Bottom line, I got the car I wanted for a fair pri...

Bottom line, I got the car I wanted for a fair price.

What it took to get there was't a great experience.

After picking out the car and the usual stuff, we got to the point of processing the paperwork. The "out the door" figure was about $2800 higher than it should have been, with no explanation.

This is after taking sales tax, title, registration, etc into account. Nothing was listed on the purchase and sale agreement explaining this difference.

When pressed on the issue, the sales guy stated that this price included their extended warranty. I never asked for the warranty and they never mentioned it, they just added it to the purchase price. I told them to remove it. After this adjustment, the price was still higher than agreed to even after taking taxes, etc into consideration.

I then talked to the sales manager who told me that the price included taxes, title, reg and fees that could not be changed. The best lies come wrapped in truths.

Obviously taxes can't be adjusted but "fees" certainly can be.

Call them "delivery fees", "processing fees", or my favorite "ADM," they're all pure profit for the dealership and 100% negotiable.

Some states limit these fees to as little as $50. Most states, like Massachusetts, have no limit on the "fees" dealerships can charge. Don't be fooled.

ADM stands for "additional dealer markup" in case you ever see it on a P&S agreement.

Anyway, the sales guy actually mentioned window etching as one of the fees. WINDOW ETCHING! I remember a sales guy trying to pull that one on my mother in 1978, at least it was a new scam then, and she didn't fall for it. Nobody should fall for that garbage today, ever.

So eventually, after haggling and more b.s., it became clear that the sales manager was hitting his threshold for negotiating and claimed he couldn't go any lower. I then walked outside to "call my wife," pretended to call my wife, surfed the net for a while pretending to do math, and went back inside and told him to knock $600 more off and he had a deal. Voila! deal made.

Then there was the pickup.

Sales guy calls and says the car is ready, "when do you want to come get it?" I told him whatever worked for him considering the whole Covid19 scenario. I was willing to pick it up anywhere from the next day to the next week. He said "whenever you want" so I said the next day.

The next day comes and I call to verify the car is ready, I'm told it is. I restated, "I'll be there in an hour and the car will be ready correct?" The response was, "we'll have it detailed and ready for you."

So I get to the dealership and am asked to sit in the waiting room. 40 minutes later, no one has spoken to me, and I have to go looking for the sales manager to ask where my car is.

He has no idea what I'm talking about. He makes a call. Says sales guy will be with me shortly. Sales guy eventually shows up and brings me to finance guy, makes sense, I still have to give him the check.

The finance guy tells me I can't take the car home today even though it was him who told me 2.5 hours earlier that it would be ready in an hour.

Long stoy short, I wasn't going to stand for that, and I left with the car that day.

To sum: I got the car I wanted for a fair price, but they tried to rip me off along the way with the "extended warranty" and "fees." At best they had had communication issues on their end which made the whole process less than enjoyable.

I will not be returning.