New technology and old tactics have made buying a car a death march of deception

Dealerships should not exist and only exist due to terrible laws making it illegal for most automakers to sell direct. And there is a reason the dealer lobby has fought Tesla's direct selling model tooth and nail.

My rule when buying a car from a dealer is refuse everything they try to sell you. They will basically hold you hostage up to and including telling you that you are being foolish and irresponsible for refusing warranties and gap insurance and whatever else. (I even have had them take my wife aside to tell her how irresponsible I was being). But you have to ride it out.

The dealerships are just an arms length b*ch of the automaker

Just remember these simple things when buying a car at a dealership

1. Don’t play 4 square, cut to the chase. If they ask if youre paying cash or financing say you are open to either option, but focus on the bottom dollar

2. Whoever you’re talking to is not the person you’re negotiating with, they are just a front. This is the case with most retail sales including windows, flooring, siding, and curtains. The first time the guy pauses and has to ask or talk to a manager is the first time you’ve actually negotiated anything. The first time they “ask their manager” they might just go for coffee. Don’t just accept that they leave their office to talk to the manager, watch where they go. Find a reason for them to leave the room at least 3 times.

3. Even if you don’t think you are you’re going to end up in “the box” it’s harder to say no to a female statically so you may end up with a woman. Don’t be hung up on gender, ask questions, don’t get bullied. If your question doesn’t get answered, don’t move to the next topic.

4. Just watch the movie “Used Cars” it’s fun. Do not think it’s all a joke

5. In the words of “Casino” (1995) . It’s all been arranged to get your money.

I've bought a few cars at dealerships. The first time I was pretty young and got pressured into buying an extended warranty, but that was the first and last time.

You are the buyer, you ultimately are in control because you are the one paying for the car. You can buy a car for a fair price at a dealer, but you have to have a strategy and understand who you are dealing with, or you will get played like a fiddle. Walking out is your superpower. If they pressure you to sign a "statement of commitment" to buy a car, or if they ask you to sign anything that's not the actual sales contract for the specific vehicle you are buying, walk out. If they say you can't see the contract before you sign it, walk out. Do not sign anything until you've gotten your final deal in place, and do not sign if they then try to change something. Get up and head for the door. At that point they are as vested in the sale as you are. The salesman is already thinking about what his commission will be.

Many states have a 48 or 72 hour "buyers remorse" law where you can unwind a car purchase even after you've signed the contract. Find out if you have that and understand how it works.

Do not fall in love with a car. It's a car. There are thousands of others for sale right now. If you can't make a deal on this one, there are many other cars and many other dealers.

I don't buy cars at dealers anymore. I'm just not willing to sit through the lies, bullshit, and games, even when I know it's coming. I buy from private sellers, and pay cash. Some of the cars have been better than others, but they have all been far better deals in terms of total costs during the time I've owned them than any new car has been.

I'd love to know how many of these selling techniques get exported overseas. I'm non US resident, I think quite a few because when we got our prior car we had a very heavy sell on post-price extras from "another company" which appears to be a sub lease in the same dealer, making vig on the special car finish coatings and window tinting.

Finance lies at the heart of this. I am sure a savvy cash buyer, or one using a bank loan pre approved not through the car company can do better but the point of the article is they know how to exploit young, naieve and keen buyers. People who don't have that cash, or pre-approval, and who will believe a trusting, smiling, wide eyed adult.

Net present value and delayed gratification/cost are a thing. We're chimps. We want the two bananas now, not a banana tree for life.

Another option is to go to your banking institution and ask them how much they will loan you to purchase a car. After telling the dealership you absolutely won't use whatever financing they are offering, have them write up a cost sheet of the vehicle you're interested in and tell them you will show this to your bank. This will usually do one of two things: the dealership now knows you have a bank behind you who is looking out for your interests. (If they're not, change banks!) And it gives you an opportunity to get a possible better interest rate from your bank, who will surely want your business.

The cost sheet also makes then spell out exactly what the cost and the extras are on the vehicle.

CarMax / Carvana earn money on promising and delivering a better buying experience. They have other issues (such as missing simple maintenance items and overpricing their extended warranties) but the buying process is shockingly straightforward and upsell free.

None of the last several cars I owned were from a regular dealership buy. One was a private sale. One was an ex-rental, bought from the rental company's sales division. And the last one was from CarMax. Of course, the price was right every time to seal the deal, but articles like these certainly did influence my choice.

My best car buying experiences were when I was an employee of a car company, and could buy any car built by that company at a price they designated (a pretty small amount over the cost to build it). The company designated a dealer to go to, and I would walk in with a certified loan draft from my credit union, and walk out with the car. One dealer did try to sell me alternate financing, but I just said no.

I'm so glad I don't have to deal with this crap for my last two Teslas. My previous Tesla was a purely online order due to Covid, but when I went in for a lease on the Tesla before that, I had a zero-pressure sale where the salesrep just put me in front of a computer and walked me through the website. It was the most efficient car sale I've ever been a part of. The closest I've ever felt to being pressured by Tesla was the fact that they have limited sales at the end of each quarter where you need to take delivery by the end of the month to get the perks. But if you know this beforehand, you can use to it your advantage and only buy Teslas at the end of the quarter.

Regardless of what you think of Tesla, the old car cartels need to die because of how anti-consumer they are.

I think it’s worth noting that the CARS rule mentioned in the article is almost certainly going to get tossed now that Chevron has been replaced.

Basically anytime you see an agency rule being used to enforce something now you should presume it wont hold up in at least one federal district.

This makes my blood boil. The part about having to gear up for war before you walk in the door of a dealership resonated with me.

I recently bought a car of carvana it was a mixed experience. On one side it was fantastic to have an upfront price, click a few buttons and be done with it. It. But on the other side when I got to see the car in person it was not in very good shape and things were wrong that they did not show me on the website. In fact is in the shop right now for mechanical issues. I would completely ignore their 150 point inspection. It's a joke. Be fully prepared to refuse the car and to select a different car. Pay close attention to shipping fees as well.

5/10 experience and still better than a dealership.

In the market for a new car and our experience at four dealerships has forced us to choose between Rivian or Tesla, simply because of its DTC model (and, importantly, shipping better EVs).

Just can't stomach driving to the dealership for routine maintenance, having to deal with such a predatory culture.

I wonder if traditional auto cos are aware of the opportunity cost of dealerships. The cost is growing

It’s just a fact that in the US that any item over a particular cost is not a fixed cost item. There’s always room for negotiation. It’s not awesome for those bad at haggling but it is what it is and it’s not limited to cars.

I bought my last car by emailing half a dozen car dealerships in my area about specific cars they had on lot. I told them I was looking to buy it within a week if the price was right and asked for the “out the door” price.

Some tried to play the typical games but several gave me a really good price right off the bat. I ended up paying about 12% under MSRP without having to haggle. I arranged a pick up time, showed up, filled out the paperwork, paid the agreed upon price and was out of the dealership in about an hour.

All I hope is that by the next time I need my next car dealerships still do business through email.

I really, really don't like to be conspiratorial, but I think the only explanation of why there isn't some sort of "negotiating large purchases" class in school is because our economy needs some amount of suckers at some level.

I mean, it's hard to argue with the common refrain "when am I ever going to use calculus?" that you often hear from high school kids, but then nearly everyone in the US buys a car at some point and there is no simple guidance or courses for that. Why can't schools have a short class that teaches:

1. Never sign something without reading it first. It's scary to me how many sales situations (e.g. a gym membership, house closing, etc.) give you stacks of paper with the implicit (or not so implicit) understanding that "nobody actually reads all this".

2. Understanding who is on your side and who isn't, legally.

3. Understanding common negotiating and pressure tactics.

etc.

Seems like a course in these important life skills could be done in a couple hours at most yet most of us only learn these lessons if we have family members who teach them to us.

This is interesting and also an inadvertent ad for Tesla. When my wife bought a Model Y in 2021, she ordered it online and the price was the price.

Turns out we probably should've gotten something else at that particular juncture due to life circumstances, but the process itself was painless.

I bought once from a Toyota dealership and later realized how bad of a financial decision it was.

Never financing from dealership again.

I’ve always (meaning since my first car in 1990) bought new cars through car brokers. You hire someone who knows the industry intimately to go deal with the dealers for you.

We bought a van recently. It arrived with no weird extras, at a price that seemed fair, and we never even talked to a dealer (I researched models online). She charged us about $400 for the broker service and we picked up the van at her office.

It seems like it’s just the dealer financing that forces you into this murky slimy world of dealer sales departments.

My recent visit to a BMW dealership (for parts for an old car) was so awful. Every aspect of the dealership feels scummy. The coffee machine "lounge", the shiny cars, the branded "merch", the sales staff, the "service department" layout. It's just a creepy experience at every step. I have never bought a new car (although I have bought used, from a few dealerships) and honestly I am not sure I ever would.

TIL: dealership mafia paid for Trump’s $175 million bond in return for future favors.

Trump has immunity for “presidential actions” as ruled by his friends at Supreme Court.

Dealerships got in law that consumer protection cannot regulate them.

Supreme Court ruled that favor done after cannot be called “corruption” and is “gratuity”.

We mock Russia, but corruption also runs deep in US at the highest levels.