Sport Hyundai does what most car dealerships do because they want to maximize profits. I had an in-hand internet quote from a Sport Hyundai sales rep. When I stopped in, he was unavailable so his partner took up the sale. Lo and behold, the cost of the car was now higher than in the quote they had sent me. The advertising costs had to be tacked on now, so I was told.
I also had a detailed bid from the AAA new car buying program with a lower price than Sport Hyundai offered me but the sales rep dismissed it because "the AAA bid does not give you every detail needed for comparing the two cars". Really,it does.
He also implied that if you buy the car from the dealership, you tend to get better treatment in the parts and repair departments there. Really? How? A discount? Nope. I go to the front of the line? Nope?
We went over the car invoice, and after we got the price back down to the original internet quote, I mentioned my trade in. Well the internet sales rep got a bit red in the face about that--I guess I was supposed to be a fool and mention it in advance so he could factor it in and up the new car price. Anyway, after giving me a long and dirty look and implying I was dealing from the bottom of the deck, he tossed us off to a floor sales rep.
The floor sales rep had a couple of tricks too. Get this: after we worked out a deal he casually mentioned that this new car had 125 miles on it because they "must have gotten it from another dealership". Did I mind that? Darn right I did!
After he took my trade to the maintenance folks for a quick check over I showed the sales rep the KKB and NADA trade in values for our car. He dismissed them and gave us a real low ball offer on our trade-in because he suspected "something is wrong with your transmission". There wasn't.
Go prepared: do your homework on prices and other brands, learn how to play the new car game (its all on the web), bring a notebook and calculator, be prepared for a potentially tense experience, and don't rush. Sleep on it too.
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