!

Yes, shizz like this happens in the real world, but I'm all for trying our best, as informed consumers, to prevent it from happening.

 

All of the people you see working at your local dealer are doing it for free. The person answering the phone, the parts counter crew, the mechanics, the finance person etc. etc. Oh wait, no they don't, they get payroll checks every Friday like the rest of society.

In California 95% of DMV fraud is private party. Stop blaming car dealers for your lack of business sense and being too lazy to sell your trade. If you don't want BS phone calls asking about your car for sale or people not showing up to look at your car, or taking a bad check for your POS 140,000 mile beater, you TRADE it in and move on. 99% of car dealers are honest and making a fair profit and assuming huge potential liability selling your trade that's "perfect".

Your local bank is more fraudulent than most car dealers.

 

Yeah, I don't see a lot of fault of the dealer here.
Personal responsibilty and personal choice.
The OP defined Book Value of his vehicle as being 1,000 in fair condition. Well with 140,000 miles and the Check Engine light on, I'm thinking it was closer to fair condition or worse, than good condition. Even if the check engine light is on for no "bad reason" it's still on, and yes that affects resale value. So 1000 minus the 150? The OP lost $850. Hey, IMO worth it, to not have to bother with trying to sell a 140,000 mile, 14 year old vehicle with a check engine light on.

The fact that the dealership took it, and marked it up and put in on their used lot? So what? It's what they do. Once you agree to a deal, and you sign your car over to the dealership? It becomes theirs. They can wholesale it, mark it up, go out in back and light it on fire...whatever they want to do.

The OP needs to take some personal accountability and responsibilty. He agreed to the deal. If you wanted more for the trade in? Should of said No.

We aren't talking about a newer vehicle with a lot of value here in anycase.

Seriously, last car deal I made with a new car dealer, I traded in my aging 15 year old vehicle. I checked values for local private party resale and best values were 2,000 to 2,500.

I got the same run-around. 15 years old, nearly worthless, they'ed "probably" just take it and wholesale it out...

Of course I didn't believe them. But I made the decision, to either make the deal or not. They offered me $500.

I potentially sacrificed $1500-$2000 just to avoid the hassle of trying to execute a private party sale. Later, I also found my traded in vehicle on their used lot, I think they were trying to get $3000 for it.

Did I care? Did I think the dealership was acting in anyway that most dealerships don't act? No.

It's personal responsibilty. I made the deal I made. I knew the potential value of my trade in...it was MY choice.

Quite simply? That's why they call it a "Trade In" you are trading it in. That means the Dealership get's your vehicle. Once you accept their offer? You get for your vehicle what YOU agreed. And the dealership get's your vehicle, to do with what they wish. Which most often means attempting to sell it for as much as they possibly think they can....

Also keep in mind from the dealership P.O.V.? It's often incumbent upon them, especially on a old high mileage vehicle to make the best deal they can. Because believe it or not? Customers sometime lie to dealerships. I believe the OP was being honest, but people often misrepresent their trade ins...

If I'm evaluating a 140,000 mile vehicle over 10 years old, with the check engine light on? You aren't getting much for it...even if I discover later that it was in better shape than I might of guessed.

 

Yeah, I think the previous two posts have misinterpreted my post quite a bit. I never said the dealer was at fault for the transaction, I even stated a dealer has every right to try and get the best deal for themselves, just like a person selling his used car has every right to try and get the best deal for themselves. And the first line of my post specifically stated the OP could have, and should have, walked away from it. I also agree there are plenty of other fraudulent activities worse than shady car dealers that occur in various walks of business in America (or the world for that matter), and I don't condone those either, and hey, that's life. But, none of that is the point here. I was specifically talking about 2 things the dealer said to the OP which I honestly feel were extremely misleading and my interpretation of them are just short of flat out lying. And if the OP now realizes this after the transaction, he has every right to complain about it and inform the rest of us about it so that if any of us ever goes to Fitzmall, we can proceed with caution or avoid said salesperson all together.

The only thing I don't agree with is that "99% of car dealers are honest." Perhaps your definition of honest is different than mine, but I'd bet that most people who have had more than one or two encounters with car dealers will find that to be an exaggeration. A good number of them bend the truth or just avoid the truth to get sales. I'm not judging them, they can do whatever they want to do to get a deal, but I personally would like to avoid them and help others avoid them.

 

I do not need to look up the definition, I know what it is. All I said was that you post was borderline libel and I said that because you went beyond the facts and the narrative and made the assumption that they were out to screw you from the start and your only evidence was that they were able to turn the car around for sale quickly.

I was simply saying that you were going too far in your assumptions (you do know what they say about what happens when you assume). The fact that you later posted-

leads me to believe that you realize that you went overly negative in your original post and you went back to soften the overall post. That's really the point that I was trying to make.

 

Most people relate buyers regret with getting "screwed". If you don't like the deal as presented don't sign the contract. NO ONE outside of the Sopranos has had a gun held to their head and been forced to buy a car. Do your research, test drive more than once, don't fall in love with any car, it's just a car and if it isn't in writing it never happened and you'll never get it. The only way a dealer can truly be dishonest is if the contract doesn't match the deal and price agreed to and the car isn't the car you agreed to buy (never a problem in 40 years and many cars) What else matters? I'm not big on being a Victim when I control the situation and the buyer controls the situation. If the buyer chooses to give up that control, that's the buyers fault, not the dealer's.

 

Uhhh... I'm not sure why you quoted me when you posted this since I never hinted at anyone putting a gun to the OPs head or him being a victim. "He could have and should have sold the car himself"... again, that was gist of the first line of my first post in this thread. And what's this nonsense about doing MY research and test driving? Was I the one who was complaining about getting a bad deal on a trade in?

I think you're angry at me and dodging the actual point of my posts because I appear to be bashing car salesmen. And I'm not denying that I have some contempt for them, because, unlike you, who has miraculously only come across completely forthcoming car salesman in the span of 40 years, I have come across many that try to hide or work their away around the truth with me; And I have a feeling I'm far from a minority. On top of that, if any other consumers out there have specific stories about the slimier ones to tell (like the OP did), I'd be grateful that they do so, so I and others can avoid any pitfalls those types may impose.

Let me conclude with a true story to further help you understand my point as you seem to be missing it. I bought a car recently and I did weeks of research and eventually found a good deal, but not before I came across 3 not so trustworthy salesman, and what did I do about them? I left the dealership, recounted the shadiness of our interactions to my friends and warned them to not deal with them if they buy a car. When I came across the 4th more upfront salesman, he got my business and I was happy to spread a good word about him.

Did I make my point clear now? If I haven't, then I'm sorry, you're on your own as I'm not going to be contributing to this eyesore of a conversation anymore... I was already on the fence about posting this one!!!

 

OK, bye

 

Everyone should read through New car buying guide, avoiding dealer scams, new cars, used car buying before visiting the dealership. Basically their job is to screw as much money out of the buyer as possible while the buyer's job is to spend as little as possible.

In NJ the old car as described will not pass inspection. Maybe it needs a $5 gas cap. Maybe it needs $2000 worth of parts. I don't know but I wouldn't touch it with a stick.

I've scrapped a car. I've donated a car. I've given a car to a neighbor. After 17 years & 200000+ miles my old Olds can't be worth much but they are worth more to someone else. I'd rather see it go to someone who wants & needs it.

If the OP is looking to settle the score the Customer Satisfaction Survey is still in play.