sp8ball
New member
I know that some of you have had some bad experiences with shady dealers (and good experiences with honest dealers!), and I was wondering if any of you took it to the Regional or National level to report them. Perhaps I'm naive to think that they'd care...or maybe the Regional Offices can do something to curb the behavior.
My situation is this:
My Uncle and I have both been in the market for a Gen 5 4Runner since the new body styles came out in September of 2009. Neither of us was in a rush, per se, so we have been waiting and watching the monthly Toyota promotions to see if they were ever eligible for 0% financing. (hint: they never have been)
In the meantime, I've been using zag.com's building and pricing tools to find really good prices honored by local dealers. Many of them are inline with the better prices I've seen reported on this forum. I figured that I'd contact these dealers to lock in the price of the vehicle (I have), and then come back and purchase the vehicle when a good financing deal was offered.
My uncle got impatient, and started calling some local dealerships to see what kind of deal they might offer us as a "2-car buy". He lives in Delaware, and I live in the NE suburbs of Baltimore, MD.
A dealer in SW Baltimore - Russel Toyota - had a salesperson talk to the sales manager, and then tell my Uncle "yes, I can do 0% for you guys."
I smelled something fishy, so I went on their website, and saw that they had an inventory of 27 new 2011 4Runners. All of them had special "Buy it Now" internet prices that were often $4-5k below MSRP. See them for yourself at Russel Toyota's website. (Baltimore Toyota | Russel Toyota Scion Dealer: serving Ellicott City, Catonsville, Columbia, Baltimore, Maryland| Maryland Toyota)
I followed up my Uncle's phone call with one of my own, and specifically asked, "0% for 60 months on 2011 4Runners?" The answer was yes. I then asked, "and you'll honor the internet pricing?" The answer was yes. I asked these questions again, in a slightly different way, and was told the answer was yes.
So my uncle drove down from Delaware, met up with me on his way, and we made the 45-minute drive to the dealer, dragging along my wife (the decision maker), and my 12-day old son (because my wife is his food supply, so he has to be with us).
We get there, spend 90-120 minutes going over inventory and sitting and examining the 27 cars, and I pick two 4Runners I'm interested in buying.
Then the nonsense starts.
They then tell me that they won't honor the super-low internet price with 0% financing (even though I asked - again - upon our arrival to make sure I wasn't wasting our time). I got up and left, immediately.
Then they called me back and tried to repackage it by telling me that it was a big misunderstanding. NOW...I can have 0% financing if - get this - I pay $11000 down and then finance the remaining $30,000 at 0%! One problem...the car cost $38,000. And 11,000 + 30,000 = $41,000.
Why? The sales manager tried to quickly show me some numbers that showed $3000+ in interest charges in addition to 20% down. Then the remaining balance of $30k (after $3000+ in interest charges and $8000 in down payment on a $38K Limited) would be interest free!!
I'm pretty sure that 0% financing doesn't come with $3000+ in interest charges.
This was a blatant case of (a) lying to get me into the showroom, and (b) playing a shell game with the prices of the cars and the interest charges. Unfortunately, my mother-in-law (an accountant) and I (a project manager for multi-million dollar defense contracts) deal with financial reports and "the books" all day long...and we looked at this guy like he had seven heads. The worst part may be this: this dealer is in a suburb of Baltimore that has some lower-income folks in it. How many times have they played this game and put someone into a car using these tactics?
How do I report this behavior? To whom?
Better yet...will anyone care?
Maybe not - but I hope anyone on this forum in the Baltimore area goes elsewhere.
(Note: here's the bad part...they advertise those super-low internet prices with 2.69% financing for 63 months...which is not a bad deal at all, since the lowest I've seen on new car loans is low-3%'s at local credit unions. So the internet price + 2.69% is quite good. But I'll be damned if I'm doing business there after they pulled me into the showroom with lies.)
My situation is this:
My Uncle and I have both been in the market for a Gen 5 4Runner since the new body styles came out in September of 2009. Neither of us was in a rush, per se, so we have been waiting and watching the monthly Toyota promotions to see if they were ever eligible for 0% financing. (hint: they never have been)
In the meantime, I've been using zag.com's building and pricing tools to find really good prices honored by local dealers. Many of them are inline with the better prices I've seen reported on this forum. I figured that I'd contact these dealers to lock in the price of the vehicle (I have), and then come back and purchase the vehicle when a good financing deal was offered.
My uncle got impatient, and started calling some local dealerships to see what kind of deal they might offer us as a "2-car buy". He lives in Delaware, and I live in the NE suburbs of Baltimore, MD.
A dealer in SW Baltimore - Russel Toyota - had a salesperson talk to the sales manager, and then tell my Uncle "yes, I can do 0% for you guys."
I smelled something fishy, so I went on their website, and saw that they had an inventory of 27 new 2011 4Runners. All of them had special "Buy it Now" internet prices that were often $4-5k below MSRP. See them for yourself at Russel Toyota's website. (Baltimore Toyota | Russel Toyota Scion Dealer: serving Ellicott City, Catonsville, Columbia, Baltimore, Maryland| Maryland Toyota)
I followed up my Uncle's phone call with one of my own, and specifically asked, "0% for 60 months on 2011 4Runners?" The answer was yes. I then asked, "and you'll honor the internet pricing?" The answer was yes. I asked these questions again, in a slightly different way, and was told the answer was yes.
So my uncle drove down from Delaware, met up with me on his way, and we made the 45-minute drive to the dealer, dragging along my wife (the decision maker), and my 12-day old son (because my wife is his food supply, so he has to be with us).
We get there, spend 90-120 minutes going over inventory and sitting and examining the 27 cars, and I pick two 4Runners I'm interested in buying.
Then the nonsense starts.
They then tell me that they won't honor the super-low internet price with 0% financing (even though I asked - again - upon our arrival to make sure I wasn't wasting our time). I got up and left, immediately.
Then they called me back and tried to repackage it by telling me that it was a big misunderstanding. NOW...I can have 0% financing if - get this - I pay $11000 down and then finance the remaining $30,000 at 0%! One problem...the car cost $38,000. And 11,000 + 30,000 = $41,000.
Why? The sales manager tried to quickly show me some numbers that showed $3000+ in interest charges in addition to 20% down. Then the remaining balance of $30k (after $3000+ in interest charges and $8000 in down payment on a $38K Limited) would be interest free!!
I'm pretty sure that 0% financing doesn't come with $3000+ in interest charges.
This was a blatant case of (a) lying to get me into the showroom, and (b) playing a shell game with the prices of the cars and the interest charges. Unfortunately, my mother-in-law (an accountant) and I (a project manager for multi-million dollar defense contracts) deal with financial reports and "the books" all day long...and we looked at this guy like he had seven heads. The worst part may be this: this dealer is in a suburb of Baltimore that has some lower-income folks in it. How many times have they played this game and put someone into a car using these tactics?
How do I report this behavior? To whom?
Better yet...will anyone care?
Maybe not - but I hope anyone on this forum in the Baltimore area goes elsewhere.
(Note: here's the bad part...they advertise those super-low internet prices with 2.69% financing for 63 months...which is not a bad deal at all, since the lowest I've seen on new car loans is low-3%'s at local credit unions. So the internet price + 2.69% is quite good. But I'll be damned if I'm doing business there after they pulled me into the showroom with lies.)
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