I was without A car for a few months and finally d...

I was without A car for a few months and finally decided to get one. Found the pre-owned Lexus listed online and came to see it. There was Sales pressure with gimmicky questions from day one.

I saw the tacky dealership gimmicks coming a mile away & requested my boyfriend come with me. When I finally decided to purchase the vehicle I made an appointment with the salesman.

During discussion of monthly payments, I was informed that the cost of the vehicle I wanted was now $1500 more because it came with required paint and fabric protection that the dealership puts in all of the cars they sell, including used ones.
After some brief discussion he offered to take off the cheaper paint protection plan, stating it would cost the dealership money. He then offered me several monthly payment numbers and I agreed to one that was acceptable. He then informed me it would take 1.5 hours to draw up my contract and that if I leave the dealership during this time, I would take myself out of the wait queue.

Once I had agreed to the payments, The salesman requested to see my debit card to show his manager I was serious about a down payment. While waiting in the dealership for a contract draw up, the salesman comes to me with my debit card and a declined receipt. He had attempted to charge my down payment to my debit card, but the amount was larger than the daily limit on my account so the transaction was declined. While I was able to call my bank to allow this one time charge eventually, why would you charge me a down payment without my permission, when I had not signed anything or seen a contract yet?

I was then invited into an upstairs financing office. The finance guy had printed up a contract, but I came to find the contract included an additional $4000 warranty on top of the vehicle price. He had informed me that he included it to allow for a better interest rate from the bank, and informed me that without it I might not get such a good rate. He had added the most expensive warranty offered by the dealership to my contract, just to get it to match the exact monthly payment the salesman had suggested earlier. With gritted teeth I had to request the warranty be removed while The finance guy Mansplained to me why I needed it (because the 2015 used SUV I bought could start breaking down, and I ll need it to be fixed). during this sales pitch he had also asked if I had driven an SUV before, with the implication that it was somehow an entirely different beast of a vehicle than a sedan. And yes, I ve been driving SUV s since I started driving dude, but darn my genetics, being of small stature and a young looking female, that seemed the best way to talk to me. My boyfriend still teases me about this!

Looking at the brochure of warranties I realized that had it been offered to me, in the format of warranty tiers, I would be more likely to agree to a higher warranty level than when it s placed forcefully on the contract. I also noticed in the corner of jerome s desk a flyer that indicated the dealership offered paint protection, fabric protection, an alarm system and a dash cam as additional OPTIONS, Rather than forced additions to the price of a car as I was informed prior.

Overall this experience was not pleasant. These types of tactics and lacks in Communication are what give car dealerships a bad name and make it very difficult for a female to safely purchase a vehicle on her own.