Super, super smooth experience at Sewell Subaru in Dallas when I got my new '22 BRZ. From the ordering to the delivery to the few maintenance stops I did, totally painless.

Still miss the BRZ. What a great and fun car both around town and on the track. Bigger and faster is not necessarily better.

 

A lot of people have that same sentiment about bigger/faster cars vs light / nimble cars.

 

Yeah I've driven a fair amount of cars that are more expensive, powerful, faster, etc. and in a good amount of cases I personally find more joy driving the BRZ/S2000/Miata type vehicles. I still think about my old S2000 a good amount, part of the reason why I still browse around S2ki.

 

Similar experience when I was buying a C6 Z51. Had a GM certificate. Purchase price, trade in value on my AP2, finance rate, all agreed upon. When I get there to do just the paperwork as everything had been negotiated prior, the sales/finance clown asked for my permission to record the whole transaction on video. I instantly said no. Well then he says after.. they will not take the GM certificate, upped the price of the Vette, lowered my trade in value and upped the APR on the loan. This was a new C6 with Z51 as the only option package. Deal had been done prior. Paperwork was just a logistical thing. Had already done credit app with GM, everything was done. Even had a printed off sheet, a copy, of the deal on me that was agreed upon and signed off on. This clown tried every trick in the book. I just laughed at him. Typical big ol’ double patty eating mafk sales guy. Once I had enough I told him f this, get my car I’m out of here. He then says that is not going to happen as it’s already with their used sales dept being prepped for sale and how they’ve already spent money on it. I casually take out my phone, press 911, and tell him, that’s fine you can explain it to the PD as you are committing felony theft. You don’t have my signature on anything but the original deal. They’ll love your fat ass in the jail. Guy turned blood red and scurried off. I get up and I’m back on the sales floor looking out the window when some manager type guy comes over to me to “handle” me. I showed him their sales sheet, which had all the numbers. I explain you know if you had tried one thing, but you had him try 4. Save it for a sucker dude. I’m not buying shit from you, or this dealership and my home is here so you lost my business permanently. If there is a scratch on my car I’ll be calling the PD and you can deal with the Police report for damages. Oh those boys were pissed because at that point there was nothing they could say. My car that couldn’t be returned magically appeared before my eyes within 2 minutes.

Now all my local dealers are like this, each being bought out by a bigger dealer group. It’s been fun to go into each for my last 2 purchases, f with them, and walk. 2023, I purchased out of state. Flew in, they picked me up at the airport. Had done what I asked and not cleaned it. PDI required stuff but no washing it. I signed a single piece of paper, a sales sheet, and got handed the key fobs. Handled paperwork at the CU a few days later when I was home. 2 weeks ago bought a new DD, and bought it from a dealer 3 hours away and it was easy as well. 2 phone calls, e-docs, and they delivered to my door for $250. I’ve always loved the negotiation process and have routinely got invoice or lower. But this space has gotten way out of hand. 2019 it took me 3 months to break a dealer to buy my truck. I bought at invoice and I refused to pay their stealer add on tint, wheel locks, pinstripes, lo-jack and whatever else they added. 3 months of me saying no and not budging a penny. They finally broke but the finance guy threw every trick in the book and got angry and upset when I wouldn’t budge. I wasn’t going for packages, whee/tire, service agreement, extended warranty and whatever else bs he tried. He said “You aren’t going to let us make any money on this” angrily. I simply said if you don’t want to accept my terms all good I’m ready to leave. Guy acted like I had insulted his family and ancestors. High pressure sales must work on lots of people. And this space is nothing compared to contractors to do stuff on the house. Contractors make car salesmen look like saints.

 

That is terrible re holding your trade in - thats nuts
Have dealt with similar dealers but not quite as aggressive/bad
And plumbers....HVAC guys, ugh.
Honesty & trust is worth 100%

 

Wow that's nuts. What a nightmare.

When I was shopping during the COVID market, many times I heard dealerships said that they are a "no-markup" dealership but also proceed to have all of this add-on bs like tint, ceramic coat, nitrogen filled tires (lol), lojack, etc. Instant nope for me.

And stuff like window tint and ceramic coat can be done by an independent shop for cheaper along with better quality work done and products used.

 

Tommy, who was the dealer that tried to hold your trade-in on the C6? That is a wild story.

My closest similar story was Texas Toyota in Grapevine, TX. Trying to buy a new 4Runner back in the early 2000's for my gf. Work a deal on the phone, email, ready to go, gf even does a credit app and emails it to them. Show up, they say that sales guy isn't available and put me with a new one and we start from scratch. I tell them, no, no, we already have all the numbers. Back and forth, they even pull out the 4 square sheet and all that kinds of crap. I'm getting pissed fast and they have her Camry trade and they then ask my gf to fill out another credit app as they 'misplaced' the first one. As she's filling it out, I realize if they really misplaced it, it has a ton of confidential info on it and I start getting really pissed and ask them to find the first credit app starting to yell.

They keep playing games and we tell them we are leaving and to get the keys to the Camry. They said they can't find those either and I literally start yelling loudly in their main showroom. So much so, several sales guys and managers walk over. Like 6 of these dudes circling around me as I'm losing my sh*t. A minute or so later, the Camry keys magically appear and we burn rubber out of that place. F Texas Toyota in Grapevine forever. Bunch of scum bags.

Now, I do everyone remote and electronic and have e-docs signed or at least sales sheet and multiple emails agreeing to all terms. I luckily pay 'cash' too so I am in and out of finance in like 4 minutes after firmly declining everything and showing them the ONE check I already filled out with the agreed out the door pricing. Sometimes they get cranky and ask how I already got the OTD price and I said the salesman gave me the sheet. They then know they can't add anything as I have one pre-filled check. Otherwise I walk. Last several deals have been easy luckily.

 

If they put tint on it, that actually costs me money! I have to have the bs removed as it’s always metallic and metallic is no good for using a radar detector and I use one in my cages and even on my bikes. It actually reduces range. I use ceramic tint. I’m with you, I’m not paying for metallic tint, nitrogen, lojack, none of it. That’s bs dealer add on stuff, and whatever the crap costs, they charge the customer double/triple for it. More padding in addition to all the packages they try to stick you with. On my truck I had to pay my own money to remove the tint to reapply ceramic. I had to have my PPF/ceramic coating guy carefully remove the pinstripes prior to PPF/ceramic installation and they made him nervous so I had to sign off on paint risk, as in they will do their best but “if” pinstripe removal causes any paint damage I’m responsible, not them. Thank God they were able to steam them off or something. The wheel locks they tried to make me pay for went into the trash as I use aftermarket wheels (much lighter too, to decrease unsprung mass) and aftermarket lugs. You know my truck isn’t some 100k super truck, but IDGAF if this stuff is on a sport car, a truck, or a bs commuter. It’s irrelevant to me. It’s the principle. It’s so infuriating. I make an out of state purchase and catch the vehicle on a semi, it’s so much easier to have them not touch it. Don’t install anything on it, don’t wash it, don’t drill the front plate, nothing. Just whatever required PDI you have to do. Once they wash it, it’s swirl marks that cost me more to remove during paint correction. Better to get them not even to touch the paint. Let it be dusty, don’t care. If they drill the front plate I have to buy a new bumper. I use tow hook mounts as my future residence is in a state that does not require front license plates.
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I’m sent you a PM so you know which stealer. I’d post the stealer but it would dime out my residence.

I don’t do 100% check. But I will do 50% down, always 5 figures down minimum. I don’t like big car payments. The last out of state purchase I did and mentioned above, wow. One page to sign only, one signature. No initialing here and there and blah. Just my signature on a sales sheet. I had a check for 50% of the vehicle ready and when he handed me the key fobs he asked about it. He said he/they didn’t care if I wrote the 50% down to them or my credit union. Since he and the stealer were being completely fair (what I bought was going for $10k-20k ADM, and I bought at MSRP) with everything I said well you are giving me this car before the paperwork is even completed and letting me drive off in it so the least I can do is write your dealer the 50% check and did. I felt like it was the olden days. You know where each party is honest and forthright. A handshake and trust. 2017, when I bought a new RS, it was much the same from a country dealer. He had sent a porter 1.5 hours to pick me up and I had asked the salesman what if I don’t like the car? He said the porter would wait, and take me back then. Well I loved the car and he went inside the fleet dealer, grabbed the fobs, gave them to me, and said enjoy, we’ll handle the paperwork with your credit union tomorrow. Same deal I said well if you are giving me the car, I’ll give you the 5 figure down payment.

But for every good ol’ boy positive buying experience we all have equally nightmare scenarios. My recent purchase was equally as nice. 2 phone calls to the same saleswoman. She was extremely knowledgeable to the point we were bs’ing about her and my trackdays and this gal had a built out turbocharged FRS for trackdays for years. Just no bs whatsoever. Some e-docs, and that’s it. Simple. That square deal, the 4 squares and “what do you want your payment to be”..I always grab it from them like I’m going to fill it out, then I wrinkle it up and throw it in the trash in front of them. I’m not alone here in saying that many of us could easily transition to car sales and be mesmerizing at it as we’d know every trim, option, etc of everything on the lot. I know we could stack sales but unfortunately not many of us would want to be the predatory F’er and get paid to just screw people over for a living. I couldn’t do that which is why the dealer sales people more often than not are sleazebags who have sought out the job they have.

 

Dealership experience really does make a difference. I'm glad now that almost all dealers now have an online sales person who understands that they're pretty much bidding for your business, that they're selling an available commodity, so the transaction is usually way more straight forward which I appreciate.

 

Dealerships have gotten so bad that the easiest way for buying most new cars I just recommend using a car buying service like truecar. It's quite literally zero hassle and everything gets determined ahead of time. Dealerships don't screw with car buying services like they do general people as things have to be spelled out. Some people may argue they can get the car $500-$1k cheaper negotiating with the dealer, and while that might be true, it's a gigantic waste of time and that small price is worth the zero headaches. Of course for "special" cars this obviously can't be done, but for most people it's an easy choice.