Germain dealerships have a local reputation of being slimey--nevertheless, I saw the type of used car I wanted on their lot, so I thought I would give them a chance. I dealt with two different salesmen and, of course, the mysterious manager in the backroom who OKs deals. First, the salesman did not listen to me when I stated I wanted to test drive a specific car. He wanted me to test drive another car (same model) but which I had told him had the wrong interior color and was lacking cruise control. We test drove it anyway (he acted like it had cruise), then we drove the car I actually wanted. I was more familiar with the model (from online reviews) than the salesman. In the office I made an offer--out of Kelley Blue Book--and the salesman refused to take the offer to the man in the backroom. The offer was low, he said (their asking price was skyhigh), and he was afraid I would change my mind and ask for a still lower price if they said OK (huh?). I dickered with him for about 15 minutes over this, until a second salesman came over and said he'd talk to me. He offered the car to me at the price I'd offered. We shook hands. Where I come from, that's it. Deal. Then he went to talk to the man in the backroom--no deal. Finally we agreed on an OTD price of $12,000, $1,000 more than my original offer. But, when the papers came out to sign guess what? It wasn't OTD anymore, it was the base price, and tax, tags and fees were another $1,000. And *they* had been ""worried"" *I* would change *my* offer? I left. Got the salesman running out the door shouting after me--classic. ""This is stupid!"" he yelled. ""We'll sell the other car [yes, the car I didn't want] for $12,000 OTD!"" Yeah, right. Back in the office the monkey business would have continued. If you want to pay outrageously high prices for used cars, go to Germain. If you want to pay reasonable prices, bargain like normal people, and have sales stick to THEIR offers, go elsewhere and don't waste your time with these clowns.
Pros: none - unless you want an object lesson in how not to sell cars fairly
Cons: salesman not knowledgable, agreed to prices but backed out, used bait-and-switch, rude
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