We went to Auction Direct because they had the car we wanted. It was reasonably priced at $19,200. We were ready to buy it and commit to the payments but first wanted to review a breakdown of the total cost. He kept emphasizing the monthly payments as means to avoid the question until we insisted he show us the breakdown. I guess we shouldn't have been shocked when the total price with all their fees - including charges for items that would be included elsewhere such as washing and cleaning, document fees, and other unknown fees - came out to almost $25,500!!! Over $6,000 more than the price on the sticker!! Obviously you pay tax and title so we were expecting around $2,000 but $6,000!! That is absolutely ridiculous!
They seem to use a ""beat around the bush"" sales tactic. Instead of answering our questions they gave us vague answers that only kind of answered the questions we were asking. This happened several times while we were there: when we asked for pricing breakdown, when we asked what kind of financing rates they were offering we got ""our rates are very competitive with local banks,"" and in the end when we decided we wanted our deposit back they conveniently couldn’t find the women who had to write us the check (we put cash down, why couldn’t they just give us cash back??)
You should also be aware that the prices on the cars are not the actual price because it does not include the commission they make off the vehicle which in our case was an additional $400. Ohhh wait they don’t work on commission – not completely true!! Even though they don’t get a percentage of what they sell, they still make money off the sale which leads right into my final point…Their no pressure sales pitch… it seemed that way at first but once we put down our deposit it was nothing but intense pressure to get us in the door to sign the papers.
After successfully dodging their sneaky tactics we found a similar vehicle at a dealership that was straightforward with their pricing, financing, and breakdown of total cost.
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